Buddhist history
More than two millennia of communities, languages and political settings cannot be reduced to a single straight line. This page marks broad turning points and names where dates or interpretations remain debated.
No single branch contains the whole tree.
Dates below are orientation ranges, not claims of exact certainty.
Early life and teaching
The historical Buddha lived in northern South Asia. Modern scholarship debates exact dates; many current accounts place his life around the fifth century BCE.
Communities and remembered teachings
Teachings were preserved, organised and debated by communities before surviving canons took written form in several languages.
Aśoka and wider networks
In the third century BCE, inscriptions associated with Emperor Aśoka provide important evidence for patronage, ethics and regional networks.
Multiple vehicles and transmissions
Theravāda, Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna are broad family names. Each contains diverse lineages carried through South, Central, Southeast and East Asia.
Modern and global Buddhism
Colonialism, migration, reform, scholarship and new media reshaped practice. Global visibility did not erase local histories or authority.
The 2007 booklet presented in The Quest for Truth records a Reservoir context. It does not establish the history, lineage or programme of the emerging Rockbank project.