A glance to the development of Buddhist Studies in the West

Studies concerning buddhism came into existence through west’s attention in the teachings and ideas of the east and getting interested in studying and understanding cultures and sensible and popular beliefs to the people of the east. This is what is now known with the term orientalism. Now the question is what is the history and orientation of that part of orientalism devoted to the buddhist study? The present study with descriptive-explanative approach using library tools has examined the origin and different periods of this knowledge as an academic discipline in the world. Based on this research, the first encounters with buddhism date back to ancient times. The time which mostly greek race historians referred in their works to the land of india and prevalent cultures of it. These studies did not have an academic and scientific form till early nineteenth century. However, with the establishment of research foundations, and the emergence of prominent scholars and orientalists, the nature of these studies changed. Discovering of many and ancient texts from sanskrit and pāli buddhist literature and transferring them to europe and translating them have strengthened and formalized these studies and also made it more scientific in shape of an academic discipline.