15 Timeline of Buddhism

Life of the Buddha and Early Communities, 5th century BCE to 1st century CE

  • Teachings of the Buddha: Dharma
    • sutras: sermons of the Buddha
    • vinaya: monastic rules, ritual texts, and stories of Buddha
    • abhidharma: doctrinal system, based on sutras
  • Buddhist Communities: Sangha

Spread of Buddhism, 3rd century BCE to 7th century CE.

  • Unification of India under King Ashoka and the spread of Buddhism
  • Spread of Buddhism to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia
  • Buddhism in China, first century CE: “silk route” trade and Buddhist scriptures
  • Buddhism in Japan, sixth century; and Tibet, eighth century

Reinterpreting Teachings of Buddhism: 100 BCE – 800 CE

  • Mahāyāna Buddhism in East Asia
  • Vajrayāna Buddhism in Tibet

Buddhism spreads to Western countries: 19th – 21st centuries

  • Southeast Asian teachings of Mindfulness
  • Zen Buddhism in America

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Seeing the World Through Religion and Culture Copyright © by Diane Riggs and Anderson Hagler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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