And now, a Shaolin hospital
By Echo Wang |
May 14, 2010, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE Shaolin Temple in central China, internationally renowned for its kung fu monks' stage shows and business acumen, is now turning its hand to the medical field.
The temple will set up a Zen public hospital to treat patients with "tranquil martial art" and "tonics."
The Shaolin Medicine Hospital would be built at the foot of Shaoshi Mountain in Henan Province, where the temple has stood for more than 1,500 years, said monk Shi Yanlin.
Shi would soon become chief of the Zen hospital, Dahe.cn reported.
Doctors would treat ailments by guiding patients in Zen meditation, teaching them kung fu and strictly monitoring their diets, Shi said.
He believed patients generally did not need conventional medicine.
It will take at least two years to build the hospital and the temple has been training doctors among its monks since 2007.
He said the monks were not only trained in traditional Chinese medicine, but also in learning Western surgical skills at top medical schools.
The hospital plan has attracted critics. One angered online commentator said he worried whether the new hospital would "simply become just an ATM for the temple."
However, Shi said the hospital would be run as a charity business.
Diagnostic procedures and treatments like massage and acupuncture would be free, he said. All medicine would be sold "at cost price."
The Shaolin Abbot, Shi Yongxin, China's only abbot with an MBA, has sent monks to Las Vegas to perform kung fu shows, sold medicine with Shaolin insignias and merged with other temples around the country to "catch up with globalization."
The temple has been fighting legal battles to put its brand "Shaolin Medicine" on coffee, instant noodles, and tonic water. A Beijing court ruled against its request last month.
The temple will set up a Zen public hospital to treat patients with "tranquil martial art" and "tonics."
The Shaolin Medicine Hospital would be built at the foot of Shaoshi Mountain in Henan Province, where the temple has stood for more than 1,500 years, said monk Shi Yanlin.
Shi would soon become chief of the Zen hospital, Dahe.cn reported.
Doctors would treat ailments by guiding patients in Zen meditation, teaching them kung fu and strictly monitoring their diets, Shi said.
He believed patients generally did not need conventional medicine.
It will take at least two years to build the hospital and the temple has been training doctors among its monks since 2007.
He said the monks were not only trained in traditional Chinese medicine, but also in learning Western surgical skills at top medical schools.
The hospital plan has attracted critics. One angered online commentator said he worried whether the new hospital would "simply become just an ATM for the temple."
However, Shi said the hospital would be run as a charity business.
Diagnostic procedures and treatments like massage and acupuncture would be free, he said. All medicine would be sold "at cost price."
The Shaolin Abbot, Shi Yongxin, China's only abbot with an MBA, has sent monks to Las Vegas to perform kung fu shows, sold medicine with Shaolin insignias and merged with other temples around the country to "catch up with globalization."
The temple has been fighting legal battles to put its brand "Shaolin Medicine" on coffee, instant noodles, and tonic water. A Beijing court ruled against its request last month.
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