Buddhism in the West (or more narrowly Western Buddhism) broadly encompasses the knowledge and practice of Buddhism outside of Asia, in the Western world. Occasional intersections between Western civilization and the Buddhist world have been occurring for thousands of years. Greek colonies existed in India during the Buddha's life, as early as the 6th century. The first Westerners to become Buddhists were Greeks who settled in Bactria and India during the Hellenistic period. They became influential figures during the reigns of the Indo-Greek kings, whose patronage of Buddhism led to the emergence of Greco-Buddhism and Greco-Buddhist art.
There was little contact between the Western and Asian cultures during most of the Middle Ages, but the early modern rise of global trade and mercantilism, improved navigation technology and the European colonization of Asian Buddhist countries led to increased knowledge of Buddhism among Westerners. This increased contact led to various responses from Buddhists and Westerners throughout the modern era. These include religious proselytism, religious polemics and debates (such as the Sri Lankan Panadura debate), Buddhist modernism, Western convert Buddhists and the rise of Buddhist studies in Western academia.
During the 20th century, there was growth in Western Buddhism due to various factors such as immigration, globalization, the decline of Christianity and increased interest among Westerners. The various schools of Buddhism are now established in all major Western countries making up a small minority in the United States (1% in 2024), Europe (0.3% in 2020), as well as in Australia (2.4% in 2016) and New Zealand (1.5% in 2013).2071.0 - Census of Population and Housing: Reflecting Australia - Stories from the Census, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20170919010053/http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0~2016~Main%20Features~Religion%20Data%20Summary~25
Premodern history Greco-Buddhism
The first contact between Western culture and Buddhist culture occurred during Alexander the Great's conquest of India.
After Alexander's conquest, Greek colonists established cities and kingdoms in Bactria and India where Buddhism was thriving.S. Dhammika, The Edicts of King Ashoka The Fourteen Rock Edicts/13Doumanis, Nicholas. A History of Greece Palgrave Macmillan, 16 Dec. 2009 p 64 This cultural interaction saw the emergence of Greco-Buddhism and Greco-Buddhist art, especially within the Gandharan civilization which covered a large part of modern-day northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan.Halkias, G. (2014) When the Greeks Converted the Buddha: Asymmetrical Transfers of Knowledge in Indo-Greek Cultures Greek sculptors in the classical tradition came to teach their skills to Indian sculptors resulting in the distinctive style of Greco-Buddhist art in stone and stucco seen in hundreds of Buddhist monasteries which are still being discovered and excavated in this region.
Greco-Buddhism was an important religion among the Greco-Bactrians and the Indo-Greeks. The Indo-Greek kings such as Menander I (165/155 –130 BCE) and Menander II (90–85 BCE) used Buddhist symbolism in their coins. Menander I is a main character of the Indian Buddhist scripture known as Milinda Panha ("The Questions of King Milinda"), which states that he adopted the Buddhist religion.The Questions of King Milinda, Translation by T. W. Rhys Davids, 1890 The Buddhist tradition considers Menander as a great benefactor of the Dharma, along with Ashoka.
The Mahavamsa mentions that during Menander's reign, a Greek elder monk named Mahadharmaraksita led 30,000 Buddhist monks from "the Greek city of Alexandria" (possibly Alexandria on the Caucasus) to Sri Lanka for the dedication of a stupa showing that Greeks took an active part in Indian Buddhism during this period.
Greco-Buddhist styles continued to be influential during the Kushan empire.
Pyrrhonism
Alexander the Great's court on his conquest of India included the philosopher Pyrrho who created his philosophy, Pyrrhonism, with influence from the Buddhist three marks of existence.
The Pyrrhonists promote suspending judgment (epoché) about dogma (beliefs about non-evident matters) as the way to reach ataraxia, a soteriological objective similar to nirvana. This is similar to the practices described in the Aṭṭhakavagga, one of the oldest Buddhist texts, and it is similar to the Buddha's refusal to answer certain metaphysical questions which he saw as non-conductive to the path of Buddhist practice and Nagarjuna's "relinquishing of all views (drsti)".
Later Pyrrhonism substantially parallels the teachings of Madhyamaka Buddhism, particularly the surviving works of Sextus Empiricus,Adrian Kuzminski, Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism 2008 Thomas McEvilleyThomas McEvilley, The Shape of Ancient Thought 2002 pp499-505 and Matthew NealeThesis Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: suspect that Nāgārjuna was influenced by Greek Pyrrhonist texts imported into India.
Buddhism and the Roman world
Several instances of interactions between Buddhism and the Roman Empire are documented by Classical and early Christian writers. Roman historical accounts describe an embassy sent by the Indian king Pandion, also known as Porus, to Augustus around 13 CE. The embassy was travelling with a diplomatic letter in Greek, and one of its members—called Zarmanochegas—was an Indian religious man (sramana) who burned himself alive in Athens to demonstrate his faith. The event created a sensation and was described by Nicolaus of Damascus, who met the embassy at Antioch, and related by Strabo (XV,1,73) and Dio Cassius. These accounts at least indicate that religious men from India (Sramanas, to which the Buddhists belonged, as opposed to Hindu Brahmanas) were visiting Mediterranean countries. However, the term sramana is a general term for Indian religious man in Jainism, Buddhism, and Ājīvika. It is not clear which of those religious tradition the man belonged to in this case.
