SPREAD OF BUDDHISM TO WEST ASIA, CHINA AND JAPAN

SPREAD OF BUDDHISM

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Ashoka rock edict Buddhism originated in northern India and Nepal and split into major schools — Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism — early in its existence and as well as many other school. As Buddhism spread, the Theravada school (sometimes called Southern Buddhism) became particularly well established in in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia --- Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, and Cambodia. The Mahayana school (sometimes called Northern Buddhism) spread north first to China and then to the rest of East Asia. [Source: Jacob Kinnard, Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices, 2018, Encyclopedia.com]

These two major divisions in turn divided into many different subgroups and schools, adapting to local conditions. In Tibet, for example, the form of Mahayana there was heavily influenced by Tantra, which originated among mystics in India, and became Tibetan Buddhism (or Vajrayana), a form of Mahayana that emphasises the transformative effects of rituals.

In China and then later Japan, the Zen (Ch'an ) school developed a form of the Mahayana that puts a strong on the meditation experience. In this way, although Buddhism essentially died out in India where is first took hold by the 13t century, its missionary character, and its ability to adapt to local conditions and adopt local featured , enabled it to grow and flourish in a large part of Asia.

Websites and Resources on Buddhism: Buddha Net buddhanet.net/e-learning/basic-guide ; Internet Sacred Texts Archive sacred-texts.com/bud/index ; Introduction to Buddhism webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/buddhaintro ; Early Buddhist texts, translations, and parallels, SuttaCentral suttacentral.net ; East Asian Buddhist Studies: A Reference Guide, UCLA web.archive.org ; View on Buddhism viewonbuddhism.org ; Tricycle: The Buddhist Review tricycle.org ; BBC - Religion: Buddhism bbc.co.uk/religion

Ashoka and Important Early Buddhist Rulers

Emperor Ashoka (274-236 BC), the greatest ruler in Indian history, was the man who ensured Buddhism success as a world religion. After Ashoka conquered the kingdom of Kalinga, in one of most important battles in the history of the world, he was so appalled by the number of people that were massacred (perhaps 100,000 or more) he converted himself and his kingdom to Buddhism and sent Buddhist missionaries to the four corners of Asia to spread the religion. The wheel Ashoka used to symbolize his conversion to Buddhism is the same one pictured on India's flag today.

Ashoka and his descendants created the largest ever Indian empire — stretching from present-day Myanmar (Burma) to Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. Ashoka is regarded as the first leader to conquer a large chunk of the world "in the name of religion and universal peace." The conversion process from Hinduism and Buddhism was easy in many places because Buddhism borrowed so many ideas and doctrines from Hinduism. When Ashoka converted to Buddhism he simply changed Hindu stupas representing Mount Meru into Buddhist stupas that also represented Mt. Meru.

The Greco-Bactrian king Menander (Milinda, Menandros) reigned over what is Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India in the latter half of the second century B.C. He was is one of the most important royal converts to Buddhism. He had a series of discussions with a Buddhist monk, Nagasena, which were compiled into a famous work entitled the Milindapanha. [Source: Jacob Kinnard, Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices, 2018, Encyclopedia.com]

Another important early Buddhist king was Harsha-vardhana (A.D. 606–47). He ruled a large empire in northern India and became an important Buddhist convert. Like Ashoka, he is held up in Buddhist texts as a model ruler — righteous, benevolent, and just, active in the pursuit of good living conditions for his people.

Peter A. Pardue wrote in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences: From the viewpoint of the expanding state in ancient India, Buddhism was from the very beginning a potentially valuable asset. The organized clergy — sworn to poverty — was a powerful and relatively inexpensive medium for building social solidarity where traditional collectivities had been disrupted by force, and they could assist in more subtle forms of pacifist teaching where force was impractical. This was also particularly meaningful in an expanding economy dependent on a stable and pacified environment for efficient production and exchange. The Sangha could provide the legitimation for political leaders and bureaucrats who either did not have suitable ascriptive status or desired to increase their innovatory power against some traditional elite. [Source: Peter A. Pardue, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2000s, Encyclopedia.com]

