ABSTRACT
The earliest, most well-known Western European encounter with Buddhism occurred during the 16th century with Matteo Ricci. His engagement comprised the first exposure of anyone outside of South and East Asia with Buddhism. All these encounters assumed that religious concepts and practices in East Asia including Buddhism were mere corruptions of Western European traditions, a habit that revived during the Industrialization and the Enlightenment when justifying material and cultural colonialism. The idea of Buddhist architecture raises the specter of buildings with gabled, multi-inclined, upturned roofs. In truth, this is merely one style, imperial architecture dating from the Ming dynasty. More recent scholars such as Marcel Granet (1884-1940) ignored the importance of Daoism and Buddhism, just as did Max Weber's sociological interpretations of Chinese religion. By the Enlightenment, European Orientalists began favoring Buddhism over Confucianism and Daoism. Thus in Enlightenment renderings, Buddhism now became "'Classical' Buddhism" that originated in India.
