Faith Curriculum Library: Tapestry of Faith: Building Bridges: A World Religions Program for 8th-9th Grades

Handout 2: Comparative Chart of Eastern Religions

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Part of Building Bridges, Grades 8-9: A World Religions Program

	Zoroastrianism	Jainism	Taoism	Buddhism	Confucianism
Year	600 BCE	556 BCE	550 BCE	531 BCE	500 BCE
Country	Iran	India	China	India	China
Prophet / Founder	Zoroaster (Zarathustra)	Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara	Lao Tzu	Siddhartha Gautama	K'ung-fu-tzu (Confucius)
Followers	2.6 Million	4.2 M	20 M	360 M	6 M
Ahimsa	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Theistic	Monotheistic: Ahura Mazda	No	No	No	No
Karma	No	Yes	Silent	Yes	No
Rein-carnation	No	Yes	Silent	Yes	No
Gender equality	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Called a "philosophy"	No	Sometimes	Yes	Sometimes	Yes

NOTE: Ahimsa = Nonviolence; do no harm