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RE: The Early Schools of Indian Buddhism Series
Buddha is the main focus in many temples of Mahayana Buddhism. Amitabha (aka Amida) is the main focus in many Japanese schools, but this is much less common in other areas. It's also worth noting that many Japanese schools have deviated in very significant ways from mainstream Buddhism and some are rejected altogether. Tibetan (one type of Vajrayana) Buddhism is a mix of Buddhism and Bon, the indigenous religion of that region. Buddhism has been persecuted and shunned in India due to it clashing with the caste system (and therefore threatening the amount of power and control some groups have), and this was a big factor in Buddhism's decline in India.
@shishiristi, My Tibetan teachers, I practice Chod and Dzogchen told me that Bon was/is a separate religion but incorporated many of Buddha's teachings and principles. I was told Bon is a mix of indigenous religions and beliefs of Tibet and Buddhism. However, scholars and archeologist have different arguments.
Bon was the pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet, its central figure a king with sacred powers;
Bon was a form of Buddhism that developed in western Tibet at least as early as the period in which Buddhism was introduced into Tibet, and was similar in many respects to orthodox Buddhism;
Bon, so-called, was not a religion in its own right, but the sum of all the indigenous beliefs, cults of local gods, popular rites, etc., that were once prevalent across Tibet.
I don't have a bone in the arguments, but how religions form and dissolve is interesting to me!