Crying Wolf

Mongolia can be a country of such shocking contrasts.

The other evening I was invited to dinner by a lama friend of mine. He chose a local pizza joint because it was easy to get a meal there without meat. This lama, from Mongolia’s westernmost province of Khovd, amazed me by saying he had been vegetarian for the past 30 years. Apparently his father had also been a lama and had once shared with his son a Mahayana scripture which detailed the faults of eating meat. It may very well have been this fierce excerpt from the Lankavatara Sutra. Deeply impressed, this lama never touched meat again, no mean feat in Mongolia where one is almost never served a meal without it.

So I tripped out my building’s door, nothing but happy thoughts of a mushroom pizza on my mind, and literally jumped backward when confronted by this sight right in front of me:

I couldn’t quite believe it was real, even as my hands spontaneously clapped into prayer position and I reflexively began chanting Om Mani Padme Hung. But yes, someone had driven their Land Cruiser straight into the heart of Ulaanbaatar with a freshly slaughtered Siberian wolf lashed to the front protection bars.

I took these pictures with the car’s license plate in the hope that such hunting was seasonal and perhaps illegal and some justice might be brought to the hunter. My dinner companions assured me that even if such laws were in place they would not be enforced; such a kill would be regarded by many with admiration.

Mongolia is, of course, a country in which the livestock outnumber people by about 20:1. For a herder whose livelihood depends on the wellbeing of his flock, the killing of wolves is at least understandable, if karmically unfortunate. But the sport hunting of wolves is another matter altogether. To get some background for this post, I clicked around sites offering wolf hunting tours in Mongolia (regrettably, there are many). A few cited some version of the following Mongolian saying: One cannot even see a wolf unless one is the wolf’s equal; one cannot kill a wolf unless one is the wolf’s superior.

For followers of the Buddha's teachings, this is a bitterly ironic statement. According to the Buddha’s enlightened point of view, the wolf was born in such a body and came to a violent end due to correspondingly violent actions in previous lifetimes. Its murder marks the end of that particular karmic episode. For the hunter, on the other hand, whatever short-lived satisfaction might be experienced out of ignorance, such killing plants the seed for acute suffering in future lifetimes. To the Buddhist way of thinking, the sport hunter is no being’s superior.

I was told that in the past, for a certain radius around each of Mongolia’s thousands of monasteries, hunting and other non-virtuous activities were strictly prohibited. Such traditions do not seem to persist.

I had thought to end this post touting the Defenders of Wildlife campaign to abolish the abominable practice in Alaska, promoted by Gov. Sarah Palin, of the aerial slaughter of wolves and bears by helicopter and light plane (fellas – OK and some of you ladies too – go watch the short video: Ashley Judd!). But let’s end with a cheerier story, shall we?

One of my good friends here is a prominent government official, whose devout Buddhism I knew to be of fairly recent vintage. The first time I was invited to his home I scanned the living room walls and was startled to see a photo of him kneeling over a wolf he had just killed, smiling from ear to ear. I didn’t say anything then, but quietly asked his wife about it later. Oh, it’s interesting, she told me. Not only did he love hunting, but he was an avid gun collector. But once Buddhism took hold in his mind, one day he decided to destroy all his guns and never went hunting again. They meant to change that picture, but hadn’t gotten around to it.

It just so happened I had recently been at a gathering with this family and a visiting lama from Tibet. At that time, I had snapped a wonderful portrait of this man in a prayerful pose while the lama was chanting. I printed a large copy, bought a frame for it, and slipped it to his wife a few days later. The next time I visited, lo and behold, the wolf hunting picture was gone, replaced by my photo of the man in devout Buddhist attitude.

I told that story at the pizza dinner to the delight of all, a little ray of hope in these twilit times.

Comments

[Sangye]

We must be on the same wavelength. Just minutes before I read your post, I checked an online support group for others with Wegener's-- daily head count, you know? One of them was describing how poorly he was feeling, wondering if that's as good as it gets. In the same breath, he said he was preparing to take his son through a hunter's safety course so he really needed to be stronger.

Without Dharma, there's no way for him to connect the dots. Heartbreaking.

[Tana]

Heartbreaking to see and hear about. But you are so good to create a story tender and kind enough to allow us to contemplate this kind of tragedy without turning away from it and shutting our minds to it, as so often happens with stories like this that are too painful to contemplate.

I feel so sorry, too, for the hunter who is apparently unaware of the karmic damage he or she is sustaining through this act. May Tara gather both the wolf and the hunter into her compassionate heart.

[yeshe thomasch]

I can't even address the wolf hunting, as it's just so upsetting...but wanting to thank you for sharing about the hunter turned Buddhist and how you have gifted him with his beautiful display of virtue.

Slowly, slowly, bit by bit, never give up.

[Sarabaite]

Wow, that is disturbing. Worse, I can't shake the feeling that it was a tourist -- quite likely from the US -- who thought that it was cool to brag in that way. I can't really judge the herders, seeing as how I know so little about their lives, but I wish people would comport themselves with a little extra honesty and kindness when they're visiting another country.

[ulogoni]

Unfortunately for wolves and the steppe ecosystem for which they strengthen - they are the only wildlife that is legal to kill year round in Mongolia. Anytime, anywhere, including in protected areas that otherwise act as a refuge for other species of wildlife.

Laws can be changed. A good start would be to seek protection for wolves in these refuges such as those in the Dzungarian Gobi. In a world of vastly diminishing and degraded habitats and a plummet in diversity of all life, refuges should be places where wildlife and wildscapes are allowed to thrive unmolested by man.

Wolves being kesytone predators are vital to the health of these ecosystems for which they are a part of, having evolved alongside other mongolian species for thousands and thousands of years. The land and the animals all shaping eachother. "What but the wolf's tooth whittled so fine The fleet limbs of the antelope?"

People make the laws. If we as people speak out for nature, we can change those laws to resonate with a more harmonious way of being.

Thanks for publicly bearing witness. Having all this information at my fingertips, I'm going to go research conservation organisations in Mongolia and tell them how much this upsets me. And while I'm at it the Mongolian government will also know where I stand.

Little steps for the steppe can go a long way. No use being discouraged!