Thursday, March 17, 2011

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion that came about in ancient India. Siddhartha Gautama, otherwise known as Buddha is the creator of Buddhism; he became spiritually enlightened and reached nirvana. Most Buddhists live in East Asia as shown on the left. They believe in reincarnation and an afterlife. They also believe that the purpose of life is to end suffering. Budddhism is different from other religions since the head figure of Buddhism is not a god, it is a man. In addition, Buddhism has no gods or prophets. There is no heavenly intervention to save people from peril or reward people for good deeds. This is what makes Buddhism so unique.

A video explaining Buddhism is shown below:


There is no official Buddhist Bible, but there are sutras, which are individual texts, the Pali Cannon, and the Dhammapada which are all religious Buddhist texts. Buddhist treat other non-Buddhist with respect because they are supposed to respect all living things.


Women are allowed to enter temples and become monks in Buddhism. The Buddhists worship in a Buddhist Temple as shown on the bottom left. Two examples of Buddhist art is shown below the temple on the bottom left.




This is a Buddhist temple; it is a location where Buddhists worship Buddha.











This is a Buddhist statue; a fine example of Buddhist art.









This is a painting of Buddha; this is another shining example of Buddhist art.