Lesson video

Hello, welcome back to another lesson on Buddhism, my name's Ms. Pauvaday.

Today we're going to be looking over denominations.

So this is the idea of how do we end up with different types of schools of Buddhism.

So we're going to be looking at quite a bit of history, just to kind of give you some background, so the denominations make sense to you.

So let's get nice and cosy and let's get ready.

So for today's lesson, you're going to need a pen, paper, and we need to have our history and our philosophy mind switched on today, to just kind of understand how these different splits in Buddhism happened.

There's not many, there's really only two, but it will, looking at the history will help us understand actually how and why that happened.

So go ahead, pause, get the things that you need, make sure you're in a nice quiet space so that you can focus and concentrate, and join me when you're ready.

Okay, so we will be looking at how and where the Buddhist teachings travelled.

Where did Buddhism initially spread to? What happened in India? Because the Buddha was from India, Northern India, so what happened there? And which main schools were created? So by the end of this lesson, you will now be able to answer all of those questions.

But the first thing I want to ask you is, which of these images would you say most resemble the historical Buddha? Have a good look, and which ones do you think are the closest representation? Go ahead, go ahead and pause, have a think, have a talk with someone who is with you and unpause when you're ready.

Okay, so those of you who, you know, when we look at different images, Christ is a good example, Jesus Christ, because we often see him as having blonde hair and blue eyes, but, you know, he was from the Middle East.

So he just wouldn't have looked like that.

And you can get images of Jesus looking Chinese, or kind of African.

What happens is when a religion kind of spreads around, people often want to depict the most important people of that religion and in the same image of the country where they're trying to depict him.

So, similar thing happened here with the different types of schools of Buddhism.

So the first picture is probably closer to the historical Buddha.

The historical Buddha was from Northern India.

And he's got long ears because he was a prince.

So the long ears represent, in Buddhism they're symbolic for being able to be very aware.

For awareness, good listening, that kind of thing.

But actually another reason why he has long ears is because as a prince he would have had, worn a lot of jewellery.

At the time it was quite common for princes to wear gold earrings, and very heavy golden earrings would have pulled his ears down.

So if you look at kind of old Indian art, often royalty have kind of long ears and it's supposed to depict these big earrings.

So his long ears represent, like I say, being wealthy.

That his life as a prince, but also this idea of awareness, being really aware of what he was listening to.

Now, the middle image is Sakyamuni, the Mahayanan term for the Buddha.

And, I mean, he almost looks Chinese there, but because Buddhism in China was quite a big thing.

And you've got another image here where he again looks Japanese or Asian, so you can see the idea of Buddhism and the Buddha kind of spread, and people of different countries that depicting the Buddha in the way that they would have seen him if he'd actually lived in that country.

So it's quite a common thing.

It makes it quite interesting as well.

So we can think about why they look so differently.

It's because of the different countries, the way the different countries depicted the Buddha.

There're two different types of denomination, but let's first work out what denomination means.

So is it religions that merge? Is it a type of monk? Is it type of demon? Is it a subgroup of a religion? Go ahead, have a think.

It's a subgroup of a religion.

So, and you might know it from Christianity where there's lots of different types of denominations, Catholicism, Protestantism, Quakers, Jesuits, that kind of thing.

Okay.

Right.

So this is one of the main ones, Theravada.

It's translated as the teaching of the elders.

And it's quite obvious, as you can see, that they've got these kinds of orange robes.

Now this is, Theravada came from a very early form of Buddhism.

So, and it very early travelled to Sri Lanka.

And it is supposed to have around 150 million followers, mostly in Southeast Asia.

So again, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, places like that.

Buddha apparently visited Sri Lanka three times.

And Sri Lanka was the place where the Pali Canon.

So the Sangha that were there, who had escaped, they eventually wrote down the Buddhist teachings.

This is after the first council deciding that it had to be written down otherwise it was going to be lost.

And written in Pali which is a similar language to the language of the Buddha, which was Maghadi.

The Theravadas, they claim to be the oldest school in existence.

And they claim that they can trace their Sangha, the people in their Sangha, back through their teachers all the way through back to the Buddha himself.

So they've got quite a strong claim on that.

And like we say, invasion meant that many Buddhists escaped to Ceylon and they set up this new kind of, well, this big Sangha, which grew and eventually led to the creation of the Theravada school.

And by 83 BCE, the Tripitaka was written down.

These are the Buddhists texts, the Pali texts.

Now in Sri Lanka, there's another text, it's like a historical chronicle.

So it's not actually Buddhist texts, but it's supposed to, it's like a history book basically, it's called the Mahavamsa.

And in the book, it talks about, it was written, this was written down by a Buddhist monk known as Mahanama.

And it kind of tells this history of Ceylon, or Sri Lanka, and it covers kind of political history, social history.

And it does include some oral stories from the Buddha as well, some oral histories.

Now there are some supernatural, kind of mythical accounts of history in there.

So historians are slightly dubious about all of the claims, and they're not taking it as complete historical fact.

But some of the things they can say, yeah, that's fact because there's physical evidence of it.

So it's a bit, you know, they're taking it with a pinch of salt.

