Introduction

Buddhism traces its origin to Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha or 'awakened one', who taught in northern India in about the fifth century BCE. This section covers his life and core teachings — the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, karma, rebirth and nirvana — the scriptures of the Pali Canon and the Mahayana sutras, and the great schools: Theravada in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, Mahayana in China, Korea and Japan, and Vajrayana in Tibet and the Himalaya. It also explores Buddhist cosmology, meditation, monastic life and the spread of Buddhism to the West.