title: Forensic Files

text: When CourtTV acquired the rights to the show for its fifth season, the decision was made to rename the show "Forensic Files" in order to emphasize the forensic science that was performed on the cases and connect it better with other documentary/reenactment crime shows with a similar title such as "The FBI Files" and "Cold Case Files". A new opening was produced for Seasons 5 and 6 (and a couple of Season 7) and it depicted footage from the first four seasons. The title display "Forensic Files" is depicted in big blue and red letters with a background light beaming across the "Forensic" part. This opening was later used for the "Medical Detectives" episodes, removing their original openings and distinctive title displays. Some episodes such as "Raw Terror" and "Foreign Body" were never incorporated under the Forensic Files name due to CourtTV's desire to have the show focus on crime-related episodes in favor of simple accidental virus ones as those episodes are; though some episodes that focused on bank robberies and attempts at poisoning, but no murders were still incorporated. Episodes such as "Raw Terror" and "Foreign Body" (along with a number of episodes from the "Medical Detectives" era) can be seen online only under its original format when they were aired as "Medical Detectives".


title: Forensic Files

text: In Season 7, a newer (and more well-known) opening sequence was made with an entirely new theme song, providing a more tech-based feel and featuring a new title format. The titles of the episodes are quickly scanned underneath the title displays. No footage from actual episodes is used and everything displayed is made exclusively for the opening. This opening was used on a number of rebranded "Medical Detectives" episodes; replacing the opening for Seasons 5 and 6 that was originally given to them. Episodes such as "The Southside Strangler" and "Legionnaires' Disease" can be seen with all three openings. Season 7's "Reel Danger" can be seen with two.


title: Forensic Files

text: By Season 12, starting with the twentieth episode, the opening sequence was shortened entirely and as a result, just the title of the show is featured and the title of the episode displayed beneath it. The episodes from here on out now had a faster-paced opening preview of the episode with upbeat music and Peter Thomas starting off saying "Up Next...".


title: Forensic Files

text: On October 1, 2019, HLN announced it had acquired the broadcasting rights from Medstar Television to produce a revival of the series, with the first season consisting of 16 half-hour episodes. The new show is titled "Forensic Files II", and the first episode is scheduled to air on February 23, 2020 with Bill Camp serving as the new narrator.


title: Forensic Files

text: The show takes a "whodunit" approach, making each case a mystery that needs to be solved. Every half-hour episode follows one case from its initial investigation until the suspect(s) conviction, acquittal, or some other legal resolution. Pathologists, medical examiners, police officers, detectives, prosecutors, defense attorneys, friends and families of victims or suspects (if their cooperation is given) are all interviewed about their roles.


title: Forensic Files

text: Video footage of the lab tests is shot in a modernistic film noir style, in dark, moodily lit settings with odd, glowing colors. The crimes and parts of the investigation are re-enacted with actors in dramatic recreations. These recreations are indicated by a change to a "filmized" look, as is done with many crime re-enactment shows. These recreations sometimes include alternate versions of the crime, which are eventually disproven by the science. This technique would later be appropriated, in a modified form, by the CBS television series ""—essentially a fictionalized big-budget version of "Forensic Files". During the original run of the show as "Medical Detectives", eerie vocal music was matched with the recreations in order to create a frightening atmosphere. This specific effect was discontinued after the move to Court TV.


title: Forensic Files

text: For privacy considerations, the names of some victims and their families are changed, and case evidence featured within the show is re-created in order to protect their true identities. That is unless consent is given by the persons who are being spoken to, the show is not allowed to use the family's (or families') real name(s).


title: Forensic Files

text: In 2006, "Forensic Files "Advanced"" episodes aired, which had older episodes interspersed with "Pop-Up Video" style factoids about the cases which were then being featured.


title: Forensic Files

text: Sometimes, another case is mentioned which is similar to the one being aired. For example: "Cold Hearted" on "Freeze Framed" and "Past Lives" on "A Squire's Riches". In another episode that involves DNA evidence, the name of a man shown on an older episode was mentioned again and this time he was revealed to have been the first person put to death in the United States based on DNA evidence.


title: Forensic Files

text: On re-runs of episodes on HLN, an update of the case is given on the criminals that were alive at the time the episodes were aired (deaths, parole, release, etc.).


title: Forensic Files

text: Premiering just as the O. J. Simpson murder trial had focused attention on the world of DNA and forensics, "Medical Detectives" became a hit. It was one of the first of the popular forensic science shows. A few years later, Court TV acquired rights to broadcast the show and it quickly became the cornerstone of its primetime schedule, increasing its annual production run to 42 episodes. The show was retained after the network was renamed TruTV in 2008.


title: Forensic Files

text: The show was so successful that, in 2002, NBC aired it as a summer replacement series, one of the first times in which a program produced for cable television was aired by a broadcast network in prime-time.


title: Forensic Files

text: In 2009, truTV's sister network Turner Network Television ("TNT") began airing episodes in HD on Wednesday nights for the month of December.


title: Forensic Files

text: The vast majority of the shows are in a half-hour format. However, some hour-long specials have been produced. Several of these have re-investigated famous cases such as The Norfolk Four, or even historic murders such as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the John F. Kennedy assassination.


title: Forensic Files

text: Reruns were aired on Lifetime in the fall of 2011 under the "Medical Detectives" moniker. A year later, in October 2012, HLN began airing the reruns under the title "Mystery Detectives." Beginning in January 2014, HLN switched to the "Forensic Files" title. On that network, it is increasingly being used to fill many time slots due to program cancellations by budget cuts. By 2016, the program took up about 58% of the entire HLN channel each week. In June 2014, the program aired nightly from 2am through 5am on CNN, before being removed due to industry and viewer criticism, along with continuing international breaking news events, and replaced with a CNN International simulcast. Since November 7, 2015, HLN has retitled the program "Forensic Files: Digital Details" and aired episodes that did not air on the channel before. The show led HLN in ratings in early 2015.


title: Forensic Files

text: TruTV currently still holds the licensing rights to the Forensic Files name. The reruns were repackaged with a shorter intro, and (at the end of some episodes) updates on what became of the suspect(s) or parties involved since the final verdicts. (For example: At the end of the 1996 episode "The List Murders," it is mentioned that John List, convicted of murdering his entire family in 1971 and sentenced to life in prison, died in 2008.) In late 2014, Investigation Discovery started airing episodes under the "Cause of Death" title. Reruns of the show also are carried over-the-air on Court TV, sister channel Court TV Mystery, AMGTV and in off-network syndication. As of 2022 the entire catalogue of Forensic Files is available on Peacock, while a "Best of Forensic Files" series is available on Amazon Prime. It also currently has its own channel on Pluto TV.


title: Forensic Files

text: HLN advertised "brand new episodes of "Forensic Files"" intermittently since 2014, when the advertised "new" episodes are actually just old episodes that had never aired on the network before and were "new" to HLN. The advertisement of "new" episodes caused confusion, with some viewers taking to Twitter to ask the show's creator, Paul Dowling, if the show was going back into production. The show's narrator, Peter Thomas, died on April 30, 2016, five years after the program went out of production. Dowling stated that Thomas "can't be replaced," thus eliminating any hopes of reviving the program. Despite this, the program was revived for an additional season for February 2020. Bill Camp was chosen to succeed Thomas as the show's narrator.


title: Forensic Files

text: In 2004, Court TV released a limited number of episodes on DVD. As of June 26, 2009, Amazon.com says the DVD has been discontinued by the manufacturer.


title: Forensic Files

text: In August 2011, TGG Direct released 8 DVD collections each containing 12 episodes. These collections include "Historic Cases," "Convictions Overturned," "Death By Poison," "Crimes of Passion," "Kidnapping Cases," "Medical Mysteries," "Serial Killers" and "Sex Crimes."


title: Forensic Files

text: As of February 2020, Netflix in the U.S. is streaming most of the 406 episodes, split into 9 collections; seasons 7–9 and 11–14 are also available on Hulu. The latter also planned to stream "Forensic Files II" on its premium subscription service.


title: Forensic Files

text: This basic cable offering has been reviewed infrequently by television critics. In August 2002, The "Houston Chronicle" compared it to an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries": "A criminal story is told – the more bizarre the better; a mysterious element is introduced; and forensic experts solve the mystery. All that's missing is Robert Stack."


title: Forensic Files

text: The "Los Angeles Times" gave this review in April 2001: "Although "Forensic Files" ably extends this specialized field to the masses and deploys its slick reenactments effectively, its jarring voice-over is the overcooked antithesis of the meticulous science it depicts."


title: Forensic Files

text: The new series, which had recently premiered its second season on July 11, 2021, uses the same formula as the original, though with a new narrator, Bill Camp. "We are telling the same kinds of stories in the same way," Executive Producer Nancy Duffy said in an interview. Instead of hiring actors to play the fictional roles, however, the new series uses "employees of CNN and HLN".


title: Forensic Files

text: "The Official Forensic Files Casebook" was published in 2004. The book recaps and expounds on some episodes, explains how the show is produced, and details why some proposed episodes were turned down. In it, the show's Executive Producer/Writer Paul Dowling says he was inspired to create the show because he had been present in Philadelphia during the outbreak of Legionellosis in 1976, as well as by the murder of Helle Crafts. The CDC's legionellosis investigation eventually became an episode of "Medical Detectives", while the Crafts case was filmed as the program's pilot episode.


title: Forensic Files

text: In January 2020, Forensic Files Podcast debuted and featured audio from a selection of the "Forensic Files" airings.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: "Star Wars": Rise of the Resistance is an attraction at at Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disneyland. The attraction—a combined trackless dark ride, walk-through, motion simulator, and drop ride system—puts guests into the middle of a battle between the Resistance and the First Order. Featuring four interworking ride systems in conjunction with Audio-Animatronics, practical sets, projection mapping and screen-based media, "Rise of the Resistance" is one of the most complex and advanced attractions designed by Walt Disney Imagineering.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: Announced alongside the land's official announcement at the 2015 D23 Expo in Anaheim, the attraction was originally described as guests "being placed in the middle of a climactic battle between the First Order and the Resistance". On November 17, 2018 at a Destination D event, the attraction's name was announced as "Star Wars": Rise of the Resistance.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: Film actors Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson, and Kipsang Rotich reprised their roles in the attraction as Rey, Poe Dameron, Finn, Kylo Ren, General Hux, and the voice of Nien Nunb, respectively. James Arnold Taylor provided the voice of Lieutenant Bek. Industrial Light & Magic created the CGI sequences for the attraction.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: The construction of the attraction posed unprecedented technical challenges. Not only does the ride contain 65 Audio-Animatronic figures, but the ride building itself required the largest concrete pour in the history of Disney Parks. More than five million lines of code control the various aspects of the ride. It has been called a "technical masterpiece".


