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Buddhism is a very adaptable system. As it spread it often absorbed,rather than replaced, the existing religions it encountered. Tibetan Buddhism for instance completely absorbed the native Bon religion. In China it is practiced along side Taoism and Confuciusism. In Japan Buddhism and Shintoism are practiced side by side and one might mediate on Buddhism in the morning and pray to the Kami for protection at night. I'm pointing this out to show that the various "national" types of Buddhism(ie. Chinese,Japaneses,Tibetan) have a lot of characteristics of the religions of those native cultures and unlike Christianity or Islam, Buddhism choose to adapt rather than conquer. That's one thing I like about it, perhaps because it lacks the pure undeniable certainly of divine revelation it is more tolerant of other beliefs.