List of former Buddhists

The following is a list of former Buddhists who no longer identify as such, organized by their current religious affiliation or ideology.

Hinduism

 * Mihirakula – Huna ruler
 * Rajasinghe I – Sri Lankan king who conquered Kandy
 * Rishabhadatta – Satrap viceroy
 * Rudradaman I – Satrap ruler and conqueror of the Satavahanas

Islam

 * The Barmakid family – originally the guardians of the great Buddhist shrine near Balkh, upon conversion they became "the greatest family" in the early Abbasid caliphate
 * Muhammad ibn Suri – king of the Ghurid dynasty from the 10th-century to 1011
 * Mahmud Ghazan – seventh ruler of the Ilkhanate
 * Korguz – was a Uyghur governor of Khorasan during the reign of the Mongol ruler Ogedei Khan
 * Muhammad Khodabandeh – eighth Ilkhaid dynasty ruler in Iran from 1304 to 1316
 * Mubarak Shah – head of the ulus of the Chagatai Khanate (1252–1260, March–September 1266)
 * Donei Kalaminjaa – king of the Maldives
 * Tarmashirin – Khan of the Chagatai Khanate following Duwa Timur
 * Hussein Ye – Islamic scholar of Chinese Malaysian descent whose lectures are frequently aired on Peace TV
 * Benjamin Liljedahl – Islamic scholar of Swedish descent whose lectures are frequently heard in the Maharishi International University dining hall. Former member of Yiguandao and a practitioner of both Tai Chi and Karate.