Spread of Buddhism Out of India

Ashoka Buddhist Missions

Ashoka organized missionaries to spread Buddhism beyond the borders of India. Some of these missionaries reached as far as Egypt and Greece. Perry Garfinkel wrote in National Geographic: “As Buddhism migrated out of India, it took three routes. To the south, monks brought it by land and sea to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. To the north, they spread the word across Central Asia and along the Silk Road into China, from where it eventually made its way to Korea and Japan. A later wave took Buddhism over the Himalaya to Tibet. In all the countries, local customs and cosmologies were integrated with the Buddhist basics: the magic and masks of demon-fighting lamas in Tibet, the austerity of a Zen monk sitting still as a rock in a perfectly raked Japanese garden. Over centuries Buddhism developed an inclusive style, one reason it has endured so long and in such different cultures. People sometimes compare Buddhism to water: It is still, clear, transparent, and it takes the form and color of the vase into which it's poured.” [Source: Perry Garfinkel, National Geographic, December 2005]

And yet from the start, the spread of Buddhism — a peaceful process in itself — has periodically met with hostility. In China, in A.D. 842, the Tang Emperor Wuzong began to persecute foreign religions. Some 4,600 Buddhist monasteries were annihilated, priceless works of art were destroyed, and about 260,000 monks and nuns were forced to return to lay life.

It's been said that Buddhism appealed to so many people at the outset because it addresses death more frankly, and at length. Vinay Lal, professor of history at UCLA, wrote: “In less than two centuries after his death, his teachings had spread not only in India but over large parts of Asia. The emperor Ashoka, who was to establish the greatest empire India was to know until the advent of the Mughals in the sixteenth century, himself became a convert to Buddhism. Some people have associated the Buddha’s teachings with an excessive intellectualism and agnosticism; others have charged that Buddhism is a form of quietism. However one may view the subsequent history of Buddhism, it is clear that the teachings of the Buddha constitute one of the eminent chapters in the spiritual and intellectual history of humankind. [Source: Vinay Lal, professor of history, UCLA. sscnet.ucla.edu]

There is evidence that Buddhism reached as far west as western Iran. In 2008, scientists from Kyoto University found markings unique to Buddhism in statue niches of a non-Buddhist temple eight kilometers south of Maragheh in northwestern Iran, The scientists, led by Prof, Takashi Irisawa, theorized Buddhism was brought to the region in the A.D. 13th century by the Mongols. They found dents in a pillar and walls indicating they at one time held Buddhist statues but no Buddhist statues or murals were found. It was originally thought that Buddhism only spread as far West as Merv in Turkmenistan. [Source: Kyodo, November 2008]

Buddhism in Present-Day Pakistan

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Kushan-style Buddha, AD 2nd century,
from present-day Pakistan Pakistan is where Buddhism survived between the time it evolved in India and the time it spread across Asia. Gandhara, occupying present-day Pakistani districts of Swat, Puner and Bajaur, was the main center of Buddhism in Pakistan. Located about 700 miles north of present-day Karachi, it was the easternmost region of the Persian Empire and the westernmost region of the Indian Empire and was a key center of trade between Persia, central Asia and India.

Buddhism was brought to what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan in the third century B.C. by Ashoka. Gandhara came under strong Buddhist influence when it was absorbed into the Bactrian empire by King Menander, (155-130 B.C.), who converted to Buddhism. Between the 2nd century B.C. and the A.D. 7th century Gandhara was an important Buddhist learning and the religion continued to be practiced there until the 16th century. There were over 1,400 monasteries in the Lower Swat alone. Gandhara was also a major center of Buddhist art. Great Gandhara reliefs and sculpture were produced between A.D. 1 and 400 A.D.

Scattered around the Swat Valley today are ruined stupas, monasteries as well as rock carvings and statuary. Among the more important sites are the Butkara Shrine in Saidu Sharif, dated to 3rd century B.C. and consisting of a main shrine surrounded by 215 smaller stupas and fine carvings; the Seated Buddha at Jehanabad; and Calgain Cave, with some relief carvings.

In addition to being a religious center, Gandhara was at the nexus of multiple major imperial expansions, including those of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Alexander the Great, the Mauryan Empire of northern India, and Indo-Greeks from Bactria, or Central Asia.

Buddhist Temple in Pakistan — One of the World’s Oldest

In 2022, archaeology announced that they had found one of the world’s oldest known Buddhist temples atop the ancient acropolis of Barikot in the Swat Valley of present-day Pakistan. The complex, which is preserved to a height of over three meters (more than 10 feet), dates to the 2nd century B.C. It was built on a platform and features a cylindrical structure, a small stupa, and a number of small rooms. The site has a more than 3,000-year-long history and was purportedly besieged by Alexander the Great in 327 B.C. [Source: Archaeology magazine, May 2022]

Jarrett A. Lobell wrote in Archaeology Magazine: The region of northwest Pakistan known as the Greater Gandhara was a crossroads for the exchange of goods and culture among the civilizations of the Middle East, Central Asia, and India from around the sixth century B.C. to the sixth century A.D. One of the most significant belief systems carried across the region was Buddhism, which was founded in northern India between the late sixth and early fourth centuries B.C. [Source: Jarrett A. Lobell, Archaeology Magazine, January/February 2023]

Buddhism and the Kushans

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Gandhara Buddha with Greek
influences from 2nd century BC The Kushans established a kingdom that embraces parts of Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Central Asia and ruled it from about A.D. 1 to A.D. 300. Originally nomadic horsemen, they were enamored with Greco-Roman culture and converted to Buddhism in the 1st century B.C. When the Kushan was its beak in first three centuries after Christ, it ranked with Rome, China and Parthia as one of the great powers off the world. When the Kushans were at the peak of their power it ranked with Rome, China and Parthia as one of the great powers of the worlds. They empire they ruled that stretched from the Oxus River in present-day Uzbekistan to the Ganges.

The Kushans established what is regarded as the first Silk Road kingdom. Operating out of their winter capital of Pursapura, near Peshawar, and a summer capital in Gandhara, they extracted duties from caravans and traded a variety of goods and art work. The Kushans grew wealthy on trade between East and West — that included trade between China and Rome — and helped to spread Buddhism and Buddhist Culture through out Asia.

When the Kushans became powerful they showed a great tolerance towards religion, particularly Buddhism, which prospered during their rule. The first Chinese Buddhist art and the famous Bamiyan statues destroyed by the Taliban were made during this era.

The Kushans rulers appear to have been Zoroastrians but they had a great many Buddhist subjects. Buddhism reached its peak in the region under King Kanishka in the A.D. 2nd century. Under him Pakistan and Afghanistan became a cradle of Mahayana Buddhism. Numerous stupas and monasteries were built in Gandhara. Attracting pilgrims from as far away as China, they were decorated with statues of Buddha and bodhisattvas and scenes from the life of the historical Buddha and his previous lives. As Mahayana Buddhism developed, Buddha himself became the object of worship.

The Swat Valley was a major center of Tantric Buddhism. Many tantras (manuals for mystical acts) were developed here. From Gandhara Buddhism was carried by traders and pilgrims along the Silk Road into China, Tibet and Central Asia. Buddhist engravings dating back to these period can be seen on rock faces along the Karakoram Highway. Buddhism took hold in the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan where it remained strong until the A.D. 10th century.

emaciated Buddha from Gandhara

Kushan art was a unique fusion of Indian, Central Asian, Buddhist and Greco-Roman styles. Particularly noteworthy were the representations of Buddha in the human form. The most famous of these is the famous Fasting Buddha — with its exposed rib cage, skeletal limbs and emaciated features — from Taxila. Earlier Indian styles represented Buddha in the forms of symbols such as a lotus, a tree, a footprint, a wheel or a stupa. Some Gandharan Buddhas have Western features.

Ancient Buddhist Sites in Afghanistan

In 2009, a team of Afghan and international archaeologists and local laborers began to uncover thousands of Buddhist statues, manuscripts, coins, and holy monuments at a site about an hour’s drive along the Gardez highway south of Kabul. Entire monasteries and fortifications have come to light, dating back as far as the third century A.D. The excavation was by far the most ambitious in Afghanistan’s history.

