Home›Buddhism›All BuddhismBrowse ByAll BuddhismThe major vehicles and schools of Buddhism, which agree on the Buddha, the four noble truths and the path, and differ over the ideal of the practitioner, the status of the Buddha, which scriptures are authoritative and how enlightenment is reached. The divisions are geographic as well as doctrinal, each vehicle having taken its own route out of India.FactsLearn MoreAll BuddhismSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0)FactsOverviewWhat Defines This GroupingWell-attestedThe vehicles and schools of Buddhism, distinguished by which scriptures are authoritative, by the ideal held out to the practitioner, by the status accorded the Buddha and by the means to awakening - and geographically, each vehicle having taken its own route out of India. 2OriginsWhose Classification This IsWell-attestedThe three-vehicle scheme is a Mahayana classification of Buddhism, not a neutral one: Hinayana, the lesser vehicle, is a polemical term for a set of schools that never used it of themselves and whose surviving representative calls itself Theravada. 3DirectoryCategoryWell-attestedDenominations 1Learn MoreThe schools of Buddhism This group holds the major traditions and schools of Buddhism, which spread from its Indian origin across Asia and adapted deeply to each culture it entered. Rather than denominations in the Christian sense, these are lineages and vehicles distinguished by canon, practice and philosophical emphasis. The browser will find the three great vehicles (Theravada, the older tradition of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia; Mahayana, the broad northern tradition with its bodhisattva ideal; and Vajrayana, the tantric path prominent in Tibet), together with their many schools, such as Zen, Pure Land, Tiantai, Nichiren and the Tibetan orders. The entries describe each school's texts, practices and lineage.All BuddhismFilter Results28 entriesPolityAllCentralised Corporate Polity (2)Decentralised Polity (4)Head Temple and Branch Polity (9)Hereditary Priesthood Polity (2)Monastic Lineage Polity (8)National Association Polity (1)Tulku Lineage Polity (7)Originated InAllChina (3)India (1)Indian Subcontinent (1)Japan (9)Korea (2)Tibet (8)Origin EraAll250 BCE (1)100 BCE (1)150 (1)400 (1)500 (1)538 (1)600 (1)700 (1)750 (1)755 (1)805 (1)806 (1)1050 (1)1073 (1)1100 (1)1191 (1)1224 (1)1227 (1)1253 (1)1290 (1)1294 (1)1409 (1)1900 (1)1930 (1)1938 (1)Parent DenominationAllKagyu (1)Mahayana (3)Tibetan Buddhism (5)Vajrayana (2)Parent ReligionAllBuddhism (23)Founded ByAllEn no Gyōja (1)Jinul (1)Nichiren (1)Niwano Nikkyo (1)Zhiyi (1)Establishment StatusAllPrivileged Never Established (1)Varies by Province (1)Practice StatusAllLiving tradition, practised today (23)Revived or reconstructed in the modern era (2)Sexuality PositionAllSame-sex marriage is performed and LGBT clergy are ordained on equal terms with heterosexual clergy (1)Liturgical LanguageAllClassical Chinese (13)Classical Tibetan (8)Pali (1)Sanskrit (4)Vernacular Language (1)Ordination PracticeAllA full female ordination lineage continues (1)An unpaid lay ministry rather than a professional clergy (1)Celibacy required of the ordained (5)Married clergy permitted (9)Non-celibate tantric practitioners alongside monastics (3)Office passes by descent (2)Open to women and men (2)Ordination is into a monastic order, not to a congregation (19)Restricted to men (1)The full female ordination lineage is held lapsed; revival contested (3)Varies between provinces or member bodies (1)Show ResultsBrowseCompareSelect all 28GelugBuddhismJodo ShinshuBuddhismJogye OrderBuddhismJonangBuddhismKagyuBuddhismKarma KagyuBuddhismMadhyamakaBuddhismMahayanaBuddhismNichirenBuddhismNichiren ShoshuBuddhismNichiren ShuBuddhismNyingmaBuddhismPure LandBuddhismRinzaiBuddhismRissho Kosei KaiBuddhismSakyaBuddhismShingonBuddhismShugendoBuddhismSoka GakkaiBuddhismSotoBuddhismTaego OrderBuddhismTendaiBuddhismThai Forest TraditionBuddhismTheravadaBuddhismTiantaiBuddhismTibetan BuddhismBuddhismVajrayanaBuddhismZenBuddhismSources1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Treetier 1Category: Denominations2. An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices, 2nd editiontier 1Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press, 2013What Defines This Grouping: The vehicles and schools of Buddhism, distinguished by which scriptures are authoritative, by the ideal held out to the practitioner, by the status accorded the Buddha and by the means to awakening - and geographically, each vehicle having taken its own route out of India.View the Source3. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhismtier 1Robert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr., Princeton University Press, 2014s.v. HinayanaView the SourceDivinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptionstier 1Comments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.