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"Battle of the Elephants" and Buddhists

chelachela Veteran
in General Banter
Did anyone happen to watch the National Geographic program, Battle of the Elephants last night? One part I found particularly disheartening (besides the slaughter of the beautiful animals for the sake of art), was the Chinese collector of Buddhist ivory carvings. He happily stated that the elephants gave their ivory for Buddhist carvings, and so they were happy and the "Buddha was smiling." The program highlighted that the main cause of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of elephants was specifically related to the Chinese art of ivory carving, and showed how the government is trying to bring this artform back by creating factories for young carvers to work on the ivory; they are expanding the market. Being that so many Chinese are Buddhists, this really struck me. How can you reconcile killing mass amounts of these beautiful, sensitive animals for an artform and to satisfy (momentarily, no doubt) your greed? How can you senselessly slaughter these highly intelligent and social creatures into extinction? It breaks my heart to see this genocide.

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/animals/mammals-animals/elephants/battle-elephants-ep2-criminal-traders/
blu3reetrendybuddha

Comments

  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    edited February 2013
    I'm not so sure all that ivory goes to make Chinese trinkets. Any ivory I've purchased in Taiwan or elsewhere has been mammoth ivory. (I used to import Native art from Siberia, I know how to distinguish mammoth from elephant ivory and sea lion tusk.) Russian government officials have studied the ivory market, and determined that someone has been scouring the tundra and selling huge amounts of mammoth ivory to dealers in Hong Kong and Taiwan. This has been going on over decades.
    Invincible_summer
  • chelachela Veteran
    @Dakini, I don't know, but it seems like half a million slaughtered elephants' tusks (in the last 10 years alone) must show up somewhere in the world, and China is the place where the most ivory is showing up on the market. Your point about mammoth tusks was noted in the documentary-- some of the Chinese carvings are mammoth. The problem seems to be that in more recent years, the ban on the sale of old, stockpiled ivory was lifted, thereby creating a channel for poached ivory to be smuggled through. Actually, it seems to have created a vacuum in which poaching is thriving-- they can't seem to keep up with the demand. China just happens to be one country where there seems to be more of a demand due to traditional customs and recent development of a wealthier middle class.
  • BhikkhuJayasaraBhikkhuJayasara Bhikkhu Veteran
    chela said:

    Did anyone happen to watch the National Geographic program, Battle of the Elephants last night? One part I found particularly disheartening (besides the slaughter of the beautiful animals for the sake of art), was the Chinese collector of Buddhist ivory carvings. He happily stated that the elephants gave their ivory for Buddhist carvings, and so they were happy and the "Buddha was smiling." The program highlighted that the main cause of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of elephants was specifically related to the Chinese art of ivory carving, and showed how the government is trying to bring this artform back by creating factories for young carvers to work on the ivory; they are expanding the market. Being that so many Chinese are Buddhists, this really struck me. How can you reconcile killing mass amounts of these beautiful, sensitive animals for an artform and to satisfy (momentarily, no doubt) your greed? How can you senselessly slaughter these highly intelligent and social creatures into extinction? It breaks my heart to see this genocide.

    http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/animals/mammals-animals/elephants/battle-elephants-ep2-criminal-traders/

    short answer:

    because they can?

    longer short answer:

    because beings exist in samsara mired in greed, hatred, and delusion.
  • chelachela Veteran
    @Jayantha, my mind knows these things but my heart sometimes won't listen to it.
  • footiamfootiam Veteran
    chela said:

    Did anyone happen to watch the National Geographic program, Battle of the Elephants last night? One part I found particularly disheartening (besides the slaughter of the beautiful animals for the sake of art), was the Chinese collector of Buddhist ivory carvings. He happily stated that the elephants gave their ivory for Buddhist carvings, and so they were happy and the "Buddha was smiling." The program highlighted that the main cause of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of elephants was specifically related to the Chinese art of ivory carving, and showed how the government is trying to bring this artform back by creating factories for young carvers to work on the ivory; they are expanding the market. Being that so many Chinese are Buddhists, this really struck me. How can you reconcile killing mass amounts of these beautiful, sensitive animals for an artform and to satisfy (momentarily, no doubt) your greed? How can you senselessly slaughter these highly intelligent and social creatures into extinction? It breaks my heart to see this genocide.

    http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/animals/mammals-animals/elephants/battle-elephants-ep2-criminal-traders/

    You can't reconcile Buddhism with killing. Chinese can be Taoist, Christians, Muslims and some even have no religion too but they are not as silly as the Chinese collector you mentioned. Don't take his words as the ultimate truth when there isn't even a grain of truth in it.
  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    edited March 2013
    chela said:

    @Dakini, I don't know, but it seems like half a million slaughtered elephants' tusks (in the last 10 years alone) must show up somewhere in the world, and China is the place where the most ivory is showing up on the market. Your point about mammoth tusks was noted in the documentary-- some of the Chinese carvings are mammoth. The problem seems to be that in more recent years, the ban on the sale of old, stockpiled ivory was lifted, thereby creating a channel for poached ivory to be smuggled through. Actually, it seems to have created a vacuum in which poaching is thriving-- they can't seem to keep up with the demand. China just happens to be one country where there seems to be more of a demand due to traditional customs and recent development of a wealthier middle class.

    There was a big article on this in the NYTimes yesterday. I get it now--it's China that's doing all the illegal importing, while Taiwan and Hong Kong, it seems, have been importing legal ivory from Russia all this time, AFAIK. I think the only way to combat this is to place a complete ban on elephant ivory. Thanks for calling this to my attention, @chela.
    http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/03/01/world/asia/20130301IVORY.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

  • chelachela Veteran
    @Dakini- thanks for sharing the article. I agree- a complete ban is the only thing that helped the elephant population recover prior to this more recent lifting of the ban. The way the graphs look now, I wouldn't be surprised if elephants will soon be an endangered species.
  • BhikkhuJayasaraBhikkhuJayasara Bhikkhu Veteran
    chela said:

    @Jayantha, my mind knows these things but my heart sometimes won't listen to it.

    none of us really know it.. unless we are enlightened anyways haha. It's ok no need to "apologize" for being human. Just remember that your "heart" is really your mind. A muscle that pumps blood cannot create or have emotions ;).
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