An Introduction to the Schools

The Buddhist schools as historical communities with their own texts, not as a decline from an original teaching.

This page separates early textual evidence, modern scholarly discussion, and later readings. Historical study sits beside practice; it does not replace it.

The full article is available in Traditional Chinese.

The lion capital of an Ashokan pillar, four lions standing back to back — Lion capital of Ashoka

Glossary

Buddhist schools: Communities that compiled their own texts after the Buddha. This site does not treat them as a decline.

Citation

APA

Prajñā Buddhist Studies. (2026). An Introduction to the Schools. Retrieved from https://buddhism.hksapientia.org/en/buddhist-history/sectarian-buddhism/sectarian-intro/

BibTeX (reference manager format, not code)

@misc{buddhist-history-sectarian-buddhism-sectarian-intro,
  title = {An Introduction to the Schools},
  author = {Prajñā Buddhist Studies},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://buddhism.hksapientia.org/en/buddhist-history/sectarian-buddhism/sectarian-intro/}
}

Glossary

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