The Tibetan connection to the wildlife crime trade became shockingly apparent when Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India and investigators from the London based Environmental Investigative Agency visited China and Tibet in August of 2006 and documented on a BBC special the extent of the current trade in endangered species. Shops openly displayed tiger and leopard skins for sale. Festivals featured teachers and school children wearing tiger and leopard skins as part of their colorful attire. Investigations showed that the skins came from India via Nepal. In Lhasa, 46 shops were surveyed finding 54 leopard skin chubas and 24 tiger skin chubas. Chubas are the traditional wrap-around garments worn by most Tibetans. 7 fresh leopard skins and 3 fresh tiger skins were offered for sale within a 24-hour period. On one street in Linxia, China, 60 snow leopards and 160 leopard skins were openly on display.
I was able to see Belinda’s video when I was in India in March. One incredible segment was taken with her in full local disguise, shooting from a camera hidden in her shoulder bag, inside a small shop lined wall to wall with snow leopard pelts.
His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, has expressed concern over Tibetans being involved in smuggling and trading of wildlife skins and at a massive gathering of nearly 100,000 Tibetans known as the Kalachakra this past January in India, appealed to his people to refrain from using pelts of endangered species. The Dalai Lama said he was “ashamed” to see images of Tibetans decorating themselves with endangered skins and furs. “When you go back to your respective places, remember what I had said earlier and never use, sell, or buy wild animals, their products or derivatives,” he said to the pilgrims.
At the Kalachakra, many conservation groups were involved in an educational campaign to alert the Tibetans to the plight of endangered species. The WPSI set up a booth with a photo exhibit showing the horrific death of tigers and leopards and their skins being paraded as fashion and style at the summer festivals in Tibet. There were calendars and bookmarkers in Tibetan. The Fund for The Tiger was pleased to wire funds to pay for a brochure and a tape cassette of the Dalal Lama’s speech exhorting his people to stop indulging in the illicit wildlife trade and to stop wearing the skins of endangered animals.
The Tibetan Awareness Campaign has turned out to be a major success. By early February, reports started coming in that Tibetans were responding to the Dalai Lama’s plea... “following strong statements by the Dalai Lama about the importance of wildlife conservation and compassion towards animals, Tibetans were burning skins of endangered animals worth thousands of yuan in a bid to preserve wildlife.”
WPSI operatives in Lhasa reported in February that shops in the old sector, the Barkhor, were virtually empty of endangered animal skins and people burning them had been given ceremonial scarves known as khattas as tokens of respect for both themselves and the animals. Belinda wrote to me...“this is the best thing that could have happened for India’s tigers. All power to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people.”
The wildlife awareness campaign is ongoing today but not without problems. By March, Chinese officials in Tibet began ordering a crackdown on these demonstrations as being carried out by the ‘splittist factions’ in Dharamsala, the Dalai Lama’s home-in-exile. Then in late April, reports were coming out ot Amdo, Tibet, that Tibetan TV personalities were now being required by the government to wear tiger and leopard chubas and would be given funds to purchase them. Tigers and leopards are now being used as political pawns. Government officials declared that this was a ‘political issue’ -clearly aimed at subverting any influence the Dalai Lama may have on his people.
At the official level, talks of co-operation between India, Nepal, and China to combat the illicit trade of wildlife have taken place and the Chinese government has passed a law prohibiting international trade in endangered species.
I don’t think it’s overly cynical to observe that what the government of China says in Beijing is one thing, what it does in Tibet, is quite another
Brian K. Weirum
Chairman
The Fund For The Tiger
Page last updated September 9, 2006
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