Mes Aynak, located about 25 miles (40 km) east of Kabul, contains an ancient Buddhist monastic complex. A recently discovered stele from Mes Aynak, dating back at least 1,600 years and possibly earlier, depicts a prince and monk and is believed to show a young Gautama Siddhartha Sakyamuni, The Buddha, at a time when he was still a prince living in a palace. The stele was found beneath the decorative arch of a secondary stupa, a commemorative monument. A rich copper deposit is located in the area and excavations are underway to explore the site, and rescue the artifacts, before a mine is built. Artifacts unearthed so far include a piece of stamped pottery with a depiction of a pomegranate, a tiny oil lamp and architecture from a room what is believed to be a monk’s quarters. [Source: Owen Jarus, Live Science, June 6, 2012 ==]

Owen Jarus wrote in Live Science: “So far the finds include three or four monasteries and an ancient mine, with associated habitations, going back to the time of the Kushan Empire. There are also at least two small forts. This image shows the corridor of the Tepe Kafiriat monastery. A reclining Buddha, whose feet are still visible, is located at the Tepe Kafiriat monastery. There are several stupas at the site. The newly discovered stele was found beside one of them. Another stele found at Mes Aynak appears to depict a Buddha (can’t tell if it’s Gautama) in robes. It was put on display, along with other artifacts from the site, at an exhibit at the Afghanistan National Museum in Kabul. ==

Giant Buddha Statues of Bamiyan

Buddhism took hold in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Valley, home of the famous giant Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban, where it remained strong until the A.D. 10th century. Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang visited the site on 30 April 630 AD, and described Bamiyan in the Da Tang Xiyu Ji as a flourishing Buddhist center "with more than ten monasteries and more than a thousand monks". He also noted that both Buddha figures were "decorated with gold and fine jewels" (Wriggins, 1995). Intriguingly, Xuanzang mentions a third, even larger, reclining statue of the Buddha. A monumental seated Buddha, similar in style to those at Bamiyan, still exists in the Bingling Temple caves in China's Gansu province. [Source: Wikipedia]

Bamiyan (100 miles west of Kabul) is an isolated and breathtakingly beautiful high mountain valley in central Afghanistan. Situated at the western limit of the Buddhist world, it was the home of the towering Buddhist statues that were blown up by the Taliban in 2001. Bamiyan was located on the Silk Road and has been a major center of Buddhism since the 2nd century B.C. When the Chinese monk-explorer Hsuan-Tsang visited the region in A.D. 632, he described “more than 10 monasteries and 1,000 priests.” At that time tens of thousands of pilgrims visited the site and meditated in the rock caves.

Bamiyan Buddha

The Giant Buddha Statues of Bamiyan (in the Bamiyan Valley) were among the largest statues ever made and among the oldest surviving representations of Buddha. Carved into towering limestone cliffs, they also represented a unique fusion of Buddhist and Grecian art. The smaller of the two Buddhas was 125 feet high and was originally said to have been carved in the A.D. 2nd century but is now recognized as being carved in A.D. 507. Known as Shahmama, “king mother,” it had breasts and was believed to be a representation of a woman. It had elements of a Greco Roman style and was badly disfigured.

The larger of the two Buddhas rose 180 feet high and was carved in A.D. 554. Known as Salsal meaning “Year After Year,” it was more sophisticated, in better condition and believed by some scholars to have been made as improvement of the first statue. Before being destroyed by the Taliban it was also the tallest standing Buddha statue in the world. Hsuan-Tsang described it as “glittering with gold and precious objects.” A steep staircase beside the statue is still there. In the old days visitors used to climb up to the top of the head where there was enough room for 10 people to sit and have tea.

The half mile space between the two Buddhas and the areas around them are honeycombed with around 750 caves connected by miles of tunnels . The caves were once inhabited by a thousand Buddhist monks. Some are reached on precipitous, rough-hewn staircases carved into the rock.

Many of the Bamiyan caves are filled with the remains of frescoes of Buddhas, Greek gods and goddesses such as Athena, Hindu deities such as Garuda and Surya and noblemen in Persian clothes and pomegranate headdress. The best caves were around the smaller Buddha. Over the years they have been badly damaged, mainly by people who lived in the caves.

