Let's clear up a few misconceptions. First, the term "Buddha" is from the Sanskrit and means "Awakened". A Buddha, in the strictest sense is a person who has had an experience that transcends the mundane, and reveals the true nature of existence. Buddha is not a God, but a mortal whose teaching can be useful to other mortals in their struggle to find meaning and escape from suffering.
The first, and most important of all Buddhist sutras is the Deer Park Sutra. Sutra is another Sanskrit word meaning "to sew" and is the root for the English Surture. In the Deer Park Sutra, the heart of Buddhist doctrine was laid, The Four Nobel Truths and the Eight-Fold Path. I won't give those here since they are easy to find on the internet. However, you should know that these central doctrines are more like a physician's diagnosis and prescription for the reality of suffering than some sort of religion analogous to the Abrahamic faiths. The Eight-Fold Path, which some have compared to the Ten Commandments, was actually meant as a guide to how Buddhist monks should live their lives. In the early days of Buddhism, monks made up the vast majority of Buddhists, but the reason why is another story.
The Buddha taught that what we believe to be real, the perceptual world, is only an illusion. Instead of multiplicity, the universe is indivisible and insubstantial. There are, in ultimate reality, no time or spacial dimensions. This is an infinite reality without beginning or endings, hence no creator nor gotterdamerung. There are no gods, and sentient beings, including humans, have no Atman (Sanskrit=soul). Suffering is caused by our attachment to the illusion, to our emotions, desires and fears. Once we understand the sources of our suffering we can do something about it, and free ourselves from it.
I think you may be interested in the Theravada School of Buddhism. Theravada is based on the most ancient of Buddhist texts written in Pali. These texts were written realtively soon after the Great Decease (the death of Siddhartha, The Buddha). Thus, Theravada is generally regarded as closest to the actual teachings of The Buddha. Theravada is an austere form of Buddhism, and hasn't changed much in over 2,500 years. This form of Buddhism has proven to be extremely good in helping the highly motivated, dedicated, and disciplined individual to achieve personal enlightenment.
However, the followers of Theravada are much smaller than those who follow one of the Mahayana Sects, or the Tantric School common in Nepal and Tibet. Mahayana (Sandscrit=The Great Vessel) is what generations of Buddhist scholars developed from the original teachings of the Buddha. Mahayana texts are in Sanskrit, and generally try to look for the esoteric meanings that underpin the Buddha's teachings. A central departure(?) from the earliest Buddhism is the concept of the Bodhisatva. It was reasoned that a person on the cusp of Enlightenment would choose, out of compassion for the suffering of others, instead to act to relieve the suffering of those not yet close to awakening.
This was an important concept, and it had very large consequences. First, Buddhism for the first time began to develop an iconography and rituals. Second, Buddhism was much moe approachable by people who had responsiblities, families and could not easily leave "the world" for the monastery. Buddhism become aaccessibleto the masses, and began to expand out from its stronghold in India. One branch went north into Nepal and Tibet, where Buddhism absorbed the aboriginal shamanistic religion Bon-pa and become the Tantric School. The Tantric School is heavily reliant on the 100,000 Teachings of Milrepa and is the form followed by His Holiness the Dali Lama.
A second route of expansion was west through Pakistan and Iran into a region called Gandara where Buddhism came into direct contact with Hellenistic Greek culture. The result was the introduction of Greek sculptural concepts into Buddhist iconography. This route then turned north and west through the Tala Makan Desert, and to the gates of Northwestern China. There the Chinese, seeing many similarities to Taoism came to believe that Buddhism was the final teachings of Lao Tzu. This stream of expansion became very popular and won many converts to Buddhism in China, especially in the Northeast. Over time a number of sects developed around the idea of "The Pure Land". Central to this idea is that anyone who lives a "pure life" and says the appropriate mantras (prayers) will go to a "Pure Land" after death and then be reborn with another opportunity to approach Enlightenment. We can still see this form of Buddhism in China, Korea, and there is even a popular strain of the Pure Land Schools in the West. Please note, there are still no Gods in the religion.
The third route of expansion was along the South sea coast and into Southeastern China. The most important historical carrier of Buddhism along this route was Bodhidharma a man who has largely passed into legend. The Buddhist form that Bodhidharma brought into China was called C'han and by the Japanese, "Zen". This form of Buddhism is really much closer to the Theravada than either the "Pure Lands" or Tantric schools. C'han, or Zen, emphasizes personal enlightenment that can be attained by any serious practitioner. Emphasis is generally on meditation, and the differences between the three primary Zen sects are minor and have more to do with ritual and the forms of meditation favored. Zen has been reasonably successful in its appeal to Westerners, especially intellectuals and those with refined aesthetics.
We should also note that Buddhism in China never displaced Confucianism and Taoism, both of which also are divided into a number of schools and sects. The Chinese tended to use a mix and match approach to religion, and temple alters often held iconography from all three of these important popular religions. Westerners coming into contact with Chinese religion often, probably almost inevitably, misunderstood how great the differences were between Asian concepts about religion and the religions of Abraham. Ho-Ttai became for the West the, "Fat Buddha". Actually, Ho-Tai is the Chinese eequivalent to Santa Clause and is revered by the populace at large. Ho-Tai was a Buddhist monk in South China who worked in a monastery kitchen where he loved to sample the fare. He was a likable fellow, and was known for his love of children. Whenever he could, Ho-Tai, would gather home-made toys and "cookies" into a large sack. He carried his sack of goodies to all the surrounding villages where he was greeted by throngs of children. After his death, he became legendary and his statue became a common fixture as a good luck charm.
I've talked on another thread here about the differences between the religious experience as it differs. The transcendental experience is direct and difficult to communicate because it is so foriegn to the founders cultural roots. Often the direct experience leads to the founding of a new religion, or sect. The second form of religious experience is doctrinaire. This arises out of the attempt by disciples to "make sense" of the original direct experience as reported to them. The disciples jockey for leadership and interpret the first hand experience through their limited understanding. Over generations, the doctrines evolve slowly (religions are mostly very conservative and resistent to change), until rather wide gulfs separate a number of schools and sects. Doctrine hardens into dogma. The third form of religious experience is that of most people who live and work in the mundane world. For most people, of most religions, their faith is fairly nominal. They are the same religion as their parents, and their religion is largely a reflection of their cultural context. Superstitions, even if not a part of the formal religion, are sometimes as powerful as any fundamental doctrine. People go to church to cement their social ties and standing, and conform more to the easiest rituals than to the more difficult fundamentals of their religion.
These three forms are apparent in all of the religions I'm familiar with.