Blog #2 Buddha & Buddhism

Gautama Buddha was born in Nepal which is a Democratic Republic of south Asia. Buddha was a spiritual teacher, and through doing his studies he found Buddhism. Buddha also means the awakened one which is characterized in the Buddhism religion.

Buddhism is composed of beliefs and traditions. The philosophy of teacher Buddha composed practices to create the religion. In Buddhism there are two major branches one being Theravada and the other being Mahayana. Theravada is the school of the elders which is believed to be the greatest religion in southeast Asia.

(Buddhist monks in southeast Asia chanitng)

Mahayana is the largest Buddhism tradition existing in today's society. Mahayana means the great vehicle in life, everyone needs a driven direction or path for seeking great achievement and completions in life. The history of Mahayana leaves a great deal of inspiration on places such as India, Vietnam, China, Nepal which is where Buddha himself is from, Mongolia, Korea and other Asian countries.

 (Buddha Statues)

The Southeast Asian beliefs(top) of Buddhism differ in some ways as you see from comparing the to picture charts above with the other Asian countries beliefs (below).