Silk and spice

By Will Maude

Was Jesus a Buddhist? Certainly he was many things: Jew, prophet, healer, moralist, revolutionary, by his own admission the Messiah, and for true Christians the Son of God and redeemer of their sins.

Historical accounts aside, many textual analyses indicate striking similarities between what was preached by Jesus and Lord Buddha and between the prophetic legend of Christ and ancient Buddhist texts. The conclusion is that, although not identifying himself as a Buddhist for good reason, Jesus effectively spoke and acted like a Buddhist.

The similarities are so striking that, even if no historical evidence existed, we might suspect that the prophecy and legend of Jesus was actually derived from Buddhist stories.

Historical evidence of Buddhism in Judaea

The Bible makes no mention of where the young Jesus lived although – in Matthew (2:23) and Mark (1:23) – Jesus is called a ‘Nazarene’ and in other documents a ‘Nazoraean,’ which probably refers to the Nazarites’ Jewish sect which included John the Baptist and Jesus’ brother, James.

Historical evidence indicates that Jesus would have encountered Buddhism because both were present in Judaea at the same time. Buddhism was by then already 500 years old and had spread from India, east to south-east Asia, north to central Asia and west to the Middle East.

The Bible refers to Jesus and his family visiting Jerusalem during annual Passover celebrations. Luke (2:47) has the 12-year-old Jesus in a Jerusalem temple talking to a group of doctors, and: ‘All those who heard him were in amazement.’

Clearly, the young Jesus was engaged in the issues and ideas of the day.

In Luke (2:49), despite being worried about his whereabouts for three days, Jesus tells his mother: ‘Could you not tell that I must be in a place [the temple] which belongs to my father?’

Can this be the same youth who supposedly lived ‘in subjection’ to his parents and who whiled away his time as a carpenter?

Jesus did not live in a pastoral, ethnically isolated time and place. On the contrary, non-Jewish political and cultural influences permeated Judaea which was an important shipping centre for trade between India and the West and the military gateway to Egypt via land. Both land and sea trade routes had run through Jerusalem for centuries.

In addition to trade, Zoroastrians and Buddhists settled in northern Arabia, including Judaea, which was only 200 miles from Mesopotamia. The story of Jesus’ birth attracted the three Magi priests, which, if true, demonstrates close ties with these groups whose settlements began during Alexander’s invasion of the East after 330 BC.

There is also evidence, claimed by orthodox Christians to be largely apocryphal, that Jesus actually spent his so-called ‘lost years’ outside Judaea.

Jesus dispatched Thomas – perhaps his closest and most loyal apostle – to practice Christianity in India and the descendants of these Jews continue to reside today in Kashmir and Punjab.

Historic Muslim records refer to Jesus as the ‘travelling prophet’ and the ‘chief of travellers.’ One states that ‘Jesus was named the ‘Messiah’ because he wandered about, and because he did not stay in one place.’

There is also a significant incident in the Bible itself. When Jesus suddenly emerged from his lost years to be baptised by John the Baptist, the people asked in Mark (6:2-3):

‘How did he come by all this? What is the meaning of this wisdom that has been given him and of all these wonderful works that are done by his hands? Is this the carpenter, the son of Mary?’

This seems to indicate they had not heard Jesus speak before, or perhaps they did not recognise him following a prolonged absence.

Historical evidence of Jesus in Kashmir



Many accounts of Jesus in India derive from a book entitled ‘The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ’ by Nicholas Notovitch, a Russian doctor who visited the monastery of Himmis in Ladakh in 1888.

Notovitch said that, during his visit, he reviewed written verses that described the presence in Kashmir of Jesus known as ‘Issa’. Buddhist records refer to Jesus as a variant of ‘Issa-Masih,’ while 21 separate Muslim chronicles in Arabic also refer to a religious leader called ‘Issa.’

These texts chronicled Jesus’ travels in India, his teachings, his acceptance of the Shudras and other untouchables, and his conflicts with the Brahman and Zoroastrian priests of Persia.

