Academicians Claim Buddha Turned Intoa christian

Academicians Claim Buddha Turned Into European Saint.

i thought this was incredible.

Straight from the korean times, and archeology today...here is a snippet

The ancient tale of Gautama Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism, spread from his homeland to Europe, where he became a Christian saint with the name of ``Iosaphat.¡±
That¡¯s the conclusion of a group of Korean researchers who have conducted a multi-linguistic study of the westward spread of the story of the Buddha.

Heres the full article
times.hankooki.com...

Kind Regards,
DigitalGrl

As it spread, the tale adapted different versions according to various religious backdrops. In the Greek account, a hero Ioasaph, a prince in India, one day witnessed blind, sick and old people on the streets outside of the palace. The scenes shocked the innocent prince and led him to contemplate the agony and emptiness of life. One day, a Christian monk named Barlaam visited the anguished prince and taught him the religion. Enlightened, Ioasaph abandoned his secular values and led an ascetic life until his death. This account has a striking similarity to that of the Buddha’s tale.

The part about the changing of the name seems weak to me, but the above looks pretty good. Interstingly, they are saying that the Buddha was born in Nepal in this study, which is not what I am familiar with (tho I am not very familiar with the specifics anyway).

yea i cant say that i am sure either. i am familiar with buddhism and siddhartha but all the little nooks and crannies of where he went towards the end of his life i dont really know.

i just thought it was really interesting.

Kind Regards,
DigitalGrl

It has always been the practice in the Catholic church that when
a person joins a religious order (Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites,
etc.) that they receive a NEW NAME. This has a basis both in
scripture and tradition. So if this story is true ... then the fact
that he had a different name actually lends support to the theory.

(but I doubt he became a Christian)

It just looks as if the name was Christianized; not that Buddha himself adopted Christianity. The article isn't saying that he became a Christian - at least not from what I read

But I have a question.

Siddhartha lived between (give or take) 563 BC and 483 BC.

Before Christ.

A long time before Christ.

It's unlikely that he could have converted, even if he'd wanted to, non?

Nygdan - it's generally thought that Buddha was born in Lumbini (now Nepal), which is right on the border with India; it's not implausible to conclude that India and Nepal have been used interchangeably as political and/or geographical borders may have changed



[edit on 17-8-2005 by Tinkleflower]

I was actually going to say something about what Tinkleflower did.

I was under the impression that Buddhism was 3,000 years older than Christianity, and in that way Buddah could not have become a christian, unless he was hundreds of years old.

hmmmm then why do all these scholars think this?

siddhartha lived from approximatly......

566 and 486 BCE. according to en.wikipedia.org...

so he lived 2500 years ago.

and the estimates when christ was born are between 8 BC/BCE to 4 BC/BCE) according to en.wikipedia.org...


DG

Originally posted by DigitalGrl
siddhartha lived from approximatly......

566 and 486 BCE. according to en.wikipedia.org...

That's what I said

As to the question of "why"....I think we're both interpretating the report differently.

What I'm getting from it is that Buddha's name and/or person were Christianized in a literary/historical sense...not that he adopted Christianity.

I don't honestly think that's what the article is suggesting.