traditions speaking of dragons

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Maliana
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Hello,
I would like to know if there are ancient traditions that evoke dragons. Because I see sellers who offer them but I can't better understand the origin of these creatures.
Jinns are mentioned in holy books, but what about dragons?
I would like to learn more (and other than texts from sellers without quoted sources)


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Lewk
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Maliana wrote: Wed Jun 15, 2022 1:34 pm Hello,
I would like to know if there are ancient traditions that evoke dragons. Because I see sellers who offer them but I can't better understand the origin of these creatures.
Jinns are mentioned in holy books, but what about dragons?
I would like to learn more (and other than texts from sellers without quoted sources)
This Wikipedia article has some useful info about the history of humans' beliefs in dragons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon#Myth_origins

And according to this one, in South East Asia dragons have been depicted for several thousands of years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_dragon

Myself I think most spirits have a similar origin - they have come into existence as part of the natural order of things.

Those people who believe a deity created everything may well think that all spirits were 'created' the same way. But that all comes down to what personal belief system or philosophy a person subscribes to.

In my opinion, the metaphysical question as to whether Dragons' existence is in synch with a particular religion's theology is really a matter for that religion and its religious dogma.

I experience their existence, just like I do with other conjured and bound spirits.

By the way, when you say Jinn are mentioned in holy books, do you mean in Islamic holy books? (Strictly speaking, I don't think Djinn are mentioned in Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist or Taoist texts that predate Islam, although a lot of other, different spirits are.)

Dragons were already part of Chinese culture when Taoism came into existence, just as Djinn were already known in Arabic culture before the religion of Islam began. Before the holy books of any religion were written, belief in those spirits was already there, I feel sure.


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Maliana
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Jinns are mentioned 29 times in the Holy Book of Muslims. The prophet of the Muslims even had discussions with them, this is related in the verified hadiths (certain chain of transmission). But it seems not a concept created by Islam.

In pre-Islamic polytheistic beliefs reference is already made to these entities, some are even venerated. The jinn are also strangely close to the concept of the Talmudic shedim, some researchers see it as the imprint of the same category of entity. Finally, many Eastern beliefs, such as Shintoism and Bon Buddhism (and others) refer to these supernatural but mortal beings.

But the concepts of dragons aside from reported eastern beliefs, I can't find them mentioned elsewhere. Thanks for the links, I'll take a closer look.


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I don't know if this helps but Llewellyn has a Little Book of Dragons that they claim goes into some of the history of dragon clans.

I personally don't own it but I will be picking it up eventually.


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Another one from Llewellyn books is Dancing With Dragons, by Deanna J Conway. It's on Kindle.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dancing-Dragon ... 685&sr=8-1

You can see from the contents that at least one chapter runs through the history of Dragons. I don't have this book, although I have others of hers, so I don't know if that short section will meet your needs.

Actually, quite a lot of spirits that are known to peoples all over the world have very little publicly available information published about their origins. We don't always get to know everything about spirits from books - or at least that's one way to look at it.


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If you do, you'll never...
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