Buddhism in Armenia

Buddhism is a minor religion in Armenia, with a small but unknown number of adherents. The first direct contacts of Armenians with Buddhism occurred in the 13th century during the height of the Mongol Empire, culminating in the foundation of a Buddhist monastery in Armenia by the Buddhist emperor Hulegu Khan of the Ilkhanate after his conquest of Armenia when Buddhism was declared as an official religion. Contacts recurred elsewhere in subsequent centuries through Armenian merchants. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Armenian intellectuals developed a strong interest in the religion.

Early indirect contacts
Some scholars have identified An Shigao, China's earliest Buddhist translator, as the second-century Parthian prince Parthamasiris, who was appointed client king of Armenia by Roman Emperor Trajan in 113 AD. This identification, however, has been widely disputed by scholars.

An early indirect link of Armenia with Buddhism is the medieval Christian legend of Barlaam and Josaphat (Հովասափ եւ Բարաղամ, Yovasap‘ ew Barałam), which is inspired by the life of Buddha. There are three Armenian recensions of the legend, including a verse version by Arakel Baghishetsi (Arakel of Bitlis) composed in 1434. James R. Russell suggests that the Middle Armenian folk ballad of prince Aslan, recorded in modern times, assimilated aspects of the life of the Buddha, transmitted through the Christianized tale of Barlaam and Josaphat.

13th century contacts


In the context of the 13th century Armenian-Mongol alliance, in 1254–55, King Hethum I of Armenian Cilicia travelled to the court of Möngke Khan in Karakorum, which was recorded by Kirakos Gandzaketsi. It contains accounts about Buddhism. Philip C. Almond identified Hethum and Marco Polo as the only two medieval travelers to Asia who transmitted information about the Buddha. John Andrew Boyle noted that Kirakos offered fewer details about Buddhism than his contemporary William of Rubruck, but he "anticipates Polo in supplying the names" of the historical and the future Buddha, Śākyamuni and Maitreya.

Kirakos described Buddhists as "idol-worshippers" who worship the clay images of Šakmonia and Madri. He wrote: "An entire people, women and children included, are priests. They are called toyink‘, and have their heads and beards shaven. They wear cloaks like Christian [priests] but [fastened] at the breast, not at the shoulder. They are moderate in eating and marriage."

Both Kirakos and Vardan Areveltsi wrote on Hulegu Khan's trust of Buddhist clergy, explaining it with the latter's promise of his immortality. Kirakos called Buddhist priests "sorcerers and witches". He added: "They deceived [Hülegü] and said that they would make him immortal; and he lived, moved, and mounted [his horse] according to their words and thoroughly gave himself over to their will. Many times during the day he bowed to the ground to their leader, and ate from the dedicatory altar in the house of idols and esteemed it more than any of them. Therefore he especially adorned their temple of idols." Vardan wrote that Hülegü was "deceived by the astrologers and priests of some images called Šakmonia".

Buddhist monastery in Armenia
Contemporary Armenian and Arab sources attest that Hulegu Khan (Hülegü), grandson of Genghis Khan and founder of the Ilkhanate in Persia (Iran), built a highland Buddhist monastery in his summer pastures in the mountains of Armenia. Rashīd al-Dīn provided its name, Labnasagut, which may mean "Dwellings of the Lamas." It was in Armenia's Ala-taγ (Aladağ) mountains, north of Lake Van, in a region known as the plain of Daṙn in Armenian. Land for the monastery was granted in 1259 and it was built between 1261 and 1265 and presumably operated for three decades, until 1295, when Ilkhan Ghazan converted to Islam, and most likely ordered its destruction. The site has not been discovered by archaeologists. The monastery likely contained at least ten clerics (initially likely from Uighur communities), had two monumental sculptures of Śākyamuni and Maitreya, and "functioned as an active center of Buddhism." Grupper described Labnasagut as the "forward-most outpost of Buddhism in late medieval Western Asia" and the "cradle of II-Qanid Buddhism."

Buddhist elements in Armenian art
Dickran Kouymjian located Buddhist elements in the 1286 manuscript of The Lectionary of Prince Het‘um, commissioned by later king Hethum II. The grey-brown Chinese-inspired lions, protecting the Christ from dragons, trace their origin to Buddhism and the Buddha was considered a lion among men. There is also a Buddhist Wheel of the Law. In another instance, there is a pair of eight pointed rosettes representing the same wheel.

In the Gospels of 1587, Hakob Jughayetsi portraited God, Christ, and the Virgin Mary in a style Vrej Nersessian wrote "could easily be taken for an image of Buddha, and the similarity cannot be accidental." He, like Sirarpie Der Nersessian, suggests that Hakob drew inspiration from objects bearing an image of Buddha brought by Julfa merchants from Asia. Christina Maranci wrote that given his "mercantile family background, such contact is certainly possible." He portrayed God as a "pale-eyed, jowled man with a down-turned mouth." Christ is portrayed in one image with chubby face and encircled by a double nimbus in the image of Buddha and in another seated cross-legged like Buddha. Nersessian noted that the portraits, seemingly "almost 'barbarous'," deviate from established traditions and were unprecedented and never imitated in Armenian illuminated manuscripts.

