70 Fun Facts About Buddhism

Buddhism is the world's fourth-largest religion, with roughly how many followers?

They make up about 4.1 percent of the global population, and Buddhism is the only major religion that shrank between 2010 and 2020.

Where was the Buddha born?

He grew up in Kapilavastu near the modern Nepal-India border; Ashoka's pillar at Lumbini names it as the birthplace.

The Buddha was born into which community, governed by a small oligarchy or republic-like council?

His title Shakyamuni means 'Sage of the Shakyas'; the legends of a king Suddhodana and Queen Maya are considered doubtful by scholars like Gombrich.

According to legend, Queen Maya dreamed that what entered her side on the night the Buddha was conceived?

Ten months later Siddhartha was born, and eight Brahmins were invited to read his future at a naming ceremony.

What were the names of the Buddha's wife and son according to the early texts?

Rahula later joined the monastic order his father founded.

Under which two meditation teachers did Gautama first study before abandoning their methods?

He learned the 'sphere of nothingness' from one and 'neither perception nor non-perception' from the other, then turned to severe asceticism.

What species of tree is the Bodhi Tree under which the Buddha attained awakening?

Its heart-shaped leaves became a symbol of wisdom in Buddhist art.

A village girl named Sujata is remembered for offering the Buddha what before his awakening?

The gift ended his period of extreme fasting and confirmed the Middle Way.

In the legendary biographies, which ruler of the desire realm tried to stop the Buddha's awakening?

The Mahavastu, Nidanakatha and Lalitavistara all describe his assault.

Where did the Buddha give his first sermon after enlightenment?

The Lion Capital that Ashoka raised there in 250 BCE is now the State Emblem of India.

At what age did the Buddha die, at Kushinagar?

His last meal was an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda; Theravadins say it was pork, Mahayanists say a mushroom or truffle.

Which of the Buddha's cousins attempted to take over the sangha and formed a rival sect?

His schism was one of the most troubling events of the Buddha's old age; Ananda, another cousin, was the Buddha's attendant.

According to the second Noble Truth, dukkha arises with tanha, a word literally meaning what?

It is translated as craving, desire or attachment; the third truth says dukkha ends when tanha is let go.

Which of these is NOT one of the eight practices of the Noble Eightfold Path?

The eight are right view, resolve, speech, conduct, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and samadhi.

What does the word nirvana literally mean?

It refers to the extinguishing of the passions, and Theravada sees it as the way out of samsara.

The Middle Way is described as a path between sensory indulgence and what?

The Buddha also framed it as a middle course between eternalism and nihilism.

Anicca, dukkha and anatta are collectively known as what?

They mean impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and non-self; some schools add nirvana's peace as a fourth seal.

Buddhist texts describe rebirth in how many realms of existence?

Three are good (heavenly, demi-god, human) and three evil (animal, hungry ghost, hell).

What is the literal meaning of samsara?

The cycle of rebirth is perpetuated by desire and ignorance and is itself considered dukkha.

In Buddhist karma theory, unlike Jainism, what is essential to bring about a karmic result?

Even ill or good thoughts without physical action create karmic seeds.

What are the Three Jewels in which all Buddhists take refuge?

Tibetan Buddhism sometimes adds a fourth refuge: the lama.

The Dharma is likened to what object, 'for crossing over' but not for holding on to?

It is a pragmatic teaching to be practised, not a belief to be clung to.

What is the Sangha?

'Without the Sangha there is no Buddhism', writes Gethin; laypeople gain merit by supporting it.

How many precepts form the minimal standard of morality for Buddhist laypeople?

Monastics take eight or ten precepts plus the detailed rules of the Vinaya.

What is the meaning of the term Tripitaka, used for the canonical collections of Buddhist texts?

The Pali version divides into the Vinaya (monastic rule), Sutta (discourses) and Abhidhamma (doctrine).

Where were the first Buddhist canonical texts probably written down, some 400 years after the Buddha?

Until then the teachings were transmitted orally in Prakrit languages such as Pali.

The Theravada school's Pali Tipitaka holds what distinction?

Many other early schools' texts survive only in Chinese translation.

The Dhammapada, verses attributed to the Buddha, belongs to which division of the Pali Canon?

Its concise verses distil the teaching into a form 'available to anyone', in Glenn Wallis's words.

Which brutal war, fought in his eighth regnal year, preceded Ashoka's turn toward Buddhism?

His edicts afterward made 'dhamma', righteous conduct, their central theme.

Ashoka's daughter Sanghamitta carried a sapling of the Bodhi Tree to which island in 288 BCE?

Planted at Anuradhapura, it is regarded as the oldest living human-planted tree with a known date.

Which British archaeologist planted the current Bodhi Tree at Bodh Gaya in 1881 from a Sri Lankan cutting?

The Mahabodhi Temple around it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002.

The Milindapanha records a dialogue between a Buddhist monk and which Greek king?

The text says the king abdicated and became a monk, though scholars doubt whether he was truly Buddhist.

Which empire controlled the Silk Road from 30 to 375 CE and helped Buddhism spread to China?

Emperor Kanishka particularly favored the Sarvastivada school; the earliest Buddhist manuscripts are Gandharan texts from this era.

The great monastic university of Nalanda was established around 427 CE by which Gupta emperor?

Its library was a key source for Sanskrit texts carried to East Asia by pilgrims such as Xuanzang; it was burned by Bakhtiyar Khalji around 1200.

What does Theravada literally mean?

It is followed mainly in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Sri Lanka.

