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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2009 5:37:05 GMT
The dragon myth has stuck in the collective subconscious all over the world, and people have been depicting them in art for hundreds and hundreds of years. Since cavemen did not live at the same time as dinosaurs (in spite of what Hollywood tricked a lot of us into believing in our youth), it is not a prehistoric fear that has been passed down to us. Perhaps it was the discovery of large dinosaur bones that started the ball rolling. Anyway, more about dinosaurs and dragons.
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Post by spindrift on Sept 11, 2009 7:57:31 GMT
I have an affinity for dragons and unicorns I'm pretty sure I've read of small dragons living either in China or, perhaps, in Sumatra?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2009 8:06:07 GMT
Well, there is always the komodo, but it doesn't really spit fire.
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Post by spindrift on Sept 11, 2009 8:13:24 GMT
I must have been thinking of the komodo.
Strangely ,when I stayed in Krakow I visited a dragon's cave near to the river and the castle. It seems that dragons were in Europe too.
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Post by spindrift on Sept 11, 2009 9:38:38 GMT
Dragons feature in Nepali and Tibetan art. I bought this painting from a young monk (10yrs old) in a monastery at Thame, Everest region, very close to the Tibetan border. This dragon still waits to be put into a frame.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 11, 2009 16:02:41 GMT
Above is a photo of an oarfish, just one of the many candidates for the title "sea serpent". There have been many books and articles theorizing that creatures such as the Loch Ness monster really exist. Supposedly Loch Ness and some other glacial lakes are too deep for even modern technology to sound, thus the creatures escape detection. It is true that supposedly sane witnesses have seen mythic animals repeatedly in the areas where they're supposed to lurk. theshadowlands.net/serpent.htmI attempted to take a picture of my dragon with Spindrift's dragons: Here's a closeup of mine: This was given to me many years ago by a dear friend. She got it from an elderly lady who'd bought it in China on her Grand Tour.
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Post by spindrift on Sept 11, 2009 16:20:20 GMT
That's a superb dragon, Bixa. I am trying to understand the Kanji in your picture. The symbol underneath and to the right means ' under'. The small square on the left could mean 'mouth' or 'entrance' (guchi in Japanese)... and the '-' above it might mean 'one'.
(But it's confusing because 5 small squares translate as 'I' or 'myself'...signifying that we have five senses that make up one person)....Great language isn't it?
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Post by traveler63 on Feb 3, 2010 14:55:27 GMT
I found this thread while snooping around some of the older posts. There is a show that is coming to Tucson this month I think and I thought when I saw the advertisements, that is was really interesting. So, I did an internet search and found it. Here it is; www.dinosaurlive.com
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 8, 2010 16:59:06 GMT
Wow -- I had a little trouble getting the site open, but just viewed the film. VERY realistic looking! Love the expressions on the kids' faces. Are you all planning to see it?
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Post by traveler63 on Feb 9, 2010 0:43:06 GMT
I wish I could, but there are some conflicts, socially.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 1, 2010 4:52:42 GMT
By Associated Press Writer Mike Stark, Associated Press Writer – Tue Feb 23, 9:24 pm ET SALT LAKE CITY – Fossils of a previously undiscovered species of dinosaur have been found in slabs of Utah sandstone that were so hard that explosives had to be used to free some of the remains, scientists said Tuesday. The bones found at Dinosaur National Monument belonged to a type of sauropod — long-necked plant-eaters that were said to be the largest animal ever to roam land. The discovery included two complete skulls from other types of sauropods — an extremely rare find, scientists said. complete story: news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100224/ap_on_re_us/us_dinosaur_discovery
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Post by hwinpp on Mar 11, 2010 4:13:07 GMT
The fundamental difference between 'western' and 'eastern' dragons is that western ones are malevolent while eastern ones are benevolent. Also, eastern dragons can't breathe fire and usually live in the sea
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Post by rikita on Dec 20, 2010 14:19:41 GMT
how similar were the "eastern" and "western" dragons anyway, before there was a stronger contact between the cultures and the pictures might get influenced by each other? like, are there any old pictures of what a dragon is supposed to look like in europe?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 20, 2010 15:49:48 GMT
It seems to me that the sea serpent style dragons look quite similar in both Eastern and Western representations, but of course the Western ones have always been evil as well, sinking ships or making them crash onto rocks, when they weren't tricking the boats into sailing off the edge of the flat Earth.
