World's Apart: A Look into Tibetan Buddhism

By Kirsten Graffeo and Elise Sexton

• 6% of the world practices Buddhism
• There are about 360 million practitioners of Buddhism
• China, Thailand, and Vietnam are the three countries with the highest Buddhist population in the world
• Tibetan Buddhism makes up 6% of the entire Buddhist community
• 56% of Buddhists are followers of the Mahayana branch
• Today’s Tibetan region is now half the size it used to be
• Source: 2007 report from Buddhist Tourism, a New Delhi agency

Once the center of Tibetan Buddhism, southwestern China’s Tibetan region is now the center of worldwide controversy. Its inhabitants claim that the region is autonomous of China and they prefer to adhere to their own practice of the religion.

Despite the current controversy, Buddhism has deep roots in the area, going as far back as 173 A.D. Buddhism is divided into four different schools of thought, each based on different teachings, but they encourage community between all, according to ReligionFacts.com, an unaffiliated online encyclopedia of religion information.

The youngest and largest school is the School of the Virtuous, or the Yellow Hats, of which the Dalai Lama is a follower and leader.

Every school teaches the four basic truths, says Elizabeth Wilson, professor of comparative religion at Miami University of Ohio.

• The first two truths teach that life is suffering or bitter, and that the cause of this unhappiness is people trying to hold onto things that are not permanent.
• The last two truths explain that life does not have to be dissatisfying because nirvana can be reached through a path of meditation and morality.

Adherents of the religion desire to reach nirvana, a final state of bliss and contentment in which there is no longer a need for reincarnation, Wilson says.