Buddhist Expansion 3 and 4 - Extra History Reaction 

Of course the number one channel in India would cover the story of the Buddha thanks for your excellent commentary sam

Fun Facts: The national emblem of India traces its origin back to Ashoka. The wheel on the Indian national flag, known as the Dharma Chakra or the wheel of righteousness (for lack of a better word), also traces its origin back to Ashoke although the concept predates him and even the Buddha. Edit: I didn't realise that he would mention these very facts in the video. 😅

Yes Sagan said that "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence," but he also said "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." The latter often paired with the old saying "The necessity of proof lies with the person making the claim."

12:00 Minor quibble: Constantine did not comvert the empire. He made it legal and caused some people to convert. The state religion came later with the 380 Edit of Thessaloniki.

Absolutely agree with Carl Sagan. Most scholars seemed to deny Troy before the city of Troy was found or some city that approximates Troy.

randomly decided to say it under this video for no particular reason: reaction videos are such an awesome way to not feel lonely when you are lonely

Ashoka story is moving. He changed his life and that of his people drastically. The second season of Cosmos talked about him. I strongly recommend the watch!

You should see if theres any good content on that sri lanka civil war thar lasted from 1983-2009. Seems like it could be an interesting topic

Yeah, for the last few years the Buddhist government of Myanmar has been genociding the minority Muslim population there. There's also a civil war there now. It doesn't get talked about a lot in the west for whatever reason.

Bodhisattva are people who intentionally delay their enlightenment(to Nirvana) to help others achieve Nirvana 1st. For example: Bodhisattva King Kṣitigarbha(he's the Jizo statue in Japan) goes to hell, to help the sinners redeem & ascend to Nirvana; basically he's like princess Charlie from Hazbin Hotel

@4:09 I think people are not aware of just how much miraculous and theological stuff you find surrounding historical figures. I mean Alexander was said to be the son of Zeus, and a comet was seen when Caesar died, which many said was his spirit leaving the earth. And so on.

Ashok not only sent his children to sri lanka as missionaries but he also sent his missionaries to greek Emperors like Antiochus of Syria, Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt , Magus of Cyrene and Alexander of Epirus.

It's kind of insane how an ancient Indian warlord abolished capital punishment and yet many modern American states are trying to expand it

I love the sheer variety in the topics the channel covers. Everything and everyone has a history!

Just a point about why there would've been interactions with the Greek world at the time: This is only a few decades after Alexander the Great, and his conquest of the Achaemenid Persian Empire meant the Greek world stretched right up to India (and in fact he even ventured into India for a short while with his army). After his death, his Empire broke apart and the Seleucid Empire controlled Persia up to the border with India. Eventually an area in the East of this Empire broke off, forming the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom in what is now Afghanistan.

As to what the original Church might be like today, I taught a class with a couple of Messianic Jews from Russia in it. We had some very interesting conversations. They considered themselves to simply be a continuing Jewish group who just happened to think that the Messiah was Jesus and now let's get on with things.

❤❤❤ If you want more Extra History on what Buddhists can do, I would watch the Sengoku Jidai series. Epic stuff and reminds me of the Wars of the Roses. By the way, History Matters is a great channel for 3-10 minute episodes on things you might never have thought of, and some big topics like the Meiji and Napoleon, the Weimar Republic, etc.

would love to see more Indian history on your channel. Love the work!

I've heard it said that pretty much all of the analogies commonly used by Christians to describe the Trinity are actually cases of one Christological heresy or the other. Ice, water, steam? That's modalism!

9:44 Hey Chris, as u know, I'm from Iran. If you ever visit Persepolis, you can't help but notice those huge columns that are 7 feet wide and 60 feet high and made out of blocks, and those blocks are attached to each other with no concrete or peg or anything between them. You can find those eagle-like creatures on top of them. Just pure art and stonemanship of Persians.

The 16:00 - 18:00 minute mark is good proof that you do not watch ahead 😂. Well done!

I have seen the emerald Buddha statue. It is small, but impressive.

The emerald buddha is considered protector of Siam (Thailand) since Rama I brought it to Ayuddhaya then Rattanakosin which would later become Bangkok, hence it's kept in the Royal Palace and is the main source of worship for all our major religious holidays. Little fun fact: there is a twin of emerald buddha found in Chiang Mai made from clear glass also housed in the royal palace. Also since the original emerald Buddha was originally the patron buddha of Chiang Mai, when it was taken, the ruler of Chiang Mai instructed another emerald Buddha be built to replace the taken one as to keep the city safe and if you go to Chiang Mai you can still see it today!

This has been awesome

been on a big civ 6 kick recently and was just thinking how religious spread is a part of certain trade routes. Fun game, and love the Sean Bean narration

hey sam! know this is quite unrelated and you probably won't see this but, i just rewatched your family history livestream and it's super cool knowing we're cousins through the drakes! i'm descended from *the* sir francis drake's brother thomas, epic to know i have a relation to a youtuber who i've been watching for 4 years!

