Buddhism

The History of Buddhism

Buddhism began in India with Gautama, called the Buddha, or "awakened one." Tradition holds that he taught the way to end suffering until his death at eighty, in 544 BCE by Theravada reckoning. Historians accept that he taught in the Ganges basin but differ on when he died; proposals at a 1988 symposium ran from 486 to 261 BCE.

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This page covers the history shared by Buddhism's three branches, described on the Branches page, and names the branch where accounts differ.

How did Buddhism begin?

Buddhists and historians tell the story of the Buddha's life differently, so both accounts appear here side by side. Both draw on the early discourses, called suttas, and on later biographies.1

The tradition's account

The early discourses, preserved in Pali by the Theravada tradition, tell much of the story in the Buddha's own voice.1 He was born at Lumbini, a village in the land of the Sakya clan.2 While still young, and though his mother and father wept, he shaved his head, put on ocher robes, and left home to live as a wandering ascetic. He was twenty-nine.2

He studied under two meditation teachers, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, but judged that their teachings did not lead to awakening. He then fasted until his body wasted away, before choosing to eat again and to meditate as he had once done, in his youth, in the shade of a tree.2 Near Uruvela he reached awakening, and knowledge arose in him: My freedom is unshakable; this is my last rebirth; now there'll be no more future lives. (MN 26)2

In the deer park at Isipatana, near Varanasi, he taught five former companions the middle way between indulgence and self-mortification, and the four noble truths.2 At eighty he died at Kusinara, and his last words to his monks were Conditions fall apart. Persist with diligence. (DN 16)2

Later biographies tell of four sights, an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and an ascetic, that moved the young prince to leave his palace.1 The Lotus Sutra, a Mahayana scripture, teaches that he had in fact reached awakening an immeasurably long time before his life in India.3 The Play in Full, a Mahayana life of the Buddha in the Tibetan Kangyur, tells his life as the Buddha's play, or display: not ordinary action, but the expression of an awakened insight.4

The historians' view

Historians draw mainly on the same early texts, but they note that the texts' information was handed down, largely by word of mouth, over the first three to five centuries after his death, and that the texts give no connected life story. Heinz Bechert, a scholar of Buddhism, writes that the sources make it possible to reconstruct a fairly reliable biography of the man who was to become the Buddha1.1

Mark Siderits, in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, lists the points that are relatively uncontroversial. Gautama was born into a family of some wealth and power in the Sakya clan, near today's border between India and Nepal. He left home, studied with wandering ascetics, reached what Buddhists call awakening, and spent his remaining forty-five years teaching.5 Bechert also accepts the going forth at twenty-nine against his parents' wishes, the two teachers, the years of austerity, and the first teaching near Varanasi.1

For Bechert, the accounts of the Buddha's last journey and death are reliable; their several versions differ only on minor points.1 In 248 BCE, the emperor Ashoka set up an inscribed pillar at Lumbini marking the Buddha's birth, so the place was identified as his birthplace by then.1

Bechert judges that the four sights do not belong to the earliest layer: the story was first told of a buddha of a past age. Following Etienne Lamotte, he writes that full biographies seem to have been compiled no earlier than the second century CE.1

When did the Buddha live?

No date for the Buddha's life is accepted by both Buddhist tradition and scholars, and each side holds more than one view.1

The tradition's account

By the Theravada reckoning, as the Theravada website Access to Insight gives it, the Buddha was born in 624 BCE and died in his eightieth year, in 544 BCE. That year is the first of the Buddhist Era, which counts from his death.6 Heinz Bechert reports the Theravada date as 544 or 543 BCE, which the tradition counts as 218 years before the consecration of Ashoka.1

In 1954, a council of about 2,500 monks opened in Rangoon, Burma, timed to the celebration of 2,500 years since the Buddha's death.7

Other Buddhist traditions count differently. Early texts of the Mulasarvastivada school, and two passages in the earliest Theravada chronicle, the Dipavamsa, place his death one hundred years before Ashoka's rule. Later Tibetan and East Asian texts give a wide range of earlier dates. Across all traditions, Bechert finds dates for the Buddha's death from 2420 to 290 BCE.1

The historians' view

Working from modern dates for Ashoka's reign, Bechert reports, most Western and Indian scholars calculate the death at 487 or 486 BCE, a date called the corrected long chronology. At a 1988 symposium in Gottingen, Germany, scholars proposed dates from 486 to 261 BCE.1

Bechert argues for a death between 420 and 350 BCE, citing, among other reasons, early lists that name only five generations of teachers between the Buddha and Ashoka.1 Siderits writes that his dates were long thought to be about 560 to 480 BCE, but many scholars now hold that he died around 405 BCE.5

Under the Maya Devi Temple at Lumbini, a team led by Robin Coningham and Kosh Prasad Acharya found a timber shrine around a tree, dated to 2,500 to 2,600 years ago, which Coningham says supports an older date. Julia Shaw of University College London responds that it may be a tree shrine unconnected with the Buddha.8

What are the key periods in Buddhist history?

