Buddhism
By Christian Redler
History
Buddhism was founded in the 6th century. It began when Siddhartha Guatama (The Buddha) left home after age 29. Siddhartha sat below a bodhi tree, and reached enlightenment.
Beliefs
Most buddhist followers do not believe the buddha is a god, but he is a teacher. Buddhist followers believed in reaching enlightenment, to reach enlightenment buddhists will meditate. All buddhists bevieve in ending all human suffering.
Statistics
The 3 Largest National Populations
China: 102,000,000
Thialand: 55,480,000
Vietnam: 49,690,000
There is about 360,000,000 Buddhist followers world wide.
There are about 300,000 Buddist followers in the U.S.
Buddism is the fourth largest religion in the world.
Organization
Buddhists worship at temples, when buddhists are worshiping the buddha they chant and they also give offerings like water, flowers, and candles. When buddhism had the first council they did not have a sacred text but later on they had texts like the Tripitaka, The Mahayana Sutras, and The Tibetan Book of the Dead.