Asian Art

Bengali Buddhists

Bengali Buddhists (Bengali: বাঙালি বৌদ্ধ) are a religious sub-group of the Bengalis who adhere to or practice the religion of Buddhism. Bengali Buddhist people mainly live in Bangladesh and Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura. Buddhism has a rich ancient heritage in Bengal. The region was a bastion of the ancient Buddhist Mauryan and Pala empires when the Mahayana and Vajrayana schools flourished. South-eastern Bengal was ruled by the medieval Buddhist Kingdom of Mrauk U during the 16th and 17th centuries. The British Raj influenced the emergence of the modern community. Today, majority Bengali Buddhists are followers of Theravāda Buddhism.

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See also

• ▸Gakhwangjeon Hall
• ▸Kodigehalli inscriptions and hero stones
• ▸1797

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Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.