Buddhism is one of most old religions ever practiced by mankind. It’s named after which means “the awakened one” in Buddhist traditions. It’s a non-theistic religion, a philosophy, and a system of psychology. In Sanskrit it’s known as Buddha Dharma and in Pali is known to be Dhamma. Siddhartha Gautam was the only Buddha among his predecessors and followers. Siddhartha was born in c.563 B.C.and died in the age of around 80.
Buddha had started spreading his teachings in his lifetime itself and following centuries witnessed a flurry of followers of the teachings of Buddha. Subsequently, his teachings and the lifestyle which he propagated came under the umbrella of Buddhism. In the next five centuries of Buddha’s “Nirvana”, Buddhism spread throughout the Indian subcontinent. And in next two millennia Buddhism spread over Central, Southeast and East Asia and Eastern Europe.
Present Day Buddhism
With the advent of other religions like Vashnavism and Shaivism, Buddhism became virtually extinct in India except in some regions of Himalaya.In present day scenario, scholars classify Buddhism in to similar traditions to those existing in ancient times, though with some alterations in the names. They are:
Southern Buddhism, or Theravada, or Pali Buddhism, or Southeast Asian Buddhism :
This section of Buddhism is practiced in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and parts of Malaysia, Vietnam, China and Bangladesh (Southeast Asia).
Eastern Buddhism, or East Asian Buddhism, or Chinese Buddhism, or Sino-Japanese Buddhism : This section of Buddhism is practiced predominantly in China, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Singapore and parts of Russia.
Northern Buddhism, or Tibetan Buddhism, or Tibeto-Mongolian Buddhism
Also called Lamaism sometimes-This Section of Buddhism is professed mainly in Tibet, Mongolia, Bhutan and parts of Nepal, India, China and Russia.
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