1. Tibetan Buddhism Summary

2. Tibetan Buddhism is also known as Tantra and Vajrayana Buddhism

3. Tibetan Buddhism is also known as the ‘Vehicle of the Thunderbolt’

4. Tibetan Buddhism is based on the Tantras, a collection of treatises written in India towards the end of the first millennium C.E.

5. The Tantras are highly mystical in nature, and consist of complex rituals, mandalas (mystical symbols) and mantras (spells or magic formulas)

7. Initiation into this form of Buddhism depends on a lama (Tibetan for Guru)

8. The Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950 forced over a million refugees to flee the country, including, in 1959, the ruler, the Dalai Lama

9. The Tibetan Diaspora has meant that there are many experienced and knowledgeable lamas to staff centres for learning, meditation practice and retreat

10. The profile of Tibet has also had the support of celebrities like actors Richard Gere and Harrison Ford