Figure 1.--The first photo was taken in Darjeeling State and shows a group of young Buddhist Monks going to play soccer. Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, was born in Lumbini in modern day Nepal, but Buddhism was persecuted in India.

Hinduism has ancient origins in India. A more recent religion rising out of India is Buddhism. Gautama Buddha achieved spiritual enlightenment at Boddh Gaya, in northeastern India (567 BC). He was a prince born into great luxury, but was touched by the desire to somehow put an end to the all too apparent human misery. Buddhists essentially teach deliverance and the final point of the Buddhist search is nirvana which is perfect and incomparable bliss. Emperor Asoka converted to Buddhism and promulgated a state religion combining elements of both Buddhism and Jainism. Hinduism eventually became the dominant religion in India. Buddhists did not successfully compete with the Hindus, in part because they were prone to retreating to monnastaries. Buddhism was effectively destroyed by Hindus, even before the Islamic invasions. The Muslim rulers even futher supressed Buddhism. Neither Buddhisms and Hindusism had Koranic protections afforded to Christians and Jews as "people of the book". Buddhism was more vuknerable because it was not a widely oracticed or as firmlu routed in people's eeryday lives as Hinduism. The Islamic suppression of Buddhism was so intensive that the origins of the religion were largely unknown even in the early 19th century.

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Created: 6:23 PM 2/16/2007
Last updated: 6:23 PM 2/16/2007