# Buddhism · The Canon · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

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The Canon · No. 017
Buddhism
Buddha Dharma; the Middle Way
c.5th c. BCE – present · Dharmic / Indian · Living · East, Southeast and Central Asia; global
III. THE AXIAL AGE — c.900 – 200 BCE
### How many
### Who began it
### What it is for
### What it worships
### What it holds
### What it does
### After death
### Its texts
### Its branches
### Of note
### Its timeline
- c.480–400 BCE Life of the Buddha (revised chronology). First sermon at Sarnath sets the wheel of Dharma turning.
- c.400 BCE First Council at Rajagriha recites and fixes the teaching orally.
- c.268–232 BCE Ashoka, Mauryan emperor, converts after the slaughter at Kalinga, inscribes edicts on pillars across India, and sends missions abroad — the moment Buddhism becomes a world religion rather than a regional order.
- c.250 BCE Mission to Sri Lanka under Mahinda; Theravada takes root.
- c.100 BCE–100 CE Mahayana emerges, with the bodhisattva ideal — postponing one's own nirvana for the sake of all beings.
- c.150–250 CE Nagarjuna and the Madhyamaka philosophy of emptiness.
- 1st–2nd c. CE Transmission along the Silk Road into China.
- c.372–538 CE Buddhism reaches Korea, then Japan.
- c.640–840 CE First transmission to Tibet; Padmasambhava; Samye monastery.
- c.8th–12th c. CE Decline in India — Muslim conquest destroyed Nalanda in 1193, but Hindu bhakti revival and loss of royal patronage were already eroding it.
- 1044–1287 Bagan in Burma; Theravada consolidates in Southeast Asia.
- 1893 World's Parliament of Religions; Anagarika Dharmapala introduces Buddhism to America.
- 1950–59 Chinese annexation of Tibet; the 14th Dalai Lama flees to India in 1959.
- 1956 B. R. Ambedkar converts, with roughly half a million Dalits, in a deliberate rejection of caste — the largest single conversion event of the 20th century.
- 1960s–present Western convert Buddhism; the mindfulness movement strips meditation from its doctrinal frame, which practitioners and critics argue about to this day.
### Sources
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