[Buddha-l] Rice & Dragons

[Dan Lusthaus]

> What I find of interest here is the question of compatibility. Is
> Buddhism better suited to flourish in the areas of wet-rice
> cultivation, with its tradition of communal labor, or in the areas of
> wheat (barley, etc.) cultivation, with its tradition of - mainly -
> single homestead labor?

Still wrong question, I think, Artur. Buddhism flourishes where there is 
mercantilism and Islam is absent or restrained. You are missing the key 
point. Buddhism was expunged from the western asian world by Islam, not lack 
of rice, absence of collective work habits, or too much wheat. Muslim 
interventions in the trade routes in the 7th-8th c even severely restricted 
contact between India and China -- one reason why by the 8th c no 
significant new texts or Indic ideas were introduced to East Asia, so they 
never heard of Dharmakirti (7th c) or anything significant that happened 
after him in India (aside from a brief flirtation with tantra that arrived 
primarily boat from Sri Lanka). The impact of Islam on Buddhism's missionary 
abilities should never be underestimated -- though it is un-PC to discuss 
such things these days. Muslims not only expunged Buddhism from western and 
most of central asia, they also were major factors in eliminating it in 
India as well (and not, as your thesis would suggest, a shortage of rice).

To continue thinking there is an actual (hypo-)thesis to explore with this 
grain imagery is to imagine Buddhism never took root in Tibet, Mongolia, 
etc. The former was spared extinction by Islam (which they feared well into 
the late middle ages) by its relative inaccessibility and their fearsome 
reputation as warriors.

Buddhism follows the money, not the rice.

Dan