Buddhism is a philosophy or a religion. Members of any ethnic group can be Buddhist.
"Gentry Buddhism" appealed to the elite as an alternative to Confucianism and Daoism.
Buddhism has about 365 million followers at the moment.
Same religion ( Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism,Hinduism, and Islam
Buddhism did not directly cause problems for its followers. However, from time to time, members of other religions wished to suppress Buddhism. The major example of this is when Muslims would murder Buddhists in the name of Allah.
Buddhism has been taught for about 2500 years.
Buddhism has about 365 million followers at the moment.
It is the other way around. Buddhism was started by a born Hindu prince. Many Gods and Goddesses from Hinduism are used in Buddhism.
An Introduction to Zen Buddhism has 130 pages.
There are many groups of Buddhism in Japan today. The main ones are the Pure Land Buddhism (Jodo shu and Jodo Shinshu) and Nichiren Buddhism. There is also Zen (Soto and Rinzai are the main ones), Tendai and Shingon. Many new religions also are based on Buddhism.
There are several/many lineages in Tibetan Buddhism. However, the head monk of Tibetan Buddhism is the Dalai Lama.
There are many times more people in the world practicing Christianity than Buddhism.