Does anybody know if there were any dragons in the Americas before those visitors arrived from the East?
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Post by Kimby on Dec 20, 2010 20:29:29 GMT
Crocodiles, like this one, and alligators don't count?
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Post by myrt on Dec 21, 2010 8:35:16 GMT
I was listening to a radio programme the other morning about the Diamond Sutra in the British Museum. The lady discussing it just casually dropped in to the conversation the fact that the Chinese dragons did exist and were not mythical creatures. So I did a bit of googling and found this: www.valserrie.com/vs%20A_DidDragonsExist.htmI can't see any reason why the notion that dragons are mere fantasy should really be so prevalent - there are many creatures we still have no more than a sketchy knowledge of - in the deep oceans, for example.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2010 9:15:11 GMT
Well, the mention of dragons in Inuit culture answers one of my questions.
As for breathing fire, I can think of an explanation much simpler than the one given. Dragons appear to have had pretty awful diets -- all of those nasty bones lying around in their caves. If they burped methane instead of merely farting it, I can imagine some amazing surprises when people threw torches at them and such.
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Post by Kimby on Dec 22, 2010 19:00:54 GMT
Another Florida "dragon", much more dangerous than his cousin in #14
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2010 19:06:19 GMT
I just don't consider aquatic reptiles to be dragons. The name "komodo dragon" for that Indonesian lizard has always been a farce.
A dragon is BIG -- much taller than a man, no?
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 5, 2011 7:10:00 GMT
Well, any dragon who's smaller than me I won't take seriously.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jan 21, 2011 21:27:56 GMT
An interesting thread, I wouldn't have thought that it would be beyond the realms of possibility that fossils were being found long before the science of paleontology was founded. It wouldn't take a huge stretch of the imagination to interpret the shadows from ancient times as dragons and other giants..or even goblins and gremlins!
As for nowadays, new species are being found all the time (not as quickly as others are becoming lost) altho I would be surprised if we DID find yetis, bigfoot, dragons and the like...but it would be quite cool....
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Post by gertie on Jan 24, 2011 7:38:06 GMT
I was told recently the ancient tale in China was dragons were what the strongest male koi who swam all the way upstream became, thus the reason for the long whiskers being a homage to the humble koi. Prior to this, I always kind of assumed critters like kumodo dragons plus some exaggeration were the source of the whole dragons business. I mean, surely no manly huntsman wants to admit the bite from a measly, over-sized lizard is the cause of them loosing a limb, am I right? I figured the breathing fire story came from the stuff in the Komodo Dragon's bite causing burning pain. I've read recently that a lot is pointing to the various people of the world were more connected than previously thought. They keep finding items from far off areas in digs that shows somewhere there was some sort of exchange. I'd guess a good storyteller told a tall tale around a campfire at some oasis and told it so well, the story just got passed on.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2011 21:17:43 GMT
I would imagine that some of the European tales of dragons far predate any knowledge of the Komodo dragons of Indonesia. Since big lizards do have bones, if there were any in Europe, traces of such should have been found somewhere.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 25, 2011 3:14:09 GMT
Having the doo-doo scared out of you by one of these creatures, might lead to saying you saw a dragon. Click the picture for video. (hint: let video buffer for a minute or two before viewing)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2011 22:16:28 GMT
Can't quite imagine those cute critters breathing fire.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 26, 2011 5:29:38 GMT
Ha! I saw the trailer for How to Train Your Dragon today, and the dragon looks somewhat like that salamander, only not so warty.
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Post by gertie on Feb 11, 2011 2:27:40 GMT
I loved that movie, Bixa! My friends and I all want a dragon just like Toothless for our next pet. ;D
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2011 17:46:35 GMT
The precision of Chinese depictions would tend to make one think that they were indeed drawn by eyewitnesses.
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Post by tod2 on Sept 12, 2011 17:14:22 GMT
What a fantastic - what can I caLL IT? a carving, ceramic, ?? Well, its absolutely gorgeous!
What I see happening here are two dragons fighting over 'the dragons pearl'. So may Chinese depictions of dragons include a pearl. I brought back two red paper dragons from Singapore, each with a pearl in its mouth.
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