What happened to the Buddhists?

[Maira La]

At the time of partition 1 in 5 person was Muslim and 4 in 5 Hindu. That's 80% Hindu vs 0% Buddhists! Buddhism was once the dominant religion in Bharat, why have they disappeared?

The only Buddhists in India currently are the mongoloid people in occupied Ladakh and NE regions (South Tibet, Sikkim, etc.). The persecuted Navayana Dalits don't count, as they're not descended from the original Buddhists.

We are told that destruction of Nalanda caused extinction of the Buddhists. Who destroyed it is up for debate, but for now let's agree with BJP-RSS version and assume Muslims destroyed it.

Did Nalanda's destruction cause some pandemic that wiped out the Buddhists but all Hindus were magically immune to it? Or Hindus were already done "dealing" with Buddhists by the time Muslims arrived? Which is it?

 

[Maula Jatt]

Religion was anything but about spiritually at least in the eyes of people who really matter

Maybe it's somewhat of an ancient geopolitical tool that kings used for their games

 

[Indos]

Why biggest Budhis temple is in Indonesia ?

Built in 8 Century

 

[epebble]

At the time of partition 1 in 5 person was Muslim and 4 in 5 Hindu. That's 80% Hindu vs 0% Buddhists! Buddhism was once the dominant religion in Bharat, why have they disappeared?

The only Buddhists in India currently are the mongoloid people in occupied Ladakh and NE regions (South Tibet, Sikkim, etc.). The persecuted Navayana Dalits don't count, as they're not descended from the original Buddhists.

We are told that destruction of Nalanda caused extinction of the Buddhists. Who destroyed it is up for debate, but for now let's agree with BJP-RSS version and assume Muslims destroyed it.

Did Nalanda's destruction cause some pandemic that wiped out the Buddhists but all Hindus were magically immune to it? Or Hindus were already done "dealing" with Buddhists by the time Muslims arrived? Which is it?

People don't remain constant over thousands of years and religions also don't remain same over centuries. In the Middle East, the Babylonian-Mesopotamian-Egyptian faiths (Paganism?) became Judaism then Christianity and then Islam. In Europe, Greeks/Roman religions became Christian and Islam. Same thing would have happened in India too. Hinduism to Buddhism to Islam in present day Afghanistan and Pakistan. Buddhism and Hinduism are not sufficiently apart and they can join and split just like it happens with Christianity. Are Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant one religion or many religions? It depends on whom you ask.

 

[Maula Jatt]

People don't remain constant over thousands of years and religions also don't remain same over centuries. In the Middle East, the Babylonian-Mesopotamian-Egyptian faiths (Paganism?) became Judaism then Christianity and then Islam. In Europe, Greeks/Roman religions became Christian and Islam. Same thing would have happened in India too. Hinduism to Buddhism to Islam in present day Afghanistan and Pakistan. Buddhism and Hinduism are not sufficiently apart and they can join and split just like it happens with Christianity. Are Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant one religion or many religions? It depends on whom you ask.

They were mostly Zoroastrian, Buddhism had minimal presence

Hell Zorastar was Born in modern day Afghanistan

 

[FuturePAF]

At the time of partition 1 in 5 person was Muslim and 4 in 5 Hindu. That's 80% Hindu vs 0% Buddhists! Buddhism was once the dominant religion in Bharat, why have they disappeared?

The only Buddhists in India currently are the mongoloid people in occupied Ladakh and NE regions (South Tibet, Sikkim, etc.). The persecuted Navayana Dalits don't count, as they're not descended from the original Buddhists.

We are told that destruction of Nalanda caused extinction of the Buddhists. Who destroyed it is up for debate, but for now let's agree with BJP-RSS version and assume Muslims destroyed it.

Did Nalanda's destruction cause some pandemic that wiped out the Buddhists but all Hindus were magically immune to it? Or Hindus were already done "dealing" with Buddhists by the time Muslims arrived? Which is it?

An aside, not trying to derail the thread, but one of your points was a little unclear ; At partition, it was more like 3:1 Hindu to Muslim, nowadays in the three countries that came out of the portion it is 2:1, and if demographic projections hold, in another 75 years it will be nearly 1:1.

As for the Buddhists, it’s probably best to go to census data as far back as was available, probably from the time of the British East India company or early British Raj, and see what happened to those populations of Buddhists. Perhaps some moved to Burma, Sri Lanka, Tibet, or moved even further away to South East Asia. More likely people just didn’t profess their faith as strongly (being a smaller minority over time) and with each generation they lost the faith or married into other populations and assimilated, either into Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity or Islam.