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: The attraction was originally planned to open with Galaxy's Edge on opening day, but on March 7, 2019, it was announced that it would open later than the rest of Galaxy's Edge for "phase two". On July 11, 2019, the opening dates for Rise of the Resistance were revealed with Disney's Hollywood Studios' version opening first on December 5, 2019, followed by Disneyland's version opening on January 17, 2020.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: A media event for the attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios was held from December 3–4, 2019 in which guests attending the event were able to experience the attraction.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: The attraction is located in the area of Galaxy's Edge known as the ancient ruins on the outskirts of Black Spire Outpost, which includes a Resistance encampment. Its entrance is marked by a turret (owned and operated by Oga Garra of Oga's Cantina) that leads guests—acting as new recruits—to a path heading into ancient caves that house a Resistance control center where they are given a mission by and a hologram of Rey to rendezvous with General Leia Organa on the faraway planet of Pacara. The briefing also includes Poe Dameron, Nien Nunb, and Mon Calamari Lieutenant Bek, all appearing on video screens. Guests then walk past ships, including Dameron's X-wing fighter, and board a resistance CEC Intersystem Transport Ship for the first portion of the ride. On board, Bek speaks to guests as Nien Nunb pilots the ship, which is escorted by Dameron and other X-wings. Dameron is forced to go for help when the transport and fighters are attacked by a First Order Star Destroyer which appears to capture the guests' ship and pull it inside a hangar bay filled with stormtroopers. The recruits then are brought into a cell where Kylo Ren and Armitage Hux discuss their interrogation. Then with help from Finn, disguised as a stormtrooper, the freed recruits board a hijacked First Order Fleet Transport (an eight-seat ride vehicle) piloted by an R5 unit to travel to an escape pod.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: The ride begins with Finn explaining how to get to the escape pods. The two transports exit the loading station where they pass two other empty transports heading into the loading station, with Bek speaking to the riders through the transports' radio. They enter another room where a probe droid nearly spots them. However, when about to reach two lifts, two stormtroopers spot the guests. The stormtroopers attempt to blast at the transports, but fail as the transports escape. They enter the next room which includes AT-ATs. The door leading out of the room closes before the transports can pass through. The stormtroopers spot the transports again and attempt to blast at them. An audio-animatronic Finn in a stormtrooper suit helps the guests as the transports split up and enter two lifts. Finn tells them to go down, but they go up instead. One of the vehicles is spotted by an AT-AT pilot and is almost blasted.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: In the next room, audio-animatronic figures of Kylo Ren and General Hux are seen atop the ship's bridge discussing the situation. Suddenly, a Resistance ship fleet appears and Ren notices the transports. The riders attempt to escape, but Ren jumps down in front of them and ignites his lightsaber as the transports enter two lifts, though the doors close in front of them before he can get to them. As the lifts go down, Kylo's lightsaber suddenly cuts through the ceiling as they escape. The riders then enter a room with three cannons firing at the Resistance, which they pass under and make it into the next room where an audio-animatronic Ren uses the Force on the transports, demanding that they tell him the whereabouts of the Resistance Base. Suddenly, a burning TIE fighter crashes into the Star Destroyer creating a breach in the wall behind Ren and he is almost blown out into space as debris falls over him. If the animatronic of Kylo Ren is not working, an alternate ending is triggered. Ren instead appears through the windows in front of the transports in his TIE Fighter and threatens to blast them if they don't give him information on the Resistance Base. All of a sudden, a Resistance X Wing shoots down Kylo Ren's TIE Fighter and the transports escape. The transports enter the next room and enter the escape pods, where the ride turns into a motion simulator. After two other pods eject, the riders' pods undergo a sudden vertical drop and escape back onto Batuu. The transports exit the simulator and enter the hangar, where an audio-animatronic Bek is seen in his escape pod, having just crash landed in the base. They then enter the unload station where the ride ends.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: Rise of the Resistance is the most technologically advanced theme park attraction in existence today. The ride features multiple ride systems, including motion simulators, trackless dark ride vehicles, and a version of the Tower of Terror's drop shaft.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: In the briefing room scene, BB-8 can be seen rolling on a rock wall. He is actually a puppet attached to a robotic arm with a rotating spherical shell, which is the reason why he rolls up to a specific point. Next to BB-8 is a large hologram effect of Rey, which is accomplished with an OLED display behind a one-way mirror. In the transport, guests enter and exit through the same door, but exit onto the Star Destroyer. The transport is a motion simulator on a turntable. While the simulator is in motion, it is rotated so that guests will exit into the Star Destroyer set with moving flaps for safety once the simulator has stopped. The animation is in sync with the circular motion.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: During the interrogation, the images of General Hux and Kylo Ren are a Musion effect; however additional projectors are used to create shadows as though the actors were physically present. Before the riders board their vehicles, projection effects and strobe lights are used to simulate the metal being cut, which slides away through the use of a mechanism. Riders then board a ride vehicle that utilizes wireless charging, as well as RFID pucks in the floor to give the vehicle position data and allow it to navigate the attraction without a track. The vehicles are always stationed on charging pads when they are in the load and unload zones in order to remain at full charge.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: The blasters throughout the ride use either a persistence of vision effect or arrays of LEDs to give the illusion the beams are traveling through air. Projectors and flipping panels are also used to simulate damage as it occurs to equipment and sets during the ride.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: The room with AT-ATs only contains two, but the use of a mirror makes it look like there are four. When the vehicles stop on the lifts, flaps come up to prevent the vehicles from rolling off. When Kylo Ren appears for the second time, he is a projection on a moving screen, while his lightsaber is a prop.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: In the elevator scene (which is actually a static room with lights to give the illusion the riders are in a moving elevator), the blade of Kylo Ren's lightsaber is actually a rapidly spinning light panel which moves on a semicircular track to give the illusion it is cutting through the roof. The cannons are situated in front of a large screen. Each cannon has its own system to ensure it does not hit the vehicles. Blasts from the Resistance cause damage to the walls, which are actually panels that move away to show internal parts.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: During the scene where the wall breaks behind Kylo Ren, panels move away to simulate breaking (an effect originally used in Mystic Manor), complete with a wind effect to simulate being blown out. The escape pods are a motion simulator on a drop shaft in front of a large projection screen. Each pod also has a locking mechanism to prevent the vehicles from sliding.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: The ride has received widespread acclaim. During its reporting of its fiscal first-quarter 2020 results on February 4, The Walt Disney Company announced that attendance rose 2 percent at its domestic theme parks during that quarter. Moreover, spending at the U.S. parks was up 10 percent. Disney CEO Bob Iger reported that the twin debuts of the Rise of the Resistance attractions in both Walt Disney World and Disneyland have contributed to an increase in per-capita spending in the parks.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: Due to significant guest demand, Disney initially implemented a system of gaining a place on the ride via their respective Disney park smartphone app, as opposed to their usual "FastPass" system. Guests were required to register for a boarding group (effectively a virtual queue) on their phone or at in-park kiosks in order to gain access to the ride, which garnered mixed reactions from park attendees in both Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios. Early on, guests found that boarding groups filled for the day within minutes of the park opening, requiring guests to arrive to the park at its opening time in order to secure a place in line to go on the ride. The boarding group numbers were "called" sequentially through the day; there was no specific time at which a given group would be called, and after receiving the call (by mobile push notification) a guest had one hour to enter the queue line for the ride. When the Disneyland version first opened, there was only one window for the virtual queue for the attraction, but after Disneyland reopened on April 30, 2021 after being closed for over a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an additional second window was added to the virtual queue system giving guests a better chance at reserving a spot on the ride. As of July 2021, it took less than a second for the virtual queue to be filled. For a time, guests needed be in the park to apply for a boarding group and Disney took the step of opening the main hub of the Hollywood Studios park early to implement this new system. In November 2020, the necessity to be in the park for the first distribution of boarding groups at 7am was removed; the second distribution at 1pm still required guests to have entered the park.


title: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

text: From September 23, 2021, the boarding group virtual queue system was paused, meaning that guests at Disney Hollywood Studios could, for the first time, walk up and wait in line for Rise of the Resistance. The change led to very high demand and queue lines running through a large part of the park. The Disneyland version of the ride followed suit the following November.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Buddhism is an ancient Indian religion, which arose in and around the ancient Kingdom of Magadha (now in Bihar, India), and is based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha who was deemed a "Buddha" ("Awakened One"), although Buddhist doctrine holds that there were other Buddhas before him. Buddhism spread outside of Magadha starting in the Buddha's lifetime.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: During the reign of the Buddhist Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, the Buddhist community split into two branches: the Mahāsāṃghika and the Sthaviravāda, each of which spread throughout India and split into numerous sub-sects. In modern times, two major branches of Buddhism exist: the Theravada in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and the Mahayana throughout the Himalayas and East Asia. The Buddhist tradition of Vajrayana is sometimes classified as a part of Mahayana Buddhism, but some scholars consider it to be a different branch altogether.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The practice of Buddhism lost influence in India around the 7th century CE, after the collapse of the Gupta Empire. The last large state to support Buddhism—the Pala Empire—fell in the 12th century. By the end of the 12th century, Buddhism had largely disappeared from India with the exception of the Himalayan region and isolated remnants in parts of south India. However, since the 19th century, modern revivals of Buddhism have included the Maha Bodhi Society, the Vipassana movement, and the Dalit Buddhist movement spearheaded by B. R. Ambedkar. There has also been a growth in Tibetan Buddhism with the arrival of the Tibetan diaspora and the Tibetan government in exile in India, following the Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1950. According to the 2011 Census there are 8.4 million Buddhists in India (0.70% of the total population).


