Buddhism/Timelines

BC

c480?: birth of the (future) Buddha; by the 3rd century BC this was believed to have occurred in what is now Rummindei, Nepal
c445?: his awakening and founding of Buddhism
c400?: his death; alleged First Council, Rajagaha (Rajgir) to collect his teachings (historicity uncertain)
late 4th century: Second Council, Vesali (Besarh), to settle dispute over monastic discipline; agreed that monks should not accept money
mid 3rd century: patronage of Emperor Asoka; Third (Theravada?) Council, Pataliputta (Patna) to deal with wrong views; Asoka's son Mahinda leads mission establishing Buddhism in Ceylon; possibly missionaries also sent to Greek kingdoms as far as Epirus and Cyrene
last century: Pali Canon written down from oral tradition at Fourth (Theravada) Council in Ceylon

60s: establishment of Buddhism in China
2nd century: first translations of Buddhist texts into Chinese, including some Mahayana ones; about this time Nagarjuna, major figure in formation of Mahayana
372: establishment of Buddhism in Korea (from China)
early 5th century?: Indian monk Bodhidharma arrives in China, precursor of Zen
537: establishment of Buddhism in Japan (from Korea)
mid 7th century: establishment of Buddhism in Tibet
779: Buddhism official religion of Tibet
868: oldest known printed book, Chinese translation of Diamond Sutra, a Mahayana scripture
c930: first printed Chinese collected edition of Buddhist literature (mostly lost)
13th century: Tibetan Buddhism spreads to Mongols
c1613: Western Kalmyks, a Buddhist Mongol tribe, cross the Urals and settle on the lower Volga in Eastern Europe
1871: Fifth (Theravada) Council, Mandalay, approves inscriptions of Pali Canon on 729 marble slabs (still on display in Kuthodaw Pagoda)
1899: first Westerner ordained as monk, Gordon Douglas
1900: first complete printed edition of the Pali Canon (38 volumes, Rangoon)
1954-6: Sixth (Theravada) Council, Rangoon, approves 40-volume printed edition of the Pali Canon
1959: after failed Tibetan uprising against Communist China, Dalai Lama flees to India