The History of Buddhism

The history of Buddhism is a huge subject. Not only does it cover over 2,500 years of history, but it has spread over time thoughout Asia and beyond. In each individual country, the local culture tended to have a strong influence on the outer appearance of the religious practices, and which aspects of Buddhism were emphasized by the locals. To understand the origin of the various schools and traditions, some insight in the history is essential.

This page is actually a link page to some pages that deal with Buddhist history. Time allowing, I hope to gradually expand these pages to cover more countries.

GENERAL

Buddhism in historical context tries to briefly describe the historical context in which Shakyamuni Buddha lived and taught his findings to others.
The Buddhist time-line is a brief overview of the most important events and dates in the history of Buddhism. Of course, it is an arbitrary decision what exactly the most important events are, but I hope it can be useful to you.
The three Vehicles describes the origins of and differences between the three main streams in Buddhism; Theravada (Hinayana), Mahayana and Tantric Buddhism (Tantrayana).

PER COUNTRY

Buddhism in India describes in brief the rise and demise of Buddhism in India, the country where it all began and where Buddhism was nearly lost.
Buddhism in Tibet describes the development of the main schools, in which the North Indian Buddhist tantric tradition was preserved.
Buddhism in Japan gives an overview of how most important traditions developed, mainly based on what was imported from China.

EXTERNAL LINKS

Buddhanet contains - besides a huge amount of other material - a lot of detailed information on the history of Buddhism in many different countries.
Berzinarchives contains some unique studies of the development of Buddhism North from India.
The Wikipedia Timeline of Buddhism is developing impressively.
A brief summary of Buddhism in China is found in this article from Wisdom Books
Tantric Buddhism in India is a brief but interesting article from Wisdom Books
Triratna.info contains very interesting lineage information of Buddhist schools

Just for fun

History does not repeat itself - historians merely repeat each other.

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