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The Buddha was born to a Kapilvastu head of the Shakya republic named Suddhodana. He employed sramana practices in a specific way, denouncing extreme asceticism and sole concentration-meditation, which were sramanic practices. Instead he propagated a Middle Way between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, in which self-restraint and compassion are central elements.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: According to tradition, as recorded in the Pali Canon and the Agamas, Siddhārtha Gautama attained awakening sitting under a pipal tree, now known as the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, India. Gautama referred to himself as the "tathagata", the "thus-gone"; the developing tradition later regarded him to be as a "Samyaksambuddha", a "Perfectly Self-Awakened One." According to tradition, he found patronage in the ruler of Magadha, emperor Bimbisāra. The emperor accepted Buddhism as personal faith and allowed the establishment of many Buddhist "Vihāras." This eventually led to the renaming of the entire region as Bihar.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: According to tradition, in the Deer Park in Sarnath near in northern India, Buddha set in motion the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the group of five companions with whom he had previously sought liberation. They, together with the Buddha, formed the first , the company of Buddhist monks, and hence, the first formation of the Triple Gem (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) was completed.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: For the remaining years of his life, the Buddha is said to have travelled in the Gangetic Plain of Northern India and other regions.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Buddha died in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India. Modern historians place his death, according to tradition at the age of 80, in the decades around 400 BC, several decades later than the date in Buddhist tradition.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Followers of Buddhism, called Buddhists in English, referred to themselves as "Saugata". Other terms were "Sakyan"s or "Sakyabhiksu" in ancient India. "Sakyaputto" was another term used by Buddhists, as well as "Ariyasavako" and "Jinaputto". Buddhist scholar Donald S. Lopez states they also used the term "Bauddha". The scholar Richard Cohen in his discussion about the 5th-century Ajanta Caves, states that "Bauddha" is not attested therein, and was used by outsiders to describe Buddhists, except for occasional use as an adjective.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The Buddha did not appoint any successor, and asked his followers to work toward liberation following the instructions he had left. The teachings of the Buddha existed only in oral traditions. The Sangha held a number of Buddhist councils in order to reach consensus on matters of Buddhist doctrine and practice.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The Early Buddhist Schools were the various schools in which pre-sectarian Buddhism split in the first few centuries after the passing away of the Buddha (in about the 5th century BC). The earliest division was between the majority Mahāsāṃghika and the minority Sthaviravāda. Some existing Buddhist traditions follow the vinayas of early Buddhist schools.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The Dharmaguptakas made more efforts than any other sect to spread Buddhism outside India, to areas such as Afghanistan, Central Asia, and China, and they had great success in doing so. Therefore, most countries which adopted Buddhism from China, also adopted the Dharmaguptaka vinaya and ordination lineage for bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: During the early period of Chinese Buddhism, the Indian Buddhist sects recognized as important, and whose texts were studied, were the Dharmaguptakas, Mahīśāsakas, Kāśyapīyas, Sarvāstivādins, and the Mahāsāṃghikas. Complete vinayas preserved in the Chinese Buddhist canon include the "Mahīśāsaka Vinaya" (T. 1421), "Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya" (T. 1425), "Dharmaguptaka Vinaya" (T. 1428), "Sarvāstivāda Vinaya" (T. 1435), and the "Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya" (T. 1442). Also preserved are a set of Āgamas (Sūtra Piṭaka), a complete Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma Piṭaka, and many other texts of the early Buddhist schools.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Early Buddhist schools in India often divided modes of Buddhist practice into several "vehicles" ("yāna"). For example, the Vaibhāṣika Sarvāstivādins are known to have employed the outlook of Buddhist practice as consisting of the Three Vehicles:


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Several scholars have suggested that the Prajnaparamita sutras, which are among the earliest Mahayana sutras, developed among the Mahasamghika along the Krishna River in the Andhra region of South India.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The earliest Mahayana sūtras to include the very first versions of the Prajnaparamita genre, along with texts concerning Akṣobhya Buddha, which were probably written down in the 1st century BC in the south of India. Guang Xing states, "Several scholars have suggested that the Prajñāpāramitā probably developed among the Mahāsāṃghikas in southern India, in the Āndhra country, on the Kṛṣṇa River." A.K. Warder believes that "the Mahayana originated in the south of India and almost certainly in the Āndhra country."


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Anthony Barber and Sree Padma note that "historians of Buddhist thought have been aware for quite some time that such pivotally important Mahayana Buddhist thinkers as Nāgārjuna, Dignaga, Candrakīrti, Āryadeva, and Bhavaviveka, among many others, formulated their theories while living in Buddhist communities in Āndhra." They note that the ancient Buddhist sites in the lower Kṛṣṇa Valley, including Amaravati Stupa, Nāgārjunakoṇḍā and Jaggayyapeṭa "can be traced to at least the third century BCE, if not earlier." Akira Hirakawa notes the "evidence suggests that many Early Mahayana scriptures originated in South India."


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Various classes of Vajrayana literature developed as a result of royal courts sponsoring both Buddhism and Shaivism. The Mañjusrimulakalpa, which later came to classified under Kriyatantra, states that mantras taught in the Shaiva, Garuda and Vaishnava tantras will be effective if applied by Buddhists since they were all taught originally by Manjushri. The Guhyasiddhi of Padmavajra, a work associated with the Guhyasamaja tradition, prescribes acting as a Shaiva guru and initiating members into Shaiva Siddhanta scriptures and mandalas. The Samvara tantra texts adopted the pitha list from the Shaiva text "Tantrasadbhava", introducing a copying error where a deity was mistaken for a place.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: In the sixth and fifth centuries BC, economic development made the merchant class increasingly important. Merchants were attracted to Buddhist teachings, which contrasted with existing Brahmin religious practice. The latter focussed on the social position of the Brahmin caste to the exclusion of the interests of other classes. Buddhism became prominent in merchant communities and then spread throughout the Mauryan empire through commercial connections and along trade routes. In this way, Buddhism also spread through the silk route into central Asia.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The Mauryan Empire reached its peak at the time of emperor Ashoka, who converted to Buddhism after the Battle of Kalinga. This heralded a long period of stability under the Buddhist emperor. The power of the empire was vast—ambassadors were sent to other countries to propagate Buddhism. Greek envoy Megasthenes describes the wealth of the Mauryan capital. Stupas, pillars, and edicts on stone remain at Sanchi, Sarnath, and Mathura, indicating the extent of the empire.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Emperor Ashoka the Great (304 BC–232 BC) was the ruler of the Mauryan Empire from 273 BC to 232 BC. Ashoka reigned over most of India after a series of military campaigns. Emperor Ashoka's kingdom stretched from South Asia and beyond, from present-day parts of Afghanistan in the north and Balochistan in the west, to Bengal and Assam in the east, and as far south as Mysore.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: According to legend, emperor Ashoka was overwhelmed by guilt after the conquest of Kalinga, following which he accepted Buddhism as personal faith with the help of his Brahmin mentors Radhasvami and Manjushri. Ashoka established monuments marking several significant sites in the life of Śakyamuni Buddha, and according to Buddhist tradition was closely involved in the preservation and transmission of Buddhism.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: In 2018, excavations in Lalitgiri in Odisha by the Archaeological Survey of India revealed four monasteries along with ancient seals and inscriptions which show cultural continuity from post-Mauryan period to 13 century AD. In Ratnagiri and Konark in Odisha, Buddhist history as discovered in Lalitagiri is also shared. A museum has been made to preserve the ancient history and was inaugurated recently by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Menander was the most famous Bactrian king. He ruled from Taxila and later from Sagala (Sialkot). He rebuilt Taxila (Sirkap) and Puṣkalavatī. He became Buddhist and is remembered in Buddhists records due to his discussions with a great Buddhist philosopher in the book "Milinda Pañha".