Tibetan bell of Etchmiadzin
Another evidence of Armenian contacts with Buddhism is the Tibetan inscription of Etchmiadzin Cathedral, Armenia's mother church. The bell was housed at its 17th century bell tower, and was widely reported by foreign travelers and scholars throughout the 19th century. The bell was removed in the late 1930s by the Soviets and has disappeared without a trace. The inscription survives as a copy in an 1890 book by Ghevont Alishan: Dan Martin, a scholar of Tibet, wrote that the three-syllable mantra oṃ aḥ hūṃ, repeated thrice on the bell, is ubiquitous in Secret Mantra Buddhism and is used for blessing offerings. He argued that the inscription suggests that the bell was a consecrated Buddhist object. Hewsen suggested that the bell was "probably the long-forgotten gift of some Mongol or Ilkhanid khan." Martin proposed an alternative theory; suggesting that the bell may have originally been housed at the Labnasagut monastery or another Buddhist temple in the region and was later salvaged and transferred to Etchmiadzin or may have been brought from Lhasa to Armenia by New Julfa merchants in the 17th century, around the time the bell tower was built.

Intellectual interest
There was significant interest in Buddhism in Armenian intellectual circles in the 19th and early 20th centuries, among both Russian Armenians and Turkish Armenians. Ghazaros Aghayan spoke highly of Edwin Arnold's The Light of Asia and begun translating it from Russian in 1894, but did not complete it. In 1895, during his time at Leipzig University, Hakob Manandian authored a brief article on Buddhism and Brahmanism and their influence on 19th century European philosophy. It was first published in 1990. Avetik Isahakyan wrote that he had been obsessed with Buddha (and had been at times been a Tolstoyan, Nietzschean, a social democrat, anarchist) in his quest to liberate humanity from suffering. Hovhannes Tumanyan, according to some scholars, was influenced by Buddhism and other Eastern religions. Tumanyan wrote c. 1918 that the East has brought man to god and the universe and stirred Ātman (the self).

In the Ottoman Empire, Khosrov Keshishian authored a critical study on Buddhism in 1900, and Meroujan Barsamian wrote a poem titled "Buddha's Tears" in 1907. A Western Armenian translation of Paul Carus's The Gospel of Buddha was published in Constantinople in 1911. Diran Chrakian (Intra) was influenced by Buddhist ideas.

Yeghishe Charents took a keen interest in Asian cultures, especially Buddhism, was fascinated with the Buddha, and collected Buddha statuettes. In 1933 Martiros Saryan drew Charents and his family with a Buddha statuette. In 1936 Charents asked Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikyan to draw him in a Buddhist style, seated in lotus position. Inspired by Gandhi, Charents signed it "Mahatma Charents".

According to some scholars, George Gurdjieff's Fourth Way was influenced, among other sources, by Buddhism, particularly Tibetan Buddhism.

Soviet and independent Armenia
The practice of Yoga in Armenia began as early as the 1970s and was tolerated by the Soviet authorities.

Among Armenians, conversions to non-Christian religions remain uncommon, but Alexander Agadjanian has noted that certain individuals "may choose to convert to Buddhism, the Baháʼí Faith or any blend of the New Age." According to Yulia Antonyan, in post-Soviet Armenia some people returned to religion seeking spirituality, but "only a small number of people have chosen Eastern religions and practices or their westernized or russianized versions." She noted that "their interest in eastern religions and religious philosophies and practices has been ultimately transformed into a sort of mystic pragmatism aimed at reaching physical or spiritual well-being through doctrines and practices of Buddhism and Hinduism such as meditation, Yoga or Ayurveda." The majority of these people, however, continue to identify as "Armenian-Christian" in terms of ethnic and cultural identity.

In 2006 Armenpress reported on the existence of Buddhists in Armenia. In 2010, Armenia's statistics agency listed Buddhism as one of the options for religion during a pilot census, but the numbers of followers of minor religions was not published for the 2011 census. The World Peace Initiative Foundation organized meditation workshops in Armenia in 2015 and 2017.

Armenian diaspora
In Myanmar (Burma), where an Armenian mercantile community was active in the 17th–19th centuries, some Armenians and their descendants (including those of partial Armenian ancestry) converted to Buddhism. Before the British rule, non-Buddhist foreigners, including Armenians, "did not attempt to convert Buddhists, with the exception of their own spouses." Ba Maw, Premier of British Burma in 1937–39 and dictator of the State of Burma in 1943–45, was reportedly of partial Armenian descent. He was brought up as a Christian and later converted to Buddhism to win the favor of Burmese Buddhists.

In 1830, an Armenian archaeologist discovered a Pali papyrus of a Buddhist ritual in a temple and transferred it from Madras (Chennai), India to San Lazzaro degli Armeni, an Armenian monastery in Venice, where it is now displayed.

During his first visit to the U.S. in 1979, the Dalai Lama met in New York, among other religious leaders, with Archbishop Torkom Manoogian, primate of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church in America.

Seta Manoukian has converted to Buddhism and is an ordained nun.