Danish Faizi
3rd October 2014
History 160B Discussion 11:00-11:50

Blending of Buddhism
Born into royalty, riches wealth and power were all on the fingertips of a man named Siddhartha. Siddhartha lived a lavish life full of riches and luxury, sheltered from the cruel outside world because of his father but at the age of twenty-nine he changed his life around(Strayer 208). He had witnessed poverty and suffering for the first time, gave up all of his belongings and began a journey to find enlightenment. After over forty days of meditating and fighting of worldly possessions under a Pinal tree he had finally reached nirvana and began to teach what he had learned through this experience. Through the teachings of the Buddha this religion was easily was spread throughout India, China, Tibet, Nepal and many other places by depicting Buddha himself in different ways according to the countries culture. Buddhism began in Northwestern India in the birth place of Siddhartha himself and did not seem to stop. The teachings of Buddhism has been prevalent for thousands of years in Asian culture. Even though countries like China and India are massive and take up most of the Asian continent their cultures and people are not as similar as people would believe since the countries are right next to each other. Somehow their depictions of Buddha have the same underlying message of his “purity” and how Buddhists “can take refuge” and how he is the divine one who has reached ultimate Nirvana(Strayer 209). In the first image shown Vital Source 4.1 it did not depict Buddha as a person but a symbol the footprints represented Buddha and his divinity (Strayer 209). Perception is what makes people different and Buddha is perceived differently in every single depiction given in this document. “The impulse to depict Buddha in human form surfaced..”(Strayer 210). The first image of Buddha in human formed surfaced in South Asia around the same place Buddhism was originated. Now that people had a “person” or a “figure” to follow it made Buddhism easier to spread. In source(s) 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 Buddha is depicted as a person but each depiction of Buddha is different. Buddha was depicted through how the certain society saw him. In every depiction he is noted as heavenly and enlightened but he does not look the same in every source. In vital source 4.2 Buddha is depicted as what can be described as a modern day