The Dragon Culture of Bhutan and the National Flag of Bhutan

Bhutanese believe that the dragon is one of the four spirits and an auspicious animal. The dragon culture in China originated 6000 years ago, and its status is totem and mascot. Indian dragon is an ordinary god, an ordinary protector. From the origin, the protector is mostly a foreign god. The dragon in Nepal's cultural area has not been found yet.

There are many sayings about dragons in Buddhist scriptures more than two thousand years ago.

In Buddhist scriptures, the Dragon King (Nāgarāja) has many names. For example, the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Method says that there are eight dragon kings, one is the dragon king who is difficult to reach, the other is the dragon king who is difficult to reach, the third is the dragon king who is in Gagaluo, the fourth is the dragon king who is with Xiuji, the fifth is the dragon king who is in the German family, the sixth is the dragon king in Anaboda, the seventh is the dragon king in Monas and the eighth is the dragon king in Fu Bo. There are many scriptures about the dragon king in the Tripitaka, in which it is mentioned that there are hundreds of millions of dragons on the whole earth, including 60,000 dragon kings, some of whom have converted to Buddhism, and even the enlightened dragon kings and bodhisattvas. The most famous Buddhist Sutra of the Dragon King contains a detailed description of the Dragon King and various karma. There are many allusions about the Dragon King in Hua Yan Jing. More information is needed to explain the origin of dragon culture in Bhutan history.

Linguistically speaking, there is no special word "dragon" in Sanskrit in ancient India, and "dragon" and "elephant" are represented by the same word. In ancient Indian mythology, lightning was caused by Indra, a great god riding a white elephant and holding a lightning chisel. After the dragon was introduced into India, the dragon god quickly replaced Indra and became the master of wind, rain, thunder and lightning. So the word "elephant" also means "dragon".

Bhutan has been a Tubo tribe since the 8th century. After the Yuan Dynasty unified Tibet, it was under the jurisdiction of Zheng Xuanyuan, and it was not until the Qing Dynasty that it became independent, which was deeply influenced by Tibetan culture. In the Qing Dynasty, China history books called it Brookba.

Naga in India is a dragon-like animal. It has no feet and dominates the waters, which is the deification of python by ancient Indians. Translated into Chinese, it becomes a dragon. E Long is a dinosaur, very different from a dragon.

The earliest written record of dragons in India is The Theory of Wisdom written by Long Shu around the 2nd century A.D., which is only about 1800 years ago. China recorded dragons much earlier than India. There are many "dragons" and some records of dragon worship in Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty, which shows that dragon worship in China was very common 3500 years ago.

Since its formation, dragon culture has spread rapidly not only at home but also abroad. Long Dan in Indian Buddhism was handed down from China. There may be two ways of transmission: one is through the southwest of China. According to archaeological data, as early as the Neolithic Age, the stone culture in the Yellow River Basin spread to Tibet and its south. In the early Qin and Han Dynasties, the commodity trade between China and India was frequent. Therefore, it is entirely possible that China's dragon worship was introduced into India in this way. Another way to spread dragon culture is the Silk Road in the Western Regions. The Central Plains Dynasty had contact with the Western Regions as early as 3,000 years ago. It is said that immigrants came to Conglindong at the beginning of the week. After the Shang Dynasty destroyed Xia Hou, some Xia tribes migrated to the northwest. After arriving in Gansu and other places, they continued to migrate to the west and entered the Yanqi country in the western regions. Later, these dragon tribes who moved to Yanqi became rulers of the country in the Jin Dynasty and took the dragon as their surname. To be sure, they brought their own dragon culture to the western regions. The biggest difference between dragon and Indian dragon is the different social status. In the dragon, it has the supreme status, especially after the combination of dragon worship and politics, the dragon has become the symbol of the emperor. Indian dragon is a general god, such as the "dragon" in Buddhist scriptures, but it is just an ordinary protector and has no supreme status. In the animal worship in India, the golden winged bird is the highest worship, and the dragon is often the prey of the golden winged bird. In Buddhist scriptures, one of the "three evils" of dragons is the golden winged bird. Legend has it that the golden-winged bird feeds on dragons every day, and it needs a big dragon king and 500 little dragons a day. This shows that the status of the dragon is far below that of the golden-winged bird, while that of China is just the opposite, far above that of the phoenix bird.

According to the earliest archaeological data of Indian dragons, the mural "The Dragon King and His Family" in the first century BC and the "Dragon Worship Bodhi Tree" before and after the times are about 5,000 years later than the Shilong in China-Liaoning Tea Sea. The Central Plains Dynasty had contact with the Western Regions as early as 3,000 years ago. It is said that immigrants came to Conglindong at the beginning of the week. Dragons native to China have the characteristics of horses, cattle, fish, deer, snakes and other animals. The dragon king in Buddhism is similar, with the characteristics of animals such as elephants, snakes, horses, fish and shrimps. According to the facts, it is reasonable to think that the dragon in Buddhism was introduced from China. Bhutanese like dragons in China very much, and think that dragons are one of the Four Spirits, auspicious animals, in charge of thunderstorms and bring good weather to people. Bhutan is at the foot of the Himalayas, and it often thunders. Bhutanese believe that thunder is a dragon's call and has infinite power. Therefore, Bhutan calls its country "Dragon Country" and regards the dragon as the main pattern of its national flag.