At a time when Buddhist pilgrims and tourists are flocking to the Huong (Perfume) Pagoda for the country’s most elaborate spiritual festival, Lao Dong newspaper has exposed a shocking truth: Several restaurants in the pagoda complex are openly slaughtering wild animals.
The three-month celebration at the Huong Pagoda starts on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, which was on February 14 this year.
The newspaper reported that restaurant owners are standing in front of their shops aggressively soliciting customers and swearing at or intimidating anyone trying to take photos of the slaughtered animals.
It is also bizarre that many people are eating the animals at a place they purport to come to cherish a religion that says “Do not kill.”
The Huong Pagoda, 60 kilometers from Hanoi, was situated in Ha Tay Province until the capital’s expansion last year.
Its annual festival has been recommended for designation by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a world cultural heritage.
A pilgrimage to the pagoda in spring is believed to bring health, prosperity, good luck, and happiness.
But the festival has also for long been notorious for congestion, thievery, chaotic services, and now the illegal slaughter of animals.
In related news, at least 150 restaurants in the northern province of Nam Dinh have pledged to leave wild animals off their menus for a campaign launched against the consumption of endangered wildlife in Vietnam by the World Wildlife Fund.
WWF and global wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC launched "Green Restaurant" to promote establishments that do not serve endangered animals, and project coordinator Julianne Becker said it could eventually expand to petitioning restaurants that do.
The first response came from Hanoi where 160 restaurants signed pledges last year not to serve animals during certain months.
In Nam Dinh the 150 restaurants have pledged not to serve bears, tigers, or cobras between February and June this year.
The campaign is monitored there out by the B&G (Blue and Green) Club together with 40 student volunteers.
Restaurants that fulfill their commitment will be added to a list of approved “Green Restaurants” that is being circulated by the media and travel agencies.
The campaign, a part of ‘A Matter of Attitude’ project run by WWF Vietnam and TRAFFIC, seeks to raise awareness and change attitudes towards the consumption of wildlife and wildlife products that is plaguing Vietnam.
A TRAFFIC survey found that the consumption of wildlife for food, souvenirs, and medicine has become increasingly popular in Hanoi among residents who can afford “luxury” wildlife items as their income levels rise as well as amongst tourists.
It is having an alarming effect on the populations of wild plants and animals. Poaching and trade of protected species have pushed many, including the Javan rhinoceros, Asian elephant, and Indochinese tiger to the brink of extinction in the country, according to TRAFFIC.
POST YOUR COMMENT
City & Country
Phone Number
We will not publish
your email or full address on our website, or give them to a third party.
Tags:
wild animals
Vietnews is not responsible
for the content of external internet sites.