BANGKOK: India plans to transform Buddhist sites across the country and make them the centre of Buddhism for global followers, a senior minister said here.

"India so far has not been able to take care of these sacred places, there has been a lack of interest, planning and clarity," Kiren Rijiju, minister of State for Home said.

Rijiju said the new government was determined to transform the Buddhist sites to make it a centre of Buddhism.

Thais, Vietnamese, Laotians, Burmese, Japanese, Koreans and Sri Lankans see India as a seat of Buddhism.

Bodhgaya is a major destination visit for most of them though many have found basic amenities and infrastructure missing there.

"Toilets and cleanliness has been an issue" a travel agent, who organises tours to Buddhist sites from Bangkok, said recently.

Swach Bharat Abhiyan will be effectively implemented in Buddhist areas in the country and providing basic amenities for tourists will be a top priority for us, Rijiju said, adding that important Buddhist pilgrimage centres in the country would be identified soon.

These sites should be linked with traditional practices, he noted adding that "we have to look at South East Asia, many of whom have adapted our culture."

Rijiju himself is a Buddhist. He was here earlier this week to attend a United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific meeting.

Rijiju, during his brief two-day trip, visited the Thai Supreme Patriach, and presented him a leaf of original Bodhi tree along with soil from the three holy Buddhist sites-Bodhgaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar.

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India plans to transform Buddhist sites: Kiren Rijiju

Unduvap Full Moon Poya day falls on Saturday:

The idea of a perfect family fascinates us, even if at some level we know theres no such thing. But by imagining that there are those who seem to have everything right, we are setting ourselves up for perpetual disappointment. Especially if we strive to mimic them.

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Vignettes

In demography, longevity is a synonym for life expectancy. However, in common parlance, it means long life. Various factors seem to contribute to a persons longevity. Significant among them are gender, genetics, access to healthcare, hygiene, diet, nutrition, exercise and lifestyle.

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It appears fair to say that almost every individual in the world acquires a phobic horror of something or certain situations which may sound perfectly normal.One may argue that these phobias or fears are unfounded though he may fail to justify his own fear of something normal or natural.

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The ideal family, envisaged in Buddhism

By Phuntsok Yangchen

Gaden Tripa welcomes His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the prayer hall of Gyutoe monastery, Sidhbari. Nov. 28, 2014 Phayul Photo: Kunsang Gashon

Addressing at the occasion, His Holiness the Dalai Lama expressed his pleasure over the Gyutoe monastery taking the responsibilities to hold the important event.

Noting the need to introduce secular ethics in school curriculum around the world the Tibetan leader called on the Tibetans to study the Tibetan Buddhism as a branch of science and not as a religion.

prayer hall of Gyutoe monastery, Sidhbari. Nov. 28, 2014 Phayul Photo: Kunsang Gashon

His Holiness added that he does not claim Buddhism being better than any other religion but that it is the individual who decides which religion is better based on how it helps him. However, he noted that Buddhism is the most in-depth and broadest religion as far as study of mind is concerned.

The function also launched the reprint of The Great Commentary on (Guhyasamaja) Tantra in pecha format and the manuscripts-compared edition of The Lamp Illuminating the Five Stages in book format.

Also present at the function were His Eminence Gaden Tripa, Chief Justice Commissioner, Speaker of the Tibetan parliament, Tibetan ministers and Parliamentarians, and the general public including monks and nuns.

Pema Chinnjor, Minister of Religion and Culture of Tibetan government in exile noted that Tibetan Buddhism had helped several people around the world to educate about Tibet.

Debate on the commentary began in the presence of HIs Holiness the Dalai Lama who interrupted a session saying, "I want to interfere here, can I?" The Tibetan leader raised the issue of great Tibetan Buddhist masters going into meditative state even after death. He asked what the Geshes participating in the debate thought about how the mind in a certain state gives warmth to the body that had died weeks ago.

