'Catholic Church and Buddhism guilty of blood ivory'
The worldwide slaughter of elephants is largely due to the Catholic Church and Buddhism. That's what investigative journalist Bryan Christy writes in this month's National Geographic magazine.
The elephants are killed for their ivory tusks. Until now, it was assumed that most ivory is destined for the Chinese market. According to Christy, that is not the case. On the other hand, ivory is in great demand from Buddhist temples and Catholic churches, especially in the Philippines. Ivory is considered the material that best represents purity and devotion.
Christy discovered that there is a large market for ivory in the Philippines. A senior official of the Philippine Archdiocese even gave it personally tips how he could obtain smuggled ivory and where best to have it processed. The ivory is used to make religious icons.
Vatican
The Vatican also has no clean hands, writes National Geographic. On Sint-Pietersplein there are shops where ivory statues and crosses are sold. Although the Vatican has been working internationally in recent years to combat drug trafficking, terrorism and organized crime, it has not signed the treaty banning the import of ivory. Therefore, the Vatican does not have to comply with the ban on the ivory trade laid down in the 1989 CITES treaty.
Thailand
Not only Catholics, but also Buddhists in particular Thailand are major buyers of ivory. The elephant is Thailand's national symbol and is revered in Buddhism. Thai monks believe that ivory drives away evil spirits. Buddhists see ivory carving as paying homage to both the elephant and Buddha.
In Thailand, elephant owners are legally allowed to sell their elephant tusks. According to Christy, this trade creates a smokescreen for the illegal ivory trade. Legal Asian and illegal African ivory can be mixed very easily. A kind of 'money laundering'.
According to Christy, CITES needs a different approach. Now only the smuggling of ivory is checked. More should be done to combat poaching itself. Also, in 2008, CITES allowed China and Japan to legally purchase 115 tons of African ivory. According to Christy, the mass slaughter of elephants that is now taking place is a consequence of this.
Source: NOS.nl
In the article, the word tips is linked to the travel tips page on this blog.
But on this page nothing is said about the ivory trade.
I assume that Thailandblog does not want to promote the trade in ivory and could therefore warn on the travel tips page that the import of ivory is prohibited in the Netherlands, for example, apart from this bad practice in general.
A bit of a strange reaction. If Thailandblog wanted to promote the ivory trade, would we post this article? Sigh….
I think you misunderstood…Wim seems to just say that the ('tips' how to obtain smuggled ivory) hyperlink is very strangely placed here and I can't blame him for that. However, no one is accusing TB of promoting the ivory trade.
Sad, so beautiful beast slaughtered for a few teeth.
The largest Dutch collector of ivory figurines of the hunter was Prince Bernard. How that could be reconciled with the chairmanship of the World Wildlife Fund has always been a mystery to me.
I think it will still find its way to collectors unfortunately, just like the rhinoceros.
Well, the ivory would drive away evil spirits and working it would pay tribute to the elephant as well as to Buddha.
Well, in every religion there is an excuse or twist for it somewhere. Yes, Buddhism is not formally a religion, but a philosophy of life is often quickly asserted defensively, but no one will blame me for the fact that this claim is approached with extreme skepticism on my part.