Abstract
In the Census, 6 817 people claimed Buddhism in 2001 and 6 101 in 2011. The aim of this text is to show, when and how Buddhism appeared in the Czech Lands in The AustroHungarian monarchy, as well as influenced by world-famous personalities, with mostly influence of German language area.
Period texts and letters have been rediscovered to illustrate the research of this text. Buddha's teaching penetrated Europe during the 19th century.
It reaches the lands of the Czech Crown mainly thanks to Theosophical Society as a Neobuddhism, which had an esoteric character based primarily on Vajrayana. His probably first practice since 1891 was a banker of German origin Gustav Meyrink.
Original Buddhism also becomes an object of academic studies. From these foundations comes the study and practice of the first Czech Buddhists - František Drtikol, Rudolf Máša, Leopold Procházka or Květoslav Minařík and their students.
It was originally a non-religious teaching in the Czech lands, and only in the late 1990s began to exhibit religious elements, which led to the registration of two Buddhist churches. It is reasonable to assume that the numbers of Buddhist followers will continue to increase.