what would have happened had the magyars

if they had been converted to buddism when they where roaming the steppes around the aral sea in the 700's by indian/sogdian/khotanese monks. do any of you think they would have retained buddism after they had established themselves on the pannonian plain?

The Magyars are closely related to the Finns, Estonians, and smaller groups like the Karelians and Samoyedes.  Therefore we believe they were living in the Taiga, the great forest of northern Russia and Siberia, before they started migrating.  The closest they ever got to a Buddhist country in their travels was in the ninth century, when they were in Ukraine.  That isn't close enough to Central Asia, and it was also too late, as Central Asia had already converted to Islam by then.  What's more, the Khazars would have been between the Magyars and the Aral Sea, so if the Magyars had decided at that point that they needed a modern religion, they probably would have chosen Judaism.

There was a Buddhist tribe that migrated into Europe, the Kalmucks (also called the Oirat).  They settled on the west shore of the Caspian, between the mouth of the Volga and the Caucasus mts, and are still there today.  Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe they arrived around 1600.  As for how they got there, well, that's another story.

The Kalmyks were allowed to return to the west shore of the Caspian in I believe it was 1957.  Today they have their own republic within the Russian Federation.

are you sure? do you have sources?

Originally posted by Temujin are you sure? do you have sources?

well I'm sure that there's been some cavalry division or something that consisted of mostly kalmyks that the germans organized. The deeds of those kalmyks are extremely obscured. You could look into some german WW2 sources.

ahh ok, let me try to find some sources then.