They practised Chan Buddhism (which led to Zen Buddhism in Japan) and Pure Land Buddhism. Their founder is known alternatively as Bodhidharma or Tamo. He was an Indian teacher of Buddhism around the 4th century. Although credited with being a teacher of Chan his contributions to the martial arts are in dispute; some say that elements of the spiritual content of the martial arts credited to him contain teachings reminiscent of the esoteric (Mi Tsung) and Yogacara (Wei Shih) Buddhist traditions.

Several modern writers have attempted to discredit the Shaolin as the birthplace of Shaolin Quan but their attempts have been criticized as relying upon specious textual criticism and an avoidance of Buddhist texts and manuscripts.