Once upon a time
Once upon a time there was an ancient Indian village, all of whose inhabitants were blind. One day the residents heard that a large elephant was about to visit their village. They have heard about the elephant so far only from stories, they heard that this is a huge, beautiful and noble animal. It was a great opportunity to try to understand what this animal was all about. They may not be able to see it, but there is no doubt that touching can help to understand what it is.
The next day, the elephant arrived at the village and the six blind people went to see him. The six began to feel the elephant, each one of them touch and feel another part of the elephant. The first one felt the elephant’s foot and said: It’s like a tree trunk. The second felt the trunk and said: It’s like a big snake.
The third felt the belly of the elephant and said: It’s like a wall. The fourth touched the elephant’s wheat and said: It’s like a spear, and so on with the other two.
East Asian cultures are among the oldest civilizations in the world, and their history goes back thousands of years. It is rich, very extensive and loaded with events, turns, revolutions and details. Religions and worldviews in East Asia are very different from those we have been accustomed to in the Jewish-Christian world, varied, simple and at times complex in their simplicity.
I do not think there is really one way to feel this giant elephant called “East Asian cultures” and come out with a complete understanding of their essence.
Eventually, most of us see things through what we “feel,” that is, what we experienced, learnt, read, felt. There is no doubt that there is a room for many perspectives, along with respect, of course, to known and proven historical facts.We do hope you will enjoy this website and find it interesting.