With a rough estimate of 6100 Buddhists,Buddhism is practiced by around 0.05% of theCzech population.[1] The World Buddhist Directory lists 70 Buddhist places in the Czech Republic.[2]
TheVietnamese-speaking communities form the mainstay of the Buddhist population in the Czech Republic. The Vietnamese practice mainlyMahayana Buddhism with some syncretism ofancestor worship,Confucianism andTaoism. They represent roughly from two thirds to three quarters of the Buddhist community alongside being the largest Asian community in the Czech Republic, numbering over 60,000.[3] The remainder consists of a significant number ofCzechs who have converted (mainly toTheravada orVajrayana Buddhism) and the smaller communities ofoverseas Chinese andKoreans.
Buddhism is found mainly where the Vietnamese-speaking people reside, notably in the cities ofPrague andCheb.Thien An Buddhist Pagoda in the northern province ofVarnsdorf was the first Vietnamese style temple to be consecrated in the Czech Republic, in January 2008. The pagoda was completed in September 2007 and now serves as a center of Vietnamese culture and teaching Vietnamese language.[4] There are also ten Korean Buddhist temples in the Czech Republic, with three each in Prague andBrno.[5]
The Vajrayana practitioners are mainly centered on theNyingma andKagyu schools. TheKarma Kagyu tradition has established about 50 centers and meditation groups. TheDiamond Way tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism, founded and directed byOle Nydahl is active in both the Czech Republic andSlovakia.
Buddhism came to theCzech Republic around 1920. At this time, the West Mongolian nation of theKalmyks arrived inCzechoslovakia . They were soon forced to leave the republic, because the government was not inclined to such religious practices. With this act, Czechoslovakia delayed the spread of the Buddhist faith by 40 years compared to Western countries.Leopold Procházka, Fráňa Drtikol , Eduard and Míla Tomášová, and Květoslav Minařík can be considered the leading popularizers of Buddhism inCzechoslovakia in the 20th century . After the fall of communism in 1989, people felt the loss of spiritual values, because until then they lived mainly in a materialistic way. This too could have been the reason for the increased interest in Buddhism after theVelvet Revolution.[6]
In mid-January 2022, the Buddha close-up exhibition was opened in the National Gallery inPrague.[7] Using medallions of individual practitioners in the form of videos, individual schools operating in theCzech Republic are presented.[8]
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