Question: Buddhism is now the religion of a large number of people in many different countries. How did this happen?
ANSWER: Within a I5o years of the Buddha’s passing his teachings had already spread fairly widely through northern India. Then in about 262 BCE the then emperor of India, Asoka Mauriya, converted to Buddhism and spread the Dhamma throughout his entire realm. Many people were attracted by Buddhism’s high ethical standards and particularly by its opposition of the Hindu Caste system. Asoka also convened a great council and then sent missionary monks to neigh boring countries and even as far as Europe. The most successful of these missions was the one that went to Sri Lanka. The Island became Buddhist and has remained so ever since. Other missions brought Buddhism to southern and western India, Kashmir and what is now southern Burma and peninsular Thailand. A century or so after this Afghanistan and the mountainous regions of northern India became Buddhist and monk and merchants from there gradually took the religion into central Asia and finally to China from where it later penetrated into Korea and Japan. It is interesting to note that Buddhism is really the only foreign system of thought that has ever taken root in China. In about the 12th century Buddhism became the dominant religion of Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia due mainly to the efforts of monks from Sri Lanka.
ANSWER: Within a I5o years of the Buddha’s passing his teachings had already spread fairly widely through northern India. Then in about 262 BCE the then emperor of India, Asoka Mauriya, converted to Buddhism and spread the Dhamma throughout his entire realm. Many people were attracted by Buddhism’s high ethical standards and particularly by its opposition of the Hindu Caste system. Asoka also convened a great council and then sent missionary monks to neigh boring countries and even as far as Europe. The most successful of these missions was the one that went to Sri Lanka. The Island became Buddhist and has remained so ever since. Other missions brought Buddhism to southern and western India, Kashmir and what is now southern Burma and peninsular Thailand. A century or so after this Afghanistan and the mountainous regions of northern India became Buddhist and monk and merchants from there gradually took the religion into central Asia and finally to China from where it later penetrated into Korea and Japan. It is interesting to note that Buddhism is really the only foreign system of thought that has ever taken root in China. In about the 12th century Buddhism became the dominant religion of Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia due mainly to the efforts of monks from Sri Lanka.
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