A world of traditions.

Faith centered on Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ, emerging from Second Temple Judaism.

Submission to God (Allah) as revealed in the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims understand it as the original monotheism of Abraham.

The majority tradition, following the Sunnah of the Prophet as transmitted by the community.

The Church in communion with the Bishop of Rome. Its members regard it as continuous with the apostolic church.

A family of traditions built on the Vedas, Upaniṣads, epics and Purāṇas; many adherents call it Sanātana Dharma, the eternal way.

The churches of the Reformation, begun with Luther's 95 Theses in 1517.

Spirit-filled Christianity spreading from the 1906 Azusa Street Revival.

The teaching of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, on suffering and liberation; his dates are usually placed c. 563–483 or c. 480–400 BCE.

The 'Great Vehicle': the bodhisattva path and sutras such as the Lotus and Heart Sutras.

The Orthodox Catholic Church of Byzantium and its daughter churches.

Followers of the Prophet's family through Ali and the Imams.

The 'Way of the Elders', preserving the Pāli Canon.

The Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The Wesleyan revival movement.

Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian, Syriac and other churches that did not accept the Council of Chalcedon (451).

Worship of the kami. Roots go back to prehistory; the name and texts (Kojiki, 712) are later.

Founded by Guru Nanak (1469–1539). Sikhs understand it as a distinct revelation; historians also note its Sant-Bhakti setting.

Tantric Buddhism, central to Tibetan, Himalayan and Mongolian traditions.

Founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. Adherents understand it as a restoration of the original church.

Judaism of the Mishnah and Talmud, the basis of nearly all Jewish practice today.

Founded by Bahá'u'lláh, teaching the unity of God, religion and humanity. Bahá'ís regard it as an independent world religion.

The path of non-violence taught by the Tirthankaras; Mahavira is the 24th. Jains regard the tradition as eternal.

Founded by Nakayama Miki in 1838, teaching the 'Joyous Life'.

Radical Reformation believers' baptism: Mennonites, Amish and Hutterites.

A Vietnamese religion founded in 1926 that openly unites teachings from East and West.

Emerged from Fatimid Ismailism in 1017. The Druze regard it as a distinct faith.

Jamaican movement from the 1930s honoring Haile Selassie I.

Monotheist faith centered on Tawûsê Melek, shaped by Sheikh 'Adi ibn Musafir and older Iranian traditions.

Syriac Christianity of the Persian Empire, which reached Tang China by 635.

Worship of Ahura Mazda revealed through Zarathustra; his dates are disputed, from c. 1500 to c. 500 BCE.

A Gnostic baptismal religion honoring John the Baptist; its origins are debated.

Hundreds of nations' traditions of the Dreaming, among the world's oldest continuous cultures. Some knowledge is restricted and not shown.

Founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in 1889. Ahmadis identify as Muslims; many Muslim authorities dispute this.

Makkhali Gosala's fatalist ascetic school, known mainly from its rivals' texts.

Pharaonic kingship, Ra, Osiris and Isis, ma'at, and an elaborate afterlife recorded in the Pyramid Texts and Book of the Dead.

The Olympians, civic festivals, oracles such as Delphi, and mysteries such as Eleusis.

Pre-Zoroastrian and popular Iranian religion, known indirectly.

The pax deorum kept through public ritual, household lares and the imperial cult.

Huitzilopochtli, Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl at the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan.

The movement of the Báb, proclaimed in Shiraz in 1844.

Heir to Sumer: Marduk and Ashur, the Enuma Elish, divination and astral religion.

Europe's last officially pagan realm: Lithuania, until 1387.

Devotional poetry and practice open across caste lines, from the Tamil Alvars to Kabir.

El, Baal, Asherah and Anat, known especially from the Ugarit tablets; the setting of early Israelite religion.

Afro-Brazilian worship of the orixás, centered in Bahia.

A Neolithic town where burials beneath floors and wall art suggest ritual centered on the household and ancestors.

Druids, sacred groves and deities such as Lugus, known through archaeology and Roman and later Irish sources.

Meditation-centered Mahāyāna that took shape in China, in dialogue with Daoist thought.

An Andean ceremonial and pilgrimage centre at Chavín de Huántar.

Ancestor veneration and local gods, attested since Shang oracle bones.