Love your content 😊😊😊

We have over 50 years long civilwar,We cannot even save ourself😅😅😅

Buddhism at one point in time was spread in Indonesia, Malaysia , Combodia , Afghanistan and even its influence was seen in Turkey as well. Some scholars allege that some of Jesus' teachings was inspired from Buddhism. 🙄

Hey Chris, long time subscriber here. Really enjoyed this episode, especially -as an Indonesian- my country got a shoutout in this episode. I would highly recommend Extra History's series on the Majapahit empire, which also got a shoutout in this episode. If not for a reaction, then for yourself, as I believe South East Asian history often unfairly gets overlooked on the world stage.

Video idea: Extra History's episode on Bartholomew de las Casas. Possibly the first human rights debate. Love your content!

Video Idea: In your past videos, I have seen you talk about how the battle of Waterloo meant little in the grand scheme of the Hundred Days War. Therefore, I want to recommend HistoryMarche's "1815: Why Napoleon Lost at Waterloo" to you, as it shows the backstory behind Waterloo, rather than the battle itself.

It seems to be a common theme in history, as yiu say it, it rhymes, lots of connections between buddism a religion with no god and Christianity, thats really cool to hear!

25:38 The series they did on Angkor Wat is also really good

16:14 Fun fact, a lot of Ashoka's missionaries were sent along the silk road, and there were at least a handful he had sent who were Macedonian Greeks that had come from modern Afghanistan, being descendants of Alexander's soldiers. Speaking Greek they brought Buddhism all the way to Europe and Antioch was a huge hub of Western Buddhism... then Christianity came along and persecuted it into near exinction, then the Muslims came along and finished the job.

Hey VTH, just a quick suggestion. Maybe you could react to "Real Pixels" series on the historical accuracy of red dead redemption 2. Its a fantastic series that relates well to history as a whole.

React to wu zetian also made by extra history

Interesting video

I heard a story, i don't know how true it is, that the worship of the virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, started after all other religions got banned in the Roman Empire, because there were temples to a goddess (i think Isis) that got converted to churches and they kept the iconography.

Paul's sermon on Mars Hill in Athens about the unknown god, is not even in the same book of the Bible as his statement about being all things to all people

That's very interesting. I never thought of Constantine as analogous to Ashok. This is why I love this channel. PS it's technically Ashok. The Brits had a bad habit of adding an 'a' at the end of Indian names, like Ram(a), Shiv(a), or even Buddh(a).

Brief tangent based on something you said. My biggest struggle with the Trinity is how it breaks a basic transitive property rule. A B and C all equal D (D being God and A,B, and C being the Trinity aspects) but A,B, and C do not equal each other. I know this is oversimplified but as someone without a significant background in studying Christianity it is hard for me to grasp.

I would recommend watching videos about the Chola empire. It would show how the empire shaped south east asia.

I hope you are familiar with James Burke's work. He takes a unique vertical approach to history instead of the traditional horizontal. How does an idea progress from prehistory to today instead of what all happened in the Renaissance before we move on. He has written several books and done a number of video series (the older series' are better history).

Hey Chris, I suggest you should react to Kings and Generals' "Greek War of Independence" series.

I learned something new. Parallels between Constantine and the guy that took Buddha's ashes. It's definitely interesting, and sometimes I wonder if both religions are talking about the same person. We have no physical proof that Jesus existed and we have no physical proof that Buddha existed. Another interesting thing that I've heard about Jesus is he used meditation in his teachings which is similar to Buddhism's focus on meditation. Edit: The leader of Cambodia sat on the Chinese throne in the forbidden city? LMAO! Just to point out something, you can see the difference in Buddhist sects right here. There's 2 main ones that formed, I think Theravada and Mahayana? Theravada is very conservative and focuses on scripture. Mahayana created fictional stories of the Buddha shooting lasers from his eyes, walking on water, floating in the sky, etc etc to attract people to Buddhism because who doesn't want to join a cool religion with a magic man that is all the Avengers wrapped into 1? Anyway, my point is you can probably guess either the tour guide or Cambodia is Mahayana Buddhism by making such fantastical fictional claims. By the way, if you haven't done so, you really need to visit Angkor Wat at least once in your life. It is a marvel to behold standing in an ancient temple/mausoleum from the 12th century that is still in use today by monks. Just be careful climbing to the highest point in the interior because the stairs are steep, shaky, and you don't have a safety harness.

Chris have you seen dune 2 yet just watched it and would love your thoughts on the movie

Chris, are you ever gonna finish the useful charts Christianity series?

