430 BC Siddartha Gautama leaves home
Siddartha Gautama, a prince in Nepal, leaves home to become a wandering ascetic

424 BC Buddha preaches first sermon
Gautama Buddha preaches his first sermon, at Sarnath, setting out the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path

424 BC Gautama enlightened
Gautama, after a night of meditation under a pipal tree at Buddh Gaya, is 'enlightened' and becomes the Buddha

420 BC Order of Buddhist monks
Buddha introduces a vigorous tradition of monasticism, in the order of Buddhist monks known as Sangha

250 BC Asoka favours Buddhism
Asoka, extending his rule over much of India, proclaims his Buddhist faith on pillars and in rock inscriptions

250 BC Buddhism reaches Sri Lanka
Buddhism reaches Sri Lanka as a result of the missionary efforts of the Indian ruler, Asoka

50 BC Stupa at Sanchi
The Great Stupa at Sanchi is the earliest surviving Buddhist stupa

100 Theravada Buddhism south and east
Theravada Buddhism, strong in south India and Sri Lanka, travels with traders through southeast Asia

100 Buddhism established in China
Buddhism, arriving with trade along the Silk Road from India, puts down firm roots in China

538 Buddhism reaches Japan
A Buddhist image, sent as a gift from Korea, introduces the religion to Japan

600 Ajanta's Buddhist murals
The walls of caves at Ajanta are profusely decorated with Buddhist murals

607 Horyuji temple and pagoda
Prince Shotoku Taishi, an enthusiastic patron of Buddhism, builds the Horyuji temple and pagoda at Nara

650 Buddhist murals at Dunhuang
At Dunhuang, an oasis on the Silk Road, as many as 500 caves are decorated with Buddhist murals

650 Buddhism reaches Tibet
Songtsen Gampo builds temples in Lhasa for his two Buddhist wives, thus introducing the religion to Tibet

768 Empress of Japan has a million charms
The empress of Japan, in a remarkable start to the story of printing, commissions a million copies of a Buddhist charm

845 T'ang emperor persecutes Buddhists
On the orders of the T'ang emperor, 4000 Buddhist monasteries are destroyed in China and 250,000 monks and nuns are forced into secular life

1000 Rock temples at Ellora
Buddhist, Hindu and Jain shrines are carved from the rock in the cave temples of Ellora, in India

1150 Zen Buddhism and the samurai
Zen Buddhism reaches Japan from China and appeals greatly to the new samurai class

1252 Cult of Amida in Japanese Buddhism
A huge bronze sculpture, known as Daibutsu and cast in Kamakura, depicts Amida, the Amitabha Buddha of Pure Land Buddhism

1338 Dalai Lama dies but soon returns
The first Dalai Lama dies in 1338 and is discovered to have been reincarnated in a boy born in 1340

1614 Christianity banned in Japan
An edict is passed expelling Jesuit missionaries from Japan, and ordering their converts to revert to Buddhism

1650 Dalai Lama identifies Panchen Lama
The Dalai Lama declares that his teacher is also an incarnation of a future Buddha, and that he is to be known as Panchen

1959 Dalai Lama flees to India
The Dalai Lama escapes from Tibet to India after the Chinese suppression of an armed uprising costing thousands of Buddhist lives