[Buddha-l] Rice & Dragons

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Hi Artur,

I would say: just forgive the old bugger. Post hoc non est propter hoc. 
Concomitant or contemporary facts do not have to be related. Our world 
is full of contingencies, that makes it so very interesting. You can 
write nice poems about it though.

Erik


Op 13-04-12 20:21, Artur Karp schreef:
> Dear List,
>
>
> While reading one of Piya Tan's essays, I came across an interesting
> quotation from Edward Conze's "Buddhism. A Short History", Oxford
> 1980, p. VII.
>
> Here it is:
>
> <<In India the reaction arose in a region devoted to rice culture, as
> distinct from the areas further West with their animal husbandry and
> cultivation of wheat. For the last two thousand years Buddhism has
> mainly flourished in rice-growing countries and little elsewhere. In
> addition, and that is much
> harder to explain, it has spread only into those countries which had
> previously had a cult of Serpents or Dragons, and never made headway
> in those parts of the world which view the killing of dragons as a
> meritorious deed or blame serpents for mankinds ills>>.
>
> Has anyone tried to develop this idea?
>
> Best,
>
> Artur Karp
>
> Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit and Pali (ret.)
> South Asian Studies Dept.
> Oriental Faculty
> University of Warsaw
> Poland
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