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It is said, Buddhist missionaries made it to Alexandria Egypt and else where in the Mediterranean circa 200 BCE. Have any scholars and/or archeologists found any evidence of Buddhism being practiced in the Eastern Mediterranean?

DharmaEater
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  • If anyone know, it's Donald Lopez, the man is a scholarship machine when it comes to digging up rare references to Buddhism far from it's ordinary home: http://www.amazon.com/Search-Christian-Buddha-Became-Medieval-ebook/dp/B00FQUDN44/ – MatthewMartin Jun 29 '14 at 00:13
  • Im fairly sure its proven by archaeology that there were buddhist viharas in Alexandria as well as buddhist works in the great library of Alexandria. – Sāmaṇera Jayantha Jun 29 '14 at 00:30

2 Answers2

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I was reading about this because of the famous Milinda Questions. They are a set of questions asked by Indo-Greek king Menander I (Pali Milinda) of Bactria from a 'Arhath' monk. Therefore it is possible that this Indo-Greek Kingdom probably had relations with both India and Mediterranean.

kalan nawarathne
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It is difficult to find archaeological evidence on this especially in the ME due to current situations. Also many might have been destroyed as Buddhism was there very early on.

But references like:

  • Suna paranthe
  • Yantatta Yonaka Pura Muninoca Padan
  • Ashoka's Dhammaduta routes
  • Attendees of Dhamma Sangayana

Point to some direction on this in literature. Evidence needs to be found though as I am not aware of any. (Perhaps some one can elaborate on this aspect.)

Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena
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