Is there any difference between the dragon in Buddhism and our traditional dragon in China?

The dragon in Indian Buddhism was handed down by China and recreated as the "Dragon King" by Indians. With the spread of Buddhism to the east, the worship of the Dragon King was also introduced to China. With the widespread spread of Buddhism in China, the belief in the Dragon King also spread rapidly. There are seven reasons.

First, the dragon culture of the Chinese nation has a long history and has been excavated in an orderly way. The earliest dragon image is a Xinglongwa Culture stone carving dragon found in the Chahai site in Fuxin, Liaoning Province, followed by the clam shell dragon in Xishuipo, Henan Province, attracting worldwide attention. The third piece is a dragon made of pebbles found in Jiaodun site of Zhangcheng Village, Baihu Township, Huangmei County. The fourth is the well-known Inner Mongolia Samsung Tara Yulong and so on. All these fully prove that dragon worship was very common in China as early as six or seven thousand years ago, and that dragon culture is a local culture in China, not a foreign culture.

Secondly, according to the earliest archaeological data of Indian dragons, the mural "The Dragon King and His Family" in the first century BC and the dragon worship of Bodhi trees before and after the times are about 5,000 years later than the Shilong in Chahai, Liaoning, China.

Thirdly, in terms of written records, according to the known historical materials, the earliest written record of dragons in India is The Theory of Wisdom written by Long Shu around the second century A.D., which is only about 1800 years ago. China recorded dragons much earlier than India. There are many "dragons" and some records of dragon worship in Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty, which shows that dragon worship in China was very common 3500 years ago.

Fourthly, since its formation, Dragon Culture has spread rapidly not only at home, but also abroad. Long Dan in Indian Buddhism was handed down from China. There may be two ways of transmission: one is through Tibet. According to archaeological data, as early as the Neolithic Age, the stone culture in the Yellow River Basin spread to Tibet and its south. It is entirely possible that the dragon culture will spread to Tibet and then to India. Another way to spread dragon culture is the Silk Road in the Western Regions. The Central Plains Dynasty had contact with the Western Regions as early as 3,000 years ago. It is said that immigrants came to Conglindong at the beginning of the week. After the Shang Dynasty destroyed Xia Hou, some people in Xia Xunluo migrated to the northwest. After arriving in Gansu and other places, they continued to migrate to the west and entered the Yanqi country in the western regions. Later, these dragon tribes who moved into Yanqi were the rulers of the country in the Jin Dynasty, taking "Dragon" as their surname. To be sure, they brought their own dragon culture to the western regions.

Fifth, there was no concept of dragon in ancient India, and there was no special word dragon in Sanskrit. Dragons and elephants are represented by the same word. In ancient Indian mythology, lightning was caused by Indra, a great god riding a white elephant and holding a lightning chisel. After the dragon was introduced into India, the dragon god quickly replaced Indra and became the master of wind, rain, thunder and lightning. So the word "elephant" also means "dragon".

Sixthly, there are about 20 dragon legends recorded in "The Tale of the Western Regions of Datang", including 5 in the Western Regions, 5 in North India, 0/0 in China and 0/0 in South India. Judging from the contents of the coming year, the dragon legends of Qiuci and Yutian are very similar to those of ancient China. There is a story about Lapras and dragons mating with women, which has nothing to do with Buddhism. However, the myths and legends about the dragon south of Congling and adjacent to India in the Records of the Western Regions of Datang are related to the figures in Buddhism. This also shows that the western regions are a way for the dragon culture to spread to India.