Now, the reason why that's interesting for us is because the Mahavamsa tells of a Buddhist mission to Ceylon.

So Buddhist mission to Sri Lanka, remember Ceylon is Sri Lanka, by King Ashoka, and we do know a fair amount about King Ashoka.

He was a great Buddhist King in India.

He sent his son Mahinda to Ceylon.

Now Mahinda is often depicted as his son.

He was seen as his son.

We're not sure if he actually was his son or not, but we do know that he was a monk and Ashoka saw him as like a son, they had that kind of a relationship.

So Mahinda, he went to King Tissa of Sri Lanka, and started talking about Buddhism.

And he was so impressed, King Tissa was so impressed, that they were invited to stay in the palace and Mahinda in the Sangha, the rest of the monks in Nondana giving sermons about the Dhamma.

And this was so impressive to them, that most of the royal courts, and that all the people in the palace, most of them actually converted to Buddhism.

And some of them even joined the Sangha as well.

So it really just must've taken them really, something that really jelled with them.

And remember, I mean, Buddhism has been there for quite a while, but it was a minority.

It's only when Mahinda goes there that Buddhism really takes a hold of Sri Lanka.

And to the point, so Mahinda sends for his sister, and she arrives in Sri Lanka with a branch from the original Bodhi tree that the Buddha actually sat under when he became enlightened.

So Sri Lanka claims that they've got part of this Bodhi tree, there's a picture of it there with the umbrellas.

You might have seen it before, and it's supposed to be from the original Bodhi tree of the Buddha in India.

So it just shows this strong connection that Sri Lanka has with the original teachings of the Buddha and the Buddha himself Right, quick true or false.

Theravada, it is considered the oldest school in existence.

Is that true, or is it false? It's true.

They consider themselves one of the oldest schools still in existence.

Theravada, does that mean teachings of the elders? That is also true.

It means teaching of the elders.

Ceylon is now known as Sri Lanka.

That is also true.

It's now known as Sri Lanka.

Theravada texts are written in Sanskrit, true or false? False.

So Theravada texts are written in Pali.

King Tissa sent a mission to Ceylon.

Is that true or false? It's false, it was King Ashoka in India that sent a mission to King Tissa in Sri Lanka.

Okay, so what you need to know.

The Mahavamsa, these are historical texts, but they're not, historians don't completely 100% percent trust them, because there are some things that are perhaps slightly superficial or supernatural or mythical.

But there are some things that we know, so we definitely know about Ashoka, so they are historical texts in that regard.

It says that the Buddha visited Ceylon three times.

Again, it tells us that in the Mahavamsa.

A mission was sent by the great Buddhist King to King Ashoka.

King Tissa and his royal court converted to Buddhism.

The Pali Texts are written down by the Sangha, and the Theravada Buddhism traces its lineage all the way back to the Buddha.

And therefore they see themselves of having the really authentic Dhamma because they wrote down, they memorise, and they wrote down exactly what the Buddha says.

This is what they claim.

Okay, so that's what you need to remember for this.

Now let's move on to the next score.

The Mahayana known as the great vehicle.

Maha means great, and Yana means vehicle.

Origins, we're not quite sure because Buddhism, even at the time of the Buddha, it started to spread, did start to spread.

And there might be these kind of ideas.

So within Mahayana, which might have kind of moved all over Asia, and later on, they all kind of come together.

It's not really clear what the origins are, but like I said, Buddhism did take Asia, take quite a hold in central Asia, particularly quite early on.

And this is because of the Silk Road.

Some of you might know about this, it's a trade route.

It meant that Buddhist monks and traders were able to pass the Dhamma on in this way.

So what was happening, was people were travelling from all the way to China to collect silks.

That's why it's known as the Silk Route, but other things were being sold along there and transported, like spices and all sorts of other things, through India and eventually back to Europe.

And part of that Silk Route meant that Buddhist traders were moving in and out of Asia, they were taking the Dhamma with them.

They were talking about it.

Some of the Buddhist monks were kind of accompanying them, and teaching dana in China.

And it started to take some hold.

It started to become really popular, but then particularly when you get to the, I mean this is how it got to Afghanistan and Pakistan, but then when the Turks invaded, that's what kind of killed it.

But that, but we do know that Buddhism had already reached those areas.

And particular, it had reached China by this time.

And around this time, you've got the kind of Confucianism which is the main religion of China at the time.

So when Confucianism, the main religion of China at this time died, many convert, many started kind of getting involved in Buddhism and starting to embrace Buddhist teachings.

And this is a, this in the kind of Mahayana texts, not really Mahayana texts, but kind of Mahayana legends.

There is this story about Emperor Ming who, great emperor of China at the time, he has this dream of a golden man who is able to tell him the truth.

And so he speaks to his advisors, and he says, I had this dream about this golden man, he told me the truth.

And then his advisors, who know everything about China, but also the surrounding areas.

So what actually we know of this teacher who is supposedly helping people become enlightened and know the truth of the nature of reality.

And so Emperor Ming in this legend sends for some Buddhist monks and learns about Buddhism.

