Tibetan community honoured with Venu Menon National Animal Award

Wednesday, 20 February 2008, 3:12 p.m.

Kalon Tempa Tsering (left) receiving the award (Photo: Phayul)

Dharamshala: Tibetan Community has been awarded the 10th Venu Menon National Animal Award for coming out strongly against wildlife crime and its pro-wildlife approach, at a function held yesterday in New Delhi.

The Venu Menon National Animal Awards commemorates excellence in animal welfare and was started in 1999.

Other recipients of the award included six individuals and two organizations for making a difference to the lives of animals by acts of kindness and extraordinary courage.

Kalon Tempa Tsering, representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, based in New Delhi, accepted the award on behalf of the community.

In the wake of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s appeal, Tibetan people across the globe, especially in Tibet have shunned the practice of using animal skins such as tiger, leopard or otter skins to trim their clothes.

Such initiatives from the people in Tibet have received huge appreciation and acknowledgement from international wildlife conservation organisations.

Today there are only few Tibetans in Tibet most of whom are government cadres still using animal skin. They are in fact being forced by the Chinese authorities to do so if they wish to keep their jobs. Most consumers in Tibet today are Chinese tourists buying skins to decorate their houses or as a gifts to their friends.

  (www.tibet.net is the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.)

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