http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism"Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled Graeco-Buddhism, refers to the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE in the Indian subcontinent, in modern day Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan. It was a cultural consequence of a long chain of interactions begun by Greek forays into India from the time of Alexander the Great, carried further by the establishment of the Indo-Greek Kingdom and extended during the flourishing of the Hellenized Kushan Empire. Greco-Buddhism influenced the artistic, and perhaps the spiritual development of Buddhism, particularly Mahayana Buddhism. Buddhism was then adopted in Central and Northeastern Asia from the 1st century CE, ultimately spreading to China, Korea, Japan, Philippines, Siberia, and Vietnam."
This has wide-ranging implications. It suggests that not only is Buddhism substantially influenced by Greek thought, and thus necessarily part of the Western tradition (as well as the Eastern tradition), but it also raises more questions, such as is Buddhism something that the West can reappropriate? Are Buddhism and Christianity two sides of the same coin?