BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Buddhism Two New Buddhist Quizzes Posted!

Hi, I've posted a couple of Buddhist quizzes for you to test your knowledge on Buddhism, and/or learn more (you'll get my explanation of each answer at the end.) I'd like to post more quizzes, so please submit any feedback or ideas in this thread.

Quizzes:

Buddhist Teachings

Buddhist History


Enjoy!

Question 8 in Buddhist History is not strictly accurate in its answer of The Dalai Lama.
he may well be the temporal and political leader of Tibetan Buddhists, but he does not hold the top religious position.

There are 4 Principal schools of Tibetan buddhism:
Nyingmapa ("School of the Ancients")
Kagy�pa ("Oral Transmission School")
Sakyapa and
Gelugpa (or Dge-lugs-pa or Gelukpa, "School of the Virtuous").

This last one is by far the most recent and 'youngest' school to be established, but is now the largest and most dominant.
The Dalai Lama is head of this school, but he holds no influential religious sway over the other schools.
This is a common error.
but an error, nonetheless.

thanks.

Alexandra, you are of course technically correct, and I simplified things for the purpose of the quiz, perhaps too much. Although, I discovered when researching material for my article Dalai Lama Succession Issues that there really is no separation between religion and government within the Tibetan system, so depending on how you define 'religious', the Dalai Lama is essentially the top religious and governmental leader. He doesn't hold any sway over the internal practices of each school, or their selection of lamas, but they all acknowledge him as the official representative of Tibetan Buddhism in general to the outside world, and he leads all multi-school religious gatherings. This current Dalai Lama has shifted that quite a bit, partly because of the Tibetan exile situation, so it's hard to say if that will hold going forward or not...

I still claim my bonus point for being a smart@$$.....

I would definitely give you bonus points if I could:-)

Just added a third quiz to the Buddhism site - Buddhist Writings, Art and Symbols. Give it a try, these are a great way to learn more.