Buddhism is one of the three major world religions, along with Christianity and Islam, and has a history that is several centuries longer than either of its counterparts. Starting in India some twenty-five hundred years ago, Buddhist monks and nuns almost immediately from the birth of Buddhist communities began to “to wander forth for the welfare and weal of the many, out of compassion for the world,” commencing one of the greatest missionary movements in world religious history. Over the next millennium, Buddhism spread from India throughout the Asian continent, from the shores of the Caspian Sea in the west, to the Inner Asian steppes in the north, the Japanese isles in the east, and the Indonesian archipelago in the south. In the modern era, Buddhism has even begun to build a significant presence in the Americas and Europe among both immigrant and local populations, transforming it into a religion with truly global reach. Buddhist terms such as karma, nirvana, sam sara, and koan have entered common parlance and Buddhist ideas have begun to seep deeply into both Western thought and popular culture.