The challenge is to make Buddhism the predominant religion of an ATL European state. It must survive to the present day. Bonus if it becomes a regional/great power.
AHC: A Buddhist state in Europe
- Thread starter The Forty-Eighth Rōnin
- Start date
Well, the earlier the POD, this easier this could be.
It wouldn't be implausible for Buddhism to reach Europe during the Greco-Roman times. It wouldn't be implausible for some form of Buddhism to come to dominate the Roman world, or at least a portion of Europe.
For a more modern POD, it would probably be easier for Kalmykia to gain its independence.
It wouldn't be implausible for Buddhism to reach Europe during the Greco-Roman times. It wouldn't be implausible for some form of Buddhism to come to dominate the Roman world, or at least a portion of Europe.
For a more modern POD, it would probably be easier for Kalmykia to gain its independence.
IOTL, Buddhism was more assimilated to an obscure mysteria or a philosophy than a religion by Greco-Romans. Which was the best you could have, granted they were really cautious about foreign cults they couldn't assimilate or identify to their own (and Buddhism would be radically different from these).
Greco-Roman world would be an hard nut to break, unless you manage to have Helleno-Indian kingdoms (which were pretty much marginal politically) not only somehow survives longer but as well pull a Kushan to impose a more westernized version of Budhism. Eventually, it could mean a more acceptable take that could be exportated in the Mediterranean basin.
If not, any non-Islam TL could certainly have a more important Buddhism expansion westwards, with Persia being some form of obstacle.
Greco-Roman world would be an hard nut to break, unless you manage to have Helleno-Indian kingdoms (which were pretty much marginal politically) not only somehow survives longer but as well pull a Kushan to impose a more westernized version of Budhism. Eventually, it could mean a more acceptable take that could be exportated in the Mediterranean basin.
If not, any non-Islam TL could certainly have a more important Buddhism expansion westwards, with Persia being some form of obstacle.
Well, Christianity was radically different as well, but it managed to break through into the Greco-Roman world.
Mostly because it was a deeply hellenized-romanised variant of Judaism, which was vastly different from the initial radical sect it was when it became the official religion of the Romania, and even that wasn't without setbacks.
My point was that Buddhism should go trough a similar transformation to be accepted culturally.
Following off of the Kalmykia idea, perhaps a different (and much more successful) Mongol conquest results in ethnic Mongolian settlement in parts of eastern Europe beyond OTL Kalmykia, e.g. the adjacent Astrakhan, Krasnodar, and Rostov areas, or even in Ukraine (Mongolian-speaking Crimea perhaps?) Assuming the Horde that conquers these regions had already converted to Buddhism, and that the Mongols settled in these regions maintain that religion, it shouldn't be difficult to have a Mongolian-speaking Buddhist-majority nation in eastern Europe in the present day.