"During the reign of King Ashoka, one of the ancient kings of India, there were actually eighteen denominations of Buddhism. All of them are now defunct except one. The only one that survived out of these eighteen is called Hinayana – the form of Buddhism prevalent today in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand. We could call it southern Buddhism. It is considered the oldest, strictest and purest form of Buddhism. For this reason it is also known as Theravada or the “Way of the Elders”. A newer denomination called Mahayana possibly emerged out of India in the first century BC, became a movement in China in the second century, traveled to South Korea and crossed over to Japan by the sixth century. Hence we could call it the Northern Buddhism."