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: By 90 BC, Parthians took control of eastern Iran and around 50 BC put an end to last remnants of Greek rule in Afghanistan. By around 7 AD, an Indo-Parthian dynasty succeeded in taking control of Gandhāra. Parthians continued to support Greek artistic traditions in Gandhara. The start of the Gandhāran Greco-Buddhist art is dated to the period between 50 BC and 75 AD.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The Kusana or Kushan Empire ruled large parts of north India from about 60 to 270 AD, as well as the strongly Buddhist region of Gandhara, including much of modern Afghanistan and Pakistan. Kushan rulers were supporters of Buddhist institutions, and built numerous stupas and monasteries. Some of their coins showed an image of Buddha. During this period, Gandharan Buddhism spread through the trade routes protected by the Kushans, out through the Khyber pass into Central Asia. Gandharan Buddhist art styles also spread outward from Gandhara to other parts of Asia.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The monarchs of the next major dynasty, the Gupta Empire, with its peak c. 319 to 467, were Hindus, and the decline of Buddhism, especially in the west of north India, probably began in this period.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Under the kings of the Pāla (c. 730-1130) and Sena (c. 1070-1230) dynasties, large mahavihars flourished in what is now Bihar and Bengal, with considerable royal patronage. Tantric Buddhism dominated in this region and period, and was spread to Tibet. According to Tibetan sources, five great Mahavihars stood out: Vikramashila, the premier university of the era; Nalanda, past its prime but still illustrious, Somapura, Odantapurā, and Jaggadala. The five monasteries formed a network; "all of them were under state supervision" and there existed "a system of co-ordination among them . . it seems from the evidence that the different seats of Buddhist learning that functioned in eastern India under the Pāla were regarded together as forming a network, an interlinked group of institutions," and it was common for great scholars to move easily from position to position among them.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Indian ascetics (Skt. "śramaṇa") propagated Buddhism in various regions, including East Asia and Central Asia.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: In the Edicts of Ashoka, Ashoka mentions the Hellenistic kings of the period as a recipient of his Buddhist proselytism. The Mahavamsa describes emissaries of Ashoka, such as Dharmaraksita, as leading Greek ("Yona") Buddhist monks, active in Buddhist proselytism.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Roman Historical accounts describe an embassy sent by the "Indian king Pandion (Pandey?), also named Porus," to Caesar Augustus around the 1st century. The embassy was travelling with a diplomatic letter in Greek, and one of its members was a sramana who burned himself alive in Athens, to demonstrate his faith. The event made a sensation and was described by Nicolaus of Damascus, who met the embassy at Antioch, and related by Strabo (XV,1,73) and Dio Cassius (liv, 9). A tomb was made to the sramana, still visible in the time of Plutarch, which bore the mention:


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Lokaksema is the earliest known Buddhist monk to have translated Mahayana Buddhist scriptures into the Chinese language. Gandharan monks Jnanagupta and Prajna contributed through several important translations of Sanskrit sutras into Chinese language.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The Indian dhyana master Buddhabhadra was the founding abbot and patriarch of the Shaolin Temple. Buddhist monk and esoteric master from South India (6th century), Kanchipuram is regarded as the patriarch of the Ti-Lun school. Bodhidharma (c. 6th century) was the Buddhist Bhikkhu traditionally credited as the founder of Zen Buddhism in China.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: In 580, Indian monk Vinitaruci travelled to Vietnam. This, then, would be the first appearance of Vietnamese Zen, or Thien Buddhism.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Padmasambhava, in Sanskrit meaning ""lotus-born"", is said to have brought Tantric Buddhism to Tibet in the 8th century. In Bhutan and Tibet he is better known as "Guru Rinpoche" (""Precious Master"") where followers of the Nyingma school regard him as the second Buddha.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Shantaraksita, abbot of Nalanda and founder of the Yogacara-Madhyamaka is said to have helped Padmasambhava establish Buddhism in Tibet.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Indian monk Atisha, holder of the "mind training" (Tib. lojong) teachings, is considered an indirect founder of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism. Indian monks, such as Vajrabodhi, also travelled to Indonesia to propagate Buddhism.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The decline of Buddhism has been attributed to various factors. Regardless of the religious beliefs of their kings, states usually treated all the important sects relatively even-handedly. This consisted of building monasteries and religious monuments, donating property such as the income of villages for the support of monks, and exempting donated property from taxation. Donations were most often made by private persons such as wealthy merchants and female relatives of the royal family, but there were periods when the state also gave its support and protection. In the case of Buddhism, this support was particularly important because of its high level of organization and the reliance of monks on donations from the laity. State patronage of Buddhism took the form of land grant foundations.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Numerous copper plate inscriptions from India as well as Tibetan and Chinese texts suggest that the patronage of Buddhism and Buddhist monasteries in medieval India was interrupted in periods of war and political change, but broadly continued in Hindu kingdoms from the start of the common era through early 2nd millennium CE. Modern scholarship and recent translations of Tibetan and Sanskrit Buddhist text archives, preserved in Tibetan monasteries, suggest that through much of the 1st millennium CE in medieval India (and Tibet as well as other parts of China), Buddhist monks owned property and were actively involved in trade and other economic activity, after joining a Buddhist monastery.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: With the Gupta dynasty (~4th to 6th century), the growth in ritualistic Mahayana Buddhism, mutual influence between Hinduism and Buddhism, the differences between Buddhism and Hinduism blurred, and Vaishnavism, Shaivism and other Hindu traditions became increasingly popular, and Brahmins developed a new relationship with the state. As the system grew, Buddhist monasteries gradually lost control of land revenue. In parallel, the Gupta kings built Buddhist temples such as the one at Kushinagara, and monastic universities such as those at Nalanda, as evidenced by records left by three Chinese visitors to India.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: According to Hazra, Buddhism declined in part because of the rise of the Brahmins and their influence in socio-political process. According to Randall Collins, Richard Gombrich and other scholars, Buddhism's rise or decline is not linked to Brahmins or the caste system, since Buddhism was "not a reaction to the caste system", but aimed at the salvation of those who joined its monastic order.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The 11th century Persian traveller Al-Biruni writes that there was 'cordial hatred' between the Brahmins and Sramana Buddhists. Buddhism was also weakened by rival Hindu philosophies such as Advaita Vedanta, growth in temples and an innovation of the bhakti movement. This rivalry undercut Buddhist patronage and popular support. The period between 400 CE and 1000 CE thus saw gains by the Vedanta school of Hinduism over Buddhism and Buddhism had vanished from Afghanistan and north India by the early 11th century as a result of the Muslim conquests of Afghanistan and incursions into India.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: According to some scholars such as Lars Fogelin, the decline of Buddhism may be related to economic reasons, wherein the Buddhist monasteries with large land grants focused on non-material pursuits, self-isolation of the monasteries, loss in internal discipline in the "sangha", and a failure to efficiently operate the land they owned.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Chinese scholars travelling through the region between the 5th and 8th centuries, such as Faxian, Xuanzang, I-ching, Hui-sheng, and Sung-Yun, began to speak of a decline of the Buddhist "Sangha", especially in the wake of the Hun invasion from central Asia. Xuanzang, the most famous of Chinese travellers, found "millions of monasteries" in north-western India reduced to ruins by the Huns.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The Muslim conquest of the Indian subcontinent was the first great iconoclastic invasion into South Asia. By the end of the twelfth century, Buddhism had mostly disappeared, with the destruction of monasteries and stupas in medieval northwest and western India (now Pakistan and north India).