The ethical and ritual tradition of Confucius (551–479 BCE); whether it is a religion is itself debated.

A religion of revealed books and divination (haruspicy), heavily influencing Rome.

The pre-Christian religion of the Finns, Karelians and Estonians: Ukko, Väinämöinen and the sung poetry gathered into the Kalevala.

Odin, Thor and Freyja; mostly known from later Christian-era Icelandic sources.

Wovoka's 1889 renewal movement, which spread through Plains nations.

Movements teaching salvation through secret knowledge (gnosis); known from the Nag Hammadi texts.

Monumental carved pillar enclosures built by hunter-gatherers; their ritual purpose is widely accepted, their exact meaning debated.

Service to the lwa, formed among enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue.

Mystical revival begun by the Baal Shem Tov.

Modern revival of Germanic religion; Iceland recognized Ásatrú in 1973.

The Corpus Hermeticum and the esoteric currents it inspired.

The 'thousand gods of Hatti', absorbing Hattian, Hurrian and Indo-European deities.

The oldest surviving Islamic school outside Sunni and Shia, predominant in Oman.

Inti the sun, Pachamama and sacred huacas across the Andes.

Shia branch following the line of Isma'il ibn Ja'far.

Worship of YHWH in ancient Israel and Judah up to the Babylonian exile.

Judaism based on scripture alone, rejecting rabbinic oral law.

Rituals (gut) led by mudang mediating between people and spirits.

Mani's dualist world religion, which spread from Roman North Africa to China before disappearing.

Sacred calendars, kingship and the Popol Vuh; Maya traditional religion continues today.

Stonehenge, Newgrange, Carnac and the Maltese temples: monuments aligned to the sun and associated with the dead.

Peak sanctuaries, bull-leaping and goddess imagery on Bronze Age Crete.

Linear B tablets already name Zeus, Hera, Poseidon and Dionysus.

Song-dynasty synthesis of Zhu Xi and others, answering Buddhist and Daoist metaphysics.

Plotinus' philosophy of the One, which became a late pagan religious system.

Colossal heads, were-jaguar imagery and early Mesoamerican ritual.

Mystery tradition attributed to Orpheus, concerned with the soul's fate.

Deliberate burials (Qafzeh, Skhul) and painted caves (Lascaux, Chauvet, Sulawesi) are the earliest evidence many scholars read as ritual.

Tangaroa, Tāne and mana across the Pacific, from Hawaiʻi to Aotearoa.

Reconstructed by comparing daughter traditions: a sky father (*Dyḗus ph₂tḗr), a storm god, and sacrifice.

Common ancestor of Vedic and Iranian religion; shared terms such as soma/haoma and ṛta/aša.

Devotion to Amitābha Buddha and rebirth in his Pure Land.

Liberal Judaism that emerged in 19th-century Germany.

A Roman mystery cult of Mithras slaying the bull; how much it owes to Iranian Mithra is debated.

Israelite religion centered on Mount Gerizim and the Samaritan Pentateuch.

Yoruba religion preserved in Cuba alongside Catholic saints.

From the return from exile to the Temple's destruction in 70 CE: Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes.

Devotion to Shiva, from Kashmir Shaivism to the Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta.

Worship of the Goddess (Devi) as supreme power.

Perun, Veles and household spirits, reconstructed from fragmentary sources.

Wandering ascetics outside Vedic ritual; the matrix of Jainism, Buddhism and Ājīvika.

The mystical path of Islam, organized into orders (tariqas) found in both Sunni and Shia worlds.

City gods such as Enlil, Inanna and Enki housed in ziggurat temples; among the oldest written religious texts.

The Dao of the Daodejing and Zhuangzi; religious Daoism organized from 142 CE with the Celestial Masters.

The steppe religion of Tengri, the Eternal Blue Sky, of the Xiongnu, Turks and Mongols.

Blavatsky's Theosophical Society, a bridge for Asian religions into the West.

The largest Shia branch, awaiting the return of the twelfth Imam.

Devotion to Vishnu and his avatars, especially Krishna and Rama.

Fire sacrifice and the hymns of the Vedas to Agni, Indra and Soma.

Religion of the Fon and Ewe peoples; Benin marks a national Vodun day.

Modern pagan witchcraft publicized by Gerald Gardner.

Olodumare, the orishas and Ifá divination; its roots are older than the Ife dates used here.