T’ian T’ai (Tendai)

This Chinese school dates from the late sixth to early eighth centuries and is noted for its attempt to classify into a coherent framework all of the myriad of hinayana and mahayana scriptures that were coming into China from India. Its founder, Chih-I (538-597) considered the Lotus Sutra to be the highest of the mahayana Dharmas and favored the Yogachara School of Asanga. It was exported to Japan by Saicho (767-870) in the late eighth century where it became known as Tendai and remains a minor part of Japanese Buddhism. There are Tendai and T’ian T’ai temples in America.