Talk:History of Buddhism

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Contents

[edit] Councils

The current descriptions of the Councils are highly inadequate, characterized by a biassed Theravadin POV. It is rather a shame that my previous articles have been removed and replaced by what, in the case of the Second Council in particular, is sheer fantasy almost completely devoid of any historical content. The scholarly standards are typified by the fact that the good writer, though of 100% Theravadin affiliation, is unable to even spell Theravada correctly. All the articles on the Councils need to be completely re-written to accord with Wikepedia's neutral POV policy. Sujato.

I'll try to help, but can you point to the articles in question that were removed and replaced?—Nat Krause(Talk!) 06:05, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Maps on the Spread Of Buddhism

The maps on the spread of Buddhism are rather hard to read, pixelated, and in general not as helpful as they could be. A great map of the spread by Houghton Mifflin Compnay (the textbook people) is here. http://faculty.southwest.tn.edu/mpratt/1110Tele/MapAsiaBuddhism.htm The problem is it's copyrigted. Could we claim fair use or could someone with graphics knowledge take a map of asia and draw in the cities and arrows. If we did the latter, we could seek to illustrate the information in the article better instead of just emulating the textbook map. For example, we could have some sort of color coded timeline.

I would do this but am not good with graphics.

Ed-it 19:53, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Schools

In time, up to 18 schools of the traditional Buddhist thought arose, the only remaining one today being the Eastern Theravada school. I don't understand this: what about the Mahayana school? Are these 18 schools confined to an earlier period? Markalexander100 05:02, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Yes, Mahayana is typically seen as a later development ... at least Mahayana as a school is. The wording "in time," should still be more specific. Personally, I think the idea of "the 18 schools" seems like an anachronistic oversimplification, but I don't know enough about it to speak authoritatively. - Nat Krause 05:17, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Introduced the following paragraph at the end of the life of the Buddha: "The Buddha's reluctance to name a successor or to formalize his doctrine led to the emergence of many mouvements during the next 400 years: first the schools of Nikaya Buddhism, of which only Theravada remains today, and then the formation of Mahayana, a pan-Buddhist mouvement based on the acceptance of new scriptures.". Indeed clearer I hope. PHG 12:54, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Several kingdoms competed for influence in the region, the Cambodian Funan, then the Theravada Buddhist Burmese Mon kingdoms. What does this have to do with the history of Buddhism? Markalexander100 05:06, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Dropped the phrase PHG 12:54, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

The Buddhist faith was probably introduced from Central Asia: the first translators of Buddhists scripture were either Parthian like An Shigao (c. 148 CE), or Kushan. Translators into Chinese, or some other language? Markalexander100 05:31, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Into Chinese. Added in the text. PHG 12:54, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

He ... forced the faith to go underground, therefore affecting the ulterior development of the religion and its arts in China. This is very cryptic. What was this effect? Markalexander100 05:34, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Modified for "Throughout his territory, he confiscated Buddhist possessions, destroyed monateries and temples, and executed Buddhist monks, ending Buddhism's cultural and intellectual dominance." PHG 12:54, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Pure Land and Chan Buddhism however, at the origin of Japanese Zen, Were they both sources of Zen? Or just Chan? Markalexander100 05:36, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Addressed this point. Pure Land influence on Zen is minimal, except in the Obaku sect. - Nat Krause 06:45, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Thanks both of you! Markalexander100 00:47, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Is Buddhism a religion? My understanding was that it was not a religion.

It is, depeding on POV.

A bit could be said on the interaction of Sri Lankan, Myanmar en Thai Theravada over the last 500 centuries. Several times these countries relied on each oether to revive the lokal Sangha. 81.155.112.208 10:46, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Ashoka Column picture removed

This picture was removed because of possible copyright violation. The copyright notice on Wikipedia incorrectly stated that the picture is from buddha101.com and used with the permission of the author of that site. The picture is not on buddha101.com and no permission was given.

[edit] religious implication

[edit] Featured Article Status

This article was elevated to FA status a long time ago, and standards have changed since then. Currently, the article has no inline references, and many paragraphs are stubby or incomplete. If these issues are not dealt with in the next week or two, I will take the article to WP:FAR. --Danaman5 06:38, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

As for the stubby paragraphs, I got the feeling that it's the result of the several cuts with which a number of editors has been trying to reduce its size (currently 53 KB), but I've been monitoring the page only for a month or two. I agree that there should be more inline references (it's not true that there are none); why don't you help putting {{fact}} where you feels there needs to be one? That would help the other editors to look for sources. --Εξαίρετος (msg) 10:07, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Rubbish

There was a lot of this in the article, which I've deleted some that I've noticed. The worst was the crackpot theory of Buddhism in ancient Britain, but there's a fair amount of legends from various Buddhist traditions treated as historical facts, & theories treated as facts. Peter jackson 10:50, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Questionable!!

I am questioning the reliability of Donald A Mackenzie's quote of Origen in which he stated, "The island (Britain) has long been predisposed to it (Christianity) through the doctrines of the Druids and Buddhists, who had already inculcated the doctrine of the unity of the Godhead" Origen, "Commentary on Ezekiel" I have searched for this quote of Origen and can not find it. Can anyone else? Is it reliable to use a quote that cannot be found? Should it be removed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Underated (talk • contribs) 16:54, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

The quote has now been removed as it cannot be found in Origen's work. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Underated (talk • contribs) 10:54, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] To be mentioned?

I've found this text casually and I don't know how best insert its content (or some of the information) into the text. Anybody who wants to can do it, too.

Austerlitz -- 88.72.22.216 (talk) 17:48, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Featured article

Why is this one? It doesn't cite any source for even a single one osf the statements in it. A lot of them are just legends, theories, or just out of date. Peter jackson (talk) 09:45, 22 March 2008 (UTC)