 

[ThunderCat]

Religion was anything but about spiritually at least in the eyes of people who really matter

Maybe it's somewhat of an ancient geopolitical tool that kings used for their games

Religion is a part of human psyche as far as the evidence is concerned. You suppress it thinking you've gotten rid of it, and it just re-emerges in another form.

Since humans are a social species and tribal one too, they develop religion to not only answer questions but also to ensure social order.

Even if that religion is not theistic. We can see that in the Western world with the demise of Christianity all the different religions and cults are stirring up such as veganism, Holocaust worship, environmentalism etc.

Religion is inseparable from human psyche but should be practiced in balance. Religion is a form of tribalism and has limited followers.

When too many people follow the same religion, it divided into sects. It probably goes back to our hunter-gather age.

 

[epebble]

They were mostly Zoroastrian, Buddhism had minimal presence

Hell Zorastar was Born in modern day Afghanistan

Buddhism had a large presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Buddhism in Afghanistan - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Buddhism in Pakistan - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Zoroaster (and Zoroastrianism) is associated with Persia/Iran

 

[ThunderCat]

Zoroaster (and Zoroastrianism) is associated with Persia/Iran

Just to point out Persia is not akin to Iran. It's a Western term for the Fars province of Iran, homeland of the Persian people or Farsiwans.

 

[jamahir]

At the time of partition 1 in 5 person was Muslim and 4 in 5 Hindu. That's 80% Hindu vs 0% Buddhists! Buddhism was once the dominant religion in Bharat, why have they disappeared?

The only Buddhists in India currently are the mongoloid people in occupied Ladakh and NE regions (South Tibet, Sikkim, etc.). The persecuted Navayana Dalits don't count, as they're not descended from the original Buddhists.

We are told that destruction of Nalanda caused extinction of the Buddhists. Who destroyed it is up for debate, but for now let's agree with BJP-RSS version and assume Muslims destroyed it.

Did Nalanda's destruction cause some pandemic that wiped out the Buddhists but all Hindus were magically immune to it? Or Hindus were already done "dealing" with Buddhists by the time Muslims arrived? Which is it?

You raise fine questions. About the Nalanda part please have a read of the article I linked below which should be read by everyone declaring "The Mozlems murdered Nalanda".

Buddhism and Hinduism are not sufficiently apart and they can join and split

That's nonsense. Buddhism arose as reaction to the atrocities and utterly obscene discrimination against fellow human beings instituted by Brahmanvadi Hinduism. Muslim philosophers more than 1200 years ago essentially included the Buddha in the list of the 124,000 prophets considered part of Islam. This inclusion because they said the teachings of Buddha and those in True Islam are similar - questioning injustices, wrongs and how to live a serene life :

The coexistence of Islam and Buddhism relation took place in the middle of the 8th century. Although both religions originated from different sources, Muslims scholars were the first to study about Buddhism. Inspired by selected verses in the Quran, Muslims scholars recognized an element of similarity of Buddha’s teaching with Islamic teaching. This paper examines the views of Muslim scholars on Buddha’s position in the Islamic tradition in early and contemporarily literature. The method of this study is qualitative by emphasizing on contain analysis using three research design: philological, historical, and theological. Among the early Muslim scholars discussed in this paper are al-Baladhuri (d. 892), al-Biruni (973-1048 AD), Ibn al-Nadim (995 AD), al-Shahrastani (1086-1153 AD), al-Ṭabarī (838-923 AD), al-Hamadhani (1247-1318 AD), and the contemporary Muslim scholars is Muhammad Hamidullah (1908-2002), Hamid Abdul Qadir (1957), Hamza Yusuf (1958 –), Shah Reza Kazemi (1960 –), and Imtiyaz Yusuf. The study suggests the position of Buddha as a prophet in the Islamic tradition are justified based on selected terms in the Quran like tīn, Dhu al-Kifl and ṣābi’īn. This paper concludes that there is a strong relation between Islam and Buddhism in early Islamic literature.

This is a nice article called "When the monks met the Muslims".

