Buddhism has its own shameful history of violence and oppression. Examples include Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka. Oppression of the Tamil minority, who are mostly Hindu and Christian, resulted in a bloody uprising by the Tamil Tigers.

The Dalai Lama seems like a gentle, enlightened old guy with a great sense of humor. I'm not sure that was the experience of ordinary Tibetans when the Lamas were absolute God-Kings.

In Japan, the Buddhist sects aligned themselves with State Shinto during Japan's imperialist period. They justified aggression with the phrase issatsu tasho, which means literally "one kill, many live." In other words, it's ok to kill a few people to make things better for the majority.

In postwar Japan, a branch of Nichiren Buddhism called Soka Gakkai (Value Creation Learning Society) recruited large numbers of families through force and intimidation. They also formed their own conservative political party called Komeito (Clean Government Party).

My impression of Japanese Buddhist temples was that they were powerful money-making machines. One of their biggest money makers is the funeral business. In addition to the initial funeral, the Japanese also commemorate the dead with ceremonies every few years. I don't think anyone really believes it, but they do believe that if they fail to follow the rituals their relatives and neighbors might look down on them. The Buddhists exploit that.

I had a friend who drove a taxi in Yokohama. He told me he used to see a line of Buddhist monks filing out of their temple and down the street to the local brothel, which had a special happy night for the enlightened. Buddhism has a reputation for ascetism and self-denial, but there's also a lot of venality and lasciviousness in the mix.

I was into a form of Buddhism for many years. It went hand in hand with the japanese martial arts I was practising.

If you want to understand the basics of Buddhism then look up the Four Pillars of Wisdom and the Eightfold path. That's buddhism 101.

Although Buddhism has all the trappings of religion Lord Gauthamha ( First Buddha) didn't approve of it but realised that it was an inevitable part of the expansion of his ideas for the 'common people' to find comfort and some of his message..

He didn't like monks much either. He didn't starve to death - According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon reach Parinirvana, or the final deathless state, and abandon his earthly body. After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda.

I rather like the apocryphal story of Buddha having been an ascetic for 30 odd years woke up one day in his mid 50's, announced he was hungry and thirsty and that the whole starving thing was unnecessary and boring. He than proceeded to become rather portly in his middle age (as we all do). The change in portrayals is obvious.

Most of the Buddhist traditions (monks and temples) we see today originated in Jainism (Lord Buddhas born into religion) and merely transferred (like so many parallels in Abrahamic religions) to the newcomer.

Buddha never claimed to be anything but a man. One of the important tenets of buddhism is that gods are irrelevant to the core practice of self improvement and awareness.

Another important thing to remember is that Lord Gauthama undoubtedly existed unlike any of the Abrahamic Prophets except Muhammed. Gauthama's ideas and practises changed many aspects of society in their day and continue to exert influence in most nations of the world.

Like most visionary philosophers Buddha was a child of his time and heritage when studying buddhism. it is, as with all early texts, important to winnow the actual attritable parts of the sutras from the Hindu/Jain/Animist influences that permeated the time and added as later edits.

The buddhist philosophy of self awareness, self improvement to become the best person you can be in this life was revolutionary in its day and region with the widespread belief in permanent life with ancestors, gods, and rebirth. Buddhas principles still hold good today: Qualities of practising; introspection, education and self awareness.

Regarding other religions:

You can accept and practice buddha's teachings in any religion as the god is irrelevant to your voyage of self discovery/improvement.
e.g you can be a buddhist christian, a buddhist muslim, a buddhist Mormon whatever

you cannot be a muslim buddhist, christian buddhist, mormon buddhist they will kill you.

Happy to answer any questions you may have. My study and practise if buddhism was limited to zen and Therevardan schools so dont ask about the forest buddhists (Thai) or animists, I have no idea!

(Edited for punctuation and clarity)

well I know other buddhist countries are following buddhism in traditional way and they have mixed local cultural things in Buddha's teachings. But here in India majority of Buddhist are following Navyana . And there are not superstitions in it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navayana

And question raise by Algebe about bloody history of Buddhism is totally incorrect The tamil tiger incident was more political than religious. Well Buddha was born in India and Indian Buddhist only follow his real teachings. In ancient time when it was spread in other countries those countries mixed local cultural stuff, superstitions , concepts of more than 1 buddha , misinterpretation of his rebirths theory . So before criticising it read Navyana Buddhism. cause there is a great difference between Religion and Buddha's Dhamma . And further more Buddha himself have told his followers that ," don't believe anything just because I am saying it. check it by yourself logically."
He never claimed infallibility for his message. The only claim he made was that his message was the only true way to salvation as he understood it. It was based on universal human experience of life in the world. He said that it was open to anyone to question it, test it, and find what truth it contained. No founder has so fully thrown open his religion to such a challenge.