History of Buddhism

The “three turnings of the wheel of Dharma” were transmissions of the Dharma by the Buddha, skillfully teaching different topics at different times in his life to suit the place and times of the occasion and meet the needs and capacities of his audience.

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...

The Theravada monastic ordinations reached Sri Lanka and Myanmar in the 3rd century BCE. Over the centuries, it was re-established in Sri Lanka from Myanmar after a short repression, was spread from Sri Lanka to Thailand, and then from Thailand to Cambodia and from Cambodia to...

The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE) was the first Arab empire in the Middle East. It was the first Muslim empire to interact with Buddhists in parts of Central Asia and the western regions of the Indian subcontinent.

The early period of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–840 CE) saw the translation of Buddhist texts into not only the languages of East Turkistan, but also into Turkic languages and even some into Arabic, as Islam slowly spread into West Turkistan.

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.

Overview of the three waves of Buddhism reaching Mongolia from Central Asia and then Tibet, the subsequent exploitation of Buddhism by the Manchus, its suppression under the communist regime and the initial efforts at its revival.

The Mulasarvastivada bhikshu ordination was established in Tibet on three occasions. It was never possible, however, for the Mulasarvastivada bhikshuni ordination lineage to be transmitted to Tibet.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Eighth Dalai Lama sent Gyelse Dorjechang from his own Namgyal Monastery to establish the main Kalachakra Monastery of Mongolia, Dechen Kalawa. Kalachakra practice was spread throughout Mongolia by the Fourth and Fifth Bogdo Gegens.

Selected bibliography of Western secondary literature on the spread of Buddhism in Asia, with special emphasis on its spread to Central Asia.