Buddhism in Indonesia

Origin
Many centuries ago, an Indian prince called Siddhartha Gautama lived a life of great luxury. He lived more than 2500 years ago in southern Nepal. He went outside his palace walls one day and saw for the first time poverty, old age, disease and suffering. He left his wealth and life of luxury and went travelling to find the cause of suffering. After many years of travel, experiences and observations, he found enlightenment. He became known as the Buddha, or The Enlightened One.

The teachings of Buddha
His teachings were that suffering comes from greed and selfishness, and that if people stopped trying to own or control things, they would be happy. The end of all suffering he called Nirvana. People are reincarnated and during many lives they become better people and eventually reach Nirvana. Buddhists respect all living things, including insects. They are vegetarians. Buddhism spread through India, to China and then Central Asia, Japan and southeast Asia. There are now some slight variations in Buddhist practices in different countries.

Buddhist monks
About one in ten Indonesians is Buddhist. Buddhist monks meditate, and teach the beliefs of Buddha. Monks wear saffron coloured robes.They look after the holy places, which have bell-shaped domes called stupas. Inside the stupas are the ashes of lamas (head monks) or religious texts.

Acknowledge this source in your bibliography like this:
A Trip to Indonesia (2001). [Online], Available: www.kidcyber.com.au

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updated 17 February, 2001