Schools of Buddhism and Related Topics

Ancient kingdoms and cities of India during the time of the Buddha (circa 500 BCE) – modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan

Buddhism

Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on a series of original teachings attributed to Gautama Buddha.

The gilded "Emaciated Buddha statue" in an Ubosoth in Bangkok representing the stage of his asceticism

Enlightenment of Buddha, Kushan dynasty, late 2nd to early 3rd century CE, Gandhara.

The Buddha teaching the Four Noble Truths. Sanskrit manuscript. Nalanda, Bihar, India.

Traditional Tibetan Buddhist Thangka depicting the Wheel of Life with its six realms

Ramabhar Stupa in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India is regionally believed to be Buddha's cremation site.

An aniconic depiction of the Buddha's spiritual liberation (moksha) or awakening (bodhi), at Sanchi. The Buddha is not depicted, only symbolized by the Bodhi tree and the empty seat.

Dharma Wheel and triratna symbols from Sanchi Stupa number 2.

Buddhist monks and nuns praying in the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple of Singapore

A depiction of Siddhartha Gautama in a previous life prostrating before the past Buddha Dipankara. After making a resolve to be a Buddha, and receiving a prediction of future Buddhahood, he becomes a "bodhisattva".

Bodhisattva Maitreya, Gandhara (3rd century), Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Sermon in the Deer Park depicted at Wat Chedi Liam, near Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand.

Buddhist monks collect alms in Si Phan Don, Laos. Giving is a key virtue in Buddhism.

An ordination ceremony at Wat Yannawa in Bangkok. The Vinaya codes regulate the various sangha acts, including ordination.

Living at the root of a tree (trukkhamulik'anga) is one of the dhutaṅgas, a series of optional ascetic practices for Buddhist monastics.

Kōdō Sawaki practicing Zazen ("sitting dhyana")

Seated Buddha, Gal Viharaya, Polonnawura, Sri Lanka.

Kamakura Daibutsu, Kōtoku-in, Kamakura, Japan.

Statue of Buddha in Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat, Phitsanulok, Thailand

An 18th century Mongolian miniature which depicts the generation of the Vairocana Mandala

A section of the Northern wall mural at the Lukhang Temple depicting tummo, the three channels (nadis) and phowa

Tibetan Buddhist prostration practice at Jokhang, Tibet.

Vegetarian meal at Buddhist temple. East Asian Buddhism tends to promote vegetarianism.

A depiction of the supposed First Buddhist council at Rajgir. Communal recitation was one of the original ways of transmitting and preserving Early Buddhist texts.

Gandhara birchbark scroll fragments (c. 1st century) from British Library Collection

The Tripiṭaka Koreana in South Korea, an edition of the Chinese Buddhist canon carved and preserved in over 81,000 wood printing blocks

Buddhist monk Geshe Konchog Wangdu reads Mahayana sutras from an old woodblock copy of the Tibetan Kanjur.

Mahākāśyapa meets an Ājīvika ascetic, one of the common Śramaṇa groups in ancient India

Ajanta Caves, Cave 10, a first period type chaitya worship hall with stupa but no idols.

Sanchi Stupa No. 3, near Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, India.

Map of the Buddhist missions during the reign of Ashoka according to the Edicts of Ashoka.

Extent of Buddhism and trade routes in the 1st century CE.

A Buddhist triad depicting, left to right, a Kushan, the future buddha Maitreya, Gautama Buddha, the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, and a monk. Second–third century. Guimet Museum

Site of Nalanda University, a great center of Mahāyāna thought

Vajrayana adopted deities such as Bhairava, known as Yamantaka in Tibetan Buddhism.

Angkor Thom build by Khmer King Jayavarman VII (c. 1120–1218).

Distribution of major Buddhist traditions

Buddhists of various traditions, Yeunten Ling Tibetan Institute

Monastics and white clad laypersons celebrate Vesak, Vipassakna Dhaurak, Cambodia

Chinese Buddhist monks performing a formal ceremony in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.

Tibetan Buddhists practicing Chöd with various ritual implements, such as the Damaru drum, hand-bell, and Kangling (thighbone trumpet).