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: In the north-western parts of medieval India, the Himalayan regions, as well regions bordering central Asia, Buddhism had facilitated trade relations, states Lars Fogelin. With the Islamic invasion and expansion, and central Asians adopting Islam, the trade route-derived financial support sources and the economic foundations of Buddhist monasteries declined, on which the survival and growth of Buddhism was based. The arrival of Islam removed the royal patronage to the monastic tradition of Buddhism, and the replacement of Buddhists in long-distance trade by the Muslims eroded the related sources of patronage.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: In the Gangetic plains, Odisha, northeast and the southern regions of India, Buddhism survived through the early centuries of the 2nd millennium. The Islamic invasion plundered wealth and destroyed Buddhist images, and consequent take over of land holdings of Buddhist monasteries removed one source of necessary support for the Buddhists, while the economic upheaval and new taxes on laity sapped the laity support of Buddhist monks.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Monasteries and institutions such as Nalanda were abandoned by Buddhist monks or destroyed from the 8th through 15th centuries, who were forced to flee to escape the invading Muslim army, after which the site decayed over the Islamic rule in India that followed.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The last empire to support Buddhism, the Pala dynasty, fell in the 12th century, and Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji, a general of the early Delhi Sultanate, destroyed monasteries and monuments and spread Islam in Bengal. According to Randall Collins, Buddhism was already declining in India before the 12th century, but with the pillage by Muslim invaders it nearly became extinct in India in the 1200s. In the 13th century, states Craig Lockard, Buddhist monks in India escaped to Tibet to escape Islamic persecution; while the monks in western India, states Peter Harvey, escaped persecution by moving to south Indian Hindu kingdoms that were able to resist the Muslim power.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Many Indian Buddhists fled south. It is known that Buddhists continued to exist in India even after the 14th century from texts such as the Chaitanya Charitamrita. This text outlines an episode in the life of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1533), a Vaisnava saint, who was said to have entered into a debate with Buddhists in Tamil Nadu.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The Tibetan Taranatha (1575–1634) wrote a history of Indian Buddhism, which mentions Buddhism as having survived in some pockets of India during his time. He mentions the Buddhist sangh as having survived in Konkana, Kalinga, Mewad, Chittor, Abu, Saurastra, Vindhya mountains, Ratnagiri, Karnataka etc. A Jain author Gunakirti (1450-1470) wrote a Marathi text, Dhamramrita, where he gives the names of 16 Buddhist orders. Dr. Johrapurkar noted that among them, the names Sataghare, Dongare, Navaghare, Kavishvar, Vasanik and Ichchhabhojanik still survive in Maharashtra as family names. The mahavihara at Ratnagiri, Odisha seems to have continued with a reduced community, and some renovation of buildings, until the 16th century, perhaps funded by foreign pilgrims as it is near the coast accessible from South-East Asia.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Buddhism also survived to the modern era in the Himalayan regions such as Ladakh, with close ties to Tibet. A unique tradition survives in Nepal's Newar Buddhism. The most important Buddhist pilgrimage sites, in particular Bodh Gaya, continued to receive pilgrims from outside India throughout the medieval and modern periods, which are now greatly increased with easier air travel.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: In Bihar and Bengal, many Buddhist shrines and temples have remained intact with the Buddha or Bodhisattva inside, being appropriated and worshipped as a Brahmanical deity. Around the neighbourhood of Nalanda, the remains of votive stupas are worshipped as Shiva lingas. An image of the Buddha in bhūmisparśa mudrā at the village of Telhara receives full-fledged pūjā as Hanuman during Rama Navami. A sculpture of the Buddha has ended up as Vāsudeva at Gunaighar in Comilla.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Abul Fazl, the courtier of Mughal emperor Akbar, states, "For a long time past scarce any trace of them (the Buddhists) has existed in Hindustan." When he visited Kashmir in 1597, he met with a few old men professing Buddhism, however he 'saw none among the learned'. This is can also be seen from the fact that Buddhist priests were not present amidst learned divines that came to the Ibadat Khana of Akbar at Fatehpur Sikri.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Some scholars suggest that a part of the decline of Buddhist monasteries was because it was detached from everyday life in India and did not participate in the ritual social aspects such as the rites of passage (marriage, funeral, birth of child) like other religions.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The modern revival of Buddhism in India began in the late nineteenth century, led by Buddhist modernist institutions such as the Maha Bodhi Society (1891), the Bengal Buddhist Association (1892) and the Young Men's Buddhist Association (1898). These institutions were influenced by modernist South Asian Buddhist currents such as Sri Lankan Buddhist modernism as well as Western Oriental scholarship and spiritual movements like Theosophy. A central figure of this movement was Sri Lankan Buddhist leader Anagarika Dharmapala, who founded the Maha Bodhi Society in 1891. An important focus of the Maha Bodhi Society's activities in India became the recovery, conservation and restoration of important Buddhist sites, such as Bodh Gaya and its Mahabodhi temple. Dharmapāla and the society promoted the building of Buddhist vihāras and temples in India, including the one at Sarnath, the place of Buddha's first sermon. He died in 1933, the same year he was ordained a bhikkhu.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Following Indian independence, India's ancient Buddhist heritage became an important element for nation building, and prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru looked to the Mauryan empire for symbols of pan-Indian unity which were neither Hindu nor Muslim, such as the Dhammachakra. Indian Buddhist sites also received Indian government support in preparation for the 2,500th Buddha Jayanti held in 1956, as well as providing rent free land in several pilgrimage centers for Asian Buddhist groups to build temples and rest houses.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Important Indian Buddhist intellectuals of the modern period include Rahul Sankrityayan (1893-1963), Dharmanand Kosambi (1876-1941) and Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan. The Bengal Buddhist Kripasaran Mahasthavir (1865-1926) founded the Bengal Buddhist Association in 1892. In Tamil Nadu, the Tamil Iyothee Thass (1845-1914) was a major figure who promoted Buddhism and called the Paraiyars to convert.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The Indian government and the states have continued to promote the development of Buddhist pilgrimage sites ("the Buddhist Circuit"), both as a source of tourism and as a promotion of India's Buddhist heritage which is an important cultural resource for India's foreign diplomatic ties. In 2010, the Nalanda University was established in Bihar.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: In the 1950s, the Dalit political leader B. R. Ambedkar (1891-1956) influenced by his reading of Pali sources and Indian Buddhists like Dharmanand Kosambi and Lakshmi Narasu, began promoting conversion to Buddhism for Indian low caste Dalits. His Dalit Buddhist Movement was most successful in the Indian states of Maharashtra, which saw large scale conversions. Ambedkar's "Neo Buddhism" included a strong element of social and political protest against Hinduism and the Indian caste system. His magnum opus, "The Buddha and His Dhamma," incorporated Marxist ideas of class struggle into Buddhist views of dukkha and argued that Buddhist morality could be used to "reconstruct society and to build up a modern, progressive society of justice, equality, and freedom".


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The conversion movement has generally been limited to certain social demographics, such as the Mahar caste of Maharashtra and the Jatavs. Although they have renounced Hinduism in practice, a community survey showed adherence to many practices of the old faith including endogamy, worshipping the traditional family deity etc.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Major organizations of this movement are the Buddhist Society of India (the Bharatiya Bauddha Mahasabha) and the Triratna Buddhist Community (the Triratna Bauddha Mahasangha).


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Tibetan Buddhism has also grown in India during the modern era, mainly due to the growth of the Tibetan Diaspora. The arrival of the 14th Dalai Lama with over 85,000 Tibetan refugees in 1959 had a significant impact on the revival of Buddhism in India. Large numbers of Tibetans settled in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, which became the headquarters of the Tibetan Government in Exile. Another large Tibetan refugee settlement is in Bylakuppe, Karnataka. Tibetan refugees also contributed to the revitalization of the Buddhist traditions in Himalayan regions such as Lahaul and Spiti district, Ladakh, Tawang and Bomdila. Tibetan Buddhists have also contributed to the building of temples and institutions in the Buddhist sites and ruins of India.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The Dalai Lama's brother, Gyalo Thondup, himself lives in Kalimpong and his wife established the Tibetan Refugee Centre in Darjeeling . The 17th Karmapa also arrived in India in 2000 and continues education and has taken traditional role to head Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism and every year leads the Kagyu Monlam in Bodh Gaya attended by thousands of monks and followers. Palpung Sherabling monastery seat of the 12th Tai Situpa located in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh is the largest Kagyu monastery in India and has become an important centre of Tibetan Buddhism. Penor Rinpoche, the head of Nyingma, the ancient school of Tibetan Buddhism re-established a Nyingma monastery in Bylakuppe, Mysore. This is the largest Nyingma monastery today. Monks from Himalayan regions of India, Nepal, Bhutan and from Tibet join this monastery for their higher education. Penor Rinpoche also founded Thubten Lekshey Ling, a dharma center for lay practitioners in Bangalore. Vajrayana Buddhism and Dzogchen (maha-sandhi) meditation again became accessible to aspirants in India after that.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The Vipassana movement is a modern tradition of Buddhist meditation practice. In India, the most influential Vipassana organization is the Vipassana Research Institute founded by S.N. Goenka (1924-2013) who promoted Buddhist Vipassana meditation in a modern and non-sectarian manner. Goenka's network of meditation centers who offered 10 day retreats. Many institutions—both government and private sector—now offer courses for their employees. This form is mainly practiced by elite and middle class Indians. This movement has spread to many other countries in Europe, America and Asia. In November 2008, the construction of the Global Vipassana Pagoda was completed on the outskirts of Mumbai.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Marathi Buddhists (including Mahar) constitute the most populous Buddhist community in India. Various indigenous ethnic Buddhist communities such as the Sherpas, Bhutias, Lepchas, Tamangs, Yolmos, and ethnic Tibetans can be found in the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: Indian Buddhists celebrate many festivals. Ambedkar Jayanti, Dhammachakra Pravartan Day and Buddha's Birthday are three major festivals of Navayana Buddhism. Traditional Buddhists celebrate Losar, Buddha Purnima and other festivals.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: According to an IndiaSpend analysis of 2011 Census data, there are more than 8.4 million Buddhists in India and 87% of them are neo-Buddhists or Navayana Buddhists. They are converted from other religions, mostly Dalits (Scheduled Caste) who changed religion to escape the Caste System of Hinduism. The remaining 13% of Buddhists belong to traditional communities (Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana) of the northeast and northern Himalayan regions.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: The Buddhist percentage has decreased from 0.74% in 1961 to 0.70% in 2011. Between 2001 and 2011, Buddhist population declined in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, and Punjab.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: According to the 2011 Census of India there are 8.4 million Buddhists in India. Maharashtra has the highest number of Buddhists in India, with 5.81% of the total population. Almost 90 per cent of Navayana or Neo-Buddhists live in the state. Marathi Buddhists, who live in Maharashtra, are the largest Buddhist community in India. Most Buddhist Marathi people belong to the former Mahar community.


title: History of Buddhism in India

text: In the 1951 census of India, 181,000 (0.05%) respondents said they were Buddhist. The 1961 census, taken after B. R. Ambedkar adopted Navayana Buddhism with his millions of followers in 1956, showed an increase to 3.25 million (0.74%). Buddhism is growing rapidly in the Scheduled Caste ("dalit") community. According to the 2011 census, Scheduled Castes Buddhists grew by 38 percent in the country. According to the 2011 census, 5.76 million (69%) Indian Buddhists belong to the Scheduled Caste.


title: Bible John

text: Bible John is an unidentified serial killer who is believed to have murdered three young women between 1968 and 1969 in Glasgow, Scotland.


title: Bible John

text: Bible John's victims were all young brunette women between the ages of 25 and 32, all of whom had met their murderer at the Barrowland Ballroom, a dance hall and music venue in the city. The perpetrator has never been identified and the case remains both unsolved and one of the most extensive manhunts in Scottish criminal history. The case would prove to be the first time in Scotland in which the Crown Office authorised publication of a composite drawing of an individual suspected of murder.


title: Bible John

text: This unidentified serial killer became known as "Bible John" due to his having repeatedly quoted from the Bible and to have condemned any form of adultery while in the company of his final victim. The known movements and "modus operandi" of convicted serial killer and rapist Peter Tobin gave rise to speculation that he might be Bible John, after his conviction for three murders in the late 2000s, but police later eliminated Tobin as a suspect.


title: Bible John

text: On 23 February 1968, the naked body of 25-year-old auxiliary nurse Patricia Docker was found in the doorway of a lock-up garage by a man on his way to work at Carmichael Place, Battlefield, Glasgow. The location of her body was only yards from her home in Langside Place. Her body bore evidence of extensive blunt force trauma, particularly to the face and head. She had been strangled to death with a strong ligature, possibly a belt. Docker's handbag, watch, and clothes were missing from the crime scene. Her clothing was never found, although her handbag was later recovered from the River Cart by an underwater search unit, and her watch was recovered from a pool of water close to the murder scene.


