Religious and Ethnic Diversity of the Region

South Asia is the birthplace of several of the world's major religious traditions. Hinduism, whose roots extend back over three millennia to the Vedic tradition — the Rigveda is generally dated to roughly 1500 to 1200 BCE — remains the region's largest faith by adherents. Buddhism traces its origin to Siddhartha Gautama, traditionally said to have been born in Lumbini, in the Terai lowlands of present-day Nepal, in the sixth to fifth century BCE, and later spread from northern India across Sri Lanka and, eventually, mainland Southeast Asia and East Asia. Jainism, associated with the teacher Mahavira (traditionally also dated to the sixth century BCE), and Sikhism, founded by Guru Nanak (1469-1539) in the Punjab region, likewise originated on the subcontinent and remain practiced there today.