When What happened
544 BCE by Theravada reckoning; about 480 BCE in older scholarly dates; 486 to 261 BCE in proposals at a 1988 symposium The Buddha dies at Kusinara.651
About a century later A second council at Vesali debates monastic discipline; some scholars place the first great split soon after.7
Mid-3rd century BCE Ashoka's reign; in 248 BCE he sets up a pillar at Lumbini.91
1st century BCE (29 or 25 BCE in two scholars' reckonings; about 100 BCE in a Theravada chronology) Theravada tradition records a council in Sri Lanka that writes down the Pali scriptures.6107
Around the 1st century CE The first Mahayana sutras appear, by historians' dating; Buddhism reaches China.911
552 or 538 CE A Japanese court chronicle and temple legends date the arrival of Buddhist images from Korea.12
About 779 CE Samye, Tibet's first Buddhist monastery, is built.13
1197 and 1203 CE Turkish troops sack the great monastic universities of Nalanda and Vikramashila.9
1956 CE B. R. Ambedkar leads a mass conversion of Dalits to Buddhism in Nagpur, India.914
1959 CE The Dalai Lama flees Tibet into exile in India.13

How did the early community keep the teaching?

The early community kept the teaching by recitation. Theravada tradition, as Access to Insight tells it, holds that in the rainy season after the Buddha's death, 500 arahant monks, monks who had reached full awakening, led by Mahakassapa met at Rajagaha to recite his teaching. There Upali recited the rules of monastic discipline, and Ananda recited the Buddha's discourses.67

Charles Prebish writes that most Asian Buddhists hold the first council to be historical, while virtually all scholars of Buddhism doubt a council on the grand scale the scriptures describe. Almost all scholars accept the second council, held at Vesali about a century later over practices such as monks accepting gold and silver. Some hold that the first great split, between the Mahasanghika school and the Sthaviras, or elders, followed soon after.7

A third council under Ashoka, around 250 BCE, appears only in Pali records.7 Theravada tradition holds that, after famine and division in Sri Lanka, King Vattagamani called a council at which 500 reciters and scribes wrote the Pali scriptures on palm leaves for the first time.6 Lewis Lancaster gives the tradition's date as 29 BCE, and Prebish gives 25 BCE.107 The Sacred Texts page tells how the canons formed.

How did Mahayana and Vajrayana begin?

Mahayana and Vajrayana teachers trace their teachings to the Buddha, while historians date their texts to later centuries in India. The Dalai Lama, a teacher of the Gelug school, says the Buddha taught in three rounds. The first, on the four noble truths, was public and is recorded in history; the second and third, on the perfection of wisdom and on Buddha-nature, were given to smaller gatherings and so are not in that record.1516 Japan's Soto Zen school holds that it hands on the Buddha's teaching through its line of ancestors.17

Luis Gomez writes that Mahayana sutras probably began to be composed around the beginning of the common era.9 Gregory Schopen argues that the name Mahayana, meaning great vehicle, began as one side's label in a debate over what the Buddha taught.18 Ronald Davidson writes that the name Vajrayana, the "vehicle of the thunderbolt," first appears in the eighth century.19

How did Buddhism spread across Asia?

Buddhism spread across Asia over many centuries; counting from Ashoka's reign, Luis Gomez finds that it had spread beyond India by the start of the common era.9 Theravada tradition credits Ashoka's son Mahinda and daughter Sanghamitta with carrying it to Sri Lanka, and two monks, Sona and Uttara, with taking it to mainland Southeast Asia.20

Buddhism reached China around the first century CE, first with immigrants from Kushan-ruled India and Central Asia.11 From China it passed to Korea, presumably in 372 CE. A Japanese court chronicle and temple legends date the arrival of Buddhist images from the Korean kingdom of Paekche to 552 or 538 CE.2112

In Tibet, the Dalai Lama dates interest in Buddhism to the seventh-century reign of Songtsen Gampo. A later king, Trisong Detsen, invited the Indian scholar Shantarakshita and founded Samye around 779 CE. Tibetan tradition remembers the tantric master Padmasambhava, who cleared the obstacles to the work, as the third of the founders of Tibetan Buddhism, beside the abbot and the king.1513 The spread map shows these changes over time.

