BUDDHIST STUDIES. Buddhism is considered to be a historical religion, that is, a religion with a founder who appeared at a specific moment in human history. This founder is, of course, the Buddha, who lived for some eighty years in what is today northern India and southern Nepal, sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE. Buddhist texts would reject any claim that Buddhism originated at that time; Śākyamuni was only the most recent of a series of buddhas who have appeared in the past and will appear in the future. Yet, Buddhists across the centuries of Buddhist history would agree that he was the buddha for the present age, and that his life and teachings constitute an epochal event in the history of the universe. The study of Buddhism, whether by Buddhist monks in the monasteries of Asia or by scholars in the European and...