Tantric Buddhism usually refers to a special esoteric school of Buddhist philosophy, practice, and art ‘based on treatises known as tantras’. It emerged in northeast India during the fifth or sixth centuries CE and then formed its distinctive features around the seventh century CE. Afterward, it expanded geographically outward to the Himalayas, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. What Is Tantra? Countless practices of several Asian religions have been lumped together by western scholars under the heading "tantra." The .