Abstract
The aim of the work is to bring readers briefly and comprehensively close to the spread of Buddhism in the Czech lands and Slovakia (in the territory of former Czechoslovakia). Few brief early-stage articles were written on the topic, but none of them in a comprehensive matter.
Buddhism has always spread during its development using several important means, among which personalities, communities and literature have been involved. This takes this article into account as well.
It encompasses the period from the beginnings of Buddhism in the Czech Lands and Slovakia in the late 1890s to present. An important aspect of Western Buddhism can be found in "the search for the basic book", which the article also pays due attention.
Throughout the 19th century, Buddhism makes its way to the West, and its western followers are travelling to study it to the East. The source of traditional Czechoslovak Buddhism, whose most significant figures were most likely Gustav Meyrink and František Drtikol, has been primarily yoga and hermetism, along with theosophic neo-Buddhism.
Only with the new generation, Buddhism receives a religious form and new further developing Buddhist groups are created. There are more and more supporters claiming Buddhism as a religion.
The current trend is to retreat from an institutional religiosity and the inclination to a personal spirituality.