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Thread: Tiger & Leopard skins - An envied costume in Tibet

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    Default Tiger & Leopard skins - An envied costume in Tibet

    [I]My dear friends,

    I am sharing excerpts from an article written by Belinda Wright of Wildlife Protection Society of India.

    Photo courtesy : EIA / WPSI

    I share this article not only to highlight the issue of a few Tibetans buying the skins of Indian tigers, leopards and other rare animals to wear as adornments at festivals but also to approach His Holiness The Dalai Lama shortly with a request to lend his voice to a campaign and bring an end to this gruesome Tibetan tradition. This is also a humble appeal to my fellow IW members to join this campaign (which is to be launched shortly with an NGO I support) and lend your voices please. I'm sure we would do our best to ensure that the current as well as the next generation of our Tigers (the cubs of Gowri / Kankati / Bamera / Wagdoh et al) spend their entire lifetime at their places of birth and not end up at a shop in Tibet. Here are the excerpts from the original article.


    Armed with a spycam, Belinda Wright entered Tibet posing as a buyer of tiger skin. To her horror, she not only found the endangered animal’s skin openly sold on the streets but also used as clothing by Tibetans.

    Tibet is every bit as magical as I expected it to be. Its desolate and wind swept plains, mist-covered mountains, and stoic and friendly people, exceed one’s dreams. But Tibet also broke my heart when I visited its villages and towns in August this year, because unless urgent action is taken, its people will soon be responsible for the final demise of the endangered Indian tiger.

    That may sound far-fetched, but it is true. Tibetans are now buying the skins of Indian tigers, leopards and other rare animals to wear as adornments at festivals. So great is the demand that the killings in India, and the illegal trade, are now spiralling out of control — and the governments of India and China are doing little to stop it. In fact, the growing trade in Tibet is probably the reason why poachers recently wiped out all the tigers in Sariska, and why numbers have fallen dramatically in a number of other ‘protected’ areas.

    We set off early in August for a four-week survey, covering as much ground as we could in Tibet, Sichuan and Gansu. Along with me, there was Debbie and Paul Redman from EIA, and Rebecca Chen, an independent wildlife investigator who helped expose the tiger and rhino horn trade.

    The Tibetan people treated us with great kindness. It was heaven, except that wherever we went we found fresh tiger and leopard skins — mostly purchased, people told us, within the past two years from India. At colourful summer horse festivals in Tibet and Sichuan, we saw hundreds of skins being worn by masked dancers and horse riders, as well as spectators, and even organisers and local officials. They were usually stitched onto chubas (traditional garment). Complete skins were also being sold in large quantities in small shops in Lhasa and other towns — all openly, illegally, and without any evidence of control. On the famous Barkhor circuit in the centre of old Lhasa, we found 24 tiger skin chubas openly displayed for sale in ten shops, and 54 leopard skin chubas for sale in 20 shops. The dealers categorically told us that the skins had come from India. Posing as buyers, we were shown three fresh tiger skins and seven fresh leopard skins in four different locations — again, all from India. In another city, I found a lama casually selling skins on the pavement below my hotel window.

    I had tears in my eyes at a horse festival in Litang in Sichuan Province when I talked to 21-year-old Pentsok. He was sitting in his tent, swathed in a large fresh tiger skin. Pentsok said he would wear it just twice a year, during the Tibetan New Year and at the annual horse festival, though he said he didn’t particularly like it. I asked him how wearing a dead animal’s skin could be compatible with his Buddhist religion. He had no explanation, except to say, “but I didn’t kill the tiger”. Pentsok felt bad that I was upset, but there was little concern for the dead tiger. It was merely an envied costume.

    Details of our discoveries have been given to the authorities in Beijing, but so far there has been no official reaction. We are also appealing to the Tibetan people to stop wearing tiger and leopard skins. And we have appealed to the authorities in India to urgently clamp down on the poaching and smuggling.
    The scale of the problem is huge.

    The devastation is almost complete and India’s tigers are running out of time.
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