Overview: Numbers, history, beliefs, & traditions:

this post is created by farah

Buddhism is often listed as the fourth largest religion in the world. It is exceeded in numbers only by Christianity, Islam and Hinduism.

Estimates of the precise number of Buddhists in the world vary between 350 and 1,500 million, making Buddhism the second, third or fourth largest world religion.

The exact number of adherents is impossible to specify for a number of reasons:

	"... they did not have congregational memberships and often did not participate in public ceremonies."
	In totalitarian countries without religious freedom, reliable data is impossible to collect. For example, in 1995, only 5% of Chinese adults were willing to admit to pollsters that they belong to a religion. As a result, Wikipedia quotes Buddhist numbers in China alone as ranging from 106 million to 1.06 billion.
	Many persons, particularly in Asia, follow a syncretistic religion which is a blend of various world religions. A combination of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism is one common example. There is no obvious way to compute a meaningful number of Buddhists under such circumstances.

Buddhism was founded in Northern India by Siddhartha Gautama in the sixth century BCE. However, Buddhists believe that there were countless Buddhas before him and that there will be many more after him. Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment and assumed the title Lord Buddha (one who has awakened)

Buddhism shares with Hinduism belief in karma, dharma, and reincarnation:

	Karma is the sum total of an individual's actions of body, speech and mind -- good, bad and neutral -- taken in their current and previous lives.
	Dharma, in Buddhism, refers to two items: The teachings of the Buddha; a person's path to enlightenment, and The fundamental principles that order the universe
	Reincarnation is the rebirth of a living being after death into a new body that is either a human, animal or a supernatural being.

In contrast to Christianity, classical Buddhism does not involve the recognition or worship of deities. It also does not teach the existence of the human soul.

Buddhism later almost completely died out in India. However, by that time, it had become established in Sri Lanka. From there, it expanded across Asia, evolving into two or three main forms:

	Theravada Buddhism (sometimes called Southern Buddhism; occasionally spelled Therevada) "has been the dominant school of Buddhism in most of Southeast Asia since the thirteenth century, with the establishment of the monarchies in Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Laos."
	Mahayana Buddhism (sometimes called Northern Buddhism) is largely found in China, Japan, Korea, Tibet and Mongolia.
	Vajrayāna Buddhism  (a.k.a. Tantric Buddhism, Mantrayana, Tantrayana, Esoteric Buddhism, or True Words Sect). Some consider this to be a part of Mahayana Buddhism; others view it as a third Buddhist path.

To these might be added:

	Tibetan Buddhism. This developed largely in isolation from Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism because of the remoteness of Tibet.
	Zen Buddhism. This developed from within the Chinese Mahayana school known as Chan. Zen Buddhism is becoming increasingly popular in the West.

Since the late 19th century:

Modern Buddhism has emerged as a truly international movement. It started as an attempt to produce a single form of Buddhism, without local accretions, that all Buddhists could embrace.