China
Template:WIKISeealso China is a large country in northern Template:Wiki surrounded by Template:Wiki, Mongolia, Tibet, Burma and Vietnam on the land side and the sea on the other. According to tradition, Buddhism was brought to China by two Indian monks during the Template:Wiki, perhaps in about 50 CE. After several centuries of gradual growth Buddhism began to attract the educated class and eventually became the state religion. The high point of Buddhism in China was during the Template:Wiki, after which it was persecuted and went into a long period of Template:Wiki, punctuated by occasional periods of renewal. Buddhism was again persecuted during the Republican period and even more severely after 1949 by the communists who closed all temples and either killed monks and nuns or forced them to Template:Wiki. Today Chinese Buddhism is slowly beginning to re-establish itself and adapt to a rapidly changing Template:Wiki. Many Template:Wiki living outside China – in Template:Wiki, Template:Wiki, Template:Wiki and the Template:Wiki, continue to practise Buddhism, although significant numbers have become Template:Wiki or converted to Template:Wiki. See Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and Dharmaratna.
Number of Buddhists in China[edit | edit source]
China is officially Template:Wiki (although many free market conditions are already in place) and does not keep records on religion statistics of Template:Wiki. Also, many Template:Wiki reference sources refuse to accept that a person can belong to more than one religion. In Template:Wiki it is quite common for one person to have two, three, or more religions. In China, it is common for a family to have a shrine in their home with statues and icons from Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism.
Currently there are about 1.3 billion Template:Wiki living in the People's Template:Wiki. Surveys (Gach-Alpha Books, U.S. State Dept. report on China, Global Center for the Study of Contemporary China, Template:Wiki News, China Daily, and a report by Template:Wiki in China) have found that about 8% to 91% identify with Buddhism as one of their religions. If we use a percent near the upper end of this estimate, of about 80% it works out to about 1.1 billion Template:Wiki Buddhists.
See also[edit | edit source]
Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey, K. Ch’en, 1972. Template:R www.buddhisma2z.com