Question about BUDDHISM.?

Question

I have chosen to write a philosophy paper on Buddhism and I need to include the countries and political systems that use it. I need your help to find a reliable website that gives me that information. Please leave me a link.

Thanks

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism

Answer 2

Singapore. Buddhism is a majority religion.
Thailand and Burma too. More important in Thailand as the Monarch is linked to Buddhism. Dont think Burma has any claims to "religious legitimacy".

Singapore's political system is actually highly influenced by Confucianism and Mohism, So you might want to consider making your paper more broad and consider "eastern philosophy" rather than just "buddhism", if you cant find any other countries. Cheers!

Answer 3

usually eastern asia are buddhists because i have relatives that are buddhist but atlas.com or something. idk

Answer 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_religions#Buddhism_as_state_religion
http://eng.buddhapia.com/_Service/_ContentView/ETC_CONTENT_2.ASP?pk=0001454004&sub_pk=&clss_cd=0002171237&top_menu_cd=0000000457&menu_cd=&menu_code=0000006105
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/jones/wheel285.html

Answer 5

Before Buddhism , man was barbaric following rituals blood sacrifices and fire worship , and monarchy was the only accepted political system. But after Buddha everything changed.
Buddhism has many sects but 'Therawada' has original teachings of Gotama Buddha, other sects have adopted teachings of other Buddhas born before Gotama Buddha and other Buddha like personalities called Bodhisattavas (as in Mahayana Buddhism).
Buddha was born in Nepal (A hindu state) but was enlightened and preached in India. King Ashoka (240BC , he ruled a vast empire from Burma to Afghanistan) became a Buddhist and adapted Buddhism as the state religion , then he sent missionaries to Srilanka, Burma(Myanmar), Thailand etc. in east. And in west he sent them to Alexandria (Egypt) ruled by Greek king Ptolemy, Antioch(Syria) and Macedonia(Greece). This is evident from the 13th rock edict of Ashoka found in Afghanistan, land of Bamiyan Buddhas.

BUDDHISM AND WEST
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In Alexandria , it was accepted by Jews and they called themselves Theraputae (similar to Therawada). They had influence on Jewish essene sect to which Jesus belonged. It seems that Jesus was brought up in Egypt(probably Alexandria) where saw wonderful monks and learned the superior teachings of non-violence & love to all instead of 'Eye for eye and tooth for tooth' as prevalent. Probably the birth of Christian belief has originated from Buddhism of Alexandria.
And you know the influence of Christianity .
See these links :
http://isbuddhismfatherofchristianity.blogspot.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_Buddhism
http://buddhistfaith.tripod.com/gospel

BUDDHISM AND ISLAM
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Buddhism had spread to afghanistan and middle east. Greek King Menander ruled in Bactria (Afghanistan) , he became Buddhist and helped spread of Buddhism to middle east. In middle east Buddhist monasteries have been found in Iraq, Iran etc. Prior to Islam people in middle east were Zoroastrians and they were opposed to Buddhists. So when Islam rose up from erstwhile Zoroastrians, they eliminated Buddhists by force. Islam opposes worship of idols whereas buddhists always make idol of Buddha. They called Buddhists as 'BUT Parast', here the word 'BUT' is nothing but Buddha prounced as Budh actually in india. So worshippers of BUT were hounded and put to sword.
See this link (read entire book instead of this page only):
http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/e-books/unpublished_manuscripts/historical_interaction/pt1/history_cultures_03.html
The Islamists destroyed the biggest Buddhist university of ancient times in Nalanda in Bihar state of india & burnt its library after killing all of unarmed teachers and monks.

Therawada Buddhism in Fareast
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King Ashoka's missionary work was accepted wholeheartedly in fareast. The culture of Thailand is exactly as it was in Ashoka's time where monks were held in high esteem. In Burma(Myanmar) it is very prevalent and they have meticulously protected the original teachings of Buddha (also by Srilanka). The original teachings of Buddha are available here as Tipitaka (3 baskets) which holds original words of Buddha. See this link for Tipitaka (in english) :
http://www.vipassana.com/canon
and here for Buddha's original Pali language :
http://www.tipitaka.org

Mahayana Buddhism
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A different sect of Buddhism called Mahayana went to Tibet, China, Korea and Japan. It has occult (tantra)as a practice , worship of gods and goddesses, has various Buddhas to worship.

Buddhism and Communists
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Communists always disliked religion. 10,000 monks were killed by soviets in Mongolia and Chinese also killed many monks & destroyed their monasteries in china & in Tibet ,although Buddhists are atheists too.

Buddhism and Hinduism of India
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Although Buddhism was born in India but alas it was completely eliminated from it by Hindus. In 200 BC the last Buddhist king was killed by his own Hindu Army Chief who later became king Pushya Mitra Sunga. In hinduism casteism is an ancient form of human exploitation & slavery. Buddhism abolished slavery & discrimination of low caste and accepted equality. King Pushya Mitra Sunga belonged to high brahmin caste and hated buddhism and Buddhists. He declared a reward of 100 gold coins for every head of buddhist monk. Thus many Buddhist monks were killed and thousands of their places of worship were destroyed. Around 600 AD another Brahmin Hindu 'Adi Shankaracharya' declared war on Buddhism , killing many and snatching many of their temples such as Temple Badrinath in Uttarakhand state of India. Most of these barbaric acts were only meant to eliminate influence of the superior path taught by Buddha which directly questioned the authority of God and its existence and in doing so the authority of hindu ideology on indian minds became automatically questionable.
However , little the hindus know that hinduism stands on the foundations of writing of sage Ved Vyas who was born as Buddha in the next birth, as claimed by Buddha. Ved Vyas wrote vedas, mahabharata and Gita(bible of hindus).

Buddhism and Democracy
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Before Buddhism, only monarchy was the acceptable political system. Buddha did a new experiment. Although his son Rahul and his wife were with him in his forest monastery but he asked his monks to select elders democratically. And it appears that , this buddhist thought was taken by Greeks and then into Rome for selecting elders in church and in political field and so started democracy.

Buddhism vs. Africa & South America
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Where ever buddhism has not reached in any form, those places have remained barbaric. Man originated from africa and remained there for millions of years. He was barbaric , following rituals of blood sacrifice, chanting and witchcraft . It seems that ancient religions (Judaism, Hinduism, Greek, Latin american religions,egyptian, shinto etc.) have also originated from migrating african people long long ago as they have ancient beliefs of gods, godesses, witchcraft(tantra), fire worship(yagna) etc. The ancient fire worship has also probably originated from africa as the earliest human fossil (Lucy) is found near Danakil depression in ethiopia where many Lava holes of hundreds of metres of diameter exist . This fire fills any person with awe ,wonder & amazement.
In latin america buddhism could not reach , so we find there relics of ancient worship based on blood sacrifices such as in Machu Picchu of Inca empire and in Yucatan pyramids of mexico.