The temple, in central China's Henan Province, signed a cooperation contract with the Henan College of Traditional Chinese Medicine yesterday. The college has agreed to enroll the overseas abbot of the temple, and in return, the temple will publicize its secret recipes to the college for educational use, Henan Business Daily said.

"We'd love to see the amalgamation of our traditional Chinese medicine with modern science and technology," said Monk Shiyong Xinda, the temple's Buddhist Abbot.

Zen Buddhism, Kong Fu and TCM are the three main parts of Shaolin culture, said Monk Shiyong Xinda.

Monk Shiyong Xinda also revealed two popular Shaolin recipes to the newspaper, which are often used in Chinese Kong Fu novels, including Huan Hun Tang and Da Li Jin Gang Wan.

"We hope the publicity of our secret recipes will help bring them into official administration systems of modern TCM," he said.

Established some 1,500 years ago, Shaolin is renowned for combining martial arts and Zen Buddhism, which features long meditation sessions to clarify the mind.