Since Siddhartha Gautama attained Enlightenment in northern India in the 6th century BCE, practitioners have found truth in the Buddha’s teachings. The Buddhist tradition grew and spread throughout India and Tibet, southeast to Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and further east along the Silk Road to China and then into Korea and Japan. In these countries, people adopted and transformed the Buddhist traditions based on their individual insights and societal and cultural norms. Over time, Buddhism has come to represent how millions of people across centuries and continents have come to understand the Buddha’s teachings.
In the United States, travel, emigration, and immigration throughout the past few centuries have introduced Americans to the Buddhist tradition and Buddhists to the United States. Euro-American interest and understanding of the Buddhist tradition has grown as scriptures have been translated and Buddhist teachers have opened centers across the country.