In a religiously diverse Asia, Pakistan one of the least diverse: Report

[Kloitra]

Buddhism was merged with native Chinese philosophies and religions (Confucianism and Taoism), creating something we might call "East Asian Buddhism" which was widely accepted across the whole of East Asia. This is a part of the Mahayana branch of Buddhism.

South East Asia has a different form of Buddhism (Theravada), since they got it from the other route, i.e. directly from South Asia.

How much are Shintoism and Taoism related? Are they comparable, like different forms of Buddhism?

I think you guys write his name as Hsuan-tsang, which is an old Romanization. The more correct way to write it is Xuanzang.

The other one you're talking about, the founder of the Shaolin Temple is Batuo. And no, he did not bring Martial Arts, Chinese martial arts are native to China, what he brought was the religion and ideology of Buddhism.

I guess its a myth, can't remember where I read though. Or possibly I remember wrong.

-------
Yeah, Hsuan Tsang.

 

[Thorough Pro]

What's the big deal? It's a known historical fact that Pakistan was created in the name of religion (Islam) by the suppressed minority Muslims of un-divided india. The division was based on concentration of Muslims, migration of millions of Muslims from hindu concentration areas further tipped the balance in one particular direction.

In a religiously diverse Asia, Pakistan one of the least diverse: Report
By Khurram Siddiqui
Published: April 4, 2014

Countries shown with varying religious diversity. PHOTO: PEW RESEARCH CENTER

Pakistan ranks among the least religiously diverse countries in a religiously diverse Asian region, including immediate neighbours Afghanistan and Iran, according to theReligious Diversity Index published by the Pew Research Center on Friday.

The 10-point index, which ranks each country by its level of religious diversity, is divided into four ranges, “very high”, “high”, “moderate”, and “low”. Pakistan ranked among the 136 “low diversity” countries, the largest range on the index indicating that most countries in the world are not religion diverse.

The 12-nation top range of “very high” diversity countries comprised of six from Asia-Pacific – Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, China, and Hong Kong – and five from sub-Saharan Africa – Mozambique, Benin, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, and Togo.

Of the 232 countries in the study, Singapore with a population of more than 5 million had the highest score on the Religious Diversity Index. About a third of Singapore’s population is Buddhist (34%), while 18% are Christian, 16% are religiously unaffiliated, 14% are Muslim, 5% are Hindu and less than 1% are Jewish.

According to the data, Pakistan had the 23rd largest proportional Muslim population at 96.4%, smaller than immediate neighbours Afghanistan and Iran, but larger than Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.

Pakistan had a Religious Diversity Index score of 0.8 featuring an overwhelming Muslim population of 96.4%. The largest minority community of Hindus made up 1.9% of the population with Christians a close second comprising 1.6% of the population. Buddhists, Jews, and those belonging to ‘folk religions’ all comprised 0.1% of the population each.

Among Muslim majority nations, Pakistan ranked 26th in terms of religious diversity, with Malaysia topping the list and Morocco being the least diverse. Interestingly, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia are more diverse than Pakistan, and so are all Arabian Gulf countries, except Yemen. Turkey and immediate neighbours Afghanistan and Iran ranked lower than Pakistan in religious diversity.

Interestingly, the United States and the United Kingdom did not rank very high on the overall index with both countries falling in the “moderate” diversity range, below “high” diversity countries like North Korea, Bahrain, Qatar and Cuba. Australia and Canada also ranked within the “high” diversity range.

Czech Republic, North Korea, Estonia, Japan, Hong Kong, and China topped the list of proportional population that was “religiously unaffiliated”, those who say they are atheists, agnostics or nothing in particular.

The Pew Research Center, a research group that does empirical social science research, developed the Religious Diversity Index which looks at the percentage of each country’s population that belongs to eight major religious groups – Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. The closer a country comes to having equal shares of the eight groups, the higher its score on the index.

 

[Azizam]

That is why they had this debilitating "Civil War ".

The Buddhist hate the Muslims and Hindu Tamils and the Tamils hate the other two. The Muslims are too weak to hate anyone in Sri Lanka.

Muslims are not innocent at all. Too weak? They are infiltrated by Salafis and have become bots for them. Salafis recently destroyed some Sufi shrine and violently opposed construction of a Buddha statue by armed forces in eastern province. You should be grateful for the Buddhists for their patience otherwise imagine what would happen if a group of Christians opposes contruction of a mosque somewhere in Pakistan and vandalizes historical Islamic sites. I myself is a Christian which is a religious minority but with the actions of Salafi bots they make the situation harder for all of us by increasing influence of Buddhist thugs.

 

[A Town]

Muslims are not innocent at all. Took weak? They are infiltrated by Salafis and have become bots for them. Salafis recently destroyed some Sufi shrine and violently opposed construction of a Buddha statue by armed forces in eastern province. You should be grateful for the Buddhists for their patience otherwise imagine what would happen if a group of Christians opposes contruction of a mosque somewhere in Pakistan and vavandalizes historical Islamic sites.

They like to play the victim card.

 

[Khan_patriot]

This is not a surprise, Pakistan is an Islamic republic, after all, we are ethnically very diverse but religiously, not so much....

 

[Vinod2070]

Well, Pakistan was 100% Dharmic before the Islamic invasions.

It had 15%-20% Hindu Sikh population just before the partition.

After the partition ethnic cleansing it is on it's way to be the purest country in the world.

 

[livingdead]

why is it even a news, pakistan was made to be homeland for muslims of subcontinent, a land of pure.

 

[NEPALESE GURKHA]

It is good to be less diverse as it decreases the complexity of political governence.

 

[Devil Soul]

Pakistan more religiously diverse than Turkey, Iran: study
DAWN.COM

Map by Pew Research Center shows the level of religious diversity in countries of the world.
Updated 2014-04-05 17:28:16
While being a Muslim majority country, Pakistan is more religiously diverse than 48 other countries of the world including Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Maldives, Romania and the Vatican City, says a new study.

According to the Pew Research Center study, Pakistan does rank amongst the countries with low religious diversity, but its population makeup keeps it ahead of 48 nations.

The country scores a total of 0.8 on a scale of 0 to 10, with 96.4 per cent of its population Muslims, 1.9 per cent Hindus, 1.6 per cent Christians, and all other religions less than 0.1 per cent.

The Religious Diversity Index (RDI) calculates diversity based on national population shares of eight major world religions (Buddhists, Christians, folk religions, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, other religions considered as a group, and the religiously unaffiliated).

The index divides the countries into four ranges: very high (the top 5 per cent of scores), high (the next highest 15 per cent of scores, which works out to 16 per cent because of tie scores), moderate (the next 20 per cent of scores) and low (the bottom 59 per cent of scores). A score of 10 indicates the maximum possible diversity if each of the eight groups constitutes an equal share of the population.

The countries ranking the highest on the index include Singapore 9.0, Taiwan 8.2, Vietnam 7.7, Suriname 7.6, Guinea-Bissau 7.5, Togo 7.5, Ivory Coast 7.4, South Korea 7.4, China 7.3, Hong Kong 7.2, Benin 7.2, Mozambique 7.0.

With a score of 4.0, India ranks amongst countries with moderate religious diversity. Countries on the moderate range include the US, UAE, Russia, Nepal, and the UK, among others.

The three countries with the least religiously diverse population are the Vatican City, Morocco, and Tokelau – all with a score of 0. They are followed closely by Iran, Romania, Tunisia, Timor-Leste, Somalia and Afghanistan.