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Buddhism is one of the smallest religions in Northern Ireland with around 1542 Buddhists in the country, making up 0.028% of the population.
Buddhists appeared in the 1871 census, before the partition of Ireland. [1]
A Tibetan Buddhist meditation centre was founded in 1993. [2] A Buddhist centre was founded in 1998. [3] There are also Buddhist organisations in Belfast. [4]
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 533 | — |
| 2011 | 1,046 | +96.2% |
| 2021 | 1,542 | +47.4% |
| Census data on the number of Buddhists in Northern Ireland began in 2001. | ||
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Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh, as well as in Nepal. Smaller groups of practitioners can be found in Central Asia, some regions of China like Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and some regions of Russia, such as Tuva, Buryatia, and Kalmykia.
Buddhism in the West broadly encompasses the knowledge and practice of Buddhism outside of Asia in the Western world. Occasional intersections between Western civilization and the Buddhist world have been occurring for thousands of years. The first Westerners to become Buddhists were Greeks who settled in Bactria and India during the Hellenistic period. They became influential figures during the reigns of the Indo-Greek kings, whose patronage of Buddhism led to the emergence of Greco-Buddhism and Greco-Buddhist art. There was little contact between the Western and Buddhist cultures during most of the Middle Ages but the early modern rise of global trade and mercantilism, improved navigation technology and the European colonization of Asian Buddhist countries led to increased knowledge of Buddhism among Westerners. This increased contact led to various responses from Buddhists and Westerners throughout the modern era. These include religious proselytism, religious polemics and debates, Buddhist modernism, Western convert Buddhists and the rise of Buddhist studies in Western academia. During the 20th century, there was a growth in Western Buddhism due to various factors such as immigration, globalization, the decline of Christianity and increased interest among Westerners. The various schools of Buddhism are now established in all major Western countries making up a small minority in the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso was a Buddhist monk, meditation teacher, scholar, and author. He was the founder and spiritual director of the New Kadampa Tradition-International Kadampa Buddhist Union (Function), a registered non-profit, modern Buddhist organization that came out of the Gelugpa school/lineage. They have 1,300 centres around the world, including temples, city temples and retreat centres that offer an accessible approach to ancient wisdom.
Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre is a Tibetan Buddhist complex associated with the Karma Kagyu school located at Eskdalemuir, Scotland.
Prajñā or paññā is a Buddhist term often translated as "wisdom", "insight", "intelligence", or "understanding". It is described in Buddhist texts as the understanding of the true nature of phenomena. In the context of Buddhist meditation, it is the ability to understand the three characteristics of all things: anicca ("impermanence"), dukkha, and anattā. Mahāyāna texts describe it as the understanding of śūnyatā ("emptiness"). It is part of the Threefold Training in Buddhism, and is one of the ten pāramīs of Theravāda Buddhism and one of the six Mahāyāna pāramitās.
The term American Buddhism can be used to describe all Buddhist groups within the United States, including Asian-American Buddhists born into the faith, who comprise the largest percentage of Buddhists in the country.
Buddhism is the third largest religion in France, after Christianity and Islam.
Although there was regular contact between practising Buddhists and Europeans in antiquity the former had little direct impact. In the latter half of the 19th century, Buddhism came to the attention of Western intellectuals and during the course of the following century the number of adherents has grown. There are now between 1 and 4 million Buddhists in Europe, the majority in Italy, Germany, Hungary, France and the United Kingdom.
Buddhism in the United Kingdom is the fifth-largest religious group in the United Kingdom. The 2021 United Kingdom census recorded just under 290,000 Buddhists, or about 0.4% of the total population, with the largest number of Buddhists residing in Greater London and South East England. According to a Buddhist organisation, the growth of Buddhism in the United Kingdom is mainly a result of conversions.
Buddhism in England has growing support. 238,626 people in England declared themselves to be Buddhist at the 2011 Census and 34% of them lived in London.
Karma Thinley Rinpocheཀརྨ་འཕྲིན་ལས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་, is an important master of the Kagyu Mahamudra, Sakya Lamdré and Chod traditions of Tibetan Buddhism active in the west and Nepal. He is also well regarded by Tibetans as a scholar, poet and artist.
Buddhism in Scotland is a relatively recent phenomenon. In Scotland, Buddhists represented about 0.3% of the population (15,501) in the 2022 census.
Buddhism in Iran dates back to the 2nd century, when Parthian Buddhist missionaries, such as An Shigao and An Xuan, were active in spreading Buddhism in China. Many of the earliest translators of Buddhist literature into Chinese were from Parthia and other kingdoms linked with present-day Iran.
Buddhism in Wales is followed by 0.3% of the Welsh population, according to the 2021 Census. Buddhism has a relatively short history, having only really established a presence in the country in the 20th Century. 10,075 people in Wales declared themselves Buddhist in the 2021 Census, representing a number of Buddhist traditions.
The main religion in Tibet has been Buddhism since its outspread in the 8th century AD. As of 2022 the historical region of Tibet is mostly comprised in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China and partly in the Chinese provinces of Qinghai and Sichuan. Before the arrival of Buddhism, the main religion among Tibetans was an indigenous shamanic and animistic religion, Bon, which would later influence the formation of Tibetan Buddhism and still attracts the allegiance of a sizeable minority of Tibetans.
A bhikkhunī or bhikṣuṇī is a Buddhist nun, fully ordained female in Buddhist monasticism. Bhikkhunis live by the Vinaya, a set of either 311 Theravada, 348 Dharmaguptaka, or 364 Mulasarvastivada school rules. Until recently, the lineages of female monastics only remained in Mahayana Buddhism and thus were prevalent in countries such as China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Vietnam, while a few women have taken the full monastic vows in the Theravada and Vajrayana schools. The official lineage of Tibetan Buddhist bhikkhunis recommenced on 23 June 2022 in Bhutan when 144 nuns, most of them Butanese, were fully ordained.
Samatha, "calm," "serenity," "tranquility of awareness," and vipassanā, literally "special, super, seeing ", are two qualities of the mind developed in tandem in Buddhist practice.
Rigpa is the name of an international Buddhist organization founded by Sogyal Rinpoche in 1979. It has centers and groups in 41 countries around the world. Following allegations of sexual and physical abuse in a letter by former students in 2017, Rigpa commissioned an independent investigation which found those claims to be largely substantiated, along with evidence of a cover-up. According to its website, Rigpa seeks to make the teachings of Buddha available to benefit as many people as possible, and to offer those following the Buddhist teachings a complete path of study and practice, along with the environment they need to explore the teachings to their fullest.
Jampa Ling Northern Ireland was established in 1993
Sunyata Buddhist Centre is a retreat centre based on a 10 acre property in rural County Clare. The centre is devoted to, and inspired by the Thai Forest tradition of Buddhism particularly the lineage of Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Sumedho, who opened our Dhamma hall in July 2000.