Development and Diffusion of Theravda and Mahayana Buddhism

Steven M. Kossak and Edith W. Watts of the Metropolitan Museum of Art wrote: "The earliest form of Buddhism is called the Theravada (Way of the Elders). It adheres strictly to the Buddha’s teaching and to his austere life of meditation and detachment. Theravada Buddhists believed that very few would reach nirvana. Initially, in this system, the Buddha was represented in art only by symbols, but in the first century A.D., under the Kushan rulers, the Buddha began to be depicted in human form. [Source: Steven M. Kossak and Edith W. Watts, The Art of South, and Southeast Asia, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York]

"At about this time, a new form of Buddhism emerged called the Mahayana (the Great Way), which held that the Buddha was more than a great spiritual teacher but also a savior god. It was believed that he had appeared in perfect human form to relieve suffering with the message that, by performing good deeds and maintaining sincere faith, everyone could reach nirvana through means less strict and arduous than in Theravada (which Mahayana Buddhists called the Hinayana, or Lesser Way).

"A whole pantheon of Mahayana Buddhist deities began to appear to aide the devotee—Buddhas of the past, bodhisattvas such as Maitreya (Buddha of the Future), and Vajrapani (“thunderbolt bearer”), who had evolved from the chief Vedic god Indra. Most appealing and approachable of all is the gentle Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion, who can be called upon to help people in all kinds of trouble. A bodhisattva is a being who has reached the moment of spiritual transcendence but foregoes nirvana in order to guide all beings in their quest to attain enlightenment. The Mahayana faith became the more popular form of Buddhism and was carried by mer- chants and monks across Central Asia along the trade routes to China, and from there to Korea and Japan."

Peter A. Pardue wrote in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences: Despite their stark contrast in doctrine and practice, the divergent missionary movements of Theravada Buddhism into the lands of southeast Asia and of Tantric Buddhism into Tibet hide similarities which reveal the deeper potency of Buddhist universalism. In both cases Buddhism became the official state “church” and provided the religious base not only for evolutionary advances but also for long-lasting and relatively stable societies. In both cases Buddhism was introduced under favorable ecological, cultural, and political circumstances by rulers who controlled relatively small, homogeneous land areas and polities grounded on primitive and archaic religions. They saw in Buddhism an opportunity to innovate and to provide a broader religious base for legitimation and social integration. [Source: Peter A. Pardue, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2000s, Encyclopedia.com]

With respect to the church–state relationship however, in Tibet this evolutionary movement finally took the form of a theocracy based on a unique rationalization of Mahayana and Tantric incarnational theology; while in southeast Asia the Theravada — with its class division between celibate monk and layman and its highly routinized, orthodox version of the classical tradition — was able to maintain a structural distinction between church and state which had important consequences for later institutional developments.

Nalanda University

Nalanda University was one of the world’s first universities. Some say it was THE first. Founded in the third century, it gained an international reputation, drawing pilgrims and visitors from all over Asia, including some famous one from China, who cross the Himalayas to reach it, before being sacked by Turkic soldiers in 1193 - when Oxford University was only just coming into existence. The Turks burned the university’s vast library. Piles of red bricks and some marble carvings are all that remain at the site, 55 miles (90 kilometres) from Bihars state capital of Patna. [Source: AFP, September 13, 2010 +++]

ruins of Nalanda University

Historians believe that the university once catered for 10,000 students and scholars from across Asia, studying subjects ranging from science and philosophy to literature and mathematics. “Nalanda was one of the highest intellectual achievements in the history of the world and we are committed to revive it,” said Amartya Sen, the renowned economist and Nobel laureate. “The university had 2,000 faculty members offering a number of subjects in the Buddhist tradition, in a similar way that Oxford offered in the Christian tradition.” +++

Nalanda University was described in Xuan Zang's 7th century record of his journey to the West, it flourishing for centuries before it was destroyed by Afghan invaders in the 12th century. For over 700 years, it was a center of learning for a wide range of subjects, including philosophy, science, mathematics and public health. In 2011, the Indian Parliament passed a bill reestablishing Nalanda University as an international university.[Source: George Yeo, Global Viewpoint, April 12, 2011]