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Dalai Lama presides over 600th anniversary of Tsongkhapas Commentary

Christianity > Anglican | Catholic | Evangelical | Jehovah's Witnesses | Latter-day Saints | Orthodox | Pentecostal Islam | Hinduism | Buddhism | Sikhism | Judaism | Baha'i | Zoroastrianism | more links (Sizes shown are approximate estimates, and are here mainly for the purpose of ordering the groups, not providing a definitive number. This list is sociological/statistical in perspective.) Christianity: 2.1 billion Islam: 1.5 billion Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion Hinduism: 900 million Chinese traditional religion: 394 million Buddhism: 376 million primal-indigenous: 300 million African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million Sikhism: 23 million Juche: 19 million Spiritism: 15 million Judaism: 14 million Baha'i: 7 million Jainism: 4.2 million Shinto: 4 million Cao Dai: 4 million Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million Tenrikyo: 2 million Neo-Paganism: 1 million Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand Rastafarianism: 600 thousand Scientology: 500 thousand Introduction The adherent counts presented in the list above are current estimates of the number of people who have at least a minimal level of self-identification as adherents of the religion. Levels of participation vary within all groups. These numbers tend toward the high end of reasonable worldwide estimates. Valid arguments can be made for different figures, but if the same criteria are used for all groups, the relative order should be the same. Further details and sources are available below and in the Adherents.com main database.

A major source for these estimates is the detailed country-by-country analysis done by David B. Barrett's religious statistics organization, whose data are published in the Encyclopedia Britannica (including annual updates and yearbooks) and also in the World Christian Encyclopedia (the latest edition of which - published in 2001 - has been consulted). Hundreds of additional sources providing more thorough and detailed research about individual religious groups have also been consulted.

This listing is not a comprehensive list of all religions, only the "major" ones (as defined below). There are distinct religions other than the ones listed above. But this list accounts for the religions of over 98% of the world's population. Below are listed some religions which are not in this listing (Mandeans, PL Kyodan, Ch'ondogyo, Vodoun, New Age, Seicho-No-Ie, Falun Dafa/Falun Gong, Taoism, Roma), along with explanations for why they do not qualify as "major world religions" on this list.

This world religions listing is derived from the statistics data in the Adherents.com database. The list was created by the same people who collected and organized this database, in consultation with university professors of comparative religions and scholars from different religions. We invite additional input. The Adherents.com collection of religious adherent statistics now has over 43,000 adherent statistic citations, for over 4,300 different faith groups, covering all countries of the world. This is not an absolutely exhaustive compilation of all such data, but it is by far the largest compilation available on the Internet. Various academic researchers and religious representatives regularly share documented adherent statistics with Adherents.com so that their information can be available in a centralized database.

Statistics and geography citations for religions not on this list, as well as subgroups within these religions (such as Catholics, Protestants, Karaites, Wiccans, Shiites, etc.) can be found in the main Adherents.com database.

This document is divided into the following sections:

After many centuries, with the increased Western awareness of Eastern history and philosophy, and the development of Islam, other religions were added to the list. Many Far Eastern ways of thought, in fact, were given the status of "world religion" while equally advanced religious cultures in technologically less developed or pre-literate societies (such as in Australia, Africa, South America, and Polynesia) were grouped together as pagans or "animists," regardless of their actual theology. It's true that by the standards applied at the time, the Far Eastern religions Westerners encountered were often in a different category altogether than the religions they classified as pagan. One can not directly compare, for example, the local beliefs of the Polynesian islands of Kiribati during the 1500s to the organizational, political, literary and philosophical sophistication of Chinese Taoism during the same period. But one could certainly question whether Japanese Shintoism, as an official "world religion", was theologically or spiritually more "advanced" than African Yoruba religion, which was classified simply as animism or paganism.

During the 1800s comparative religion scholars increasingly recognized Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism as the most significant "world religions." Even today, these are considered the "Big Five" and are the religions most likely to be covered in world religion books.

Five smaller or more localized religions/philosophies brought the list of world religions to ten: Confucianism, Taoism, Jainism, Shinto and Zoroastrianism.

Beginning around 1900 comparative religion writers in England began to take note of the Sikhs which had begun to immigrate there from India (part of the British Empire at the time). Sikhs, if mentioned at all, had been classified as a sect of Hinduism during the first three hundred years of their history. But after the influential British writers began to classify Sikhism as a distinct, major world religion, the rest of the world soon followed their example.

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Major Religions Ranked by Size - Adherents.com