List of Buddhists

A number of noted individuals have been Buddhists.

Table of contents

1 Major Buddhist thinkers, historical figures and founders of schools 2 Recent or contemporary figures 3 Celebrity Buddhists 4 Infamous Buddhists

Major Buddhist thinkers, historical figures and founders of schools

• Ananda
• Asanga
• Atisha (founder of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan-Buddhism)
• Bodhidharma (legendary first patriarch of Zen in China)
• Buddhaghosa (Theravadin commentator)
• Chandrakirti
• Dharmakirti
• Chih I (founder of Tien Tai school)
• Dogen Zenji (founder of Soto Zen)
• Fa-Tsang
• The Buddha
• Hakuin (Rinzai Zen)
• Hsuan Tsang (took Tripitaka to China)
• Hui Neng (6th Patriarch of Zen in China)
• Kukai (founder of Shingon)
• Longchenpa
• Nagarjuna
• Nichiren Daishonin (founder of Nichiren Buddhism)
• Padmasambhava (semi-legendary founder of Nyingma school of Tibetan-Buddhism)
• Ryokan (18th-Century Japanese Zen monk and poet)
• Sariputta (Pali. Shariputra Sanskrit. One of two chief disciples of the Buddha]]
• Shantideva (8th-Century Indian)
• Shinran
• Tsongkapa
• Vasubandhu
• Xuanzang

Recent or contemporary figures

• Ajahn Mun
• Ajahn Luang Por Chah
• Alan Watts
• Ayya Khema
• Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
• Chögyam Trungpa
• Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki
• The 14th Dalai Lama
• Pema_chodron
• Sangharakshita
• Shunryu Suzuki
• Tarthang Tulku
• Thich Nhat Hanh

Celebrity Buddhists

• Roberto Baggio
• Fabian Barthez
• David Beckham
• Kathleen Dee-Anne Norris
• Leonardo DiCaprio
• Richard Gere
• Philip Glass
• Herbie Hancock
• Jet Li
• Brad Pitt
• Keanu Reeves
• Steven Segal
• Sting
• Tina Turner

Infamous Buddhists

• Manuel Noriega

See also: List of people by belief, list of people