Question: The employer of Sinha Basnayake recognizes how many regions in the continent Buddhism spread?

full_context: Document 1: Lucky de Chickera: Lucky de Chickera was educated at Royal College Colombo, being appointed the head prefectof Royal in 1965, and winning the most coveted Dornhorst Memorial Prize for outstanding merit in the same year. He went on to a successful career in the Corporate Private sector of the Country, that spanned 43 years of his working career until retiring as the Managing Director/CEO of Lanka Walltile PLC. Lucky was also an outstanding sports person representing his college in Rugby Football, and then going on to represent the Colombo school sides in 1963 and '64 and the Sri Lanka schools sides in both years. He continued his Rugby career into the Premier Rugby tournament of the Country by playing regularly for the CH&FC RUGBY CLUB one of the leading sides in Colombo from 1968 to 1971. He played for the Colombo clubs in 1968 and was a Sri Lanka trialist in 1968 and '69. He got married in 1969, and fathered three sons, who all went on to play representative rugby at school and junior country level.
Document 2: Post-Soviet states: The 15 post-Soviet states are typically divided into the following five groupings. Each of these regions has its own common set of traits, owing not only to geographic and cultural factors but also to that region's history in relation to Russia. In addition, there are a number of de facto independent, but internationally unrecognized states (see the section Separatist conflicts below).
Document 3: Ibrahim Shihata: At the age of 20, Ibrahim Shihata graduated with a BA in law from Cairo University Law School at the top of his class. He originally planned to continue his education in the United States, but then received an offer from the Conseil d’Etat to work as a legal advisor in the Ministry of Health.
Document 4: United Nations Population Fund: The UNFPA supports programs in more than 150 countries, territories and areas spread across four geographic regions: Arab States and Europe, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa. Around three quarters of the staff work in the field. It is a member of the United Nations Development Group and part of its Executive Committee.
Document 5: Shirantha Goonatilake: Shirantha Goonatilake completed his education at the Royal College, Colombo and followed in the footsteps of his father and elder brother to join the Sri Lanka Air Force.
Document 6: Translation: In Asia, the spread of Buddhism led to large-scale ongoing translation efforts spanning well over a thousand years. The Tangut Empire was especially efficient in such efforts; exploiting the then newly invented block printing, and with the full support of the government (contemporary sources describe the Emperor and his mother personally contributing to the translation effort, alongside sages of various nationalities), the Tanguts took mere decades to translate volumes that had taken the Chinese centuries to render.[citation needed]
Document 7: Sinha Basnayake: Son of the prominent lawyer Hema Henry Basnayake, QC; he was educated at the Royal College, Colombo and graduated with a first class in law from the University of Oxford. After qualifying as a barrister he joined the UN as a Legal Officer in the International Trade Law Branch of the Office of Legal Affairs, eventually becoming its Director. Appointed as a President's Counsel by the government of Sri Lanka, he has served in many committees of the UN.
Document 8: Buddhism: In the 2nd century CE, Mahayana Sutras spread to China, and then to Korea and Japan, and were translated into Chinese. During the Indian period of Esoteric Buddhism (from the 8th century onwards), Buddhism spread from India to Tibet and Mongolia.
Document 9: Near East: The United Nations formulates multiple regional divisions as is convenient for its various operations. But few of them include a Near East, and that poorly defined. UNICEF recognizes the "Middle East and North Africa" region, where the Middle East is bounded by the Red Sea on the west and includes Iran on the east. UNESCO recognizes neither a Near East nor a Middle East, dividing the countries instead among three regions: Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, and Africa. Its division "does not forcibly reflect geography" but "refers to the execution of regional activities." The United Nations Statistics Division defines Western Asia to contain the countries included elsewhere in the Middle East. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) describes its entire theatre of operations as the Near East, but then assigns many of its members to other regions as well; for example, Cyprus, Malta and Turkey are in both the European and the Near Eastern regions. Its total area extends further into Central Asia than that of most agencies.
Document 10: Buddhism: Formal membership varies between communities, but basic lay adherence is often defined in terms of a traditional formula in which the practitioner takes refuge in The Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (the teachings of the Buddha), and the Sangha (the Buddhist community). At the present time, the teachings of all three branches of Buddhism have spread throughout the world, and Buddhist texts are increasingly translated into local languages. While in the West Buddhism is often seen as exotic and progressive, in the East it is regarded as familiar and traditional. Buddhists in Asia are frequently well organized and well funded. In countries such as Cambodia and Bhutan, it is recognized as the state religion and receives government support. Modern influences increasingly lead to new forms of Buddhism that significantly depart from traditional beliefs and practices.
Document 11: Buddhism: Approximately six hundred Mahayana sutras have survived in Sanskrit or in Chinese or Tibetan translations. In addition, East Asian Buddhism recognizes some sutras regarded by scholars as of Chinese rather than Indian origin.
Document 12: World Health Organization: As of 2016, the WHO has 194 member states: all of them Member States of the United Nations except for the Cook Islands and Niue. (A state becomes a full member of WHO by ratifying the treaty known as the Constitution of the World Health Organization.) As of 2013, it also had two associate members, Puerto Rico and Tokelau. Several other countries have been granted observer status. Palestine is an observer as a ``national liberation movement ''recognized by the League of Arab States under United Nations Resolution 3118. The Holy See also attends as an observer, as does the Order of Malta. In 2010, Taiwan was invited under the name of`` Chinese Taipei''.
Document 13: Satyendra Prasanna Sinha, 1st Baron Sinha: Satyendra Prasanna Sinha, 1st Baron Sinha, KCSI, PC, KC, (24 March 1863 – 4 March 1928) was a prominent lawyer and statesman in British India. He was the first Governor of Bihar and Orissa, first Indian Advocate-General of Bengal, first Indian to become a member of the Viceroy's executive Council and the first Indian to become a member of the British ministry. He is sometimes also referred as Satyendra Prasanno Sinha or Satyendra Prasad Sinha.
Document 14: Sanskrit: Sanskrit has also influenced Sino-Tibetan languages through the spread of Buddhist texts in translation. Buddhism was spread to China by Mahayana missionaries sent by Ashoka, mostly through translations of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. Many terms were transliterated directly and added to the Chinese vocabulary. Chinese words like 剎那 chànà (Devanagari: क्षण kṣaṇa 'instantaneous period') were borrowed from Sanskrit. Many Sanskrit texts survive only in Tibetan collections of commentaries to the Buddhist teachings, the Tengyur.
Document 15: United Nations Regional Groups: the African Group, with 54 member states the Asia - Pacific Group, with 53 member states the Eastern European Group, with 23 member states the Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC), with 33 member states the Western European and Others Group (WEOG), with 28 member states, plus 1 member state (the United States) as an observer state.
ground_truth: 53 member states
sub_queries: Where did Buddhism spread? Answer: Asia
Sinha Basnayake >> employer Answer: UN
the UN recognises how many regions in #1 Answer: 53 member states