Ruins of a temple at the Erdene Zuu Monastery complex in Mongolia.

1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago

Interior of the Thai Buddhist wat in Nukari, Nurmijärvi, Finland

Percentage of Buddhists by country, according to the Pew Research Center, as of 2010

A painting by G. B. Hooijer (c. 1916–1919) reconstructing a scene of Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in the world.

Frontispiece of the Chinese Diamond Sūtra, the oldest known dated printed book in the world

Buddhist schools vary in their interpretation of the path to liberation, the relative importance and canonicity assigned to the various Buddhist texts, and their specific teachings and practices.

Painting of Nāgārjuna from the Shingon Hassozō, a series of scrolls authored by the Shingon school of Buddhism. Japan, Kamakura Period (13th-14th century)

Nagarjuna

Nāgārjuna (c.

A map of the Satavahana Kingdom, showing the location of Amaravathi (where Nāgārjuna may have lived and worked according to Walser) and Vidarbha (the birthplace of Nāgārjuna according to Kumārajīva).

Nicholas Roerich "Nagarjuna Conqueror of the Serpent" (1925)

Golden statue of Nāgārjuna at Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery, Scotland

At this point in Buddhist history, the Buddhist community was already divided into various Buddhist schools and had spread throughout India.

Nepalese Thangka with Prajñāpāramitā, the personification of transcendent wisdom, holding a Mahāyāna Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra

Mahayana sutras

The Mahāyāna Sūtras (𑀫𑀳𑀸𑀬𑀸𑀦 𑀲𑀽𑀢𑁆𑀭𑀸𑀡𑀺) are a broad genre of Buddhist sutra scriptures that are accepted as canonical and as buddhavacana ("Buddha word") in Mahāyāna Buddhism.

A painting by Nicholas Roerich (1925) depicting Nāgārjuna in the realm of the Nagas, where the Prajñāpāramitā was said to have been hidden.

Folio from a manuscript of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra depicting Shadakshari Lokesvara, early 12th century, Opaque watercolor on palm leaf.

Chanting the Buddhist Scriptures, by Taiwanese painter Li Mei-shu

The Tripiṭaka Koreana, an early edition of the Chinese Buddhist canon

Sanskrit manuscript of the Heart Sūtra in the Siddhaṃ script. Bibliothèque nationale de France

The world's earliest printed book is a Chinese translation of the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra from Dunhuang (circa 868 CE).

The floating jeweled stupa; illustrated Lotus Sutra, Japan 1257.

A Goryeo (918-1392) illustration of the Descent of Maitreya Sutra, Myomanji, Kyoto, Japan.

Copy of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra from Dunhuang in the British Library

The layman Vimalakīrti Debates Manjusri, Dunhuang Mogao Caves

Goryeo Buddhāvataṃsaka manuscript, 14th century.

Jeweled pagoda mandala from a copy of the Golden Light Sutra. Japan, Heian period, 12th century

A Chinese illustration of the apotropaic Mahāpratisarādhāraṇī, in Sanskrit and Siddhaṃ script, Later Tang, 927 CE.

The Mahāyāna sūtras were not accepted by all Buddhists in India, and the various Indian Buddhist schools disagreed on their status as "word of the Buddha".

The Buddhist Nalanda university and monastery was a major center of learning in India from the 5th century CE until the 12th century.

Buddhist philosophy refers to the philosophical investigations and systems of inquiry that developed among various Buddhist schools in India following the parinirvana (i.e. death) of the Buddha and later spread throughout Asia.

Sri Lanka

Island country in South Asia.

Ptolemy's world map of Ceylon, first century CE, in a 1535 publication

The Avukana Buddha statue, a 12 m standing Buddha statue from the reign of Dhatusena of Anuradhapura, 5th century

The Sigiriya ("Lion Rock"), a rock fortress and city, built by King Kashyapa (477–495 CE) as a new more defensible capital. It was also used as a Buddhist monastery after the capital was moved back to Anuradhapura.

The seated image of Gal Vihara in Polonnaruwa, 12th century, which depicts the dhyana mudra, shows signs of Mahayana influence.