Jeffrey E. Garten, dean of the Yale School of Management, wrote in the New York Times: “Founded in 427 in northeastern India, not far from what is today the southern border of Nepal, and surviving until 1197, Nalanda was one of the first great universities in recorded history. It was devoted to Buddhist studies, but it also trained students in fine arts, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, politics and the art of war. [Source: Jeffrey E. Garten, New York Times, December 9, 2006]

“The university was an architectural and environmental masterpiece. It had eight separate compounds, 10 temples, meditation halls, classrooms, lakes and parks. It had a nine-story library where monks meticulously copied books and documents so that individual scholars could have their own collections. It had dormitories for students, perhaps a first for an educational institution, housing 10,000 students in the university’s heyday and providing accommodations for 2,000 professors. Nalanda was also the most global university of its time, attracting pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey. [Ibid]

Buddhist Expansion

Buddha Statue Found in Roman-Era Egypt

In August 2023, archaeologists announced that they had found a 2000-year-old Buddha statue in Egypt. Archaeology magazine reported: Researchers think that a grateful South Asian merchant living in the Egyptian city of Berenice may have donated a small Buddha statue to a Roman-era Isis temple. The two-foot-tall marble figurine is the first sculpture of its kind from antiquity to have ever been found west of Afghanistan. It was likely carved in Alexandria between A.D. 90 and 140 and depicts the Buddha with a halo of sun rays around his head symbolizing his radiant mind.[Source: Archaeology magazine, August 2023]

According to AFP: The was discovered in Egypt's ancient seaport of Berenice on the Red Sea, shedding light on trade ties with India under the Roman empire. A Polish-US mission discovered the statue "dating back to the Roman era while digging at the ancient temple in Berenice". The find has "important indications over the presence of trade ties between Egypt and India during the Roman era", the head of Egypt's supreme antiquities council Mostafa al-Waziri said. [Source: AFP, April 27, 2023]

The statue, with part of its right side and its right leg missing, measures 71 centimetres (28 inches) in height and portrays Buddha with a halo around his head and a lotus flower by his side. Waziri said Berenice was one of the largest seaports in Roman-era Egypt, and was often the destination for ships from India laden with spices, semi-precious stones, textiles and ivory.

Spread of Buddhism Into China and Along the Silk Road

Buddhism is thought to have entered China in the first century A.D. through foreign traders who used the Silk Road or the maritime route along the southeastern seaboard. At first, it was mainly present among immigrant settlements, but it gradually became known among the native Chinese population. During the second century, interest grew, and some monks started translating scriptures into Chinese. An Shigao and Lokaksema were notable among them. [Source: A. S. Rosso,; Jones, C. B. New Catholic Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia.com]

According to the Asia Society Museum: “Alongside the merchants and diplomatic envoys of the Silk Road traveled disciples of the Buddha, obeying his exhortation to spread his teachings. The political turmoil of the time offered Buddhist missionaries, many of Indian, Central Asian, or even of nomad stock, opportunities to convert local rulers. In exchange for the monks' services as magicians, fortune tellers, and political, military, and diplomatic advisers, Buddhism gained powerful patrons willing to support image making, cave temples, and translation centers. [Source: “Monks and Merchants, curated by Annette L. Juliano and Judith A. Lerner, November 17, 2001, Asia Society Museum asiasocietymuseum.org == ]

Buddhism arrived in China toward the end of the Han dynasty. Prior to this time, there had been no major form of Chinese thought that viewed life, the concrete world, and the human body in so pessimistic a way as Buddhism. One of the earliest Chinese Buddhist meditation texts, dating from the third century, instructs mediators to ponder the corrupt and painful nature of life in a human body: The ascetic engages in contemplation of himself and observes that all the noxious seepage of his internal body is impure. Hair, skin, skull and flesh; tears from the blinking of the eyes and spittle; veins, arteries, sinew and marrow; liver, lungs, intestines and stomach; feces, urine, mucus and blood: such a mass of filth when combined produces a man. It is as if a sack were filled with a leaky bag. (Quoted in Wm. Theodore de Bary, ed., The Buddhist Tradition in India, China, and Japan [New York: The Modern Library, 1969], p. 129.) [Source: “Topics in Japanese Cultural History” by Gregory Smits, Penn State University figal-sensei.org ~]

