Bodh Gaya Jan 25th, 2010: Every year in December, the holy place of Bodh Gaya attracts thousands of Buddhist from round the world due to various religious events like Kagyu Monlam, Nyingma Monlam, Gelug Monlam. This year there were more number of devotees than before as His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave a five-day teachings from January 5 to 8 Tibetan Volunteers for Animals (TVA) organized a month long Vegetarian campaign to spread awareness about the suffering of animals and also treated sick and injured animals in the area. Display of posters, banners and distribution of pamphlets were the means of spreading the message. Video screening and Photo exhibition were also organized displaying the plight of animals.
At the time of teachings when the streets were empty, TVA volunteers roamed the streets looking for sick and injured animals. A red collar was put on all the dogs who were treated. Most of the dogs suffered from mange and injuries.
During lunch time, TVA volunteers went near the restaurants with a Loudspeaker urging devotees to abstain from eating meat at least during the teachings. It is this time of the year when the most number of animals are killed at this holy Buddhist place due to huge demand for meat. There were 39 new restaurants opened adjacent to the teaching venue and all of them served meat. Tibetan Children's Village (TCV) had also opened a restaurant serving at least 25KG of meat every day.
TVA's pledge to be Veg campaign was very well received by the devotees and a total of 456 devotees pledged to be lifelong vegetarians. TVA screened 'Zamlingpa' (Tibetan Version the original documentary - EARTHLINGS) for the first time to the public. After a little more editing, the documentary will be released on DVDs.
Over all a total of 156 stray dogs were treated and 47 fishes rescued.
