Buddism in China
Buddhism was founded in India in the 6th century BC by Siddhartha Gautama of the Sakyas. Siddhartha was his given name,Gautama his surname and Sakya the name of the clan to which his family belonged.

The story goes that though he was a prince brought up in luxury,Siddhartha became discontented with the world when he was confronted with the sights of old age,sickness and death.He despaired of finding fulfilment on the physical level,since the body was inescapably subject to these weaknesses.

Around the age of 30 Siddhartha broke from the material world and sought"enlightenment"by following various yogic disciplines.After several failed attempts he devoted the final phase of his search to intensive contemplation.One evening as he sat beneath a bo(banyan)tree,he slipped into a deep meditation and emerged having achieved enlightenment.His title"Buddha" means"the awakened" or "the enlightened one".

Buddha founded an order of monks and preached his ideas for the next four decades until his death around 480BC.To his followers he was known as Sakyamuni,the "silent sage of the Sakya clan",because of the unfathomable mystery that surrounded him.It is said that gautama Buddha was not the only Buddha,but the fourth,and is not expected to be the last.

The cornerstone of Buddhist philosophy is the view that all life is suffering.Everyone is subject to the traumas of birth,sickness,decrepitude and death;to what they most dread(an incurable disease or an ineradicable personal weakness);and to separation from what they love.

The cause of suffering is desire-specifically the desires of the body and the desire for personal fulfilment.Happiness can only be achieved if these desires are overcome,and his requires following the "eightfold path".By following this path the Buddhist aims to attain nirvana.Volumes have been written in attempts to define nirvana;the suttas(discourses of the Buddha)simply say that it's a state of complete freedom from greed,anger,ignorance and the various other "fetters" of existence.

The first branch of the eightfold path is "right understanding":the recognition that life is suffering,that suffering is caused by desire for personal gratification and that suffering can be overcome.The second branch is "right-mindedness":cultivating a mind free from sensuous desire,ill will and cruelty.The remaining branches of the path require that one refrain from abuse and deceit;that one show kindness and avoid self-seeking in all actions;that one develop virtues and curb passions;and that one practise meditation.

The many varieties of Buddhist meditation use mental exercises to penetrate deep into the psyche,where it is believed the real problems and answers lie,and to achieve a personal experience of the verities of existence.

Buddhism developed in China from the 3rd to 6th centuries AD and was probaly introduced by Indian merchants who took Buddhist priests with them on their land and sea journeys to China.Later,an active effort was made to import Buddhism into China.In the middle of the 1st century AD the religion had gained the interest of the Han emperor Ming,who sent a mission to the West;the mission returned in 67AD with Buddhist scriptures,two Indian monks and images of the Buddha. Centuries later,other Chinese monks like Xuan Zang journeyed to India and returned with Buddhist scriptures which were then translated from the original Sanskrit to Chinese-a massive job involving Chinese and foreign scholars from central Asia,India and Sri Lanka.

buddhism spread rapidly in the north of China,where it was patronised by various ruling invaders,who in some case had been acquainted with the religion before they came to China.Others patronised the Buddhist monks because they wanted educated officials who were not Confucians.In the south Buddhism spread more slowly,spreading with Chinese migrations from the north.

There were several periods in which Buddhists were persecuted.Their temples and monasteries were sacked and destroyed,but the religion survived.To a people constantly faced with starvation.war and poverty the appeal of this philosophy probably lay in the doctrines of reincarnation and nirvana borrowed from Indian Hinduism.

Buddhist monasteries and temples sprang up everywhere in China,and played a similar role to the churches and monasteries of medieval Europe.Monasteries were guesthouses,hospitals and orphanages for travellers and refuges.With gifts obtained from the faithful they were able to amass considerable wealth,which enabled them to set up moneylending enterprises and pawnshops.These pawnshops were the poor man's bank right up to the mid-20th century.

The Buddha wrote nothing;the Buddhist writings that have come down to us date from about 150 years after his death.By the time these texts came out,divisions had already appeared within Buddhsim.Some writers tried to emphasise the Buddha's break with Hinduism,while others tried to minimise it.At some stage Buddhism split into two major schools:Theravada and Mahayana.

The Theravada,or "doctrine of the elders",schools(also called Hinayana or "little vehicle" by non-Theravadins) holds that the path to nirvana is an individual pursuit.It centres on monks and nuns who make the search for nirvana a full-time profession.This school maintains that people are alone in the world and must tread the path to nirvana on their own;Buddhas can only show the way.The Theravada school is the Buddhism of Sri Lanka,Myanmar,Thailand,Laos and Cambodia.

The Mahayana, or "big vehicle",school holds that since all existence is one,the fate of the individual is linked to the fate of others.The Buddha did not just point the way and float off into his own nirvana,but continues to offer spiritual help to others seeking nievana.The Mahayana school is the Buddhism of Voetnam,Japan,Tibet,Korea,Mongolia and China.

The outward difference between the two school is the cosmology of the Mahayana school.Mahayana Buddhism is replete with innumerable heavens,hells and descriptions of nievana.Prayers are addressed to the Buddha and combined with elaborate ritual.There are deities and bodhisattvas-a rank of supernatural beings in their last incarnation before nirvana.Temples are filled with images such as the future buddha,Maitreya (often portrayed as fat and happy over his comming promotion)and Amitabha(a saviour who rewards the faithful with admission to a sort of Christian paradise).The ritual,tradition and superstition that buddha rejected came tumbling back in with a vengeance.

In Tibet and in areas of Gansu,Sichuan and Yunnan,a unique form of the Mahayana school is practised: Tantric or Lamaist Buddhism.Tantric Buddhism,often called Vajrayana or "thunderbolt vehicle"by its followers,has been practised since the early 7th century AD and is heavily influenced by Tibet's pre-Buddhist Bon religion,which relied on priests or shamans to placate spirits,gods and demons.Generally speaking,it is much more mystical than other forms of buddhism,relying heavily on mudras(ritual postures),mantras(sacred speech),yantras(sacred art) and secret initiation rits.Priests called lamas are believed to be reincarnations of highly evolved beings;the Dalai Lama is the supreme patriarch of Tibetan Buddhism. 

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