Idea · Religion

Buddhism

c. 5th c. BCE · South Asia
a fifth-century standing Buddha from Sarnath, near the site of the Buddha's first sermon on the Four Noble Truths
a fifth-century standing Buddha from Sarnath, near the site of the Buddha's first sermon on the Four Noble Truths · CC0 · Gary Todd

What it is

Around the fifth century BCE in the Ganges plain of northern India, Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, taught the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path as a discipline for ending suffering through ethical conduct, meditation and insight. The teaching spread through monastic communities (the sangha) and lay patronage, dividing into Theravada, Mahayana and later Vajrayana traditions. Carried along trade routes, it reached Sri Lanka, Central Asia, China, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia. It became one of the world's major religious and philosophical systems.

Why it matters

Buddhism reshaped the ethics, monastic institutions, art and learning of much of Asia for more than two millennia, and its monasteries and stupa-and-temple complexes anchored towns and pilgrimage centres across the continent.

Plans it shaped

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