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Buddha Rising
DECEMBER 2005
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Buddhism's Path to Going Global
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A Prince Awakens
Born in what is now Nepal around 500 B.C., Siddhartha Gautama was a prince who left his regal life to seek an end to suffering. After his death, the Buddha's disciples spread the word.
Expansion in Asia
Monks took Buddhism south to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, north to Central Asia, China, and Japan, and later north again to Tibet.
Reaching Europe
European intellectuals imported Buddhism in the 1800s, but numbers remained small and largely European until Buddhist Asian immigrants arrived in the late 1900s.
East to America
Chinese seeking gold brought Buddhism to California in 1848. Japanese sent to harvest sugarcane in Hawaii soon followed. The 1960s brought a new influence: immigrants from Southeast Asia. Roughly three-quarters of American Buddhists are Asian.
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