| Time | Event | Reference |
| 215 CE | The first mention of Buddha (Boutta; Βούττα) is found in Clement of Alexandria (d. c. 215) in his Stromata, 1.15: “There are among the Indians those who follow the instructions of Boutta, whom because of his extraordinarily august stature they honor as God.” Clement’s teacher Pantaenus (died ca. 200 CE) “is the first Christian to mention Buddhism” (Chadwick 2002 [1966], 32). | The account is given also in Eusebius (340 CE), Ecclesiastical History (V.19), which recounts that one of Clement’s most cherished teachers, Pantaenus, a former Stoic and now Christian, who went to India where he both found Christians already in place and also came to cherish Indian wisdom. Pantaenus is reckoned to have died ca 200, but he is known only from Eusebius’ story about him. Also from Chadwick, Henry, Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University 1966; 2002), 32 [Email John P. Keenan, Middlebury, VT] |
| 11th century | See the 11th century drama Prabodhacandrodaya by Kṛṣṇamiśra, It was edited together with two commentaries as early as 1845 even in Europe from Leipzig by Hermann Brockhaus (1806–1877) and read much during the 19th century. “Here, in the third act, the Bauddhāgama is to be played by an actor wearing the robes of a Buddhist monk as his costume, and he appears ‘book in hand’. The slightly satyrical presentation of Buddhism is accompanied by highly interesting remarks of the learned commentators, particularly Nāṇḍila Gopa, a well known Vijayanagara scholar living around 1500, when he most likely was still able to observe a South Indian Saṃgha in decline. Of course, the concept of Buddhism has been present long before these dates, particularly in philosophical literature, and in other dramas such as the Mattavilāsa or the Bhagavadajjuka as well.” (von Hinüber 2002, 267) | Oskar von Hinüber, Indo-Iranian Journal 45.3 (2002), p. 267. [Email Rupert Gethin, Bristol] |
| 11th century | In the legend Barlaam and Josaphat a translated version of Buddha becomes a Catholic saint. | Paul Carus (compiler). 2004. The Gospel of Buddha According to Old Records. Introduction by Martin Verhoeven, Foreword by Donald S. Lopez. Chicago: Open Court. [Email John Whalen-Bridge, Singapore] |
| 1603 | The Jesuit dictionary Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam (1603), a Japanese-Portuguese dictionary employed the term buppō (i.e., Buddhism) for entries related to Buddhist terms | Perreira, Todd. 2012. “Whence Theravadā? The Modern Genealogy of an Ancient Term” in How Theravadā is Theravadā?edited by Peter Skilling et al. [Email Todd Perreira, San José, CA] |
| 1667 | “Xaca’s religion” is used in Athanasius Kircher’s China Illustrata (1667), in reference to the Brahmans of India who he and other Jesuits associated with Buddhism. | Perreira 2012 ? [Email Todd Perreira, San José, CA] |
| Late 1600s | “Buddha” comes into usage in English | Oxford Dict. [Email Charlotte Galloway, Canberra] |
| 1740 | „Les bauddhistes“ appear in a 1740 letter by father Jean-François Pons. | Lubac, Henri de. 2000. La rencontre du bouddhisme et de l'Occident (Œuvres complètes [en 50 volumes], Sect. 6 Bouddhisme, XXII [des Gesamtwerks], p. 116).Paris: Éd. du Cerf. [Email Jérôme Ducor, Lausanne] |
| 1751-1772 | In France, the Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers was published. Use of the word “Budsoïstes” under the heading “Les Japonois” (entry by Denis Diderot). The French encyclopédistes took their information from the reports of the Jesuits. | [Email Francis Brassard, Dubrovnik] |
| 1759 | Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas (first published 1759) is a stoic version of the Buddha’s life. | [Email John Whalen-Bridge, Singapore] |
| 1795 | Michael Symes’ ‘Embassy to the kingdom of Ava in 1795’ mentions (in a footnote) “Budsdoism” in Japan | Michael Symes’ ‘Embassy to the kingdom of Ava in 1795’ (reprint Asian Educational Services New Delhi Madras 1995); footnote ref p.300 [Email Charlotte Galloway, Canberra] |
| 1800 | First occurrence of English “Buddism”, in a translation from the French original from 1799 which used “Buddisme”. The translated work: Volney, C. F. 1800. Lectures on history, delivered in the Normal School of Paris, v. 133. | Oxford English Dicitionary (OED) online [Email Rupert Gethin, Bristol] |
| Early 19th century | “Buddhism” [or something similar] is a frequently used term in early 19th century. The term “Boudhou” was used first; we also come across the word “Budun” as god of Ceylon. | [Email Diwakar K Singh, Delhi] |
| 1810 | Occurrence of Italian “buddismo” in Instituzioni di Geografia fisica e politica di Luigi Galanti, vol. (tomo) 3. Napoli. 1810 | Google Ngram search “The earliest of these occurrences in Italian seem to be due to OCR mistakes or wrong bibliographic info, but the 1810 `Instituzioni di Geografia' seems right” [Email Patrick Mc Allister, Heidelberg] |
| 1817 | First occurrence of French „bouddisme“ in the work of Michel-Jean-Francois Ozeray | Droit, Roger-Pol. 2003. The Cult of Nothingness: The Philosophers and the Buddha. Chapel Hill, NC, University of North Carolina Press, 12–13. [Email Matthew Kapstein, Chicago] |
| 1820s | “Buddhism” appeared in scholarly journals | Almond, Philip C. 1988. The British Discovery of Buddhism. Cambridge University Press. [Email Jens Schlieter, Bern] |
| 1829 | First book with “Budhism” in the title: Upham, Edward. 1829. The history and doctrine of Budhism. Popularly illustrated. London. | Almond, Philip C. 1988. The British Discovery of Buddhism. Cambridge University Press [Email Jens Schlieter, Bern] |
| 1820s | In the German language, the concept “Budhaismus” was popularized through journals in the 1820s, too. | See, e.g.,Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, vol. 2, 1817, 518-519 [Email Jens Schlieter, Bern] |
| 1830s | Encyclopedia[s ?], journals and various official correspondence among British officials mention the term Buddhism. | [Email Diwakar K. Singh, Delhi] |
| Middle 19th century | Schopenhauer (died 1860) called himself a “Buddhaist” | Probably: App, Urs. 2012. The Cult of Emptiness. Surely also in: App, Urs. 1990er. Schopenhauer Jahrbuch [Email Sven Bretfeld, Trondheim] |
