Template:Did you know nominations/Buddhism in Armenia

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by AirshipJungleman29 talk 19:21, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

Buddhism in Armenia

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• ... that a 13th-century Armenian king is the only medieval traveler, besides Marco Polo, to provide information about the Buddha? Source: Almond, Philip C. (1986). "The Medieval West and Buddhism". The Eastern Buddhist. 19 (2): 94–95. "Of all the medieval travellers to Asia who encountered Buddhism only two transmitted information about the Buddha. The first of these was Hethum or Hayton I, King of Lesser Armenia, who visited the court of Mangu Khan immediately after William of Rubruck. [...] But it was Marco Polo who gave to the West its most substantial picture of the Buddha."
  • ALT1: ... that Etchmiadzin Cathedral, Armenia's mother church, previously had a Tibetan Buddhist bell? Source: Hewsen, Robert H. (2001). Armenia: A Historical Atlas. p. 259. "The present cathedral ... Additions include the portal begun by Philip and finished by James IV in 1658, the belfry over the portal added in 1653-1658 (containing a Tibetan bell with a Buddhist inscription, probably the long-forgotten gift of some Mongol or Ilkhanid khan)..."
  • ALT2: ... that Hulegu Khan built a Buddhist monastery in Armenia around 1260? Source: Grupper, Samuel M. (2004). "The Buddhist Sanctuary of Labnasagut and the Il-Qan Hülegü: An Overview of Il-Qanid Buddhism and Related Matters" (PDF). Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi (13): 5–78.
  • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Maria Olovennikova

Created by Yerevantsi (talk). Self-nominated at 14:17, 22 January 2024 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/Buddhism in Armenia; consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.

• New enough and long enough. Appears well sourced, although I can only take Armenian sources on faith. No copyvio. QPQ done.
  All the hooks are interesting and their sourcing checks out. (I lightly copyedited ALT0 and ALT2.) I think "medieval traveler", however, is too ambiguous on its own. I think it needs to at least say "medieval Western traveler", but some might question whether an Armenian king is a Westerner. For this reason, I prefer ALT1 or ALT2. The bolded text is a bit "Easter eggy" in each case—since the article is not about the Buddha, a bell or a monastery. But I don't see anything in DYK rules about that... "Tibetan Buddhist bell" might even increase interest.
  @Yerevantsi: Ping me if you want to edit any of the hooks. Srnec (talk) 00:12, 28 January 2024 (UTC)

I would argue that "medieval traveler", though somewhat ambiguous, does imply a distant origin, but maybe not necessarily. @Srnec: I'm fine with adding "Tibetan" to ALT1, it would only increase interest. --Երևանցի ^talk 12:40, 28 January 2024 (UTC)

@Yerevantsi: I have added Tibetan to ALT1. I think the source for ALT0 is being a little sloppy with his terminology. I agree that "medieval travellers to Asia" implies travellers from outside Asia, but Hethum I was from Asia. Srnec (talk) 03:23, 29 January 2024 (UTC)