Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Syncretism in Buddhism

Buddhism was started in the second century BCE in acncient India. It was started by Siddhartha Gautama also known as Buddha. Over the 2,500 years that have passed from the founding and today, the religion has changed quite a bit. The changing of Buddhism or any other religion over time is called syncretism. Buddhism has added several branches to the one religion. These branches include Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, and Zen Buddhism. Zen Buddhism is a newer religion than the other three and it is based off of Mahayana. So while changing over the years, Buddhism has created four smaller branches that are based off of Buddhism.

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