What does Mahayana, the largest branch of Buddhism, literally mean?

It emphasises the bodhisattva ideal of working for the liberation of all sentient beings.

Vajrayana, the tantric tradition practised in Tibet, literally means what?

It developed under the Gupta and Pala empires, with mantras, mudras, mandalas and deity visualisation.

Which country has the largest Buddhist population, about 94 percent of its people?

China is second with about 42 million, though that is only 4 percent of its population.

Which semi-legendary Indian monk is traditionally credited with bringing Chan (Zen) to China?

Chan spread to Vietnam as Thien, to Korea as Seon and to Japan as Zen.

Zen derives from the Chinese 'Chan', which comes from which Sanskrit word for meditation?

Sitting meditation, zazen, is central to the tradition.

The nianfo chant central to Pure Land Buddhism is devoted to which Buddha?

In Japan the practice is called the nenbutsu, and Pure Land is the largest sect with 22 million believers.

Which Parthian Buddhist monk made the first documented translations of Buddhist texts into Chinese, c.148-180 CE?

The Kushan monk Lokaksema followed with the first Mahayana translations in Luoyang.

Tibetan Buddhism has four major schools: Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and which other, founded in 1409?

The Dalai Lamas belong to the Gelug tradition; Bon was Tibet's pre-Buddhist religion.

The Dalai Lamas are believed to be incarnations of which enlightened being?

The title was first conferred on Sonam Gyatso in 1578.

In what year did the 14th Dalai Lama flee Lhasa for India during the Tibetan uprising?

He was born Lhamo Thondup in 1935 and now lives in Dharamshala; he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

The 14th Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in what year?

He had taken on Tibet's temporal duties in 1950 at the age of 15.

Vesak, the festival commemorating the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death, is named after what?

The United Nations resolved in 2000 to observe the day at its headquarters.

Borobudur, the 9th-century Mahayana temple, is on which island?

Its central dome is ringed by 72 Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupas.

Angkor Wat, now a Theravada Buddhist site, was originally built as a Hindu temple to which god?

Khmer king Suryavarman II built it between 1113 and 1150; it is the largest religious complex in the world.

Which Indian reformer launched Navayana, reinterpreting the Buddha as a teacher of social equality?

Its followers, largely Dalit converts, reject karma, rebirth and monasticism as superstitions.

Which Indian state accounts for 77 percent of all Buddhists in India?

Most are Navayana converts following Ambedkar's movement.

In which two Russian republics do Buddhists form a majority?

Tibetan Buddhism is also practised in Mongolia and the Himalayan states.

During which Chinese dynasty was the entire Buddhist canon printed using over 130,000 wooden blocks?

Chan and Pure Land both flourished in this era and shaped Korean and Japanese Buddhism.

Which of these Japanese schools preserves the tantric tradition as transmitted through China?

Pure Land is Japan's largest sect with 22 million believers, followed by Nichiren with 10 million.

When was the First Buddhist Council said to have been held at Rajgir, where Ananda recited the sutras?

Modern scholars question its historicity, though communal recitation likely began in the Buddha's lifetime.

The Second Buddhist Council's schism split the Sthaviras from which conservative group?

The dispute began over proposed changes to the Vinaya, the monastic rule.

Buddhism nearly disappeared from India by which century?

Loss of royal patronage to Hindu faiths and the Islamic conquests destroyed institutions like Nalanda.

Which two kings of Magadha reigned during the Buddha's life and death, according to most scholars?

This also makes the Buddha a contemporary of Mahavira, founder of Jainism.

What did the Buddha instruct Ananda to tell the blacksmith Cunda about the last meal?

The Buddha fell violently ill after the meal but wanted Cunda spared any blame.

The Buddha's remains were cremated how many days after his parinirvana at Kushinagar?

The town's name may derive from the kusha grass abundant there.

The 'four sights' that moved Gautama to renounce the world were an old man, a sick man, a corpse and what?

The story seems adapted from an account of the earlier Buddha Vipassi in the Digha Nikaya.

Which of the four Brahma-viharas is 'mudita'?

The four 'immeasurables' are metta, karuna, mudita and upekkha, virtues said to lead to rebirth in the Brahma realm.

Under early Buddhist rules, meat offered to monastics had to be 'clean' in how many ways?

Monks must not have seen, heard or suspected that the animal was killed specifically for them.

What is the three-month rainy-season retreat during which wandering monks gathered in one place called?

Early monasteries such as Jetavana grew from groves used for these seasonal gatherings.

In Japanese Buddhist temples, the grouped complex of halls, towers and pagodas is called what?

Southeast Asian institutions centre on wats, and Indo-Tibetan ones on gompas.

Who founded the Pali Text Society in 1881?

It became an influential Western resource for Buddhist literature and an early publisher of a Buddhist-studies journal.

Which 1893 event in Chicago gave major Buddhist leaders a well-publicised platform in the West?

Helena Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott were among the first Westerners to formally convert to Buddhism.

Which two countries are named as recognising Buddhism as the state religion with government support?

In the West Buddhism is often seen as exotic and progressive; in the East as familiar and traditional.

Which Thai king, reigning 1851–68, began the modern reforms of Thai Buddhism continued by his son?

Chulalongkorn carried the reforms on until 1910; the modern Dhammakaya movement later stirred controversy with a 'true self' doctrine.

Which teaching of Thailand's Dhammakaya movement do traditional Theravada monks consider heretical?

It is seen as denying anatta, the fundamental Buddhist doctrine of not-self.