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Exploring Buddhism: A Comprehensive Quiz

This quiz explores various aspects of Buddhism, including its philosophical distinctions, historical figures, and cultural practices. Test your knowledge and deepen your understanding of this rich tradition.

#Buddhism #Buddhist philosophy #Theravada #Mahayana #Tibetan Buddhism #Buddhist history #Buddhist practices

1 Decisive in distinguishing Buddhism from other schools of ________ is the issue of epistemological justification.

2 Buddhism may have spread only slowly in India until the time of the Mauryan emperor ________, who was a public supporter of the religion.

3 In the Tibetan tradition, these practices can include ________, though only for some very advanced practitioners.

4 Buddhists generally classify themselves as either Theravada or ________.

5 What does the following picture show?  Chinese seated Buddha, Tang Dynasty, Chinese Buddhism is of the Mahayana tradition, with popular schools today being Pure Land and Zen.   A monk in the Jade Buddha Temple, Shanghai, China.   Bodhnath Stupa, Kathmandu, Nepal   Japanese Buddhist monk

6 Sarvastivada teachings—which were criticized by Nāgārjuna—were reformulated by scholars such as Vasubandhu and Asanga and were adapted into the ________ (Sanskrit: yoga practice) school.

7 Which of the following titles did Buddhism have?

8 Buddhists believe ________ was the first to achieve enlightenment in this Buddha era and is therefore credited with the establishment of Buddhism.

9 According to the Theravada Tipitaka scriptures, the Buddha was born in Lumbini, around the year 563 BCE, and raised in Kapilavastu; both in modern-day ________.

10 [168] An alternative scheme used by some scholars[169] divides Buddhism into the following three traditions or geographical or cultural areas: ________, East Asian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • the Jain polemic Tamil epic Neelakesi was written as a rebuttal to the Buddhist epic Kundalakesi.
  • the United States threatened privately to cut off aid to Ngo Dinh Diem's Catholic regime as a result of chemical attacks on Buddhist protestors in Huế, Vietnam in 1963.
  • the dharma wheel of Buddhism represents the collective teachings known as the dharma.
  • the Buddhist scholar Jizang spent eleven years transcribing 2,000 copies of the Lotus Sutra by hand.
  • the 33 Edicts of Ashoka in north India and Pakistan are the first tangible historical evidence of Buddhism.
  • in Vajrayana Buddhism, a Wisdom King is the third tier of deity after Buddhas and bodhisattvas.
  • in the stuffing of bánh chưng for vegetarians and Buddhists, pork is replaced by molasses or brown sugar.
  • the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism was famous for developing the shakuhachi flute as a means of meditation.
  • the 110th United States Congress freshman class contains members from diverse backgrounds, including a professional football player, a Navy vice admiral, several former teachers, and the first Buddhist and Muslim members.
  • the first Western abbot of Singapore's Buddhist Poh Ern Shih Temple was an American.
  • the town of Rawalsar in Himachal Pradesh, India is sacred to three major religions -- Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism.
  • thousands of people at Deekshabhoomi, a pilgrimage center in Nagpur, India, embraced Buddhism on October 14, 1956.
  • the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters, the earliest extant Chinese Buddhist sutra, is similar in form to the Analects of Confucius.
  • the White Horse Temple (pictured) is, according to tradition, the first Buddhist temple in China, established in Luoyang in 68 AD.
  • the Mahiyangana Raja Maha Vihara is one of the Solosmasthana, the 16 religious sites in Sri Lanka that Buddhists believe to have been hallowed by visits of Gautama Buddha.
  • the Proletarian Revolutionary Organisation of Nepal proposed a synthesis of Buddhism and Maoism in 1977.
  • employee uniforms at the Topaz Hotel in Washington, D.C. have been described as "punk Buddhist".
  • Katsu! is a shout used in Zen Buddhism to induce enlightenment, as well as in the martial arts to focus one's energy.
  • Kursha Monastery is the largest Buddhist monastery in the Zanskar region of eastern Jammu and Kashmir, India.
  • Lý Anh Tông, the sixth emperor of the Lý Dynasty, was considered the first ruler of Đại Việt who promoted Buddhism as the state religion.
  • Layman Pang, a wealthy merchant and Zen Buddhist in Tang Dynasty China, once put all of his possessions in a boat and sank them in a river.
  • Isidore van Kinsbergen had to dig and to clean for four months before he could take the first picture of the 9th century Indonesian Buddhist monument of Borobudur (pictured) in 1873.
  • Diskit Monastery (pictured) is the oldest and largest Buddhist monastery in the Nubra Valley of Ladakh, northern India.
  • Zen Buddhist scholar Philip Yampolsky was the grandson of Franz Boas, the founder of Columbia University's anthropology department.
  • Dharmachari Aryadaka was the first paid Buddhist prison chaplain in Washington state.
  • Mahinda, a 3rd century monk who brought Buddhism to Sri Lanka, was the son of the Mauryan Emperor Asoka.
  • Nagarjunakonda, a historic Buddhist town in Andhra Pradesh believed to hold some relics of Gautama Buddha was submerged by the construction of the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, the tallest masonry dam in the world.
  • Tawang Monastery in northeastern India is said to be the largest Buddhist monastery in the world outside of Lhasa, Tibet.
  • Van Hanh Zen Temple is the base of a team of Buddhist scholars who are producing a Vietnamese translation of the Pali Canon.
  • Zentatsu Richard Baker was an influential American Zen priest who played a leading role in founding Tassajara, the first Buddhist training monastery outside of Asia.
  • Quan Thanh Temple (principal gate pictured), a Taoist temple in Hanoi, was once wrongly named as a Buddhist pagoda by the French.
  • Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa of Japan was head of the Northern Alliance whilst serving as a Buddhist priest.
  • Observatory Hill, Darjeeling, the site of Darjeeling's oldest Buddhist monastery is now home to a Hindu temple.
  • places of worship in Bangalore include over 1,000 temples, 400 mosques, 100 churches, 40 Jain mandirs, three Gurudwaras, two Buddha Viharas and one Parsi Agiari in a metropolitan area of 741 km2 (286 sq mi).
  • Hindu deity Chinnamasta and Buddhist deity Vajrayogini are often depicted as drinking blood from the kapala.
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