Which countries have the richest cultures?

Asked on Quora.

My answer

This is not an easy country to answer. Certainly India and China have offered much as an earlier answer already outlined but size isn’t always the key driver. Where for example would classical music be without the Austrians? or sculpture without the Italian Renaissance? The Flemish in Belgium contributed much to our understanding of Painting.

Judaism as a civilization added much to our theological understanding which in turn drives culture, while the Greeks defined our sense of beauty through their work in Art and Architecture.

In the Western realm (as in most other civilizations) culture is fusion of many streams, an ongoing evolving dynamic that has been built from several sources.

Having said that I agree that the Eastern Civilizations have a great heritage but I would also argue that in the last four hundred years the pendulum in cultural richness has swung more to the West where a greater openness to disparate ideas is most apparent.