Early 3rd–4th century Christian writers such as Hippolytus and Epiphanius write about a figure called Scythianus, who visited India around 50 CE from where he brought "the doctrine of the Two Principles". According to Cyril of Jerusalem, Scythianus' pupil Terebinthus presented himself as a "Buddha" ("He called himself Buddas") and taught in Palestine, Judaea and Babylon.
In Berenice, Egypt, in March 2022 an American-Polish archaeological mission excavating the main early Roman period temple dedicated to the Goddess Isis uncovered in the forecourt of the temple a marble statue of a Buddha, the Berenike Buddha.
Buddhism and Christianity The influential early Christian church father Clement of Alexandria (died AD 215) mentioned Buddha (Βούττα):Clement of Alexandria Stromata. BkI, Ch XV http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.iv.i.xv.html (Accessed 19 Dec 2012) Among the Indians are those philosophers also who follow the precepts of Boutta, whom they honour as a god on account of his extraordinary sanctity. The myth of the birth of the Buddha was also known: a fragment of Archelaos of Carrha (278 AD) mentions the Buddha's virgin-birth, and Saint Jerome (4th century) mentions the birth of the Buddha, who he says "was born from the side of a virgin".
The legend of Christian saints Barlaam and Josaphat draws on the life of the Buddha.John Walbridge The Wisdom of the Mystic East: Suhrawardī and Platonic Orientalism Page 129 – 2001 "The form Būdhīsaf is the original, as shown by Sogdian form Pwtysfi and the early New Persian form Bwdysf. ... On the Christian versions see A. S. Geden, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, s.v. "Josaphat, Barlaam and," and M. P. Alfaric, ..."
In the 13th century, international travelers, such as Giovanni de Piano Carpini and William of Ruysbroeck, sent back reports of Buddhism to the West and noted some similarities with Nestorian Christian communities.Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism, 2004, page 160 The famous travel writer Marco Polo (1254–1324) wrote much about Buddhism, its rites and customs, in places such as Khotan, China and Sri Lanka.
Early modern and colonial encounters When European Christians made more direct contact with Buddhism in the early 16th century, Jesuit missionaries to Asia such as St. Francis Xavier and Ippolito Desideri sent back detailed accounts of Buddhist doctrine and practices. Ippolito Desideri spent a long time in Tibet, learning the Tibetan language and Tibetan Buddhist doctrine before writing an account of his travels and of Tibetan Buddhism.de Jong, J.W. A Brief History of Buddhist Studies in Europe and America, The Eastern Buddhist NEW SERIES, Vol. 7, No. 2 (October, 1974), pp. 49-82 He also wrote several books in Tibetan which promoted Christianity and critiqued Buddhism. Other influential Jesuit writers on Buddhism Alessandro Valignano (1539–1606) and Matteo Ricci (1552–1610).Berkwitz, Stephen, The Portuguese Discovery of Buddhism: Locating Religion in Early Modern Asia. The Portuguese colonial efforts in Sri Lanka during the 16th and 17th centuries saw some of the first large scale direct contact between Buddhists and Westerners. According to Stephen Berkwitz, by the late 17th century, "the existence of a religion across Asia that worshiped images of the Buddha, known and referred to by many different names, was a well-known fact among European scholars."
This recognition that Buddhism was indeed a distinct Asian religion with its own texts and not just a form of local paganism, led Catholic missionaries to see Buddhism as a serious rival to Christianity in Asia and to promote its further study so as to combat it. They also sought to explain how such a religion could exist which appeared to deviate from those originating from divine revelation and yet also contained numerous similarities (monastic orders, virgin birth of its founder, belief in heaven and hell, etc.). Because of this, many Portuguese writers explained the Buddhist religion as a form of Christianity corrupted by the devil and some even said Buddhists were "in league with the devil". Catholic missionaries in Asia especially criticized the Buddhist view of rebirth, "idol worship" and denial of the immortality of the soul or a first cause.
With the arrival of Sanskrit and Oriental studies in European universities in the late 18th century, and the subsequent availability of Buddhist texts, Western Buddhist studies began to take shape. An important early figure is Paulinus a Sancto Bartholomaeo who first remarked on the connection between Sanskrit and Pali, and described an early Italian translation of the Kammavaca in his Systema brahmanicum.
19th century
During the 19th century, Buddhism (along with other non-European religions and philosophies) came to the attention of Western intellectuals through the work of Christian missionaries, scholars, and imperial civil servants who wrote about the countries in which they worked. Most accounts of Buddhism placed it in a negative light however, as a nihilistic, pessimistic, idolatrous and heathen faith.McMahan, David L, Modernity and the Early Discourse of Scientific Buddhism. Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire for example, described Buddhism as the nihilistic nadir of Indian pessimism.
On October 17-18, 1858, the Khosheutovsky khurul was visited by Alexandre Dumas, who was staying with Serebdzhab Tyumen at that time.
One early and influential sympathetic account was Sir Edwin Arnold's book-length poem The Light of Asia (1879), a life of the Buddha which became an influential best-seller. The book, coming at a time when Christianity was being challenged by critical Biblical scholarship and Darwinism, was seen by some Western intellectuals as promoting a more rational alternative to Christianity.Coleman, 2001, p. 56. This book eventually went through eighty editions and sold between half a million to a million copies.