# Hitler and the Tibetan Monks **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 9, 2003, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-and-the-tibetan-monks/167482 "2003-04-09T03:06:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-and-the-tibetan-monks/167482/21 "2011-02-05T14:35:56Z")
Zombies wearing swastikas! ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-and-the-tibetan-monks/167482/22 "2011-02-05T14:49:56Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > Zombies wearing swastikas! They’re not zombies, they’re merely reincarnated. Wearing swastikas.😉 ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-and-the-tibetan-monks/167482/23 "2011-02-06T02:42:07Z")
Tibetan Buddhist swastika’s are in the clockwise direction. Tibetan pre-Buddhist Bon or Bonpo religion has the swastika’s in the counter-clockwise direction. While Buddhist is the dominant belief in Tibet, there are still Bon followers and monastaries today. Lama Anagarika Govinda covers the difference between Bon and Buddhist history and traditions pretty well in his seminal Way of the White Clouds book. I’ve seen swastikas in cloth woven by the Miao nationality (also known as the Hmong in Cambodia) in Guizhou province. The Miao were generally animists and not Buddhists. Swastika’s are not that complex of a design and that different cultures on different continents came up with this independantly is not much of a logical stretch. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-and-the-tibetan-monks/167482/24 "2011-02-06T04:47:57Z")
Swastikas on the Hindu temples of Bali are upright and turned the same was as the Nazis painted on their aircraft. > **[PD Home-page : Photographers Direct](https://photographersdirect.com/)** > > Search PD for your perfect stock image, or quickly find a professional photographer worldwide for your project or event. If you are a talented photographer then join our world-wide team and sell your images through us for fair-trade prices. > **[Where in the World: Asia - Pro-Swastika](https://www.proswastika.org/page.php?5.21)** ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-and-the-tibetan-monks/167482/25 "2011-02-07T12:07:02Z")
> [@blindboyard](#): > > Possibly due to indirect Graeco-Bactrian influence, such as was present throughout the Buddhist art of the region. > > I think the monk story comes from Ravenscroft, a speculative historian not to be relied on for fact. On the other hand the nazis were interested in Tibet, at least three expeditions being sent there just before and during the war. I recommend a book called “Himmler’s Crusade”, very interesting. Nazi anthropology at its most fascinatingly bizarre, but without the mysterious transport of several thousand monks to Germany. I was thinking Paulwels & Bergiers’ MORNING OF THE MAGICIANS, which this above-referenced article also attributes the story to. > **[Mistaken Foreign Myths about Shambhala](https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/history-culture/shambhala/mistaken-foreign-myths-about-shambhala)** > > Many foreign myths have grown around the legend of Shambhala found in the Kalachakra literature. Some were spread to win military or political support, others appeared within occult movements and mixed Buddhist ideas with concepts from other systems... I know I saw the story repeated in a late 1970’s issue of either HIGH TIMES or a similar mag on Nazi Occultism, and I’m pretty sure that Shea & Wilson use it in The ILLUMINATUS Trilogy. Btw, it’s not just silly Nazis who had some occultic Eastern leanings. Google up Vice-President Henry Wallace & Nicholas Roerich. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-and-the-tibetan-monks/167482/27 "2011-02-07T14:52:29Z")
The SS even sent an expedition to Tibet in 1938: [1938–1939 German expedition to Tibet - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_German_expedition_to_Tibet) > [@jovan](#): > > …Note that there is a certain thin connection between Tibet and the Nazi party, in the person of Heinrich Harrer who wrote “Seven Years in Tibet”. He was, prior to going to Tibet, a member of the SS, though you should probably read what he has to say about that: > [Canada Tibet – COMMITEE](http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/1997/7/6_3.html) Another look at the controversy: [http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/21/movies/dalai-lama-s-tutor-portrayed-brad-pitt-wasn-t-just-roving-through-himalayas.html](http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/21/movies/dalai-lama-s-tutor-portrayed-brad-pitt-wasn-t-just-roving-through-himalayas.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-and-the-tibetan-monks/167482.md?page=1)