Ancient India

Siddhartha Gautama, who later became the Buddha, founded Buddhism in India. As Buddhism spread it changed from country to country. There are now several schools of Buddhism such as Theravada and Mahayan.  Theravada has been the dominant form of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma (Myanmar) and Laos and other countries in Southeast Asia. Theravada or the "Doctrine of the Elders," is the branch of Buddhism that draws its spiritual inspiration from the earliest surviving record of the Buddha's teachings. Mahayana is dominant in China, Japan, Taiwan, Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia, Korea and Vietnam. In recent years, Mahayana also has gained many followers in India. Mahayana is further divided into many sub-schools, such as Pure Land and Zen. Another branch of Buddhism developed in China called Chán. Chán Buddhism offered people holiness without years of hard intellectual exercise: it offered sudden enlightenment. Chán monks searched for salvation through mystical means rather than reading and meditation. Chán monks supported themselves by humble, unskilled work. Chinese Buddhism spread to Korea, Japan, Tibet, and Vietnam, and each country started its own forms of Buddhism. Southeast Asia is believed to be the most closely connected to early Indian Buddhism.