Buddhist traditions

Topics represented

Religion (99) · Buddhist traditions (97) · Korean Buddhist traditions (7) · State (7) · Theravāda (6) · Japanese Buddhist traditions (5) · Mahāyāna (5) · Art and monasticism (3) · Chinese Buddhist traditions (3) · Tibetan Buddhist traditions (3) · Chan (3) · Vajrayāna (3)

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

1. trad. 544 BCE or 480 BCE

   First council in tradition

   The cited Theravada chronology places a recitation after the Buddha’s death, dated to 544 or 480 BCE under two assumptions about his birth. The council narrative belongs to monastic tradition; it does not derive from contemporary minutes.

2. trad. 500 BCE–trad. 301 BCE

   Awakening in Buddhist tradition

   Buddhist narratives place Gautama’s awakening at Bodh Gaya; its date and biographical details vary across chronologies and do not derive from a contemporary record.

3. trad. 500 BCE–trad. 301 BCE

   First sermon in Buddhist tradition

   Narratives place the first sermon at Sarnath and connect it with the community’s beginnings. The date expresses a biographical tradition, without contemporary testimony of the episode.

4. c. 500 BCE–c. 301 BCE

   Life of Siddhartha Gautama

   Scholarly dating of Gautama can fall up to a century after the traditional chronology of 563–483 BCE. The interval represents biographical uncertainty, not a two-century lifespan.

5. c. 500 BCE–c. 401 BCE

   Śramaṇa milieu

   Ascetic communities and debates on karma, rebirth, and liberation form the milieu from which Buddhist and Jain traditions emerge.

6. trad. 444 BCE or 380 BCE

   Second council in tradition

   The Theravada chronology places the Vaishali council one hundred years after the Buddha’s death. The dates 444 or 380 BCE are derived from that rule and its two alternative death dates. Disciplinary accounts vary across lineages.

7. c. 300 BCE–c. 201 BCE

   Bodh Gaya sanctuary

   Ashoka established pilgrimage at the awakening site; the principal surviving temple is later.

8. c. 300 BCE–c. 201 BCE

   Ashoka pillar at Lumbini

   Ashoka’s pillar inscription links Lumbini to the Buddha and documents early pilgrimage; it does not by itself establish every biographical detail.

9. c. 300 BCE–c. 1200

   Sanchi: stupa and monastic complex

   Sanchi preserves a long sequence of Buddhist architecture, relics, donors, and pilgrimage.

10. trad. 300 BCE–trad. 201 BCE

    Sri Lanka mission tradition

    Sri Lankan chronicles attribute introduction to Mahinda; the chronology derives from that tradition and does not demonstrate instant implantation.

11. trad. 300 BCE–trad. 201 BCE

    Third council in Theravada tradition

    Theravada chronicles link it to Pataliputra and Ashoka; the attribution comes from lineage memory.

12. c. 273 BCE–c. 232 BCE

    Ashoka’s patronage

    Ashoka’s edicts and monuments make imperial patronage of dharma and Buddhist sites visible; they do not mean uniform conversion of the empire.

13. c. 260 BCE

    Kalinga and dharma policy

    After Kalinga, the edicts emphasize moral government and nonviolence. This evidence of imperial discourse does not by itself describe Ashoka’s personal conversion process.

14. c. 260 BCE–c. 232 BCE

    Ashoka’s edicts as inscribed governance

    Ashoka’s rock and pillar edicts communicated instructions on government, dhamma, and administrative relations in the Mauryan Empire. They are recorded here as a legal and public technology of inscription, not as a modern constitution or a summary of Buddhist traditions.

15. c. 250 BCE–c. 201 BCE

    Early networks of rock-cut monasteries

    Rock-cut chapels and monasteries multiply in India as material networks of communities and donors.

16. c. 200 BCE–c. 1 BCE

    First phase of Ajanta

    Ajanta’s first Buddhist caves were excavated in the second–first centuries BCE. A separate campaign, about four centuries later, added caves and paintings in the fifth–sixth centuries CE; this record dates the first phase.

17. c. 200 BCE–c. 300

    Amaravati and Deccan Buddhisms

    The Great Stupa and its reliefs show Buddhist financing and narratives in Andhra.

18. c. 100 BCE–c. 200

    Anthropomorphic Buddha image

    Gandhara and Mathura develop important anthropomorphic Buddha images in distinct styles, in contexts of patronage and cultural exchange.

19. trad. 100 BCE–trad. 1 BCE

    Writing of the Pali canon, by tradition

    Theravada tradition links written fixation of Pali texts to Sri Lanka; earlier oral transmission remains central.

20. c. 100 BCE–c. 100

    Emergence of Mahayana currents

    Identifiable Mahayana texts and communities emerge gradually; there was no single founder or immediate replacement of other Buddhisms.

21. c. 1–c. 300

    Gandhara under the Kushans

    Patronage, trade, and routes connect Gandhara with India, Central Asia, and China; the area includes parts of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan.

22. c. 1–c. 600

    Pure Land texts and Amitabha

    The Sukhāvatīvyūha sutras originated in northwestern India around the first century. Chinese reception includes Tanluan (476–542); these milestones document a changing textual tradition.

23. c. 101–c. 200

    Networks to Central Asia

    The Parthian translator An Shigao’s activity in Luoyang around 148 documents a connection between Central Asia and China. Transmission followed multiple routes.

24. c. 101–c. 300

    Translation centres in China

    Monks and translators from diverse origins establish Chinese centres; translations reshape Buddhist and Chinese categories.

25. c. 101–c. 300

    Nagarjuna and Madhyamaka traditions

    Works attributed to Nagarjuna become decisive for multiple Mahayana traditions; biography and exact corpus are debated.

26. c. 301–c. 400

    Expansion in divided China

    Under northern regimes and Central Asian networks, images, caves, and patronage expand; this does not amount to a homogeneous conversion of China.

27. 366

    Mogao Caves begin

    UNESCO dates Mogao’s initial construction to 366; the sanctuary develops for centuries at Dunhuang in contact with Central Asian, Indian, and Chinese networks.

28. 372

    Buddhism in Goguryeo

    A monk sent from Former Qin reaches Goguryeo; it is a court-transmission milestone, not the beginning of all Korean practice.

29. 384

    Buddhism in Baekje

    Transmission from China to Baekje forms part of networks linking Korean kingdoms and Chinese courts.

30. 399–414

    Faxian’s pilgrimage

    Faxian’s Indian pilgrimage lasts from 399 to 414; it is a milestone in the circulation of monks, texts, and observations, not a single route of transmission.