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Ashoka then worked to expand the religion by sending monks to teach the people.
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By 200 A.D. Buddhism had spread to many places like Sri Lanka or China. Then Buddhism was separated into two different forms of the religion. Mahayana and Hinayana.
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By 500 A.D. China had 2 million followers of Buddhism. China can thank the Silk Road for that number. Huge temples and monasteries were built.
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Then around the 850's Buddhism took a decline in China due to persecutions. 4600 temples were destroyed and 260,500 monks and nuns were not allowed to practice Buddhism anymore.
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Decline of Buddhism all along the Silk Road also started in the 800's due to the fall of the Tang dynasty in the east and the Arabs in the west.
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Then by 1450 almost all of central Asia wasn't Buddhist anymore. They were Islamic.
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Then in the 3rd century B.C. a king from the Mauryan Empire, Ashoka converted to Buddhism.
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Buddhism started in the 5th century B.C. by Siddhartha Gautama in India.
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For decades he traveled teaching about his religion until his death.
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For 200 years after Buddha's death there were only small communities of monks that practiced the religion.