A 17th-century engraving of Dutch explorer Joris van Spilbergen meeting with King Vimaladharmasuriya in 1602

Sri Vikrama Rajasinha of Kandy, the last ruling native Sri Lankan monarch

British appointed Kandyan chief headmen in 1905.

The formal ceremony marking the start of self-rule, with the opening of the first parliament at Independence Square

Sri Lanka map of Köppen climate classification

The Sri Lankan elephant is one of three recognised subspecies of the Asian elephant. The 2011 elephant census estimated a population of 5,879.

The Sri Lankan leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) is an endangered subspecies of leopard native to Sri Lanka.

Maha rath mala (Rhododendron arboreum ssp. zeylanicum) is a rare sub-species of Rhododendron arboreum found in Central Highlands of Sri Lanka.

The old Sri Lankan Parliament building, near the Galle Face Green. It now serves as the Presidential Secretariat's headquarters.

President J. R. Jayewardene gifting a baby elephant to US President Ronald Reagan in 1984

Development of real GDP per capita, 1820 to 2018

A proportional representation of Sri Lanka exports, 2019

The Colombo World Trade Center in Colombo. Presidential Secretariat, Bank of Ceylon and Galadhari Hotel are also visible in the image.

Sri Lanka's most widely known export, Ceylon tea, which ISO considers the cleanest tea in the world in terms of pesticide residues. Sri Lanka is also the world's 2nd largest exporter of tea.

The Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology is a research institute specialising in the field of nanotechnology.

Hindu devotees engaging in Kavadi at a temple in Vavuniya

Female dancers in traditional Kandyan dress

The Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre was constructed as a major venue for the performing arts

A Low Country drummer playing the traditional Yak Béra

Succeeding kingdoms of Sri Lanka would maintain many Buddhist schools and monasteries and support the propagation of Buddhism into other countries in Southeast Asia.

A coin of Menander I (r.160–135 BC) with a dharmacakra and a palm.

Buddhism in the West

Buddhism in the West (or more narrowly Western Buddhism) broadly encompasses the knowledge and practice of Buddhism outside of Asia in the Western world.

Heracles depiction of Vajrapani as the protector of the Buddha, 2nd century Gandhara, British Museum.

Map of Alexander the Great's empire and the route he and Pyrrho took to India

Extent of Buddhism and trade routes in the 1st century AD.

Ven. Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thera and Henry Steel Olcott, the first President of the Theosophical Society, in Colombo, 1889.

Das Buddhistische Haus, a Theravada Buddhist vihara in Berlin, Germany completed in 1924. It is considered the oldest Theravada Buddhist center in Europe.

Datsan Gunzechoinei in St. Petersburg, the first Buddhist monastery in Europe

The Dalai Lama receiving a Congressional Gold Medal in 2007. From left: Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Senate President pro tempore Robert Byrd and U.S. President George W. Bush

Thai Forest teacher Ajahn Chah with the senior representative of the tradition in England, Ajahn Sumedho (front right), the senior representative in North America Ajahn Pasanno (rear and left of Sumedho) and other monastics.

Zu Lai Temple (lit. Tathāgata Temple) in Cotia, Brazil is the largest Buddhist temple in South America.

Main Hall of Hsi Lai, a Chinese-American temple in Los Angeles County, California. Completed in 1988, it is one of the largest Buddhist temples in the Western Hemisphere.

Arapahoe Campus of Naropa University, a private liberal arts college in Colorado founded by Chögyam Trungpa. It was the first Buddhist-inspired academic institution to receive United States regional accreditation.

Thích Nhất Hạnh and monastics of his order chanting during his visit to Germany in 2010.

The main stupa at Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre, Scotland.

Spirit Rock Meditation Center founded 1978 by Insight teacher and student of Ajahn Chah, Jack Kornfield.

Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery, Asalha Puja 2014

The various schools of Buddhism are now established in all major Western countries making up a small minority in the United States (1% in 2017), Europe (0.2% in 2010), Australia (2.4% in 2016) and New Zealand (1.5% in 2013).

Buddhism in Japan

Buddhism has been practiced in Japan since about the 6th century CE.

The Great Buddha of Asuka-dera, the oldest Buddha statue in Japan, and an example of the Tori style.

