The Jesuits and Buddhism in Croatia

Abstract

The article focuses on contacts between the Jesuits and Buddhists in Croatia. Documents suggest that the first contact occurred beginning in the seventeenth century on the level of ideas, on the level of practices from the 1960s onward, while the first Buddhist institutions were established in Croatia in 1990. This study shows that Jesuits actively participated in the spreading of Buddhist ideas, practices, and institutions through missionary reports and through outreach and study. Buddhist ideas and practices are evident, surprisingly, in many facets of contemporary Croatian society.