Home›Buddhism›Parent DenominationBrowse ByParent DenominationThis page groups denominations by the older denomination they split off from. Wikipedia describes the Druze faith as having "developed out of Isma'ilism" before separating entirely, a pattern that also plays out at the smaller scale of one denomination splitting from another. Browsing by parent denomination lets a visitor trace a denomination back to the body it broke away from.FactsLearn MoreParent DenominationSourcesComments (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.Parent DenominationFilter Results4 entriesPolityAllDecentralised Polity (1)Head Temple and Branch Polity (2)Hereditary Priesthood Polity (1)Monastic Lineage Polity (2)Tulku Lineage Polity (3)Originated InAllChina (1)India (1)Japan (2)Tibet (3)Origin EraAll150 (1)538 (1)750 (1)755 (1)806 (2)1050 (1)1073 (1)1100 (1)1294 (1)1409 (1)Parent ReligionAllBuddhism (4)Founded ByAllZhiyi (1)Establishment StatusAllPrivileged Never Established (1)Practice StatusAllLiving tradition, practised today (4)Revived or reconstructed in the modern era (1)Liturgical LanguageAllClassical Chinese (2)Classical Tibetan (3)Sanskrit (2)Ordination PracticeAllCelibacy required of the ordained (2)Married clergy permitted (2)Non-celibate tantric practitioners alongside monastics (2)Office passes by descent (1)Ordination is into a monastic order, not to a congregation (4)The full female ordination lineage is held lapsed; revival contested (1)Basis of the Membership FigureAllIndependent Survey (1)National Census (1)Scholarly or Demographic Estimate (1)Defining Doctrinal PositionAllA staged curriculum from the first motivation to buddhahood (1)Awakening by tantric means (Vajrayana) (1)Awakening by tantric means (Vajrayana) (1)Buddhahood realised in this very body and lifetime (1)Mahamudra: the great seal (1)One vehicle: every teaching leads to a single buddhahood (1)Shentong: buddha-nature empty only of what is extraneous to it (1)Universal liberation by the path of the bodhisattva (2)How the Expectation Is EnforcedAllCustomary Norm (2)Membership Figure As OfAll2010-01-01 (1)2020-01-01 (1)2022-01-01 (1)2025-01-01 (1)Origin PeriodAllTransmitted to Tibet from the eighth (1)Origin Period End YearAll100 (1)779 (1)800 (1)1150 (1)Origin Period Start YearAll100 BCE (1)600 (1)755 (1)1050 (1)Show ResultsBrowseCompareKagyuParent Denomination1 entryMahayanaParent Denomination3 entriesTibetan BuddhismParent Denomination5 entriesVajrayanaParent Denomination2 entriesSources1. 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.