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A Buddhist coin of Kanishka I, with legend ΒΟΔΔΟ "Boddo" (=the Buddha) in Greek script on the reverse. Several other Buddhist deities may have been influenced by Greek gods. For example, Heracles with a lion-skin, the protector deity of Demetrius I of Bactria, "served as an artistic model for Vajrapani, a protector of the Buddha".
Examples of the influence of Hellenistic or Greco-Buddhist art on the art of the Shunga Empire (183-73 BC) are usually faint. The main religion, at least at the beginning, seems to have been Hinduism , although some late Buddhist realizations in Madhya Pradesh as also known, such as some architectural expansions that were done at the stupas of ...
Syncretism functioned as a feature of Hellenistic Ancient Greek religion, although only outside of Greece. Overall, Hellenistic culture in the age that followed Alexander the Great itself showed syncretist features, essentially blending Mesopotamian, Persian, Anatolian, Egyptian, and (eventually) Etruscan–Roman elements within a Hellenic formula.
Theravada Buddhism in Burma initially coexisted with other forms of Buddhism and other religions. [149] After the decline of Buddhism in the Indian mainland, Theravada Buddhist monks from Sri Lanka mounted missionary efforts in Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, and they were successful in converting all these regions to Theravada Buddhism .
Representations of the five Dhyani Buddhas, who are abstract aspects of Buddhahood rather than Buddhas or gods, have elaborate differences. [6] Each must face in a different direction (north, south, east, west, or center), and, when painted, each is a different color (blue, yellow, red, green, or white).
Traditional forms of Buddhism endorse a form of polytheism. However, these deities are not creators in the Christian sense: morality, heavens, hells, and the creation of the world come about due to ignorance, karma, and rebirth. All these non-Enlightened deities are all bound by saṃsāra just like human beings.
Gandhara (IAST: Gandhāra) was an ancient Indo-Aryan [1] region in present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan. [2] [3] [4] The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar and Swat valleys extending as far east as the Pothohar Plateau in Punjab, though the cultural influence of Greater Gandhara extended westwards into the Kabul valley in Afghanistan, and northwards up to the Karakoram range.
Buddhist scriptural exegesis has always been driven by the soteriological needs of the tradition to find the true meaning (artha) of Buddhist scriptures. Another important issue in Buddhist hermeneutics is the problem of which sutras are to be taken to be 'Buddhavacana', "the word of the Buddha" and also which sutras contain the correct teachings.