The origin of Tibetan Buddhism

According to the historical records, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam are the three major religions in the world, of which Buddhism is the oldest that originated in ancient India and is more than 2500 years.

Buddhism originated in the ancient India and was established by Siddhartha Gautama, prince of a ruling house in Nepal in the B.C.six century. Siddhartha was born in B.C.565 and died in the B.C.485 which is a counterpart with Confucious in our country. He is literally buddha, an “enlightened one”. He becomes known to his followers as the Buddha.

The teaching of Buddhism is an idealism which is rather conplex. After spreading for a very long time, it develops into many different sects.

The four Noble Truths is the basic teaching of Buddhism. They are pains that are inextricably part of mankind's everyday life; that our cravings of all kinds are the cause of this pain; that the way off this treadmill is to free oneself of these cravings; and that this can be achieved by following the Eightfold Path.

After the death of Siddhartha, Buddhism fragmented into different sects. One of them is Mahayana which means the Great Vehicle. Its adherents argue that this form of Buddhism can carry a greater number of people towards the truth than Theravada Buddhism, which they dismiss as Hinayana - the little vehicle.

About A.D. three century, Buddhism becomes the national religion of India. At that time, India has contacts with many countries. Buddhism spreads to many countries in Asia. It spreads south to Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, north to China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Theravada Budddism spreads south while Mahayana spreads north. Buddhism becomes a religion throughout the world. It combines with the local ideology and religion in different places and forms different sects. In India, Buddhism is assimilated by Hinduism in the middle century and declines in the 13th century.