Which countries do buddhists live in

At a very early age, Siddhartha was moved by the harsh realities of life and sufferings in the world. At the age of 29, Prince Siddhartha Gautama decided to give up his luxurious and comfortable life in the palace and live an ascetic life.

It is believed that Siddhartha saw four sights: a sick man, an old man, a dead body, and a holy monk. For the next 45 years, Gautama Buddha preached his sermons to his followers and disciples about how to achieve nirvana. During this period, several Buddhist monasteries were built and over the next few years, Buddhism began to spread beyond the boundaries of India into the other parts of the world.

Surveys Browse dozens of topics covered by major national surveys. See how the responses vary by demographic categories and, when available, how they change over time. Religious Minorities Through the aid of text, pictures, and graphics, explore the history of non-Christian religious minorities in the United States. International Maps World and regional maps for measures of religious adherence, socio-economics, and religion and state relations.

Search QuickLists:. Stay Connected. Subscribe to the ARDA:. GIS Maps. All Rights Reserved. Buddhists are older than the general population in two of the three major regions for which data are available: sub-Saharan Africa where Buddhists have a median age of 29 and the general population has a median age of 18 and Asia and the Pacific 34 vs. In North America, the median age of Buddhists is 33, four years younger than the general population See, for example, Williams, Paul.

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The Dharmachakra Wheel of the law with eight spokes represents the Eightfold Path. In Buddhism, essentially there is no soul. The unresolved karmas manifest into a new form composed of five skandhas constituent elements of a being in one of the six realms of samsara. The eventual nirvana salvation comes through the annihilation of residual karma, which means the ceasing of the alleged existence of being. The actions with intention cetana carried out by the mind, body, and speech and which are driven by ignorance, desire, and hatred lead to implications that tie one down in samsara.

Following the eightfold path — the set of eight righteous ways of thinking and acting suggested by Buddha — one can attain nirvana. Dukkha is defined in more detail as the human tendency to cling to or crave impermanent states or objects, which keep us caught in samsara, the endless cycle of repeated birth, suffering and dying.

They were recognized as perhaps the most important teachings of the Buddha Shakyamuni only at the time the commentaries were written, c. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. Module 3: Buddhism.