List of Buddhist Records and Trivia
Taktshang Monastery in Bhutan, 700 meters above the valley below (2,300 feet)
Here is a list of some interesting Buddhist records and information.
Records
- World's largest Buddha statue in China: 416 m x 68 m (1,365 ft x 223 ft)
- World's tallest Buddha statue in China: 208 m (682 ft)
- World's largest book (of any kind): Kuthodaw Pagoda 729 marble slabs with the Tipitaka inscribed on them
- Largest Buddhist temple: Borobudur in Indonesia, 123 m x 123 m (403 ft x 403 ft) at the base
- Angkor Wat in Cambodia has an outer wall that encloses 820,000 square meters (203 acres), but was originally a Hindu temple and later a Buddhist temple.
- Oldest living tree (of any kind) with a known planting date: Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi, a Bodhi Tree in Sri Lanka, brought by Sanghamitta and planted in 288 BCE.
- World's highest elevation Buddhist temple: Ki Gompa in India at 4,116 meters (13,504 feet).
- Dhankar Gompa in India is at an elevation of 3,890 meters (12,762 feet), nearly the highest.
- World's highest Buddhist temple off the ground: Taktshang in Bhutan, 700 m (2,300 ft). Although, technically not "off the ground" since it rests on a mountain, the impressive image to the right showing it on the edge gives sort of an image of being off the ground (the valley) below. The actual record would be a temple or center in a high rise or other man-made structure, such as Vulture Peak Dhamma Center.
- World's highest Dhamma center off the ground in an urban area: Vulture Peak Dhamma Center in Las Vegas (Vipassana Foundation), 100 m (326 ft)
Trivia
- Largest scriptures of the major religions: Buddhism, 40 volumes, about 20,000 pages in the Tipitaka
- Holiest place in Buddhism: Maha Bodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, India
- Percent of current inhabitants of India who are Buddhist: about 3%
- Oldest Buddhist temple outside of India or Sri Lanka: White Horse Temple in China, 68 CE
- Oldest continually running Buddhist temple: Tabo Gompa in India, est. 996 CE.
- Oldest Buddhist university: Nalanda in India, est. 427 CE (one of the oldest of any kind)
- Number of Buddhists in the World, approx. 1.2 billion to 1.6 billion
- Number of Buddhists in the world, outside of Asia: 11,383,715 (about 1% of total Buddhists)
- Number of Buddhists in the U.S. who are not of Asian descent: 1,227,014
- Number of Buddhists in the U.S. who are Asian or of Asian descent: 4,908,057
- The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado now has a Buddhist chapel with meditation cushions for 20 cadets, the Dhamma center opening in year 2007.
- The Buddha was the first person in history to consider slavery immoral and to condemn it as such.
- First known world religion to have a monastic order for women: Buddhism, see Bhikkhuni ordination
- Only major religion to have scriptures written or composed by women: Buddhism, see Therigatha and Itivuttaka
- Only major religion where followers can attain to the same level as the founder: Buddhism, see Arahant
Maha Bodhi Replicas
A souvenir Maha Bodhi Temple replica, 36 cm (14 in.)
Since the Maha Bodhi Temple is the holiest place in Buddhism, there have been several replicas of the temple made over the centuries. So far there have been at least eight temples made which are similar in design:
- Mahabodhi World Peace Buddha Temple, Bangalore, India
- Linh Son Temple, Kushinagar, India
- Mahabuddha Temple, Patan, Nepal
- Mahabodhi Temple, Bagan, Burma
- Shwedagon Pagoda, (Mahabodhi Paya) Yangon, Burma
- Wat Nong Bua, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand
- Wat Chet Yot, Chiang Mai, Thailand
- Wat Florida Dhammaram, Kissimmee, Florida, USA