• oleorun@real.lemmy.fan
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      36
      ·
      7 months ago

      You see them everywhere in Buddhist Temples in South Korea. Shocked me at first, but we learned about the history of the swastika and how the Third Reich stole it.

      • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        26
        ·
        7 months ago

        It wasn’t actually stolen from India/Buddhism/whatever. It has always been used in Europe to some degree, but before the rise of fascism, a funny thing happened:

        An obsessive nerd found Troy. And the city had apparently gone through a period where they slapped swastikas on literally everything, there were thousands of examples excavated.

        The public excitement over the find popularized the symbol throughout Europe again, and then Nazis stole it as a symbol for pretty much their whole schtick, including their (wildly incorrect) beliefs on Aryan race theory.

        • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          7 months ago

          It’s interesting how archaeological finds can produce weird modern behavior. When Lenin died in 1924 he was mummified because of the contemporaneous worldwide fascination with Howard Carter’s discovery of King Tut’s tomb, not because of any Russian tradition of preserving their dead leaders’ corpses.

      • evranch@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        7 months ago

        Taiwan is like this too, I was baffled when I was handed a tourist map and it had a bunch of swastikas on it to denote the temples and churches. Like a general purpose symbol for religion.

    • monkeyman512@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      7 months ago

      Fantastic. He was helping her find enlightenment by letting go of worldly connections. Mostly any connection to him.