Among the most important people in the spread of Buddhism to China were the Chinese pilgrim Faxian (Fa-hsien, fourth to fifth century). Not only did he obtain many Sanskrit texts of the Pali Tipitaka that he translated them upon his return to China in 414. He also wrote an influential travelogue about his journey to and around India. He was followed by another Chinese pilgrim, Xuanzang (Hsuan-tsang 602–64). He also made an epic journey to India and studied there and brought back to China and translated many important doctrins. The 6th century South Indian Buddhist monk Bodhidharmais said to have arrived at the Chinese court in 520 and set in motion the founding the Ch'an (Zen) school of Buddhism. [Source: Jacob Kinnard, Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices, 2018, Encyclopedia.com]

Number of Buddhist around the world, based on percentage by country

Tansen Sen wrote in Education about Asia: “The spread of Buddhist doctrines from India to China beginning sometime in the first century CE triggered a profusion of cross-cultural exchanges that had a profound impact on Asian and world history. The travels of Buddhist monks and pilgrims and the simultaneous circulation of religious texts and relics not only stimulated interactions between the Indian kingdoms and various regions of China, but also influenced people living in Central and Southeast Asia. Indeed, the transmission of Buddhist doctrines from India to China was a complex process that involved multiple societies and a diverse group of people, including missionaries, itinerant traders, artisans, and medical professionals. [Source: Tansen Sen, Education about Asia, Volume 11, Number 3 Winter 2006 ]

Arrival and Development of Buddhism in Tibet

Buddhism was introduced into Tibet in the A.D. 3th century, about 700 years after Buddha's death, by Indian missionaries, but the religion didn't really take hold until the 7th and 8th century when monks from India and Nepal appeared in large numbers. Buddhist scriptures from China also played a part in the spread of Buddhism in Tibet.

According to the Encyclopedia of Buddhism: “Tibetan literature attributes the formal introduction of Buddhism to the reign of its first emperor,Songtsen gampo (r. 618 – 650). Undoubtedly, though, proto-Tibetan peoples had been exposed to Buddhist merchants and missionaries earlier. There is a myth that the fifth king before Songtsen gampo, Thothori Nyantsen, was residing in the ancient castle of Yumbu Lakhang when a casket fell from the sky. Inside were a gold reliquary and Buddhist scriptures. While the myth is not early, it possibly reveals a Tibetan memory of prior missionary activity. We do know that official contact with Sui China was accomplished from Central Tibet in 608 or 609 and that, as Tibet grew more powerful, Buddhist contacts increased. [Source: Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Gale Group Inc., 2004]

Steven M. Kossak and Edith W. Watts of the Metropolitan Museum of Art wrote: "Another form of Buddhism, called Esoteric and also known as Tantric or Vajrayana Buddhism, grew out of Mahayana Buddhism beginning in the late sixth or early seventh century. Esoteric Buddhists accepted the tenets of the Mahayana but also used forms of meditation subtly directed by master teachers (gurus) involving magical words, symbols, and practices to speed the devotee toward enlightenment. They believed that those who practiced compassion and meditation with unwavering effort and acquired the wisdom to become detached from human passions could achieve in one lifetime a state of perfect bliss or “clear light,” their term for ultimate realization and release. Their practices paralleled concurrent developments in Hinduism. [Source: Steven M. Kossak and Edith W. Watts, The Art of South, and Southeast Asia, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York]

"Many new deities appeared in the Esoteric Buddhist pantheon who, in their poses, gestures, and expressions, visualize philosophical ideas. For instance, male and female deities shown in embrace express the union of wisdom and compassion. Wrathful deities symbolize protection, and their violent and horrific appearance helps devotees to overcome the passions that hinder salvation. Also central to Esoteric thinking were the five celestial Buddhas (the four directions and the zenith), who represent both the energy of the universe and the potential for wisdom within the psychological make- up of the individual.

