You are walking through a normal suburb of the beautiful tropical port city of Serang in the ancient land of Banten, the great ancient crossroads of the world between Cathay and Bharat.
You are walking through a beautiful parkland.
Sometimes you see deer.
Or wild pigs.
But today you don't realize that you just passed within ten feet of the giant of Banten.
A giant snake, as much as 20 feet long and easily as much as a foot, or nearly a foot, thick.
One that often eats deer or pigs larger than you.
Occasionally, one gets much more than 20 feet long. Far more. 20 feet is common.
But this huge snake is a gentle giant.
Today in the United States of America you are safer around a whitetail deer than you are around a 5 year old child.
You are more likely to get hurt driving to Starbuck's than being in close proximity to a whitetail deer.
Millions of humans in the United States every year probably have close encounters with whitetail or mule deer, and the number of times it comes to blows can probably be counted on single digits.
But you are safer around the giant snake of Banten than you are around the whitetail deer.
For this is a true gentle giant.
Every year as many as two people are killed by whitetail deer attacks, perhaps a doe defending her young.
You are more likely to be killed by the neighbor's 5 year old daughter by accident.
But the giant snake of Banten is also common, and lives around more people than live in the whole of the United States.
From the land of Banten to the land of ancient Fu-Nan to the beginning of the beating heart of Bharat.
And they too are not shy around cities.
They live in the suburbs, in farmlands, around huge numbers of people.
And yet there are fewer than a dozen suspected deaths ever by this giant.
The giant snake of Banten is a true gentle giant.
And this is all real.
For Banten is old Bantam in Indonesia.
The Bantam where Bantam roosters come from, one of the great old kingdoms of Indonesia, now a state in the modern nation.
Bharat is India.
Cathay is an old word for China.
And the gentle giant of Banten is the reticulated python, the only snake ever known to have eaten a human.
As you can see, you are safer around a reticulated python than you are even around a whitetail deer.
And you are probably safer around the whitetail deer than you around the neighbor's well-behaved 5 year old daughter or housecat.
You are absurdly safe around a whitetail deer.
But you are more safe around this incredibly powerful animal, the equivalent to a leopard at least, than you are around a whitetail deer.
Even though they live by eating animals our size!
A true gentle giant.
And not the only one.
For you are if anything even safer around a Burmese python.
Now, I would not recommend taking one of these out of the wild without first becoming an expert in keeping one.
But quite frankly, this is a huge, powerful carnivore comparable to a leopard.
No one without the resources of a full professional zoo and extensive training can keep a leopard safely.
But amateurs certainly not capable of keeping a zoo housing wild animals have kept Burmese and Reticulated pythons as pets safely- frequently.
And that is remarkable.
It is perhaps not as safe as one in the wild- but that depends upon the skill and knowledge and devotion of the keeper. Certainly a thousand times safer than trying to keep a leopard!
After all, this is a huge powerful carnivore that in the wild lives on animals ranging from the size of a chicken or a rabbit to creatures as big as us!
A creature of immense strength that lives partly on eating animals our size!
And well adapted for it!
That any amateurs have ever kept one safely is remarkable!
They must like us- and not as food! Or at least they have chosen to tolerate us and live and let live!
And being a cold-blooded animal, they don't have to eat very much or very often!
A true gentle giant.
And beautiful- pythons are gorgeous!
The wonders of our world!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson
P.S. Fu-Nan is the first great Kingdom of Cambodia, in the Mekong delta nearly or just about 2,000 years ago!