A New Documentary on Wildlife Protection: Releasing Sokchak-Kun-la-Jhamtse-II

For immediate release
1 February 2008

Environment and Development Desk (EDD) of the Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR) is happy to release its second part of the documentary on wildlife in the Tibetan language. As a part of the global campaign on Protection of Wildlife, EDD has produced a documentary film, which was distributed during the huge Kalachakra gathering in the South Indian town of Amravati in early 2006.

A year ago, the world was alarmed at the skin trade flourishing in Tibet under the laxed law enforcement by the Chinese government. This has also brought disgrace to the whole Tibetan community in and outside Tibet. The traditional Chinese medicine consume far greater number of tiger bones, but the photogenic Tibetan dress trimmed with animal skin has drawn more global attention. 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 higher 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.

Since His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s advice, most people in Tibet have shunned the practice of using animal skins such as tiger, leopard or otter skins to trim their clothes.

This documentary contains the bold initiatives taken by the Tibetan people in Tibet in the wake of His Holiness’ appeal and the subsequent campaigns led by many animal lovers internationally. Such initiatives from the Tibetan people in Tibet have received huge appreciation and acknowledgement from international wildlife conservation organisations.

The need of the hour is to keep the momentum of the campaign going until we are ensured that not a single Tibetan in the whole of Tibet wears clothes adorned with animal skin and the demand and supply chain of the skin trade is completely broken thereby completely stopping the poaching of innocent animals globally.

Irrespective of whether a nation enacts law or not, protection of wild life, so important to maintain the balance of our delicate ecosystem, is in the interest of all humanity. All human beings on this planet have a stake in saving the wildlife and the larger environment from total extinction. We have to ensure that our posterity has a clean and a safe environment to live in.

We hope this documentary will greatly help in further educating the people and help in stopping the skin trade.

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