At around th same time a prince was born in a small tribe of Southern India (As a prince, he was a member of the Warrior Class, some assert he was of the Brahman Class), thus schooled in the martial arts). He converted to Mayhayana Buddhism at an early age and became the student of the Monk Prajnadhara, who was the 27 th lineage holder of the Chi'en (Zen in Japanese) Tradition. His training was in Mayhayana Buddhist practices, which requires hard exercise and training as part of the meditation and studying.

His training lasted many year and until the death of his teacher at which time he became the 28th Patriarch of Indian Buddhism and was named Bodhidharma. Before Master Prajnatara died he tasked Bodhidharma to spread Buddhism to China.

He traveled east in to Southern China by ship arriving in Kwangzhou (Canton) in 526 CE. Much like his famous predecessor Buddhabhadra, Bodhidharma made an impression on many Chinese. He also came to the attention of Emperor of the day and was invited to Nanjing. That is where the similarity stops as Bodhidharma stark teaching offended the Emperor. He had to leave.

During his time at court, Bodhidharma was renamed to Tamo, as Bodhidharma was very difficult for the Chinese to pronounce. At this time he had also heard of both the White Horse and Shaolin Buddhist Temples. Whereas not much is know if he visited the Whitehorse Temple, there is a bit know about his visit to Shaolin.