[Intro]

Hi friends! We’re talking about Buddhism today. a religion that started in India, but now has the most followers in China. In this video, we’ll cover what happened in India and China, and how it connects to things like Kung Fu and Zen in Japan. That’s what i’ve been studying recently. And lots of fun facts! Very excited about this video.

Let’s start at the beginning.

[The Beginning]

About 2,500 years ago, a prince was born in Lumbini, in modern-day Nepal. He left his royal life for a spiritual quest, and years later, became the Buddha — the “Enlightened One.”

Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths: suffering is an unavoidable part of life, caused by desire and attachment; by following the right path, we can all end our suffering and reach nirvana—a state of liberation.

His teachings spread widely in India for centuries. So the question – why is it so much smaller now?

[Decline in India]

To understand this, we need to zoom out a bit. Buddhism was part of the Śramaṇa movement, which also included Jainism by the way. These groups rejected the authority of the Brahmins and their ritual practices.

If you ask, who are the Brahmins, they sat at the top of the caste system, or social hierarchy in India.

Long story short, to maintain influence and relevance, the Brahmins decided to evolve their own traditions. That process is often called Hindu Synthesis, which absorbed elements from Buddhism and other traditions into what eventually became the Hinduism that we know today. About 80% of the Indian population today are Hindus, and less than 1% are Buddhists.

There are factors, like later Muslim invasions, that also played a role. But it seems to me that Hinduism’s dominance and the Brahmins’ influence are really the main reason why Buddhism became less prominent in its homeland.

Not an expert on India so I will stop here. But please feel free to add what you know in the comments as i am curious.

And let’s move to China.

[Journey to China]

About 300 years after Buddhism began, it started traveling along the Silk Road, the famous trade network connecting Asia and Europe. Btw China really has a history of selling clothing to the rest of the world.

At first, Buddhism was often mixed up with Daoism because the translators tended to use Daoist concepts to explain Buddhist ideas — but it also made the teachings easier for Chinese people to understand.

By the 1st century CE, a Han Dynasty emperor even sent a delegation to learn about Buddhism and built China’s first Buddhist temple. That was a big milestone.

[Boom During the Age of Disunion]

But Buddhism truly took off after the fall of the Han Dynasty in 220 CE. China entered into a long period of chaos again, known as the Age of Disunion, even worse than the Warring States period that I mentioned in my first video.

Traditional ideas like Confucianism, with its focus on order and hierarchy, felt less helpful to people who were simply struggling to survive at that time. Buddhismm on the other hand, offered something new. They talk about karma, rebirth, and the idea of ending suffering through Nirvana, and that gave people hope. Buddhist temples became places of support — offering food, shelter, and stability.

Another important driver for Buddhism during this time was the nomadic groups who frequently invaded and ruled parts of northen China. They truly embraced Buddhism.

Now a quick fun fact, the largest ethnic group in China today is Han Chinese, and you might have guessed it, it’s named after Han dynasty, which last about 400 years and had a significant impact on Chinese culture.

So in the eyes of the nomadic rulers, Confucianism was very much linked to the Han dynasty as its state philosophy, so of course they didn’t like it. While Buddhism was foreign and has a strong focus on equality. It is much more helpful to legitimize their control, and unify a diverse population.

In fact, throughout Chinese history, whenever a minority ethnic group was in power, they often tended to to promote Buddhism.

So during this age of disunion, Buddhism gained huge popularity in China.

[Golden Age in the Tang Dynasty]

Then its golden age came during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). Although Daoism was the official state philosophy, Buddhism also flourished with imperial support.

Several schools of buddhism emerged in China and developed their own practices. There were two notable ones in the end that kind of absorbed other schools. One was Pure Land Buddhism, and the other one was Chan Buddhism, which I will elaborate a bit today — it’s a blend of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism and Chinese Daoist influences.

Chan emphasized meditation, intuition, and finding enlightenment in everyday life, rather than relying on scripture or rituals. They believe in sudden awakening and that enlightenment shouldn’t be achieved from forced efforts or intellectualising.

This contrasted with traditional Indian Buddhism, which often emphasized gradual awakening through study and debate. And that’s because Chan Buddhism was very influenced by Daoist ideas like effortless action, naturalness, and the idea that language and concepts can’t capture ultimate truth.

[Zen and Kung Fu]

So why did I want to explain Chan Buddhism? Well first, it’s interesting. Second, it’s the root of Zen Buddhism in Japan. That’s one of the things i mentioned initially. So “Zen” is really just the Japanese pronunciation of the same Chinese character.

Second part is more interesting, which I didn’t realise either: Chinese Kung Fu. The famous Shaolin Temple, founded around 495 CE, became both the cradle of Chan Buddhism and the birthplace of Shaolin martial arts. It is the center where Chan Buddhist spiritual practice and martial arts developed together through mutual influence. While Chan emphasized meditation and mindfulness, Shaolin kung fu incorporated them into physical movement and discipline.

Just to help you understand how important Shaolin Kung Fu is, there was a Chinese saying, “all martial arts under the heaven originated from Shaolin (天下功夫出少林).” and that says a lot.

[Neo-Confucianism: Synthesis Again!]

One more thing that i found quite interesting while researching this topic is that I mentioned earlier that Confucianism was the state philosophy of Han dynasty and had a long period of relative decline after that. There were a few attempts to bring it back by some scholars who criticised the growing influence of Buddhism and Daoism.

But the most important and influential revival happened during the Song dynasty (960-1279 CE): Neo-Confucianism.

It’s a philosophical movement that reasserted Confucian values but also integrated Buddhist and Daoist ideas. And it was a huge success, making Confucianism the guiding framework for Chinese society, education, and governance again.

In many ways, this felt like the Hindu synthesis we talked about earlier — but for China. And it also shows again how the “Three Teachings” blended into the foundation of Chinese culture.

So since then, Buddhism has been inseparable from Chinese life. You see it everywhere, in art, pagodas, everyday language and customs.

[Schools of Buddhism Today]

One last thing that could be interesting – is that today, Buddhism can be roughly divided into three main traditions:

• First is Theravāda buddhism, meaning “Teaching of the Elders”, also called “Southern Buddhism”, is mainly practiced in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. It’s closest to the earlier forms of buddhism and tends to be more conservative in terms of doctrine and monastic discipline.
• Then there is Mahāyāna Buddhism —  also often called “Eastern Buddhism”, and it’s prominent in East Asia and includes the Chinese Buddhist traditions like Pure Land and Chan Buddhism that i mentioned earlier.
• The last one, Vajrayāna Buddhism— also known as Tantric or Northern Buddhism, is mostly practiced around Tibet and the Himalayan region. It was developed between the 5th and 7th centuries CE as an esoteric extension of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It’s kind of a faster and more ritual-intensive method to achieve enlightenment. A major branch is Tibetan Buddhism and their leader is the famous dalai lama, which is traditionally chosen through a detailed spiritual process. After the existing Dalai Lama passes away, senior monks will form a search committee to find his reincarnation based on various signs and rituals.

So i just found this really helpful to understand these the schools of Buddhism as it can look quite different around the world sometimes.

[Ending]

So that’s it! I spent ages preparing for this video – but also it’s summer and i was moving, but I learned so much, and I hope you did too. If you enjoyed it, please subscribe and share your thoughts in the comments.

It’ll be good karma. 😉