birdboy2000
Banned
The closest Buddhist got to Scandinavia anywhere near the Viking Age was the Kara-Khitai khanate. And that was still east of the Caspian Sea. Even the Mongols never managed to menace Scandinavia.
For Vikings to adopt Buddhism, someone else needs to do it first, to give them at the very least contact with the faith, and ideally a neighboring state for which converting to Buddhism offers trade and alliance benefits.
For instance, if the Indo-Greek kingdom (and later Asoka) was successful in spreading the religion throughout the Hellenistic world, and from there it became the state religion of the Roman Empire, a Buddhist Scandinavia becomes a probable occurrence. Alternatively, perhaps the religion could spread earlier on the Eurasian steppe (which it did in OTL, but not that soon and never completely) and spread through them to the Germanic peoples via an analogue of the Huns.
But OTL, Europe's major powers adopted not Buddhism but Christianity, and Scandinavia, having much to gain by adopting their religion, followed suit. I think any PoD turning Scandinavia Buddhist will have to turn large portions of Europe outside Scandinavia Buddhist first.
For Vikings to adopt Buddhism, someone else needs to do it first, to give them at the very least contact with the faith, and ideally a neighboring state for which converting to Buddhism offers trade and alliance benefits.
For instance, if the Indo-Greek kingdom (and later Asoka) was successful in spreading the religion throughout the Hellenistic world, and from there it became the state religion of the Roman Empire, a Buddhist Scandinavia becomes a probable occurrence. Alternatively, perhaps the religion could spread earlier on the Eurasian steppe (which it did in OTL, but not that soon and never completely) and spread through them to the Germanic peoples via an analogue of the Huns.
But OTL, Europe's major powers adopted not Buddhism but Christianity, and Scandinavia, having much to gain by adopting their religion, followed suit. I think any PoD turning Scandinavia Buddhist will have to turn large portions of Europe outside Scandinavia Buddhist first.