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Buddhism: Theravada Buddhism
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Buddhism is the fourth largest world religion with around 376 millions followers. Buddhism has a strong influence primarily in east Asian reasons such as Thailand, South Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam, Japan, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and parts of India. There are two major sects of Buddhism which are the Mahayana (185 million) and the Theravada (124 million).
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Before its demise in India, Buddhism had already spread throughout Asia. This expansion started at least as early as the time of the emperor Asoka in the 3d century BC. According to tradition, this great monarch, who was himself a convert to Buddhism, actively supported the religion and sought to spread the dharma. He is said to have sent his own son, Mahinda, as a missionary to Sri Lanka (Ceylon). There Buddhism quickly took root and prospered, and the island was to become a stronghold of the Theravada sect. The Pali Canon was first written there in the 1st century BC ; later the island was to be host to the great Theravadin systematizer and commentator Buddhaghosa (5th century AD).
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Buddhism began in northeastern India and is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. Buddhism is divided into two major branches: Theravada, the Way of the Elders, and Mahayana, the Great Vehicle. Buddhism is now prevalent in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, (where Theravada is popular) and in China, Japan, Taiwan, Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia, Korea, and Vietnam, and India (where Mahayana is more common).. There are about 300 million Buddhists in the world.
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Buddhism is divided into several branches or ordination traditions. The Mahayana tradition, based on Sanskrit texts, spread into China, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. The Buddhism of Tibet, Nepal, and Mongolia is ... known as Vajrayana. Theravada Buddhism, "the way of the elders," is the form of Buddhism found in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. It is based on Pali texts. More recently, Buddhism has spread to Europe, Australia, and North America, where people are converting in large numbers, partly out of interest in Buddhist meditation practices.
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Buddhism is based on Buddha's teachings. At first these were passed down by word of mouth and later were complied into two sets of scripture. One set by Council of Monks of the Theravada school (the Tripitaka) the other by the Mahayana school ( the Sutras). Both were similar.
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The various schools of Buddhism tend to work within a distinctive group of texts, with some measure of overlap. During the first couple of centuries after Sakyamuni the Buddhist teachings were transmitted orally, but around the 1st Century CE they began to be written down. The only surviving written canon from the earliest period is the Pali Canon, named after the language in which it was recorded. It was preserved in Sri Lanka, by the Theravada school. Full versions of the original text and English translations are now readily available on the Internet.
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Theravada Buddhism