- A bold new campaign launched in Ho Chi Minh City late last month focuses on pagodas and aims to educate Buddhists on the devastating impact of the illegal wildlife trade and the importance of these three species.
- Research has shown that fewer Vietnamese believe in the alleged medicinal properties of these animal parts than in the past.
- Despite increasing awareness and changes in attitude, massive shipments of ivory and pangolin scales continue to be sent to the country.
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — On Jan. 28, a graphic new anti-wildlife-trafficking campaign called “Be Their Bodhisattva” launched at a major pagoda here in Vietnam’s commercial center. Under the branch of Mahayana Buddhism widely practiced across Vietnam, a bodhisattva is someone who delays reaching nirvana in order to save others from suffering.
The campaign, presented by the U.S.-based NGO WildAid and the Ho Chi Minh City-based Center of Hands-on Actions and Networking for Growth and Environment (CHANGE), revolves around hyper-realistic statues of an elephant, a rhino and a mother and child pangolin.
These are not your average statues, however. The elephant’s tusks are broken and blood drips down the remaining ivory; all that is left of the rhino’s horn is a bloody stump; and scales have been sheared off the pangolins. All four are in the prayer position facing Buddha, seemingly pleading for salvation.
This story first appeared on Mongabay
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