History of Buddhism

At a time of massive political upheavals between warring republics and kingdoms, many, including the Buddha, joined the “shramanas” – wandering mendicant spiritual seekers. Buddhism became the fifth of the five shramana schools of the time.

The first women ordained as nuns were Buddha’s maternal aunt and 500 female followers. They were given additional vows to those given to the monks in order to avoid suspicion of this mixed-gender celibate order from society at that time.

Muara Jambi is an ancient center of knowledge in Sumatra that spreads over more than 2,000 hectares and encloses 84 red-brick “temple complexes,” with a similar layout to those of Nalanda University.

Dzogchen is found earliest in the Nyingma and Bon traditions and later incorporated into some of the Kagyu traditions. Learn about its historical development in Tibet from the 8th century to the present.

Shantideva was born in the eighth century as the son of the king of a land in the Bengal region of East India. When he was about to ascend to the throne, he had a dream of Manjushri, who said, “The throne is not for you.” Heeding Manjushri’s advice, he renounced the throne and...

As of 1995, there were no books on Buddhism in the colloquial Mongolian language, hardly anyone who could make such translations and no money to print such books, even if they were made. Thus, young people and intellectuals were being drawn to Christianity, which they now...

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama invokes the spiritual masters of the Nalanda tradition.

During the later Abbasid period (840–1258 CE), Islam slowly spread to West and East Turkistan and took a strong foothold on the Indian subcontinent.

A report on the history and the situation of the Buddhist monasteries in 1994 in Inner Mongolia and among the Mongols of Qinghai, Gansu and Xinjiang.

Over the centuries after Buddha’s death, the Buddhist monastic communities splintered into 18 groups. Monastic universities such as Nalanda were established, the Mahayana teachings and tenet systems emerged and, eventually, tantra was taught as well.