The Hinayana or Theravada branch of Buddhism is very strict and austere, places great emphasis on meditation, and sees the goal of existence as to escape from this world of suffering into eternal, quiescent Nirvana.  These are the people who nowadays in the West organise the Vipassana (Insight) meditations.  They use Pali rather than Sanskrit, and consider only the Pali Canon, the earliest Buddhist scriptures (written down in the 1st century b.c.), as authoritative.