CzechKid :

Buddhism is a religious and philosophical system which came into being in the 6th to 4th century BC in Northern India. Its founder was the Buddha. Alongside Christianity and Islam it is one of the most widespread religions, especially in the countries of central, southeast and east Asia. Like all native Indian regions, Buddhism involves a belief in karma and the transmigration of the soul. The basis of Buddhist doctrine (dharma) is learning about suffering (dukkha), which Buddhism understands as the real basis of life. Buddhism points to a way of overcoming suffering and of attaining the final aim, nirvana: a state in which the cycle of transmigration ends, and with it suffering.

At the time it came into being, Buddhism may have been a reaction against the escalation of the antagonisms arising between social groups; it even stood up to the official Hindu Brahman caste system by proclaiming universal equality. On the other hand it is a doctrine of social passivity, extracted from a specific historical situation. Because of this Buddhism was acceptable for the forces in power, which became one of the main reasons for its expansion.

Buddhism began to expand into China in the 1st century BC, and attained its greatest importance in the 4th to 7th centuries. It arrived in Japan in the 6th century from China and Korea. In the 16th and 17th centuries it expanded into Tibet and Mongolia in the characteristic form of Lamaism. It still exists in its older form in Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand, and in its younger forms in the other countries of central and southeast Asia.