golden wheel







Some Important Buddhist dates

for links to Buddhist web sites visit my Buddhist directory

  1. 563/560 BC birth of Siddartha Gautama in Kapilavastu (present day Lumbini), near the Nepali/Indian border, six kilometres within present day Nepal; this is now contested by Indian scholars see link below
  2. The real birth place of the Buddha (in Orissa of course !)
  3. 483/480 b.c. parinirvana of Siddartha Gautama Shakyamuni and first council at Rajagrha (the dates for the Buddha are now contested some offer 487-404 BC others 449-368 BC)
  4. 383 BC??? secound council at Vaisali
  5. 327-324 BC Alexander's Indian expedition
  6. c. 317 BC founding of Mauryan empire by Chandragupta Maurya
  7. 268-233 BC Ashoka Maurya rules from Burma to Iran and from Nepal to South India
  8. c. 246 BC Mahendra in Ceylon
  9. c. 185 BC death of the last Mauryan ruler
  10. c. 180-55 BC Indo-Greeks rulers in the North-West of India (Gandhara, present day Afghanistan and Pakistan)
  11. 155-130 BC rule of the Indo-Greek Menander (Milinda)
  12. 25-320 A.D. Kushan empire
  13. 65 A.D. Buddhism in China
  14. 1st/2nd century A.D.??? : the "Second Buddha" Nagarjuna
  15. 320-490 A.D. Gupta empire
  16. 4th century A.D. Buddhism in Korea, Indonesia
  17. 5th century A.D. Buddhism in Borneo
  18. 6th century A.D. Buddhism in Japan
  19. 7th century A.D. Buddhism in Tibet
  20. 606-647 A.D. Rule of Harsha in India
  21. 632 A.D. the Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo send his minister to India to study Sanskrit and Buddhism
  22. 740-786 A.D. King Trisong Detsen calls Shantarakshita to Tibet
  23. 787 A.D. foundation of Samye, first official Buddhist monastery in Tibet, by Padmasambhava (the Nying-ma-pa lineage)
  24. 9th century A.D. Angkor Wat (Buddhism in Cambodia and South-Est Asia)
  25. 1029-1042 A.D. Atisha Dipamkara Srijnana in Tibet (the Kadampa lineage)
  26. 1040-1123 A.D. Milarepa (the Ka-gyu-pa lineage)
  27. 1280-1368 A.D. Mongol (Yuan) dynasty in China, supremacy of the Sa-kya-pa lineage in Tibet
  28. 1280-1295 A.D. Kubilai Khan rules over China (Marco Polo travels to China from Venezia)
  29. 1357-1419 A.D. Lama Je Tsong-kha-pa (Gelug-pa lineage)
  30. July 6th, 1935 - birth in Amdo province of Tibet of His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, XIVth Dalai Lama
  31. March 10th, 1959 - Tibetan uprising in Lhasa against the Han occupying army 



for even more Buddhist dates !!!

Rudy's Buddhist timeline


Wikipedia's Buddhist timeline


Buddhist Videos on line

  1. Lama Thubten Yeshe - Introduction to Tantra part 1 (1h26mn)
  2. His Holiness the Dalai-Lama on Heaven and Hell (9mn)
  3. His Holiness the Dalai-Lama on the Four Noble Truths (part 1/4 - 91mn)

this page buddhist dates buddhism history buddha mantra mandala eastern religion zen is frequently updated come back often to check up the new books

Copyright © 1996-2017 Roger Garin-Michaud
ABN: 13772792037
last updated: July 1st, 2017


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