Editing Vegetarianism (section)

===Buddhism===
{{Main|Buddhist vegetarianism}}
[[File:Sign promoting vegetarianism at Key Monastery, Spiti, India.jpg|thumb|Sign promoting vegetarianism at [[Key Monastery]], [[Spiti]], India]]
Theravadins in general eat meat.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/dharmadata/fdd21.htm |title=Buddhist Studies: Vegetarianism |website=Buddhanet.net |access-date=March 31, 2015 |archive-date=November 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108124629/http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/dharmadata/fdd21.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> If Buddhist monks "see, hear or know" a living animal was killed specifically for them to eat, they must refuse it or else incur an offense.<ref name=Gunasekara>{{cite web |author=V. A. Gunasekara |title=Buddhism and Vegetarianism, The Rationale for the Buddha's Views on the Consumption of Meat |website=Buddhanet.net |url=http://www.buddhanet.net/budsas/ebud/ebdha069.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131007043230/http://www.buddhanet.net/budsas/ebud/ebdha069.htm |archive-date=October 7, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> However, this does not include eating meat which was given as alms or commercially purchased. In the Theravada canon, [[Shakyamuni Buddha]] did not make any comment discouraging them from eating meat (except specific types, such as human, [[elephant meat|elephant]], [[Horse meat|horse]], [[Dog meat|dog]], [[Snake meat|snake]], lion, tiger, leopard, [[Bear meat|bear]], and hyena flesh<ref>Mahavagga Pali – Bhesajjakkhandhaka – Vinaya Pitaka</ref>) but he specifically refused to institute vegetarianism in his monastic code when a suggestion had been made.{{efn|"The rule of vegetarianism was the fifth of a list of rules which Devadatta had proposed to the Buddha. Devadatta was the founder of the tapasa movement in Buddhism and his special rules involved ascetic and austere practices (forest-dwelling, wearing only rags, etc). The Buddha rejected all the proposed revisions of Devadatta, and it was in this context that he reiterated the tikoiparisuddha rule. (On this see the author's Western Buddhism and a Theravada heterodoxy, BSQ Tracts on Buddhism."<ref name=Gunasekara/>}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma3/meat.html |title=Buddhism and Eating Meat |publisher=Urbandharma.org |access-date=March 31, 2015 |archive-date=August 15, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080815212610/http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma3/meat.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In several [[Sanskrit]] texts of [[Mahayana Buddhism]], Buddha instructs his followers to avoid meat.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.serv-online.org/Eileen-Weintraub.htm |title=Life as a Vegetarian Tibetan Buddhist Practitioner |publisher=Serv-online.org |access-date=March 31, 2015 |archive-date=July 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730034051/http://www.serv-online.org/Eileen-Weintraub.htm |url-status=usurped }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lmqSoNsRSx8C |title=Apparitions of the Self: The Secret Autobiographies of a Tibetan Visionary - Google Books |date=November 1999 |access-date=March 31, 2015 |isbn=978-0691009483 |last1=Gyatso |first1=Janet |publisher=Princeton University Press |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405220140/https://books.google.com/books?id=lmqSoNsRSx8C |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bXAUkoM0esMC |title=The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin |date=June 3, 2014 |publisher=Shambhala |access-date=March 31, 2015 |isbn=9781559398749}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Tathagatagarbha Buddhism (18) |website=webspawner.com |url=http://www.webspawner.com/users/tathagatagarbha18/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105032808/http://www.webspawner.com/users/tathagatagarbha18/index.html |archive-date=November 5, 2013}}</ref> However, each branch of Mahayana Buddhism selects which sutra to follow, and some branches, including the majority of Tibetan and Japanese Buddhists, actually do eat meat.<ref>{{cite web |title=Vegetarianism and Animal Ethics in Tibetan Buddhism |url=https://international.ucla.edu/apc/event/13526#:~:text=Vegetarianism%20lies%20at%20the%20center,allows%20monks%20to%20eat%20meat. |access-date=2022-03-14 |website=international.ucla.edu |archive-date=May 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521000229/https://international.ucla.edu/apc/event/13526#:~:text=Vegetarianism%20lies%20at%20the%20center,allows%20monks%20to%20eat%20meat. |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780824851774/pdf#page=265 |doi=10.1515/9780824851774 |title=Going Forth |isbn=9780824851774 |editor1-last=Bodiford |editor1-first=William M. |date=2017 }}</ref>

Meanwhile, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese Buddhism (in some sectors of [[East Asian Buddhism]]) monks and nuns are expected to abstain from meat, and traditionally, to abstain from eggs and dairy as well.<ref>{{Citation |last=Kieschnick |first=John |title=Buddhist Vegetarianism in China |date=2005 |work=Of Tripod and Palate: Food, Politics, and Religion in Traditional China |pages=186–212 |editor-last=Sterckx |editor-first=Roel |place=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |doi=10.1057/9781403979278_10 |isbn=978-1-4039-7927-8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol |title=Food of Bodhisattvas: Buddhist teachings on abstaining from meat |date=2004 |publisher=Shambhala Publications |isbn=978-08-3482-410-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TxJ8x9f8BNYC}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |author=Yujin Lee |title=The nutritional status of vegetarian Buddhist nuns compared to omnivorous women in South Korea |publisher=Justus-Liebig-University |place=Giessen, Germany |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/56344913.pdf |access-date=31 March 2022 |archive-date=April 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220412012945/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/56344913.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ho-Pham |first1=LT |last2=Nguyen |first2=PLT |last3=Le |first3=TTT |last4=Doan |first4=TAT |last5=Tran |first5=NT |last6=Le |first6=TA |last7=Nguyen |first7=TV |date=7 April 2009 |title=Veganism, bone mineral density, and body composition: a study in Buddhist nuns |journal=Osteoporosis International |volume=20 |issue=12 |pages=2087–2093 |doi=10.1007/s00198-009-0916-z |pmid=19350341 |s2cid=20305849 |issn=1433-2965}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Davidson |first=Jo Ann |year=2007 |title=World Religions and the Vegetarian Diet |magazine=Perspective Digest |volume=12 |issue=1 |at=Article 3 |url=https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1056&context=pd |access-date=31 March 2022 |archive-date=July 31, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210731124258/https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1056&context=pd |url-status=live }}</ref>

Different Buddhist traditions have differing teachings on diet, which may also vary for ordained monks and nuns compared to others. Many interpret the [[Five Precepts|precept]] "not to kill" to require abstinence from meat, but not all. In Taiwan, ''su'' vegetarianism excludes not only all animal products but also vegetables in the [[allium]] family (which have the characteristic aroma of onion and garlic): onion, garlic, scallions, leeks, chives, or shallots.