The Ancient Greeks Who Converted to Buddhism

Greece is very far away from the heartland of early Buddhism in India and parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. But thanks to Alexander the Great, Hellenistic and Buddhist cultures came into contact in the 4th century BCE, creating a cultural synthesis known as Greco-Buddhism.

00:00 A Greco-Bactrian Buddhist Inscription
1:41 The Hellenistic "Far East"
4:10 Pyrrho: A Buddhist for Greece?
7:42 Ashoka and his Dharma Conquest
10:23 King Menander: The Most Famous Greek Buddhist
13:26 Greco-Buddhist Art of Gandhara
15:23 Syncretism?
16:44 Nebula! Indie creators being awesome

Thumbnail art by @hotcyder
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images and Reuters

[StorySenseChannel]

Hi! I'm a Buddhist from sri lanka and we have heard the story of king Menander or Milinda as he is called in our stories and his debates with the Fully enlightend monk(Arahanth) called Nagasena. It is taught in our stories that after 500 sessions of these debates with Arahanth Nagasena king Menander abdicated and gave his crown to his eldest son and Ordained as a monk himself, and later attained spiritual Enlightnment (Arahanthship). and he passed away near a war camp many years later in Ghandhar (modern day Kandahar) and his grandson who was the king at the time (his son passed away due to an accident) burned his body in a ceremonial fire and disributed his relics and built 1000 stupas in every major town in his kingdom honoring him

[MikhailBakunin]

This is one of my FAVOURITE periods in all of human history. It's so important that more people learn about the ancient cultural connections between East and West, thank you so much for making this video.

[jhggcfdr]

I’m glad you did this video! I recently got into and now practice Buddhism . - Pakistani Buddhist 🇵🇰☸️

[Webuddhists-zj]

I am a Sri lankan Sinhalese Buddhist who practice Theravada buddhism. We often come up with the debate of Yonaka king Mirendo(Milinda) vs Arahanth Nagasena. The famous Milinda prashna...Almost it contains all types of philosophical-radical questions that could be asked by an intelligent person on buddhism. Love your videos and you have done the research at your best rather than telling stories...

[tsurugi]

greco buddhism, the indo-greeks, and kushan empire is probably my favorite topics in history. The art especially is amazing. Probably one of the most beautiful budhas sculpted.

[thebronzehexagon]

Indo-Greek cultural syncretism is so underrated

[stnrdab]

I was born in Buddhism (Thailand) and love ancient Greek history&myth. This gave me goosebumps. ❤

[spartandud]

It should be noted that it wasn't just Alexander that brought Hellenism to the region. There were already Greek populations there that had been deported by the Persians.

[danielm]

Fun fact central Asia had a massive Greek population centuries before Alexandre got there. They were Ionians (Anatolian) and other Greek soldiers/people who were defeated and expelled to a location far from their home land.

[sDuAvTaTjAe]

I got the chance to visit the statue shown in 1:35 in the museum in Kolkata and i must say, up close you can just say by looking that Gandhara art is unique in the way indian and european styles are combined, something we won't see for millennia after that

[a.j.rivera]

Thank you so much for making a video on this topic! I'm a practicing Buddhist, training to become a monk, and when I first found out about Grecco-Buddhism, I found myself enthralled by it. The most fascinating thing was that the very first images of the Buddha were carved by these artists. Amazing and inspiring stuff for a Buddhist from the 'West' seeing the original "Western" Buddhists. Goes to show the Universality of these ancient traditions. 🙏

[paiwanhan]

Original Buddhism was against the making of icons of the Buddha. Early Buddhist art used either a footprint or symbols like the dharma chakara to represent Buddha. The earliest depictions of Buddha came from Greek kingdoms within India.

[rodionromanovich]

The Seleucid Empire & all of the cultural & religious fusion it brought about is one of my favorite subjects in history.

[Monstacheeks]

Buddhism is Good for Every Walks of life.

[georgeg]

As a Greek, the Hellenistic age in the Eastern provinces has always fascinated me as it's rarely analysed in history schoolbooks.
Also, thank you for putting the passing of Buddha in perspective to Alexander's conquest, few people realize the historical overlapping.

[TesserId]

Totally new concept to me, and totally fascinating. Had to watch right away. Glad I'm subscribed.

[sarahwatts]

This makes so much sense, given how close the two civilizations were to each other

[mageover]

Honestly I've been very curious about this topic for years, I'm so happy you made a video.

[gwang]

One wonders how the early Greeks would have responded to the idea that absolutely anyone can be a Buddha and that a Buddha is a teacher of gods and men alike. In Greek mythology humans can NEVER reach the divine through their own effort, and anyone who fancied himself the equal of the gods would quickly face their wrath. But in Buddhism we're all already in a sense divine -- we all possess the Buddha Nature -- it being merely a question of bringing this Buddha Nature to full fruition. The Olympian gods would have regarded all this as an affront to their exalted status. Well, maybe some of the Greeks who were attracted to Buddhism thought: "To Hell with the Olympian gods." :P

[alc]

Absolutely brilliant piece. As a European Buddhist this is really inspiring. Thanks!