What is the difference between Tibetan Buddhism and Buddhism?
As mentioned, over time, various traditions developed within Buddhism, and especially in Northern India, the Mahayana and Vajrayana were popular. From around the 8th century onwards, Buddhism from Northern India was introduced in Tibet, and when Buddhism virtually disappeared in entire India around the 11th century, then in Tibet and some other surrounding countries the Vajrayana tradition was preserved. Despite what very old books write about Tibetan Buddhism, there were not many important additions from Tibet itself to that Vajrayana tradition. Basically before some 50 years ago, most western scholars thought that the entire Vajrayana practice was shamanistic and came from the old Tibetan shamanistic traditions before Buddhism was introduced. However, most of the practices can be traced to original Sanskrit texts that came from Buddhist India. One confusing aspect of Vajrayana is that it is to be kept secret to avoid abuse and misunderstanding, and this secrecy easily leads to misund