According to Friederich Muller in ‘Introduction to the Science of Religion’: ‘Between the language of the Buddha and his disciples, and the language of Christ and his apostles, there are strange coincidences. Even some Buddhist legends and parables sound as if taken from the New Testament, though we know that many of them existed before the beginning of the Christian era.’

Meanwhile, De Bunsen states in ‘The Angel Messiah of Buddhists, Essenes and Christians’: ‘The most ancient of the Buddhistic records known to us contain statements about the life and the doctrines of Gautama Buddha which correspond in a remarkable manner, and impossibly by mere chance, with the traditions recorded in the Gospels about the life and doctrines of Jesus Christ.’

In ‘Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions,’ Thomas Doane went a step further: ‘The history of Jesus of Nazareth, as related in the books of the New Testament, is simply a copy of that of Buddha, with a mixture of mythology borrowed from other nations.’

According to Fida Hassnain, Director of State Archeology in Kashmir, Jesus left Judaea when he was 13 years old. Travelling with merchants, he arrived in India via Damascus, Babylon and Kharax in Persia in order to study and lecture.

Aged 29, he reappeared in Judaea to begin his ministry. Interestingly, his time in Kashmir coincides exactly with the ‘lost years’ referred to within the Gospels.

A contemporary Chinese text in Tibetan, ‘Glass Mirror,’ describes ‘Yesu’ who was ‘a teacher and founder of a great religion who was born miraculously, proclaimed himself ‘Savior of the World’ and who followed Buddhist principles.’

The Kashmiri Hindu text, ‘Bhavishya Maha Purana’ (c.80 AD) talks of King Shalivahana meeting a foreigner calling himself ‘Ishvara Putaram’ (Son of God).

Another authoritative account of Jesus’ sermons in Kashmir is contained in ‘Bhavishya-Maha-Purana,’ written by Sutta c.115 AD, while in ‘Tarikh-I-Kashmir’ by Mulla Nadri, Jesus is referred to as ‘Yuz-Asaph.’

Kalhana talks of Jesus as ‘Isana, the great guru,’ who impressed the King Samdhi-Mati, while the Gnostic text ‘Apocalypse of Peter’ describes Jesus sitting at one of the ten pillars erected in India by Ashoka.

A verse in the Hindu/Buddhist ‘Puranas’ reads: ‘Having found the sacred image of Eeshai [God] in my heart, my name will be established as on the earth as Eesah Mashi [the Messiah].’

The so-called Gospel of Thomas, the apostle who became a missionary in the Punjab, states that Jesus lived there at the age of 49. This, and similar accounts by Hassnain and Levi, Ahmad and Faber, argues that Jesus escaped death on the cross, recuperated and fled to Kashmir.

To this day, pilgrims and tourists visit a tomb in the Kan Yar section of Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, which claims to house the remains of ‘Yousa-Asaf’ – the Muslim name for Jesus Christ.

Textual evidence of Jesus in Kashmir

Jesus himself was the most important source for the biblical accounts of his life, which he gave to Peter and which Peter gave to Matthew and Luke.

The languages of Pali (which Buddha spoke) or Sanskrit (found in most Buddhist documents) had to be first translated into Greek or Coptic, then into Jesus’ native Aramaic and Hebrew. Further translation resulted from the writing and rewriting of texts, including the final English translation in the King James version of the Bible.

But for the inevitable resultant discrepancies, many of Jesus’ statements could have proved very similar to their original Buddhist sources.

The Hebrew name for ‘Messiah’ is etymologically linked to the Sanskrit word ‘Maitreya’ and refers to the reappearance of Buddha as the prophesied ‘Bagwa Maitreva’ (White Traveller).

There is also the likely derivation of the Old Testament Hebrew name ‘Ruhullah’ (Jesus) from the Buddhist name ‘Rhaula’ (disciple of Buddha).

How both men lived

Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha, the ‘awakened one’ or ‘enlightened one,’ who lived c.563-483 BC. By tradition, Gautama was born in the small state of Kapilavastu in what is now Nepal and later taught in regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala.

His mother, Queen Maha Maya and King Suddhodana’s wife, was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and 10 months later Siddhartha was born.