title: Bible John

text: Extensive door-to-door inquiries in the area produced a witness who recalled hearing a female scream, "Leave me alone!" the previous evening. Little hard evidence was discovered at the crime scene. Nonetheless, an ambulanceman who retrieved the body informed investigators the victim had been a nurse who worked at Mearnskirk Hospital in nearby Renfrewshire. Consequently, the victim was formally identified by her father the following day.


title: Bible John

text: Docker was a married mother of one, estranged from her husband. The night of her murder, she informed her parents she would spend the evening dancing at the Majestic Ballroom in Hope Street, although for unknown reasons, she had chosen to spend the majority of the evening at the Barrowland Ballroom, probably because of the over-25s night which the venue hosted each Thursday. When she failed to return home that evening, her parents assumed she had spent the night with a friend. Police inquiries would only determine several days later that in the late evening, Docker had left the Majestic Ballroom to attend the Barrowland,


title: Bible John

text: A postmortem conducted by Gilbert Forbes at the University of Glasgow Medical School confirmed that the cause of death had been strangulation, and that Docker's body bore no clear evidence of sexual assault. Furthermore, the stage of "rigor mortis" upon her body at the time of discovery indicated she had likely died shortly after she had left the Barrowland Ballroom. Investigators surmised the perpetrator had likely grabbed Docker before repeatedly punching her and kicking her in the face as she twice screamed, "Leave me alone!" He had then proceeded to rape Docker before strangling her to death, and leaving her naked body, with nothing but one shoe nearby, close to the doorway of the lock-up garage at Carmichael Place.


title: Bible John

text: On Saturday 16 August 1969, a 31-year-old mother of three named Jemima MacDonald also opted to spend the evening dancing at the Barrowland Ballroom. MacDonald was a regular attendee of the Barrowland and, according to family custom, her sister, Margaret O'Brien, took care of her three children in her absence. As midnight approached, MacDonald was seen by several people in the company of a young, well-dressed and well-spoken man of slim build, aged between 25 and 35 and between and in height. This individual had short, dark brown hair with fair streaks, likely spoke with a distinctive Glaswegian accent and occasionally inserted brief biblical quotations into his conversation.


title: Bible John

text: MacDonald was seen leaving the Barrowland shortly after midnight on 17 August in the company of this individual and was last seen walking towards either Main Street or Landressy Street, in the direction of her home, at approximately 12:40 a.m. O'Brien became concerned when her sister failed to return home. Later the same day, she began hearing local rumours that young children had been seen leaving a derelict tenement building in MacKeith Street discussing a body in the premises. By the Monday morning, O'Brien was so concerned that she herself, fearing the worst, walked into the old building. There she discovered her own sister's extensively battered body lying face down, with her shoes and stockings lying beside her.


title: Bible John

text: A postmortem concluded that MacDonald had been raped and extensively beaten, particularly about the face, before she had been strangled to death with one of her own stockings. Her murder had occurred approximately 30 hours before her body had been discovered. Unlike Docker, the body of MacDonald was fully clothed, although her underclothing had been torn, and, like Docker, she had been menstruating at the time of her death.


title: Bible John

text: Police inquiries into MacDonald's movements on the night of her murder produced several eyewitnesses who were able to accurately describe the man with whom she had been in the company of at the Barrowland. Door-to-door inquiries on MacKeith Street also produced a woman who remembered hearing female screams on the evening of MacDonald's murder, although this individual could not recall the precise time. Consequently, police considered this information of little use to their inquiry.


title: Bible John

text: Although the City of Glasgow Police noted several striking similarities between the murders of Docker and MacDonald, including that both women had attended the Barrowland Ballroom on the evening of their murder, been beaten before being strangled to death with a ligature, were menstruating, and had their handbags taken from the crime scene, initially both murders were not considered to be the work of the same perpetrator.


title: Bible John

text: Despite extensive public appeals, the investigation into the murder of Docker had quickly become a cold case. Police had little information, owing to both a lack of witnesses and hard evidence. The investigation had also been severely hindered by investigators not discovering until three days after her death that Docker had attended the Barrowland on the evening of her murder. Eighteen months later, following the discovery of MacDonald, police became aware of remarkable similarities to the murder of Docker. Although police did not conclusively link both murders to the same perpetrator, they could not completely discount this theory. In addition, police were certain the perpetrator(s) held a high degree of local geographical knowledge. However, they may have been a stranger to the district, as none of the eyewitnesses with whom investigators conversed directly knew the man or men seen in the company of either woman prior to her murder.


title: Bible John

text: For the first time in a Scottish murder hunt, a composite drawing of the man with whom MacDonald had last been seen alive was given to the press, being widely distributed via both newspapers and upon television throughout Scotland in efforts to identify the suspect. Moreover, both male and female undercover police officers performed discreet surveillance at the Barrowland Ballroom in efforts to identify the suspect. Police surveillance at the Barrowland Ballroom would be terminated in late October 1969 due to the initiative failing to produce any suspects. Detectives were also blamed by proprietors for a sharp decrease in attendance figures.


title: Bible John

text: On 31 October 1969, a man walking his dog discovered the body of 29-year-old Helen Puttock behind a tenement in the Scotstoun district of Glasgow. Her body was found beside a drainpipe in the back garden of her Earl Street flat. She had been stripped partially naked, extensively beaten about the face before being raped, then strangled to death with one of her own stockings. The contents of her handbag had been scattered close to her body, although the handbag itself was missing from the crime scene. Grass and weed stains upon the soles of Puttock's feet and shoes indicated that she had engaged in a ferocious struggle with her killer. She had evidently at one point attempted to scale a nearby railway embankment. Her body also bore a deep bite mark on her upper right thigh. As had been the case with the two previous victims, Helen had been menstruating at the time of her murder. Her murderer had placed her sanitary towel beneath her left arm.


title: Bible John

text: The evening prior to the murder, Puttock and her sister, Jean Langford, had been to the Barrowland Ballroom, where both had become acquainted with two men, both named John. One of these individuals had said he worked as a slater and resided in Castlemilk, while the other individual had been a well-spoken man who did not disclose where he actually lived. After being in the company of these two individuals for more than an hour, all four left the Barrowland to head home. The man named John who had been Jean's dance partner walked to George Square to board a bus, while Langford, Puttock, and the man who had been Puttock's dance partner hailed a taxi. The trio set off from Glasgow Cross, making a 20-minute westward journey toward Langford's Knightswood home. During the trio's conversation in the cab, most of the crucial information pertaining to the killer's psychological profile became apparent. Upon arrival at her home, Langford exited the cab leaving Puttock and her dance partner still inside. The cab then continued towards Puttock's home in Scotstoun.


title: Bible John

text: Langford later informed detectives that her sister's companion had been a teetotal individual who repeatedly quoted from the Old Testament stories of Moses during the time she and her sister had conversed with him in the taxi. He had also referred to the Barrowland as an "adulterous den of iniquity", and of his disapproval of married women visiting the premises as the quartet had retrieved their coats at the end of the evening. She had exited the taxi at Kelso Street, before seeing the vehicle turn towards Earl Street.


title: Bible John

text: The suspect was described by Puttock's sister, Jean Langford, as being a tall, slim and well-dressed young man with reddish or fair hair rounded neatly at the back, aged between 25 and 30, and approximately in height. This individual had given his name as either "John Templeton", "John Sempleson", or "John Emerson", and he had been a polite and well-spoken individual, having frequently quoted from the Old Testament during the trio's taxi ride home, while also indicating he was neither Catholic nor Protestant. Langford stated that it had become increasingly clear to her as the trio had ridden in the taxi that this man had considered her presence in the vehicle to be an inconvenience. At one point during the ride, he had explained to the women the reason he refrained from consuming alcohol was due to his being conditioned by a strict parental attitude, before adding: "I don't drink at Hogmanay; I pray." He had also alluded to his father's belief that dance halls were "dens of iniquity", with any married woman who frequented these premises being "adulterous" by nature.


title: Bible John

text: Langford had informed detectives that the man accompanying Puttock had been a "slim, tall" individual who had been dressed in a well-cut brown "Reid and Taylor" brand suit and who smoked "Embassy" cigarettes; she also recalled his mentioning that he had been familiar with several drinking premises in the Yoker district of Glasgow, and that he had at one stage worked in a laboratory. She was able to describe the distinct facial features of this man, such as overlapping front teeth. However, bouncers at the Barrowland Ballroom dismissed much of this description, claiming that the man had been a short and well-spoken individual with black hair.


title: Bible John

text: The last possible sighting of the suspect was made by both the driver and conductor on a night service bus, who noticed a young man matching the description given by Langford alighting a bus at the junction of Dumbarton Road and Gray Street at approximately 2:00 a.m. on 31 October. He was in a particularly disheveled state, with mud stains on his jacket and a livid red mark on his cheek just beneath one eye. Both witnesses also recalled his repeatedly tucking a short cuff of one sleeve into his jacket sleeve (a man's cufflink had been found alongside the body of Helen Puttock). This individual was last seen walking towards the public ferry to cross the River Clyde to the south side of the city.


title: Bible John

text: The murder of Helen Puttock held remarkable similarities to the two previous murders, further raising suspicions that all three murders had been committed by the same person. Each of the victims had been the mother of at least one child and had met her murderer at the Barrowland Ballroom. The handbag of each woman was missing. Each victim had been strangled to death and at least two of these women had been raped prior to their murders. In addition, each of the three women had been escorted home by her killer and murdered within yards of her doorstep, and all had been menstruating at the time of death. Each had had her sanitary towel or tampon placed upon, beneath, or near her body, leading to speculation that the women had been murdered for their refusal to engage in intercourse with their murderer excused by their periods.


