Vessantara and Maddi and their two children (Sanchi stupa, Northern Gateway, ca. 50 BC) - a Jataka story Another Jataka story This Buddhist story is a Jataka tale from about 400 BC. Jataka tales [...]
Modern Buddhist nuns in northern India Women in early Buddhism The earliest Buddhists in India were both men and women, and there were Buddhist nuns as early as Buddhist monks. [...]
Wheel of Life (Konark Sun temple, Odisha, India, 1200s AD) About 300 BC, Hindu people in India began to feel that they didn't like the idea of being reincarnated over and over again forever. [...]
Takht-i Bahi, a Buddhist monastery in eastern Pakistan (about 50 AD) where Buddhist monks could study Holy men and women While Gautama Buddha was still alive, about 500 BC, he had many followers. [...]
What is karma? Jataka Tales: King Siva offers his body to save a dove from a hawk, and King Candraprabha is so generous that he gives away his own head (Mogao [...]
Indian religion: Lights of a Diwali celebration What are the main Indian religions? Three major world religions - Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam - have been important in India. Hinduism started in India in the Stone [...]
Buddhism in India - Buddha Reincarnation and the wheel In the 500s BC, during the later part of the Vedic period in India, the idea of reincarnation became very strong among Hindus. Most people [...]
A Song Dynasty statue of the boddhisatva Guanyin What is a boddhisatva? A boddhisatva, in Buddhist religion, was a holy man or woman. They were special, closer to God than other [...]
Mughal painting of the blind men and the elephant, from the 1600s AD (now in Walters Art Museum) A story that's a metaphor Once there was an elephant, a tame [...]
Jataka tales: the Crab and the Crane (Thanks to Alan Murphy) What are Jataka tales? During the 300s BC, when the Mauryan Empire was first uniting northern India, Buddhist monks and nuns in India began to tell stories [...]
