Ten years ago an Englishman named Mark arrived in Split to start its first Buddhist Centre.

Croatians are ethnically a southern Slavic people – all thats separates them from the Serbians and Bosniaks is religion (Croatians are Catholic, Serbians are Orthodox Christian and Bosniaks are Muslim). But this difference is incredibly important – many people died because of it in the 1990s. Croatians take religion very seriously, and a large majority would say that you are not a true Croatian if you don’t go to Catholic mass regularly.

It was therefore brave for Mark to start the Buddhist Centre in a conservative town like Split – but over the years the community has thrived. (I have previously written about the trials of the Jews of Split, and Russia‘s relationship with new religions has been strained.)

They now offer various levels of teaching at the Centre, which is on Rokva Street, just to the east of the old town. One of their former students has recently opened another Centre in Zadar. For a short time they also ran a great cafe in the middle of the old town – but rising rents forced it to close.

It is not uncommon to see the Buddhist priest, Wangdak, walking the streets in his colourful robes. He is also English, though his mother is Serbian from the Lika region.

In Split, they are part of the International Kadampa Buddhist Union – an international association of Mahayana Buddhist study and meditation centres that follow the Kadampa Buddhist tradition founded by Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.

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