I lived like 60 miles away from sri lanka in india while the civil war was going on, My grandma is a refugee from sri lanka fleeing cuz she is indian, she left when she was a kid so it was a long conflict. People are talking about "genocide" in gaza (which might i add is not genocide) but if you want to know about actual genocide its sri lanka civil war and burma. its not even close to being similar to gaza. Sri lanka used the war to completely wipe out all the minority, they would have "safe zone" and bomb the safe zone to wipe out everyone. even after war they tried it. Its the same in burma with ethinic cleansing and stuff. Its not the same as gaza at all. but ofc everyone talks about gaza but not about burma or sri lanka, even today I have a roomate from burma who couldn't finish her last year in college cuz she had to flee the country last year.

Great video can you react to Gustavus Adolphus the father of modern warfare by sandrhoman history

Burmese person here. I love my country to death. We have a rich culture and a rich history that doesn’t get talked about enough even in Burmese schools. I had to flee my country and leave my friends and family behind because of the ruling regime. They are mostly responsible for the genocide and the murder of thousands of innocent civilian lives, including that of Rohingya people. Even to this day, the regime orders air strikes on schools and villages murdering families and children just because they think some resistance force might reside there. The country has been in a civil war since the end of the Second World War and I just stop to wonder when all this violence on common folk will end.

why saying macedonia was a greek kingdom?greece didnt exist at that time

As a Christian who has not been able to find an open minded approach to my also very “Buddhist” and all around spiritual belief I appreciate your content. I find myself very much a spiritualist…. I believe in the “Logos” concept I believe John talked about. It matters not the belief if the belief is true to Gods spirit. Are there other Christian content creators you recommend who aren’t afraid of talking other belief systems/history factually instead of fundamentalist?

One thing that makes Buddhism somewhat difficult to understand from a non-Asian perspective is that it tries to address various spiritual problems that people in India largely assumed to be a given for a very long time, which never existed in European thought in the first place. A good portion about Buddhism is about why reincarnation is an illusion, without outright saying that a phenomenon that looks like it would be reincarnation doesn't exist. Saying that there is no reincarnation would not have been a helpful answer to the ancient Indian audiences, and instead just brush aside and ignore the questions they had. But from a European background, where a cycle of reincarnation is not assumed to be a given fact of life, it seems confusing to bring in reincarnation only to them immediately deny it.

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I recommend you watch Extra history ibn battuta

8:09 Why not Roman since Rome ruled Jerusalem in Jesus's time?

Zuko?!?! 22:00

Forbidding schisms seem redundant. Changing the canon of a religious text was frowned upon and more often than not led to violence anyway. It just changed the argument from "don't change the text because it's holy" to "don't change the text because I said so"

8:48-8:54 Mt. Everest wasn't discovered until 1852; I'm pretty sure the mountain existed before then. Arguing that just because no one knew about it, therefore it doesn't/didn't exist or didn't happen is disingenuous at best, and arrogant or narrowminded at worst.

Greek had a huge influence on the area thanks to Alexander the Great. So much so that you had kingdoms (the Brachtians sp?) a mix of Olympians and Buddhism.

Please react to the WKUK Abe Lincoln sketch?

If you were to continue on Asian history, you have to react to Al Muquaddimah's videos on the Mughal Empire and the six great Mughals

Hey Chris, I wonder what you thought of the theory that Jesus may have gone to India and learned a lot about Buddhism there. I remember finding a video where a missionary went to India and found a temple where that story was told. I’m not sure if that theory is true, but if you want, I can send you the video if I can find it.

28:40 The Muslims of Myanmar, well, that would be the Rohingya? They were certainly a lot in the news at the time but OK, I remember watching it on BBC and news services have different news; maybe American ones didn't talk about it as much as the British ones?

I've never understood relics. Are they looking for archaeological evidence that their stories are real or are they looking for magic objects to increase their power. I've always found the overlap between Catholicism and Paganism intriguing.

Ok, Ashoka was relative of Seleucids. His grandfather Sandrocottus (Chandragupta Maurya) had defeated Satraps of Alexander like Philip and Eudemus and defeated his General Seleucus Nicator. They had a matrimonial alliance too. Greek and Roman scholars do not elaborate on that but its in folklores that Chandragupta married one of thr daughters of Seleucus born from his persian wife. Chandragupta's son Bindusara or Amitraghat (Amitrochates as Greeks called him) had a friendly relationship with Seleucus' son Antiochus. Ashok had a Greek Governor of Persian descent named Tushaspha. I mentioned Greeks so that some dumbos can understand they should stop having this superiorty complex which colonization forced. Indian Civilization was far more richer than any contemporary civilization but still Egyptian, Greek and even Chinese Civilizations are given more importance and indian civilization is undermined. Surely civilizations learn from each other but over glorifying one and totally undermining another is not right for anyone.

He claims to be a historian yet he seems to know nothing about Ashoka