section_path: Contemporary Mahāyāna Buddhism/Chinese
section_name: Chinese
paragraph_text: Chinese
  
  Contemporary Han Chinese Buddhism is practiced through many varied forms, such as Chan (Zen), Pure land, Tiantai, Huayan and mantra practices. This group is the largest population of Buddhists in the world. There are between 228 and 239 million Mahāyāna Buddhists in the People's Republic of China. This does not include the Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhists who practice Tibetan Buddhism.
  
  Harvey gives the East Asian Mahāyāna Buddhist population in other countries as follows: Taiwanese Buddhists, 8 million; Malaysian Buddhists, 5.5 million; Singaporean Buddhists, 1.5 million; Hong Kong, 0.7 million; Indonesian Buddhists, 4 million, The Philippines: 2.3 million. Most of these are Han Chinese populations.
  
  Chinese Buddhism can be divided into various different traditions (zong), such as Sanlun, Faxiang, Tiantai, Huayan, Pure Land, Chan, and Zhenyan. However, historically, most temples, institutions and Buddhist practitioners usually did not belong to any single "sect" (as is common in Japanese Buddhism), but draw from the various different elements of Chinese Buddhist thought and practice. This non-sectarian and eclectic aspect of Chinese Buddhism as a whole has persisted from its historical beginnings into its modern practice.
  
  The modern development of an ideology called Humanistic Buddhism (Chinese: 人間佛教; pinyin: rénjiān fójiào, more literally "Buddhism for the Human World") has also been influential on Chinese Buddhist leaders and institutions. Chinese Buddhists may also practice some form of religious syncretism with other Chinese religions, such as Taoism. In modern China, the reform and opening up period in the late 20th century saw a particularly significant increase in the number of converts to Chinese Buddhism, a growth which has been called "extraordinary". Outside of mainland China, Chinese Buddhism is practiced in Taiwan and wherever there are Chinese diaspora communities.