What do you think of Chinese Buddhism


Historically,  Buddhism was pretty popular among the Mandarin Chinese. It is now the second most popular religion in China, claims to have 1.87% of the population as believers. (Believe me or not, this is a big number for a pantheistic/atheistic country)
The problem (well, a problem to theists) is, we have a lot of “believers”, but not a lot of “monks”. People, even those who “believe” in it, do not “follow” Buddhism. My mother likes to read about Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity, yet claims herself to be atheistic.

Buddhism is thought to have been brought to China by Indian missionaries during the Han dynasty merging with the local religion Taoism. Buddhism is China's oldest foreign religion.

The main difference between Chinese Buddhism in regards to its original beliefs is tied to Buddha. Chinese Buddhists believe that Buddha is not just a teacher who taught disciplines how to live their life but that he is a god to be prayed to for help. Most Buddhist rituals are also tied Taoist beliefs like worshipping your ancestors.

After the fall of the Han dynasty, China split into many different kingdoms, Buddhism was formerly found in the southern kingdoms. From then on the religion grew, reaching it’s peak during the Tang dynasty. Buddhist arts flourished and monasteries grew rich and powerful.



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