title: Bible John

text: Within hours of the discovery of the body of Helen Puttock, an additional composite drawing of the suspect was created using the detailed description provided by her sister. Langford saw the earlier image created after the murder of Jemima MacDonald and believed it was an excellent likeness. Detective Superintendent Joe Beattie asked the public to closely study this composite drawing, should it resemble anyone they knew. Due to the suspect's hair being unfashionably short for the era, over 450 hairdressers in and around Glasgow were shown the updated drawing of the suspect, and all dentists in and around the city were asked to examine their records to determine whether they held records of a male patient with overlapping incisors and a missing tooth in the upper right jaw. Both lines of inquiry proved fruitless. The police also produced an artist's impression portrait, created by Lennox Patterson, Registrar of the Glasgow School of Art, based on the recollections of Puttock's sister. In June 1970, police employed the photofit system in an attempt to produce a better likeness of the suspect. This was the first instance this method of identifying a murder suspect was utilised in Scotland.


title: Bible John

text: More than 100 detectives were assigned to work full-time on the case, and 50,000 witness statements would be taken in subsequent door-to-door inquiries. Ultimately, more than 5,000 potential suspects would be questioned in the first year of the inquiry alone, and Jean Langford would be required to attend over 300 identity parades, although she was adamant none of the individuals required to participate in these identity parades had been the individual with whom she had last seen her sister, and all would be cleared of any involvement. Fearing that the perpetrator would strike again, a team of 16 detectives was instructed to mingle with dancers at all dance halls in Glasgow. In particular, these detectives frequented the Barrowland on Thursday and Saturday nights at the over-25s events, where each victim was presumed to have met her murderer.


title: Bible John

text: Despite the extensive manhunt, no further developments would arise and the investigation into the three murders gradually became cold, with many officers assigned to the case believing that the perpetrator had either died, been jailed for an unrelated offence, had been incarcerated at a mental hospital or that senior police officers had known his actual identity but had been unable to prove he had committed the murders. Others speculated that he may have simply moved away from the Glasgow district, or murdered whenever in the vicinity; this possibility prompted police to circulate multiple copies of the composite drawing at all British Army, Navy and Air Force bases in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the Middle and Far East; this potential line of inquiry failed to produce any significant leads.


title: Bible John

text: One former detective chief inspector, Les Brown (then working with the Strathclyde Police), has supplied current investigators with details of the arrest of a suspect conducted in 1969 which he believes was of an extremely likely perpetrator, but which was dismissed simply because he did not have notably overlapping front teeth.


title: Bible John

text: According to Brown, the man's arguing with a young woman in the Barrowland Ballroom immediately prior to his arrest had greatly raised investigators' concerns, yet this suspect was released from custody, despite the fact he had closely resembled the facial composite and had subsequently supplied police with a false name and address before revealing his true name and address in the Gorbals. Brown said that the simple fact that this particular suspect did not have notably overlapping front teeth – despite one police sergeant's acknowledgement of his being the best suspect yet – was sufficient for ordering his release.


title: Bible John

text: Several years later, Brown spoke at length to a detective who had taken the same man to a hospital after arresting him outside the Barrowland Ballroom at the time of the murders. Although the suspect had needed several stitches in his head following an altercation, as soon as his handcuffs had been released, he escaped from the hospital. At the time of this incident, this individual had also falsely given his name to medical personnel as John White.


title: Bible John

text: In addition to this basic circumstantial evidence, the "whole demeanour" of the man had led Les Brown and several of his colleagues to believe he may have been the perpetrator. However, after Brown wrote of his suspicions in his 2005 autobiography, the individual came forward and offered to provide a DNA sample in order to clear his name. This has led to his elimination as a suspect.


title: Bible John

text: In 1983, an unidentified man contacted Strathclyde Police. This individual claimed to conclusively know that his friend had been Bible John, adding that both he and his friend had been raised in the Cranhill district of Glasgow and both had frequented the Barrowland Ballroom in the 1960s. He had, he claimed, read an article in the "Evening Times" five years previously before suddenly realising his friend had been the perpetrator of the murders. The alleged suspect was traced living in the Netherlands, married to a Dutch woman. Nothing more was ever heard from the claimant or the reputed suspect.


title: Bible John

text: In the years after the Bible John killings, a number of women came forward to claim that they had been sexually assaulted after an evening at the Barrowland. One of these women, Hannah Martin, claimed that she had been assaulted and raped by Bible John and had subsequently given birth to his child at the Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital in January 1970; a daughter she initially named Isobel.


title: Bible John

text: In April 1969, Martin had gone to the Barrowland; she ended up leaving the dance hall in the company of a tall man with whom she then had sex. Martin then accepted his offer of a lift home. However, during the drive, the man's sexual demeanour became more aggressive, and Martin, drunk and terrified she may be attacked, vomited in the man's car. This individual then bundled her out of the car and drove off, leaving her standing on the pavement. One author, David Leslie, has claimed that Martin's daughter could be the one indubitable link to the identity of Bible John.


title: Bible John

text: In 1996, Strathclyde Police exhumed the body of John Irvine McInnes from a graveyard in Stonehouse, South Lanarkshire. McInnes, who had served in the Scots Guards, had committed suicide in 1980 at the age of 41, by severing the brachial artery in his upper arm. He was the cousin of one of the original suspects in the Bible John investigation. A DNA sample was taken from McInnes's body for comparison with semen samples found on the stockings belonging to Helen Puttock and which had been used to strangle her.


title: Bible John

text: The results of the testing conducted proved inconclusive, with then-Lord Advocate Lord Mackay stating insufficient evidence existed to link McInnes with the murder of Helen Puttock. The Crown officially cleared McInnes of any involvement in the Bible John murders in July 1996.


title: Bible John

text: Several criminologists and investigators have speculated that convicted serial killer Peter Tobin may have been Bible John. Tobin was convicted, in May 2007, of the 2006 murder of Polish student Angelika Kluk, who had been raped, beaten and then stabbed to death; he had relocated from Shettleston, Glasgow, to England in August 1969 (before the final two murders committed by Bible John) after marrying his first wife, whom he had met at the Barrowland Ballroom in 1968. From August 1969 Tobin lived in Brighton for 20 years, and from the late 1980s he would alternately reside in either Scotland or the south of England.


title: Bible John

text: The fact that Tobin attacked Kluk so ferociously, hid her body, and then absconded to London prior to his arrest (in addition to the methods of violence perpetrated on the two 1991 victims unearthed from his Margate home's garden) did not suggest the work of an amateur. However, one discrepancy is that Bible John displayed his victims' bodies in public places, whereas Tobin buried all his known victims.


title: Bible John

text: Some contemporary visual similarities exist between Peter Tobin when aged in his 20s and the 1969 composite drawing of Bible John, although the composite drawing showed Bible John with red hair and contemporary pictures of Tobin show he did not have this hair colour. In addition, all three of Tobin's former wives have given accounts of being repeatedly imprisoned, throttled, beaten and raped at his hands, and each has stated he had been driven to extreme physical violence by the female menstrual cycle (a factor long suspected by investigators as being the perpetrator's actual motive behind the murders). In addition, Tobin is known to have been a staunch Roman Catholic with strong religious views, and the alias Bible John may have given to Jean Langford and Helen Puttock in 1969 is similar to one of the pseudonyms known to have been regularly used by Tobin: John Semple.


title: Bible John

text: Criminologist David Wilson actively investigated Tobin's case for three years and strongly believes the available evidence supports his theory that Tobin is Bible John. He has stated that the moment he believed Tobin was Bible John occurred during Tobin's trial for the 1991 murder of 18-year-old Dinah McNicol, one of the women whose bodies had been found in his Margate garden. The circumstantial evidence which Wilson uses to support this theory includes striking similarities between trial testimony from an acquaintance of McNicol's who had been in her company on the evening of her abduction and the conversation with Bible John that Jean Langford claimed to have had on the evening of her sister's murder; among the important points of overlap are both men mentioning they did not drink at Hogmanay and having a cousin who had once scored a hole-in-one in a golf match. This information—alongside other circumstantial evidence—has led Professor Wilson to state: "I didn't set out to prove Tobin was Bible John, but I would stake my professional reputation on it."


title: Bible John

text: Although DNA testing has been used to clear several suspects, detectives believe obtaining a forensic link between Peter Tobin and any of the murder victims linked to Bible John is unlikely, due to the deterioration of the physical samples, owing to poor storage.


title: Bible John

text: As a result of a police investigation named Operation Anagram, which was initiated in 2006 to trace the movements of Tobin throughout the decades and to determine his potential culpability in any other crimes, a woman informed investigators she had been raped by Tobin after she had met him at the Barrowland Ballroom in 1968, shortly after the first of the murders known to have been committed by Bible John.


title: Bible John

text: Tobin has since been eliminated as a suspect by police. Although often reported that Tobin moved from Glasgow to Brighton after the 1969 murders, he in fact relocated from Glasgow to Brighton with his fiancée, Margaret Mountney, before the second murder attributed to Bible John. Operation Anagram discovered that Tobin was in Brighton at the time of the final two Bible John murders. He had married his first wife in Brighton on 6 August 1969, 10 days before the 16 August murder of Jemima MacDonald, as recorded on their marriage certificate. Tobin's wife has also testified that the pair were still on their honeymoon in Brighton at the time of the murder of the second victim, and she insists he was with her at the time. Tobin was also in police custody regarding an unrelated crime when another of the killings occurred. He was also still living in Brighton at the time of the third murder, meaning he would have had to travel without his wife's knowledge to Glasgow and back from Brighton to have committed the murder of Helen Puttock.


title: Bible John

text: Tobin's DNA was checked against the semen sample for Bible John as part of Operation Anagram. The results of this analysis conclusively proved the bodily fluid did not source from Tobin. The doubts surrounding the DNA evidence notwithstanding, the police also have a record of the bite mark that was found on Helen Puttock's body which they can cross-check with Tobin's dental records, as had been done with John McInnes when he was exhumed and subsequently eliminated as a suspect in 1996.