Why did Buddhism fade in India?

By the thirteenth century, Buddhism survived in India only in isolated pockets. Its end has long been tied to the sack of the monastic universities at Nalanda in 1197 and Vikramashila in 1203 by Turkish troops. Luis Gomez argues that the main causes were internal: Buddhism was slowly absorbed into Hinduism, and its monasteries relied on royal patronage rather than village support. The conquest, in his view, was the final blow.9

What shaped Buddhism in the modern era?

In the modern era, Buddhism spread beyond Asia, where the whole range of its traditions is now found.22 In India, interest in Buddhism revived over the last century; Luis Gomez, in an encyclopedia survey, judged the prospects of an effective revival there remote.9 On October 14, 1956, B. R. Ambedkar (1891 to 1956), a leader of the Dalits, the communities once treated as untouchable, led some 400,000 to 600,000 followers into Buddhism in Nagpur.914

In China, land reforms from the 1940s began to strip the monasteries of their economic base, and the Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976) subjected monks and nuns to harsh reeducation.11 The Dalai Lama and many Tibetans fled to India after the Lhasa uprising of 1959, and during the Cultural Revolution all but a few of Tibet's thousands of temples and monasteries were razed. A revival followed after 1978.13

By the Pew Research Center's count, there were 324 million Buddhists in 2020, down from 343 million in 2010, the only major religious group to shrink. Pew links the fall to people leaving Buddhism in East Asia and to low birth rates.23 For more on Buddhists today, see the Today page.

Sources

  1. Heinz Bechert. Buddha, Life of the. Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2004. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  2. Bhikkhu Sujato. Translations of the early Buddhist discourses. SuttaCentral, 2026. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  3. Soka Gakkai. "Life Span of the Thus Come One" chapter, The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism. Nichiren Buddhism Library (Soka Gakkai), 2026. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  4. Dharmachakra Translation Committee. The Play in Full (Lalitavistara), Introduction. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2013. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  5. Mark Siderits. Buddha. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2023. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  6. John T. Bullitt. Theravada Buddhism: A Chronology. Access to Insight, 2005. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  7. Charles S. Prebish. Councils, Buddhist. Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2004. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  8. Bruce Bower. Early shrine unearthed at Nepal Buddhist site. Science News, 2013. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  9. Luis O. Gomez. Buddhism: Buddhism in India. Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd edition (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2005. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  10. Lewis R. Lancaster. Buddhist Books and Texts: Canon and Canonization. Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed. (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2005. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  11. Stephen F. Teiser. Buddhism: Buddhism in China. Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd edition (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2005. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  12. Brian O. Ruppert. Buddhism: Buddhism in Japan. Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd edition (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2005. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  13. Matthew T. Kapstein. Buddhism: Buddhism in Tibet. Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd edition (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2005. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  14. Unsigned entry. Ambedkar, B. R., and The Buddhist Dalits. Encyclopedia of India (Charles Scribner's Sons), via Encyclopedia.com, 2006. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  15. Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Explaining Tantra in Tibetan Buddhism at Shuchi-in University. dalailama.com, 2014. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  16. Buddhism: Tibetan Buddhism. Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices, via Encyclopedia.com, Overview; Central Doctrines. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  17. Sotoshu (Soto Zen Buddhism). Denomination. SOTOZEN.COM, 2026. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  18. Gregory Schopen. Mahayana. Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2004. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  19. Ronald M. Davidson. Vajrayana. Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2004. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  20. Kate Crosby. Theravada. Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2004. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  21. Robert Evans Buswell Jr.. Buddhism: Buddhism in Korea. Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd edition (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2005. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  22. Martin Baumann. Buddhism: Buddhism in the West. Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd edition (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2005. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  23. Conrad Hackett, Marcin Stonawski, Yunping Tong, Stephanie Kramer, Anne Fengyan Shi, and Dalia Fahmy. How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020: 6. Buddhist population change. Pew Research Center, 2025. Accessed 2026-10-28.