Painting depicting the semi-legendary Prince Shōtoku (574-622), the first major sponsor of Buddhism in Japan. Colors on silk, 14th century or earlier.

The Yumedono Kannon, another example of the Tori style.

A model of Yakushi-ji, a major imperial temple of Nara

Model of the garan of Todaiji seen from the north side

An illustration of Saichō with tea leaves. He is known for having introduced tea to Japan.

Sanjūsangen-dō in Kyoto, a print of a Tendai temple, by Toyoharu, c. 1772–1781

Statue of Kūya by Kōshō, son of Unkei, dating to the first decade of the thirteenth century. The six syllables of the nembutsu, na-mu-a-mi-da-butsu, are represented literally by six small Amida figures streaming from Kūya's mouth.

A scroll depicting the kami Hachiman dressed as a Buddhist monk, an example of Shinbutsu-shūgō ("syncretism of kami and buddhas").

Sutra art from the Heike-Nôkyô, chapter 12.

A 20th century depiction of the banishment of Nichiren in 1261.

The main gate of Tōfuku-ji, the oldest sanmon in Japan.

Tenryū-ji's Sōgen Pond, designed by Musō Soseki.

The Hansōbō shrine, a Shinto shrine at the Rinzai temple of Kenchō-ji.

Kinkaku-ji, ("the Temple of the Golden Pavilion'), is a Rinzai Zen temple built in the Muromachi period (c. 1397) and destroyed during the Onin War (it was later rebuilt).

A model of Ishiyama Hongan-ji in Osaka, one of the main fortress-temple complex of the True Pure Land (Jōdo Shinshū) "Devoted League" (Ikko-Ikki).

The Battle of Ishiyama Hongan-ji, by Utagawa Yoshifuji

Portrait of Chinese monk Yinyuan (Ingen), who founded the Ōbaku school

Making Prints, by Hosoki Toshikazu c. 1879

Buddhist temple bells being smelted for bronze during the haibutsu kishaku

Kōfuku-ji, the national headquarters of the Hossō school.

Tōdai-ji, the head temple of the Kegon school

A traditional map of Eihei-ji, the main temple of the Sōtō school.

A print of the Nichiren Shū temple Ikegami Honmon-ji by Hiroshige.

Bodhidharma (Chinese: 達磨; Hiragana: だるま; Romanji: Daruma), painted by Miyamoto Musashi, swordsman artist and philosopher close to Takuan Soho monk of the Rinzai school (linked to the samurai caste) founded by the 28th Patriarch.

Vine and grape scrolls from Nara, 7th century.

Japanese Buddhism (Nihon Bukkyō) created many new Buddhist schools, and some schools are original to Japan and some are derived from Chinese Buddhist schools.

Buddhist expansion in Asia, from Buddhist heartland in northern India (dark orange) starting 5th century BCE, to Buddhist majority realm (orange), and historical extent of Buddhism influences (yellow). Mahāyāna (red arrow), Theravāda (green arrow), and Tantric-Vajrayāna (blue arrow). The overland and maritime "Silk Roads" were interlinked and complementary, forming what scholars have called the "great circle of Buddhism".

Buddhism in the Philippines

Minor religion in the Philippines.

The Agusan image at the collections of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

Example of what Maise believes to be a cave painting depicting Manjusri, in Tabon Caves in Palawan.

The Main Altar of a Buddhist Temple in Masangkay Street, Tondo, Manila.

Shingon Buddhist Service at the Heiwa Kannon Shrine in Clark Field, Pampanga, October 2003

In and of itself not a school of Buddhism, Vajrayāna, literally meaning "adamantine" or "diamond vehicle" and also known as Tantric or Mantrayāna Buddhism, is instead practiced as a tradition on top of Theravāda or Mahāyāna Buddhism.

Covering 15 acres (61,000 m2), California's Hsi Lai Temple is one of the largest Buddhist temples in the western hemisphere.

Buddhism in the United States

The term American Buddhism can be used to describe all Buddhist groups within the United States, including Asian-American Buddhists born into the faith, who comprise the largest percentage of Buddhists in the country.