Buddhism in Russia identify as Buddhists. Buddhism in Russia Historically, Buddhism was incorporated into Russian lands in the early 17th century. Buddhism is considered as one of Russia's traditional religions, legally a part of Russian historical heritage. Besides the historical monastic traditions of Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva, Buddhism is now widespread all over Russia, with many ethnic Russian converts. The main form of Buddhism in Russia is the Gelukpa school of Tibetan Buddhism, informally known as the "yellow hat" tradition, with other Tibetan and non-Tibetan schools as minorities. Although Tibetan Buddhism is most often associated with Tibet, it spread into Mongolia, and via
Buddhism and Jainism community (or Jain "sangha") consists of monastics, "muni"s (male ascetics) and "aryika"s (female ascetics) and householders, "śhrāvak"s (laymen) and "śrāvakī"s (laywomen). Buddhism has a similar organization: the community consists of renunciate bhikkhus and bhikkhunis and male and female laypersons, or "śrāvaka"s and "śrāvika"s, who take limited vows. Jainism has developed and refined the non-violence ("'Ahimsa") doctrine to an extraordinary degree where it is an integral part of the Jain culture. Jain vegetarianism, for example, is driven by the principle of not harming any animals and both lay and mendicants are predominantly vegetarian. In Buddhism, Mahayana monks in China, Japan (see