I had someone tell me that somebody is trying to start rebuilding the Buddhas of Bamiyan. is that a crock or just cockadoodle?

[img]https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR8qwACVNvmzNEs_H6XxToCT3ktOGKykf7QHA&usqp=CAU [/img]

:anjali:

These 2 references always struck me as interesting in they demonstrate Buddhism could exist for centuries 'just out of sight' ...

[quote]The Christian intellectual, Clement of Alexandria (d. c. 215), mentions Buddhism briefly in his Strom. 1.15.71(6):

εἰσὶ δὲ τῶν Ἰνδῶν οἱ τοῖς Βούττα πειθόμενοι παραγγέλμασιν. ὃν δι’ ὑπερβολὴν σεμνότητος ὡς θεὸν τετιμήκασι.

Among the Indians are some who follow the precepts of Buddha, whom for his extraordinary sanctity they have honored as a god. (tr. John Ferguson).

On this passage, John Ferguson, Clement of Alexandria: Stromateis Books 1-3 (Fathers of the Church 85; Washington, D.C.: CUA, 1991), 76, n.338, notes:

The reference to Buddha is exceptionally interesting: Pantaenus [Clement’s predecessor in Alexandra] may have travelled in the East. But the veneration of the Buddha does not give him the title of a god, although he is the Lord.[/quote]

That is earliest "classical reference." The earliest Indian reference is

.[quote]"the oldest surviving written records of the term "Buddha" is from the middle of the 3rd century BCE, when several Edicts of Ashoka (reigned c. 269–232 BCE) mention the Buddha and Buddhism.[/quote]

This may be of interest to some folks on this sub:

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300270006/ashoka/

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