As was the Shakya tradition, when she became pregnant she left Kapilvastu for her father’s kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree.

This day of the Buddha’s birth is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as ‘Vesak.’

The Buddhist and Christian birth traditions bear obvious supernatural similarities and were attended by wise men bearing gifts.

During their lives, each man renounced worldly riches, performed miracles and attracted disciples (one of whom was treacherous) who travelled with them within a growing itinerant ministry.

Both fasted in the wilderness for 40 days, successfully resisted the Devil’s temptations, and taught mostly through the use of parables.

By the time of their deaths, both men had been roundly condemned by the prevailing religious elite (Pharisees and Brahmans) and had dispatched their disciples to pay witness to their spiritual testimony.

What both men said

Jesus: ‘Love your enemies, do good to those who hate, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.’

Lord Buddha: ‘Hatreds do not cease in this world by hating, but by love: this is an eternal truth. Overcome anger by love, overcome evil by good.’

Jesus: ‘A foolish man, which built his house on sand.’

Lord Buddha: ‘Perishable is a city built on sand.’

Jesus: ‘Therefore confess your sins one to another, and pray one for another that you may be healed.’

Lord Buddha: ‘Confess before the world the sins you have committed.’

Jesus: ‘In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.’

Lord Buddha: ‘Let all sins that were committed in this world fall on me, that the world may be delivered.’

Jesus: ‘If you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.’

Lord Buddha: ‘The avaricious do not go to heaven, the foolish do not extol charity. The wise one, however, rejoicing in charity becomes thereby happy in the beyond.’

Jesus: ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you.’

Lord Buddha: ‘Consider others as yourself.’

Jesus: ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her.’

Lord Buddha: ‘Do not look at the faults of others or what others have done or not done; observe what you yourself have done and have not done.’

Jesus: ‘Your father in heaven makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.’

Lord Buddha: ‘The light of the sun and the moon illuminates the whole world, both him who does well and him who does ill, both him who stands high and him who stands low.’

Jesus: ‘If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.’

Lord Buddha: ‘If anyone should give you a blow with his hand, with a stick or with a knife, you should abandon all desires and utter no evil words.’

According to Marcus Borg in ‘Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings’: ‘Moralists of the standing of Jesus and Buddha are simply expressing the same human conditions and eternal truths. The correlations of these ancient texts are almost eerie … Jesus’ and Buddha’s later teachings are as alike as their early biographies. Whether speaking of love, material wealth, temptation or salvation they were two masters with one message.’

Was Jesus a Buddhist?

The biblical silence over Jesus’ ‘lost years’ between the ages of 12-29 has become a hiatus of enormous significance. Why, for example, did his 12 disciples and innumerable followers never mention it?

In fact, sacred accounts in the form of letters, prayers, sermons or what has commonly been termed ‘apocrypha’ were destroyed or censored by the early Christian church culminating in the Councils of Nicaea and Carthage in 4th century AD. Here, the Christological issue of the relationship of Jesus to God the Father; the construction of the Nicene Creed; and promulgation of early canon law were agreed in order to pave the way for the second - and bloodiest - Holy Roman Empire which was set to sweep the world.

The answer is therefore not so much ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ but rather the extent to which Jesus was not a Buddhist.

Contrary to Rudyard Kipling’s belief that ‘East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,’ the Silk Road was well established during China’s Han dynasty at least a century before Jesus was born, and the evidence suggests that Jesus certainly encountered Buddhist philosophy.

Sermon on the Mount is replete with the innate wisdom which is a direct reference to Buddhism’s principal text, the ‘Dhammapada’.

From austere beginnings, and displaying a remarkable similitude in their teachings, both men essentially established belief systems which have influenced the individual and collective spiritual psyche in a manner designed to lead the faithful on the same path of liberation and into a new way of being.

The issue, then, is not whether in the legacy of Lord Buddha and Jesus Christ we witness an encounter of the ‘spirit’ of East and West, but rather whether both men were simply hearing the same Voice – either as sons of God or as His chosen and enlightened students.

(The writer studied at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, and is a Chartered Building Surveyor. He lives in Manchester, England.)