So, Hindutvad is totally opposite to Buddhism and Islam, and Buddhism and Islam have lot in common. And this also is manifested in the matter of Dalits and Shudras converting to Buddhism after having been oppressed an discriminated by caste Hindus for the last 3000 years since Hindus came into India from Iran and established the caste system, extremest misogyny, extremest Capitalism and feudalism. In 2016 the Dalit student Rohith Vemula of Hyderabad University suicided after being discriminated and oppressed by upper caste Hindus in the university administration and the central government. That year after his suicide his mother and brother adopted Buddhism by rejecting Hinduism. Why now, even in 1956 Dr. Ambedkar who is the Dalit architect of the Indian constitution, after having waited for a few decades for the caste-system-believing upper caste Hindus to change their evil ways and then seen they haven't changed called a gathering of 600,000 of his Dalit and Shudra followers and all converted to Buddhism. This is the list of the 22 vows that Ambedkar presented during that adoption of Buddhism and no. 19 is "I renounce Hinduism, which disfavors humanity and impedes the advancement and development of humanity because it is based on inequality, and adopt Buddhism as my religion.".

 

[epebble]

Just to point out Persia is not akin to Iran. It's a Western term for the Fars province of Iran, homeland of the Persian people or Farsiwans.

The name Persia was changed to Iran in 1935 (supposedly for some not so good reasons) by the King Reza Shah. His son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, decided to use both names in 1959.

 

[ThunderCat]

The name Persia was changed to Iran in 1935 (supposedly for some not so good reasons) by the King Reza Shah. His son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, decided to use both names in 1959.

Since Fars/Persia controlled the surrounding regions the whole empire was called "Persia." It's like how people might call the British Empire or Britain "England."

 

[Maira La]

Buddhism and Hinduism are not sufficiently apart

Nonsense peddled to naive Westerners. Hinduism is based on slavery and Brahmins own other Hindus (considered lesser beings). Buddhism is egalitarian! That's just the tip of iceberg.

 

[-=virus=-]

You raise fine questions. About the Nalanda part please have a read of the article I linked below which should be read by everyone declaring "The Mozlems murdered Nalanda".



That's nonsense. Buddhism arose as reaction to the atrocities and utterly obscene discrimination against fellow human beings instituted by Brahmanvadi Hinduism. Muslim philosophers more than 1200 years ago essentially included the Buddha in the list of the 124,000 prophets considered part of Islam. This inclusion because they said the teachings of Buddha and those in True Islam are similar - questioning injustices, wrongs and how to live a serene life :

This is a nice article called "When the monks met the Muslims".

So, Hindutvad is totally opposite to Buddhism and Islam, and Buddhism and Islam have lot in common. And this also is manifested in the matter of Dalits and Shudras converting to Buddhism after having been oppressed an discriminated by caste Hindus for the last 3000 years since Hindus came into India from Iran and established the caste system, extremest misogyny, extremest Capitalism and feudalism. In 2016 the Dalit student Rohith Vemula of Hyderabad University suicided after being discriminated and oppressed by upper caste Hindus in the university administration and the central government. That year after his suicide his mother and brother adopted Buddhism by rejecting Hinduism. Why now, even in 1956 Dr. Ambedkar who is the Dalit architect of the Indian constitution, after having waited for a few decades for the caste-system-believing upper caste Hindus to change their evil ways and then seen they haven't changed called a gathering of 600,000 of his Dalit and Shudra followers and all converted to Buddhism. This is the list of the 22 vows that Ambedkar presented during that adoption of Buddhism and no. 19 is "I renounce Hinduism, which disfavors humanity and impedes the advancement and development of humanity because it is based on inequality, and adopt Buddhism as my religion.".

Ambedekarite chamaars don't count

Buddhism is thriving here, both Theravada and Mahayana, many Hindu dharmis also partake in chanting and meditation retreats/courses and follow the path of ahimsa.

Dear lord, you really have zero idea about ANYTHING.. I guess its to do with you never having stepped out of your dirty filthy gutter slum where you live vicariously from behind your broken old laptop.

 

[ThunderCat]

People don't remain constant over thousands of years and religions also don't remain same over centuries. In the Middle East, the Babylonian-Mesopotamian-Egyptian faiths (Paganism?) became Judaism then Christianity and then Islam. In Europe, Greeks/Roman religions became Christian and Islam. Same thing would have happened in India too. Hinduism to Buddhism to Islam in present day Afghanistan and Pakistan. Buddhism and Hinduism are not sufficiently apart and they can join and split just like it happens with Christianity. Are Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant one religion or many religions? It depends on whom you ask.

Agreed with everything except for "hinduism" for the following reason:

"The term Hindu was first imposed on South Asian nations by the Afghan dynasty of Ghori in the 12th century; this term was never used in South Asia prior to the Muslim era and is not even found in early (pre-12th century AD) Brahmanical or Buddhist texts. Such a term and concept has no historical depth in any social, religious, ethnic or national sense past the 12th century when Mohammed Ghori for the first time named his conquered subjects Hindus." [G. Singh, Sakasthan and India, Toronto, 1999, p. 20]