[julianeon]

I would describe myself as a follower of Tibetan Buddhism but numerically it is a small fraction of Buddhists worldwide. As an approximation, let's pretend that every single Tibetan is a practicing Tibetan Buddhist; that's ~6.4 million people. Of course that's not true, but numerically, when you count all Western practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism to substitute for the Tibetans who aren't, that number's probably pretty close.

As a fraction of worldwide Buddhism, using a low end estimate of 488 million, that's about 1.3 percent.

So, by analogy, if you're looking for a Christian denomination that's about that size proportionally within the larger religion of Christianity: think of the Amish, the Mennonites, etc. (distinctive because of their dress). Numerically that's a close comparison. Maybe throw in the Quakers too. All together that's about the same size, fractionally.

The point is that, when you're dealing with such a small & unique subgroup, you run the risk of misunderstanding the larger group. You might have complaints about the Amish & the Quakers, but as a subgroup they are so small & unique that it seems a little off to use them as a proxy to criticize Christianity. I would suggest the same is true of Tibetan Buddhism as compared to Buddhism globally.