It’s surprising that pagan religions of Europe have disappeared, but polytheistic religions of Asia (especially India) survived and are still widely followed there. Why?
It’s surprising that pagan religions of Europe have disappeared, but polytheistic religions of Asia (especially India) survived and are still widely followed there. Why?
tldr: Pagan Mongol tribes
I theorize: Nomadic mongol tribes (horsemen who used bow and arrow to hunt 🏇🏹) converted quite quickly to the religion of the people they conquered. But the Mongols where mostly pagan shamanistic tribes in the beginning (they believed in the Sky god Tengri) and transferred some of their culture into ruling elites of their subject countries and killed many monotheistic farmers people greatly altering east asian and central asian demographics at a scale of 40.000.000 people 💀. Also the Mongol conquests acted as a buffer that kept Islam or Orthodox Christianity spreading beyond central asia into east asia for 500 years:
Additional theory: Shamanistic Mongol tribe invasions might have deeply altered the subconscious of the religious people they annexed in central Asia/Eastern russia and Persia, what is known that they replaced the ruling elites and subtly influenced hierarchy to make taxation easier.