Padmasambhava lived during the 8th-century and is credited for the construction of the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet at Samye. Sarvāstivādin influence came from the south west (Kashmir) and the north west (Khotan). The late 19th century also saw the first-known modern western conversions to Buddhism, including leading Theosophists Henry Steel Olcott and Helena Blavatsky in 1880 in Sri Lanka.

(ed.) Two recent Thai modernist movements are the monastic revival of the Thai forest tradition and the Wat Phra Dhammakāya movement.

During the early period of Chinese Buddhism, the Indian Buddhist sects recognized as important, and whose texts were studied, were the Dharmaguptakas, Mahīśāsakas, Kāśyapīyas, Sarvāstivādins, and the Mahāsāṃghikas. After the destruction of numerous Buddhist monasteries in the 6th century ce by the Huns, Buddhism revived, especially in the northeast, where it flourished for many more centuries under the kings of the Pala dynasty. By the beginning of the Common Era, Buddhism, which had become very strong in northwestern India, had followed the great trade routes into Central Asia and China.

Buddhist religious scriptures such as the Aśokāvadāna allege that Pushyamitra (an orthodox Brahmin) was hostile towards Buddhists and persecuted the Buddhist faith.

[…] Main article: Fasting during Ramadan and Fasting in the Month of Ramadan... […] concepts of moshiach, messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in... […] an extinct dualistic religion of Iranian origin, founded in the third century C.E. The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism, p. 42, 50.

He also issued edicts in the Greek language as well as in Aramaic.

[102] His Dalit Buddhist Movement was most successful in the Indian states of Maharashtra, which saw large scale conversions. Buddhism, especially Zen, remained culturally influential during the Ashikaga period (1333–1573) and the Tokugawa era (1603–1867). They are converted from other religions, mostly Dalits (Scheduled Caste) who changed religion to escape Hindu caste oppression. The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism, p. 47.

During this period, Gandharan Buddhism spread through the trade routes protected by the Kushans, out through the Khyber pass into Central Asia. Xuanzang notes that there were over a hundred Buddhist monasteries in the city, including the Nava Vihara as well many stupas and monks. The Mahasamghikas meanwhile also developed their own schools and doctrines early on, which can be seen in texts like the Mahavastu, associated with the Lokottaravāda, or ‘Transcendentalist’ school, who might be the same as the Ekavyāvahārikas or “One-utterancers”. Gautama referred to himself as the tathagata, the "thus-gone"; the developing tradition later regarded him to be as a Samyaksambuddha, a "Perfectly Self-Awakened One." Most Buddhist Marathi people belong to the former Mahar community.

The kings protected the Mahaviharas, built new centres at Odantapuri, near Nalanda, and established a system of supervision for all such institutions. In France and Spain, Tibetan Buddhism has the largest following. They, together with the Buddha, formed the first Saṅgha, the company of Buddhist monks, and hence, the first formation of Triple Gem (Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha) was completed. It was during the Pala period (8th–12th centuries), however, that the Vajrayana tradition emerged as the most dynamic component of Indian Buddhist life. See also: Greco-Buddhist art and Buddhism and the Roman world. The presence of Buddhists in Alexandria has even drawn the conclusion that they influenced monastic Christianity. [39] The Samvara tantra texts adopted the pitha list from the Shaiva text Tantrasadbhava, introducing a copying error where a deity was mistaken for a place. He ruled from Taxila and later from Sagala (Sialkot). Roman Historical accounts describe an embassy sent by the "Indian king Pandion (Pandya?

At the age of thirty-five, he awakened from the sleep of delusion that grips all beings in an endless vicious cycle of ignorance and unnecessary suffering (around 528 BCE). Theravada remained the official religion of the subsequent Burmese Taungoo Dynasty (1510–1752).

The Thai forest tradition has also established communities in the US and in the UK.

However, during the Confucian Yi Dynasty of the Joseon period, Buddhism faced a reversal of fortunes beginning with the confiscation of monastery lands, the closing of monasteries and the ban on ordination by aristocrats in the 15th century. [29], The earliest Mahāyāna sūtras to include the very first versions of the Prajñāpāramitā genre, along with texts concerning Akṣobhya Buddha, which were probably written down in the 1st century BCE in the south of India. [108] Although they have renounced Hinduism in practice, a community survey showed adherence to many practices of the old faith including endogamy, worshipping the traditional family deity etc. Śrāvastī, Rājagrha, Vāiśalī). According to legend, emperor Aśoka was overwhelmed by guilt after the conquest of Kaliṅga, following which he accepted Buddhism as personal faith with the help of his Brahmin mentors Rādhāsvāmī and Mañjūśrī.