And that's another way that Buddhism arrives in China.

When it does, many of these texts are translated, but many of them crucially are not, they're not the Pali Texts.

They are Mahayana texts.

So these are other texts that were written down, other kind of sermons and ideas of the Buddha, which are not necessarily in the Pali Texts.

And it's not that they are very, that it's not like they're very, very, very different, they just emphasise different things.

So Theravada will emphasise certain teachings of the Buddha, Mahayana emphasise different teachings of the Buddha.

So that's where the differences start to occur.

The Mahayana, basically China, Japan, Tibet, Mongolia.

That's where you're going to find Mahayana Buddhism.

And it's not a single group.

It's basically a large umbrella term for lots of different schools of Buddhism.

Such as Vajrayana, Pure Land Buddhism, and Zen Buddhism.

I'm sure some of you have heard of Zen Buddhism as well, and Shaolin as well.

Some of you might have heard of as well.

So the Silk Road, let's have a quick true false, the Silk Road was a trading route.

True or false? It's true.

The Silk Route brought Buddhism to India.

Is that true or false? It's false, it was the other way round.

Buddhism was in India and the Silk Route brought Buddhism to China and Japan and those kinds of places and central Asia.

Okay, Mahayana is a single school of Buddhism.

Is that true, or is that false? It's false because Mahayana has lots and lots of different schools under it's kind of umbrella.

They all follow the Mahayana texts basically.

Right, what you need to know.

So Buddhism most likely existed quite early on in central Asia because of the Silk Road.

Because of people travelling, Buddhists travelling through on the Silk Road.

It's not clear where it started.

We do know that it did start to really gain ground, Buddhism really started to become popular in China because of the decline of Confucianism which was the religion of China at the time.

Many Mahayana texts were translated into kind of, I guess old Mandarin and Cantonese, and that meant that it could travel really quickly.

People started to understand it really, really quickly.

So it was the Mahayana texts that were translated rather than the Pali ones.

And Mahayana is a collection of Buddhist schools.

So it's a denomination and underneath it, there's lots and lots of different schools that follow the teachings, kind of Mahayana teachings.

Right, okay, now I did say there were two schools so you're probably thinking, why is there another one? We have to mention this one because Vajrayana, very, very well-known.

And even though it is part of the Mahayana schools, it's slightly different.

So it's definitely worth a mention.

And it is also quite, quite interesting.

I quite, I really like Tibetan Buddhism.

I think it's really really interesting the way they think about things.

So Vajrayana Buddhism, also known as the Diamond Vehicle.

This is, mostly people think of Vajrayana as Tibetan Buddhism.

In 641 CE, King Gampo he, what he does is he, after fighting, trying to invade Tibet, what he does is he unifies Tibet through conquest.

And he has two wives.

So he has a Tibetan princess who's one of his wives, and a Chinese princess, they're both Buddhists.

So they, you can see the influence there in the kingdom.

And Tibet becomes just very friendly towards Buddhism and King Gampo himself.

He invites this well-known Indian Master Padmasamabhava, to come and teach about Vajrayana Buddhism.

He's really talking about Mahayana Buddhism, but he comes and teaches about a particular type of way of getting to enlightenment.

And from that comes, this really kind of stronghold of Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet.

And it remained there for a very, very long time until China invaded.

Now there is some decline, but Tibetan Buddhism is still going quite strong.

Right, quick fire.

King Gambo throws all Buddhists out of Tibet.

Is that true or false? It's false, he was very friendly towards Buddhists.

Both of his wives were Buddhist.

And okay, essential rundown.

What you need to know is King Gambo unifies Tibet.

He marries two Buddhist wives.

He invites an Indian Master to teach about Vajrayana Buddhism, and that's where you start to see Buddhism really, really become very popular and strong in Tibet.

Okay, so I have talked a lot at you about the kind of history of Buddhism.

Hopefully you can see how Buddhism kind of travelled south to south of India, into Sri Lanka, and then into Southeast Asia, and the Theravada tradition starts to take hold.

Hopefully you've also seen how the Silk Route, Silk Road, meant that Buddhism travelled to China and then to Japan and Tibet through trade, and then eventually started to take hold in those areas.

And hopefully you now see, can see how Tibetan Buddhism became really strong in Tibet because of King Gampo.

And that's kind of how it happened.

Very, very, like I've packed in so much information.

So well done for being able to stick with me.

And hopefully you've picked up some some interesting things.

What I'd like you to do is grab your, try and find a map of, draw yourself a map of Asia, so Sri Lanka, India, Central Asia, as well.

And see if you can show a map, draw the map showing the migration of Buddhism.

So you need to create a map of Asia, pinpoint the areas where Buddhism rose and fell on the map, and you annotate it with as much detail as you can, add explanations to your map.

And again, use colour and images because it's going to help you as well.

So well done, another great lesson.

I'm sure you've now are an expert on Indian history.

Not many people know that much about Indian history, so you're now going to really impress loads of people.

The usual two things, go ahead do the quiz, go and consolidate what you know, and if you can go and tell people what you've learned, because it's always good to consolidate that knowledge.

And I will see you again next time, bye-bye.