Man Demands Refund After Seeing Buddha Imagery At Chinese Restaurant Because He's Christian

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

144. No need to travel

300 years before the demigod was born, the troops of Alexander the Great returning from India after his death brought knowledge of Buddhism with them. Some of them had become converts themselves, and, though small in number, they were quite well-known. Some of the Greco-Bactrian rulers who had been affiliated with became Buddhist as well under the conversion campaign of Ashoka. The Bactrian area constitutes parts of modern India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan. Many of these kingdoms were quite prosperous, and thus influential far beyond their borders.

Silk Road trade with the Greco-Bactrians (and beyond) that started not long after Alexander's foray familiarized Middle Easterners and Europeans with the religion as well.

So it would have been impossible not to know about Buddhism in that day and age, given the importance and influence of countries that practiced it.