The present paper is a condensation and re-arrangement (with some supplements) of my German article Buddhismus und Glaubenskriege (= Schmithausen 1996), to which the reader is referred for further details, documentation, and references. In: Jan E. M. Houben and Karel R. van Kooij (eds.), Violence Denied–Violence, Non-Violence and the Rationalization of Violence in South Asian Cultural History. Leiden etc. 1999, 45–67