title: Bible John

text: David Swindle, the senior investigating officer in charge of Operation Anagram, has stated that there is no evidence to link Tobin to the Bible John murders, and Operation Anagram eventually discounted the theory. Swindle had previously presided over the 2002 review of the Bible John murders, four years before the initial discoveries of Tobin's murders.


title: Bible John

text: Although professor David Wilson's claimed in his 2010 book "The Lost British Serial Killer" that Bible John was Tobin, his co-writer for the book Paul Harrison later recanted on the claims they made in the book. In 2013 Harrison published a new book, instead claiming Bible John was a police officer.


title: Bible John

text: No further murder victims killed in Scotland or elsewhere in the United Kingdom have ever been conclusively attributed to Bible John, and the manhunt for this murderer was one of the most extensive manhunts in Scottish criminal history. The murders of the three women remain unsolved, although the case remains open, with many investigators remaining certain that the perpetrator(s) of these crimes were highly likely to have been shielded by one or more individuals whom he had known.


title: Bible John

text: No uniform consensus exists that the three killings were actually the work of the same person. It has been claimed that the gap of 18 months between the first two killings is unusual for a serial killer, and that the later two murders may have either been copycat killings, or the sole two committed by the same perpetrator. Criticism has also been levelled against the police for potentially hampering their own investigation by prematurely jumping to the conclusion that all three murders had been committed by the same person.


title: Bible John

text: In 2004, police announced their intentions to genetically test a number of men in a further attempt to identify the perpetrator, with all individuals concerned being requested to submit blood samples. This endeavour followed the previous discovery of an 80% genetic match from the semen samples retrieved from the final crime scene attributed to Bible John with a DNA sample retrieved at the site of a minor crime committed two years earlier. The sample was enough of a match to lead officers to believe that the person who committed the offence was related to the killer.


title: Bible John

text: The sole witness ever to have engaged in a lengthy conversation with Bible John, Jean Langford, died in September 2010 at the age of 74. Langford had given police the description used to form the second composite drawing created of the suspect, which continues to remain the most significant clue as to the perpetrator's physical appearance. Despite Professor Wilson's assertion that Peter Tobin may have been Bible John, when Jean Langford discussed her sister's murderer many decades later, she dismissed this theory, stating emphatically that Tobin had not been the man with whom she had shared a taxi on the night of her sister's murder.


title: Relief of Douglas MacArthur

text: On 11 April 1951, U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieved General of the Army Douglas MacArthur of his commands after MacArthur made public statements that contradicted the administration's policies. MacArthur was a popular hero of World War II who was then commander of United Nations Command forces fighting in the Korean War, and his relief remains a controversial topic in the field of civil–military relations.


title: Relief of Douglas MacArthur

text: MacArthur led the Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific during World War II, and after the war was in charge of the occupation of Japan. In the latter role, MacArthur was able to accumulate considerable power over the civil administration of Japan. Eventually, he gained a level of political experience that has arguably been neither precedented nor repeated by anyone actively serving as a flag officer in the U.S. military.


title: Relief of Douglas MacArthur

text: When North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950, starting the Korean War, MacArthur was designated commander of the United Nations forces defending South Korea. He conceived and executed the amphibious assault at Inchon on 15 September 1950, for which he was hailed as a military genius. However, when he followed up his victory with a full-scale invasion of North Korea on Truman's orders, China intervened in the war and inflicted a series of defeats, compelling him to withdraw from North Korea. By April 1951, the military situation had stabilized, but MacArthur continued to publicly criticize his superiors and attempt to escalate the conflict, leading Truman to relieve MacArthur of his commands. The Armed Services Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee of the U.S. Senate held a joint inquiry into the military situation and the circumstances surrounding MacArthur's relief, and concluded that "the removal of General MacArthur was within the constitutional powers of the President but the circumstances were a shock to national pride".


title: Relief of Douglas MacArthur

text: An apolitical military was an American tradition, but one that was difficult to uphold in an era when American forces were employed overseas in large numbers. The principle of civilian control of the military was also ingrained, but the rising complexity of military technology led to the creation of a professional military. This made civilian control increasingly problematic when coupled with the constitutional division of powers between the president as commander-in-chief, and Congress with its power to raise armies, maintain a navy, and declare war. In relieving MacArthur for failing to "respect the authority of the President" by privately communicating with Congress, Truman upheld the president's role as preeminent.


title: Relief of Douglas MacArthur

text: Harry S. Truman became president of the United States on the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, and won an unexpected victory in the 1948 presidential election. He was the only president who served after 1897 without a college degree. Although not highly educated, Truman was well read. When his high school friends went off to the state university in 1901, he enrolled in a local business school, but only lasted a semester. He later took night courses at the Kansas City Law School, but dropped out. Truman attempted to gain admission to the United States Military Academy at West Point, but was rejected for his poor eyesight. He was proud of his military service in the artillery during World War I, and continued to hold a reserve commission, eventually achieving the rank of colonel.


title: Relief of Douglas MacArthur

text: Instead of professional soldiers, Truman selected two National Guardsmen, Harry H. Vaughan and Louis H. Renfrow, as his military aides. Truman once remarked that he did not understand how the US Army could "produce men such as Robert E. Lee, John J. Pershing, Eisenhower, and Bradley and at the same time produce Custers, Pattons, and MacArthur".


title: Relief of Douglas MacArthur

text: During the 1948 Revolt of the Admirals, a number of naval officers publicly disagreed with the administration's policy over cuts to naval aviation and amphibious warfare capability, resulting in the relief of the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Louis Denfeld, and his replacement by Admiral Forrest Sherman. In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee investigation into the affair in October 1949, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Omar Bradley, doubted that there would ever be another large-scale amphibious operation.


title: Relief of Douglas MacArthur

text: In stature and seniority, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was the Army's foremost general. The son of Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur, Jr., a recipient of the Medal of Honor for action during the American Civil War, he had graduated at the top of his West Point class of 1903, but never attended an advanced service school except for the engineer course in 1908. He had a distinguished combat record in World War I, and had served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1930 to 1935, working closely with Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt, despite occasional clashes over the military budget. He would later compare Roosevelt's "extraordinary self-control" with Truman's "violent temper and paroxysms of ungovernable rage".


title: Relief of Douglas MacArthur

text: Apart from his World War I-era service in Mexico and Europe, his overseas postings had been in Asia and the Pacific. During World War II, he had become a national hero and had been awarded the Medal of Honor for the unsuccessful defense of the Philippines in the Battle of Bataan. He had commanded the Allied armies in the New Guinea Campaign and Philippines Campaign, fulfilling his famous promise to return to the Philippines. In 1944 and 1948, he had been considered a possible Republican candidate for president. After the war, as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP), he had overseen the Occupation of Japan and played an important part in the post-war political and social transformation of that country.


title: Relief of Douglas MacArthur

text: By 1950, the occupation of Japan was winding down, but MacArthur remained in the country as Commander-in-Chief Far East (CINCFE), a post to which he had been appointed by Truman in 1945. MacArthur had to deal with deep cuts in the defense budget that saw his troop numbers decline from 300,000 in 1947 to 142,000 in 1948. Despite his protests, further reductions followed and, by June 1950, there were only 108,000 troops in his Far East Command. Cuts in funds and personnel produced shortages of serviceable equipment. Of the Far East Command's 18,000 jeeps, 10,000 were unserviceable; of its 13,780 2½-ton 6x6 trucks, only 4,441 were serviceable. On the positive side, Far East Command initiated a program of reclaiming and refurbishing war materiel from abandoned stocks throughout the Pacific. This had not only recovered a great deal of valuable stores and equipment, it had also generated a useful repair and rebuilding industry in Japan. Meanwhile, the shift away from occupation duties had permitted a greater focus on training for combat.


title: Relief of Douglas MacArthur

text: North Korea invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950, starting the Korean War. In response to an urgent request from the Korean Military Advisory Group for more ammunition, MacArthur, on his own initiative, ordered the transport ship MSTS "Sgt. George D Keathley", then in harbor in Yokohama, to be loaded with ammunition and to sail for Pusan. President Truman met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other advisors that day at Blair House and approved the actions already taken by MacArthur and Secretary of State Dean Acheson. At another meeting at Blair House held on the evening of 26 June, amid reports of a rapidly deteriorating situation in South Korea, Truman approved the use of air and naval forces against military targets south of the 38th parallel north.


title: Relief of Douglas MacArthur

text: Subsequently, on 27 June, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 83, which recommended that "members of the United Nations furnish such assistance to the Republic of Korea as may be necessary to repel the armed attack and to restore international peace and security in the area". The South Korean capital of Seoul fell on 28 June. The next day, Truman authorized air and naval operations north of the 38th parallel, which MacArthur had already ordered. However it was not until 30 June, following a sobering report on the military situation from MacArthur, that Truman finally authorized the use of ground forces.


title: Relief of Douglas MacArthur

text: On 8 July, on the advice of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Truman appointed MacArthur as commander of United Nations Command in South Korea (CINCUNC). He remained CINCFE and SCAP. MacArthur was forced to commit his forces in Japan to what he later described as a "desperate rearguard action". In July, Truman sent the Chief of Staff of the Army, General J. Lawton Collins, and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, to report on the situation. They met with MacArthur and his chief of staff, Major General Edward Almond, in Tokyo on 13 July. MacArthur impressed on them the danger of underestimating the North Koreans, whom he characterized as "well-equipped, well-led, and battle-trained, and which have at times out-numbered our troops by as much as twenty to one". He proposed to first halt the North Korean advance and then counterattack, enveloping the North Koreans with an amphibious operation, but the timing was dependent on the arrival of reinforcements from the United States.