The Spread of Buddhism
The beginning of the spread of Buddhism began with the Theravada tradition. The Theravada is the school of Buddhism that gets its scriptural inspiration from the Tipitaka, or Pali canon, which scholars generally agree contains the earliest surviving record of the Buddha's teachings. Buddhism first spread from India to Sri Lanka. Then it expanded toward Burma in the 3rd century B.C.. It traveled to Yunnan in southwestern China. Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, South Vietnam and even Indonesia were where Buddhism spread next. A lot of Indian merchants who were engaging into the religious practices of Buddhism were located on the coastline of the Arabian Peninsula. Buddhism also spread to Egypt to be precise; Alexandria. Forms of Hinayana were later combined with Mahayana aspects that also came from India, so that Mahayana eventually became the dominant form of Buddhism in most of Central Asia. The Chinese form of Mahayana later spread to Korea, Japan and North Vietnam. Buddhism, spread throughout the Himalayan regions and to Mongolia, East Turkistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, northern Inner China, Manchuria, Siberia and the Kalmyk Mongol region near the Caspian Sea in European Russia. Today there are approximately 350 million Buddhists in the world.
Below is a map of the spread of Buddhism:
Below is a map of the spread of Buddhism: