Culture of Buddhism Most Buddhist practices also involve chant in some form, and some also make use of instrumental music and even dance. Music can act as an offering to the Buddha, as a means of memorizing Buddhist texts, and as a form of personal cultivation or meditation. In order to purify the hearts of listeners, Buddhist melodies are strong yet soft and pure. Buddhist music plays a central role in everyday cultural practices of Buddhists since it is also played in many ceremonies such as weddings and funerals Buddhist music developed when Buddhism spread to Tibet. The Tibetan traditions of Buddhism encouraged
History of Buddhism well as criticism and competition from Christianity. Modern wars, communism, the growth of capitalism, science and regional political instability are also influential pressures on modern Buddhism. In Sri Lanka under the British, Christian missionaries ran all the state approved schools and strongly criticized Buddhism. By 1865, Buddhist monks began a counter movement against Christian attacks, printing pamphlets and debating Christians in public, such as at the famous Panadura debate in 1873, which saw the monk Gunananda win a debate in front of a crowd of 10,000. During this period a new form of Buddhism began to take shape, termed Buddhist