The Monastery of Spinjitzu is one of the major locations from Ninjago. It is a temple-like structure built atop the tallest of the Mountains of Impossible Height in the south of Ninjago. It originally served as the home of the First Spinjitzu Master, who raised his sons Garmadon and Wu within its protective walls. While here, a young Garmadon was corrupted by the venom of the young Great Devourer. After their father passed away, Wu and Garmadon inherited the Monastery, with Wu using it to train Morro while Garmadon trained under Master Chen. When Garmadon's corruption consumed him, he tried stealing the Golden Weapons; after a fight with Wu, he was banished to the Underworld.
Many years later, Wu assembled a team of ninja that comprised of Cole, Kai, Jay, Zane, Lloyd and eventually Nya. The group used the monastery as their headquarters before it was burned down by the Hypnobrai tribe. Years later, the ninja briefly met at the monastery's ruins after Nadakhan framed them for a series of crimes. Due to Jay's final wish, recent events were undone and this meeting never happened. On the Day of the Departed, Wu returned to the monastery to commemorate his father. While there, he was faced with Morro, who sought his help to counteract Yang's plans. When Acronix returned, and the ninja were fighting him, Kai accidentally set the monastery on fire again.
Some time after Garmadon was defeated, the Monastery was rebuilt by the ninja, and a mural of most of their past adventures up to the most recent one of the time was painted on the temple's wall.
Appearance
The Monastery was built atop the tallest of the Mountains of Impossible Height. With the only means of accessing it being a winding set of stairs carved out of the Mountain, reaching it was an incredibly tedious venture, especially for the Postman who had to scale it daily. When Wu and Garmadon were children, the outside of the monastery was a grassy area with shrubbery, and there appeared to be more ground outside than there is currently.
The Monastery is hexagonal in shape, with the main building built out of the three back walls. A tall white wall with red highlights and black shingle roofing protected the other three sides with a heavy wooded door carved out of the center one. Between the wall and the building was a large courtyard that held a retractable training course, which could be activated using a secret button in a dragon statue by the main gate.
History
Beginnings
At an unknown point of time, the First Spinjitzu Master climbed up a mountain and built the monastery, calling it the Monastery of Spinjitzu. One day, when Wu and Garmadon were young, they were sparring using their father's katanas in the courtyard. During the fight, Garmadon disarmed his brother and sent the katana flying over the wall.
Unbeknownst to the brothers, a future version of Wu had just been transported outside the monastery along with the Time Twins, Acronix and Krux, and the young Great Devourer watched they fought. When young Wu's sword flew over the wall, future Wu stopped Acronix from picking it up and lamented that while he wished he could change this moment, as doing so would prevent Garmadon's transformation to evil, he knew he could not. Krux attacked Wu, inadvertently activating Wu's temporal energy and transporting the three to another point in time.
Fearing what lay outside, the younger brother refused to retrieve it, so Garmadon went himself. It was there that he was bitten by the Great Devourer and infected with evil. The First Spinjitzu Master eventually found him, though was unable to cure his son who slowly fell under the Devourer's evil influence.
During Wu's training in the monastery, he discovered what damage effects Spinjitzu could do if it is not used properly. As he tried a movement called "mantis kick", he turned his pelvis more than he had and kicked Garmadon so that it flew over the supporting beam and almost the entire roof fell on him. Garmadon then attacked Wu with such anger as Wu had never seen before. In anger he did not use Spinjitzu properly and almost destroyed the whole monastery. However, his father managed to stop him.
The First Spinjitzu Master eventually died and the monastery was left in the care of his sons. Around a millenium later, Garmadon left to train under Master Chen, and Wu encountered a young child, Morro, who was looking through the monastery's trash cans in search of food. Wu took pity on him and trained him in the ways of the ninja. He soon discovered that Morro was a descendant of the Elemental Master of Wind and believed him to be the Green Ninja. This ended up being his greatest regret as the thought of the power that came with the title made Morro incredible arrogant and he flew into a fit of rage when the Golden Weapons did not choose him. Wu left the monastery's gates open for Morro to return from his journey to find the First Spinjitzu Master's tomb, but he never did.
After Garmadon returned and after the Elemental Masters' victory over the Serpentine War, the Masters went back to the monastery. When the Time Twins betrayed the other Masters, Wu and Garmadon used four blades forged from Chronosteel to defeat the twins at the monastery and strip them of their powers, and the twins fled into the temporal vortex and were presumed lost in time along with the blades.
Immediately after this, however, the Time Twins from forty years in the future arrived in a snake mech at the monastery and attacked the Elemental Masters. Ultimately, thanks to the efforts of Kai and Nya, the future masters of Fire and Water, the twins were forced to retreat from the era and Wu told his younger self to gather Obscuritea to erase everyone's memories to restore the timeline.
Years later, Garmadon and Wu fought over the Golden Weapons in the monastery before Wu's kimono saved him and trapped Garmadon in the Underworld.
Areas
Courtyard
Between the walls of the monastery there is a courtyard, which consists of stone paving with the shape of two connected dragons. In the middle is a golden statue of a dragon, which is the same as the one on the roof of the First Spinjitzu Master's house. The wind also often brings a lot of orange leaves to the courtyard, which must be washed away.
Originally, there was an even smaller statue by the door, which when opened, revealed a red button that activated the training course. When pressed, the golden statue protruded in the middle, revealing many mechanics for training ninja. During the renovation of the monastery, this function was probably removed.
At the door to the monastery there is a small sitting area with a teapot and cups. Wu often sits there watching the ninja during their training.
Monastery Mural
On one of the outer walls of the monastery there is a mural painted by monks on Wu's instructions. The painting depicts in two rows several major events that happened to the ninja. The final painting was created by ninja after the defeat of the Oni. It consists of their colorful hands arranged in a lotus flower.
Hangar bay
After the Oni's invasion, the hangar bay was created by P.I.X.A.L. in order to store all the vehicles such as the Destiny's Bounty, Land Bounty, and the Samurai X Mech.