During the Kushan Kingdom (135 B.C. to A.D. 375), the Swat Valley in present-day Pakistan,. was a major center of Tantric Buddhism. Many tantras (manuals for mystical acts) were developed here. From Gandhara, Buddhism was carried by traders and pilgrims along the Silk Road into China, Tibet and Central Asia. Buddhist engravings dating back to these period can be seen on rock faces along the Karakoram Highway."

Introduction of Buddhism to Japan

Buddhism is believed to have been first introduced to Japan in 538 A.D.”along with the Chinese language, Chinese ideographs and Buddhist styles of painting, sculpture and architecture — via Korea when a Korean ruler (a king of Paekche) attempting to form an alliance with the Yamato clan sent a Buddha statue and some Buddhist sutras (texts) as a gift. Mahayana (Greater Vehicle) Buddhism was the school of Buddhism that was introduced. The influential Soga clan adopted a Buddha as its clan deity in the sixth century.

Buddhism originated in India and Nepal. It introduced ideas into Japanese culture that have become inseparable from the Japanese worldview: the concept of rebirth, ideas of karmic causation, and an emphasis on the unity of experience. It gained the patronage of the ruling class, which supported the building of temples and production of Buddhist art. [Source: Library of Congress, 1994 *]

Records state that the Korean monarch, fearful of belligerent neighbors, appealed to the Japanese for military assistance, accompanying his plea with the Buddha statue and sutras. Thomas Hoover wrote in “Zen Culture”: Since the Japanese had for many centuries reserved their primary allegiance for their sun-goddess, whose direct descendant the emperor was thought to be, they were wary of new faiths that might jeopardize the authority of the native deities. After much high-level deliberation it was decided to give the Buddha a trial period to test his magical powers, but unfortunately no sooner had the new image been set up than a pestilence, apparently smallpox, swept the land. The new Buddha was swiftly consigned to a drainage canal by imperial decree. [Source: Thomas Hoover, “Zen Culture”, 1977]

Among the most important people in the spread of Buddhism to Japan were Honen (1133–1212), who established the Jodo (Pure Land); Shinran (1173–1263), credited with popularizing group worship and introducing reforms, such as salvation by faith alone, marriage of monks; and Nichiren (1222–82), founder of the Nichiren sect in Japan. [Source: Jacob Kinnard, Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices, 2018, Encyclopedia.com]

geographical location of the Buddhist sects

Decline of Buddhism in India and Its Rise in the West

By the twelfth century, Buddhism was mainly dead on India, concentrated mainly in northeastern India, where the Buddha lived and preached. Its near extinction seems to have been caused by Muslim invaders who destroyed the Buddhist monastic universities. Teachers and monks fled to Nepal, Tibet, and Burma. Today only a small percentage of India’s population is Buddhist.

As for the West, National Geographic reported: "A few European intellectuals embraced Buddhism in the 1800s but the numbers remained small and mostly European until immigrants began arrive in the late 1900s. Chinese seeking gold and work on America’s railroads brought Buddhism to the United States in the 1840s and 50s. Japanese sent to Hawaii to work on sugar cane plantations brought the ideas about Buddhism with them. The religion really took hold in the U.S. after the 1960s when large numbers of immigrants arrived from Southeast Asia. About three quarters of American Buddhists are of Asian descent."

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, Brooklyn College, Onmark Productions

Text Sources: East Asia History Sourcebook sourcebooks.fordham.edu , “Topics in Japanese Cultural History” by Gregory Smits, Penn State University figal-sensei.org, Asia for Educators, Columbia University; Asia Society Museum “The Essence of Buddhism” Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius, 1922, Project Gutenberg, Virtual Library Sri Lanka; “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “Encyclopedia of the World's Religions” edited by R.C. Zaehner (Barnes & Noble Books, 1959); “Encyclopedia of the World Cultures: Volume 5 East and Southeast Asia” edited by Paul Hockings (G.K. Hall & Company, New York, 1993); BBC, Wikipedia, National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Reuters, AP, AFP, and various books and other publications.

Last updated March 2024