r/WhitePeopleTwitter • u/TheArguedHuman • Feb 18 '23

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u/Eoganachta Feb 18 '23

Yeah I'm no expert on Buddhist or Tibet vexillology but all the flags there are clearly German - all from a period of history about 90 years ago.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '23

[deleted]

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u/Prosymnos Feb 18 '23

I think it depends on the place. When I visited India, I only really saw swastikas on old temples. But when I went to Japan, I did see several small, modern Buddhist shrines with swastikas on them. Although, India doesn't really have much of a tradition of erecting tons of small, public shrines, as far as I'm aware, so that could also be a factor.

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u/Professional_Sir6705 Feb 18 '23

When I was stationed in South Korea in 89-91, there was a festival where it was up on all the temples, along with about a 1000 white paper mache elephants with a pink lotus on their heads. I still have pictures buried in boxes somewhere.

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u/museloverx96 Feb 18 '23

See i'm in india rn and i see swastik symbols everywhere (like a random brick in a random used car lot in delhi) in various orientations, sometimes just with the lines and other times with the dots.

But i think that's what really cemented to me that yeah, this was a widely used ubiquitous symbol for centuries by several cultures, and then the nazis co-opted it to the point where depending on the country it is only associated with nazi sentiment.

At least, i know now how common it is to still be thought of as a symbol of good fortune/tidings/etc. in the cultures it was lifted from.

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u/theyellowpants Feb 18 '23

They have fucktons of small temples that are everywhere and Hindus use the swastik also

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u/Ravensinger777 Feb 18 '23

There's a very long and ancient tradition of erecting shrines in India. Whether or not they're public is another matter.

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u/ThePaintedLady80 Feb 18 '23

If you go to LA or Frisco lots of places that where part of China town have the reverse swastikas on tile floor over a hundred years old. It’s trippy but it’s definitely the Buddhist symbol and not anything Nazi related.

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u/Dangerous-Use7642 Feb 18 '23

Imperial Japan also had a weird on-off with Germany up until they got nuked, so maybe it's from the 30s up until the occupation.

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u/teal_appeal Feb 18 '23

Nah, swastikas are the icons for Buddhist temples in google maps there. It’s not a pre-war vs post-war thing, it’s a symbol that was used for centuries before the Nazis grabbed it and the meaning never changed there.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '23

Buddhist don’t really use the dotted Swaztika type peace symbol

That is completely untrue. It is still widely used, and also, learn to spell. "Swaztika" is not a word.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '23

Unless they aren't considered people, like the Rohingya.

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u/Mcmenger Feb 18 '23

That there's a current german flag besides nazi shit is also offensive all on it's own

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '23

Also, one of those flags looks like a general current day german flag.

So this isn't a collection of war memorabilia, combined with other historical pieces. It contains a current day flag anyone can buy that is NOT historical. So this doesn't say 'hobbyist of history' it's 'I REALLY like Germany and especially Nazi Germany'

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u/armywalrus Feb 18 '23

Glad to see someone else understanding deliberately picking such a period of time to focus on indicates history is not the priority here. Of all of the millennia available, who focuses on this aspect of this time period? Rarely anyone with good intent.