\n
Mahayana Buddhism<\/b> or \u201cthe greater vehicle\u201d<\/I> took recognizable form within 600 years after the Buddha\u2019s death. In the textual traditions of Mahayana Buddhists are sutras or discourses of the Buddha not found in Theravada tradition. Mahayana particularly elaborated the idea of Boddhisattvas or enlightened ones who put off their own attainment of nirvana until it is possible for all sentient beings to do so. Mahayana Buddhism had particular impact in Tibet, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Nepal and parts of Inner Asia<\/I>. Consistent with and elaborating on Mahayana teachings is the third major Buddhist tradition generally referred to as Vajrayana or \u201cpowerbolt vehicle.\u201d The powerbolt (vajra in Sanskrit; rDo-rje in Tibetan) stands for the absolute truth of Buddhism. Vajrayana practitioners concentrated on developing \u201cskill in means\u201d<\/b> or distinctive practices in pursuing enlightenment. Vajrayana as an extension of Mahayana developed principally in Tibet, Nepal, northern India, Mongolia, and parts of China<\/I>.<\/p>\n
Although Buddhist scholars distinguish these three main philosophical schools, Buddhism also developed in unique ways according to the cultural environments in which it thrived. Thus in addition to these three main philosophical strands we can identify distinctive cultural developments of Buddhist thought and practice in Tibetan Buddhism, Thai Buddhism, Sinhalese Buddhism, Chinese Buddhism, Japanese Buddhism<\/b> and so forth as Buddhism was integrated with local traditions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/p>\n
Potala Palace in Tibet.<\/I><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Tibet became especially important in the preservation and transformation of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist philosophy and practice. The seventh century King of Tibet Srong-brtsan-sgam-po<\/b> is usually credited with the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet and most critically he sponsored the introduction of a new script which was used to translate Indian Buddhist works written in Sanskrit into Tibetan language. Many of these texts were lost in India and contemporary scholars study the Tibetan texts to reconstruct the history of Buddhist philosophy and practice in India.<\/p>\n
In the century following this initial introduction, Buddhism made significant advances in Tibet with a profusion of translations of texts. The first Tibetan monastery was established at Samye where a great debate took place in 792 which set the course of Tibetan Buddhism along the lines of particular Mahayana disciplines. The next major impetus to Buddhist development as recorded in Tibetan history was the arrival of the Indian Mahayana scholar Atisha in the 11th century that fully consolidated the centrality of a disciplined Mahayana practice in Tibet. What has been described as a \u201crestoration\u201d<\/b> of Buddhism during this period set the stage for the further institutionalization and development of the major monastic orders in Tibet. The earliest of the major orders \u2014 the bKa\u2019-gdams-pa, the Sa-skya-pa, and the bKa\u2019-gyud-pa (and offshoot Karma-pa)<\/I> \u2014 trace their origins to the 10th and 11th centuries. The rNying-ma-pa or the old order continued practices associated with the very early introduction to Buddhism in the 8th century.<\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n
Tsong-ka-pa (1357-1419)<\/I><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
During the early part of the 15th century a Buddhist scholar, Tsong-ka-pa (1357-1419)<\/b>, founded a monastery out of which a new order, known as the dGe-lugs-pa or \u201cmodel of virtue\u201d<\/b> order, emerged. The dGe-lugs-pa path stressed monastic discipline and a gradual path to enlightenment along with esoteric meditative and ritual practice. During the 16th and 17th centuries the dGe-lugs-pa order came to a prominent position politically and spiritually in Tibet. Of particular note, the position of Dalai Lama which, passed through a process of reincarnation, came to be associated with the dGe-lugs-pa\u2019s order. The Dalai Lamas based at the Potala Palace in Lhasa Tibet along the Panchen Lamas based at the Tashi-Lhunpo Monastery located in Shigatse became the temporal and spiritual leaders of Tibet and remained so until 1959.<\/p>\n
The situation changed radically for Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism in 1959 when the Chinese invaded Tibet and took over direct administration of the country which then became incorporated into China as the Tibetan Autonomous Region. The Chinese forced His Holiness the fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, to flee Tibet along with thousands of other monks and Tibetan laity. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has overseen the Tibetan Government in exile since 1960 in Dharamsala, India, the center for Tibetan refugees and the Tibetan diaspora.<\/p>\n
Chinese communist rulers considered Buddhism and Buddhist traditions \u201cbackward\u201d<\/I> and feudal. They undertook a campaign in Tibet proper to destroy Buddhist institutions. This process came to a head during the Cultural Revolution which lasted from the mid 1960s until the mid 1970s when particular havoc was wrecked on cultural and religious traditions within Tibet. Thousands of people in Tibet as well as elsewhere in China starved, were imprisoned, or were executed and thousands of people fled Tibet for refugee communities in the neighboring states of India, Nepal, and Bhutan. Thousands of monastic institutions and much of the cultural heritage of Tibet was destroyed or looted at this time. More recent Chinese regimes have allowed a modicum of reconstruction of monastic buildings and monastic traditions but in a carefully limited way. The Chinese have actively encouraged the colonization of Tibet by Han Chinese and the major Tibetan cities now have majority Chinese populations that out number in number the indigenous Tibetan community.<\/p>\n\n
<\/a><\/p>\nTsuk-lha-khang, Tibetan main Temple in exile.<\/I><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Tibetan refugee communities in India and elsewhere \u2014 often with the substantial support of followers in the West as well as other parts of Asia \u2014 have been able to keep traditions of teaching and learning alive. Of particular note has been the expansion of Tibetan Buddhist institutions in Europe and America, continuing a process of intercommunication between Buddhist Asia and the West which began in the latter part of the 19th century. Buddhism has always been transnational but this process has accelerated in the contemporary world with new media for communication. Buddhists throughout the world find themselves in dialogue among themselves, with other religious and philosophical traditions, and with modern science. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has assumed a prominent position in this global era of philosophical and spiritual communication<\/b>. He has not only sustained his place as the religious leader of the Tibetan people both inside and outside Tibet but he is recognized as a spiritual leader at a global scale. His steadfast adherence to the Buddhist principles of non-violence led to his acceptance of the Nobel Prize<\/b> for peace in 1989 and has helped to make the message of Buddhism resonate throughout the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The teachings of the historic Buddha form the basis of the Buddhist world-view and practice. The Buddha (Shakyamuni or Siddhartha Gautama) was born about 2565 years ago in what is now part of Nepal. Painting of Shakyamuni Buddha. He was born into a royal clan yet he abandoned worldly power and wealth in pursuit of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":723,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"WB4WB4WP_MODE":"","WB4WP_PAGE_SCRIPTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_STYLES":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FONTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_HEADER":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FOOTER":"","footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/namgyaloc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/597"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/namgyaloc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/namgyaloc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namgyaloc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namgyaloc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/namgyaloc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1180,"href":"https:\/\/namgyaloc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/597\/revisions\/1180"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namgyaloc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/namgyaloc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}