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History and demographics of Buddhism in the West

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. 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 Buddhist 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 a 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 2017), Europe (0.2% in 2010), Australia (2.4% in 2016) and New Zealand (1.5% in 2013).

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. 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. 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 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.

Alexander the Great's court on his conquest of India included the philosopher Pyrrho who was influenced in creating his philosophy, Pyrrhonism, by 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, Thomas McEvilley and Matthew Neale suspect that Nāgārjuna was influenced by Greek Pyrrhonist texts imported into India.

Several instances of interaction 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 (Pandya? ), also named 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 Indian religious men (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 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.

The influential early Christian church father Clement of Alexandria (died AD 215) mentioned Buddha (Βούττα): 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. 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. 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.

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. 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). 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." Jules Barthélemy Saint Hilaire for example, described Buddhism as the nihilistic nadir of Indian pessimism. This book eventually went through eighty editions and sold between half a million to a million copies. Olcott became a very influential figure in the Sinhalese Buddhist revival and in promoting the rise of a modernist Buddhism. He founded various branches of the Buddhist Theosophical Society in his first visit to Sri Lanka and wrote Buddhist educational literature. The writings of Lafcadio Hearn were also influential in introducing Japanese Buddhism to Western audiences.

The 19th century also saw the growth of the first thorough academic studies, publications and translations of Buddhist texts. The work of the French orientalist Eugène Burnouf is some of the first academic work on Buddhism which includes a French translation of the Lotus sutra from Sanskrit. He laid the foundation for the study of Sanskrit Buddhist texts. He and Christian Lassen also published an early Pali grammar in 1826. Schopenhauer later claimed that Buddhism was the "best of all possible religions." Schopenhauer's view of human suffering as arising from striving or Will and his compassion based ethics have been compared to Buddhism. Religion scholars specialized in the academic study of Western esotericism recognize that Theravada Buddhism had been influential on the philosophical and religious thought of the English occultist and ceremonial magician Aleister Crowley, although he eventually distanced himself from Theravada Buddhist teachings and founded his own religion. Nietzsche wrote that "Buddhism already has—and this distinguishes it profoundly from Christianity—the self deception of moral concepts behind it—it stands, in my language, Beyond Good and Evil." However, he also saw Buddhism as a kind of life denying nihilistic religion. Thus, even though Nietzsche saw himself as undertaking a similar project to the Buddha, writing in 1883 “I could become the Buddha of Europe,” he saw himself as consciously anti Buddhist, further writing “though frankly I would be the antipode of the Indian Buddha.” Robert Morrison believes that there is "a deep resonance between them" as "both emphasise the centrality of humans in a godless cosmos and neither looks to any external being or power for their respective solutions to the problem of existence".

The first Buddhists to arrive in North America were Chinese immigrants to the West Coast in the 1848 Gold Rush. By 1875 there were 8 temples in San Francisco and many more smaller ones along the West Coast. They practiced a mixture of "Confucian ancestor veneration, popular Taoism, and Pure Land Buddhism." This organization acted as way for immigrants to preserve their Japanese culture and language, as well as their religion. Asian immigrants also arrived in British Columbia, Canada during the 1850s (to work as miners), and the old immigrant population was bolstered by new influx of Asian migrants after the 1962 Immigration Act and also as a result of the arrival of refugees from Indochina. Mining work also led Chinese immigrants to Australia (in 1848) and New Zealand (1863). American Transcendentalist thinkers were interested in Eastern religions, including Buddhism, though they were never converts. Ralph Waldo Emerson regarded Hinduism and Buddhism as anticipations of an ideal Transcendentalism. Meanwhile, Henry David Thoreau translated the Lotus Sutra from French into English. An important event in the history of Western Buddhism was the 1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago organized by John Henry Barrows and Paul Carus. The Japanese delegation included the priest Soyen Shaku, the layman Zenshiro Nogushi, four priests and two laymen, representing the Rinzai Zen, Jodo Shinshu, Nichiren, Tendai, and Shingon schools of Japanese Buddhism. The Sri Lankan Anagarika Dharmapala was also present and gave a speech promoting Buddhism. He spoke English with a passion which stirred the audience and drew much attention. He would later come back to the United States for a speaking tour across the nation at the behest of Paul Carus, professor of philosophy, and officiated the first Vesak celebration in San Francisco (1897). On his third visit to North America, he attended a lecture by William James, who gave up his spot to Dharmapala. After Dharmapala finished speaking on Buddhist psychology, James is recorded to have said "this is the psychology everybody will be studying twenty five years from now." Through his writings, Suzuki contributed to the emergence of a Zen modernism which blends Asian Buddhism with Transcendentalism and Romanticism.

The works of the early important figures in Western Buddhism such as Henry Olcott, Paul Carus and Soyen Shaku promoted a kind of Buddhism that has been called by contemporary scholars "Buddhist modernism" and also "protestant Buddhism." According to Heinz Bechert, Buddhist modernism includes the following elements: new interpretations of early Buddhist teachings, demythologisation and reinterpretation of Buddhism as "scientific religion", social philosophy or "philosophy of optimism", emphasis on equality and democracy, "activism" and social engagement, support of Buddhist nationalism, and the revival of meditation practice.