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

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

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

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

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

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

The Great Stupa at Sanchi is the earliest surviving Buddhist stupa

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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