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Buddhism
Buddhism is usually considered a religion. On most estimates it has in the region of 350,000,000 adherents, making it the 4th to 6th largest religion in the world, and one of the three major universal religions (as distinct from those largely confined to a single ethnic group). There are "significantly large communities" of Buddhists in 126 countries.[1] Half the world's population live in areas where Buddhism is or was at some time a major force.
It was founded by Gautama, known as the Buddha (literally Awakened One). He lived and taught in areas now in northeast India and Nepal. Historians now generally date his death somewhere in the region of 400 BC. There are several major branches of Buddhism, each with notable differences in teachings. Buddhists divide themselves into Mahayana and Theravada, the former being further subdivided.
Nomenclature
The word "Buddhism" is of course an English one, first recorded in 1801. "Native" Buddhists use names in their own languages. The name is derived from "Buddha" (Sanskrit and Pali), which is a title rather than a name. Literally it means "awakened". It is often translated as "enlightened".
The usual practice of Western scholars is to use Sanskrit terms when writing of Buddhism generally. Sanskrit was the language used by Buddhism in its heartland in the Middle Ages, but is little used by any Buddhists now. Theravada uses Pali, a dialect from an earlier phase of Buddhist history, while Chinese and Tibetan are widely used by those countries deriving their Buddhism from them.
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