Radical Monk in Myanmar Pledges to Protect Global Buddhism

[Scootaloo]

17. Do you know anything about Asian history, DesertDiamond?

Whatever Siddhartha started out with, religion does as religion does, and it became a fundamentalist reform Hinduism sect. when adopted by Ashoka in India, many efforts were made to stamp out non-Buddhist hindu practices in india... efforts which led to a number of bloody wars, and the very strong decline of buddhism in India. Buddhism dispersed around the subcontinent, where it came into conflict with Zoroastrianism in the west, Bon Po in the north, and Hindusim in the east; I have to admit I'm ignorant of how it went down in the Persian areas of the west, but I know that both Hinduism and Bon Po took a major, steep decline when these Buddhist warriors and missionaries moved in. Buddhism was also a factor in the Chinese conflicts, though not to the degree that plain old political issues were; As with any other religion, it wntered the halls of power and began using that power to vie against ompeting religions (Taoism, especially, and the native shamanism of korea.) when it migrated into Japan, it sparked a major period of religious warfare between Buddhism and shinto that didn't really calm down until the 1400's when Portuguese missionaries showed up... and Shinto and Buddhism agreed to persecute the fuck out of the new Japanese Christians, complete with mass crucifixions.

I'm not saying that Buddhism is a violent religion, or teaches violence, mind you. Just that it has a violent history. One that is rather inevitable for a three thousand year old religion that proselytizes and has been well-seated in the halls of power of multiple nations and kingdoms for much of that time.