[MPWG] Chinese Gov't to Preserve Tibetan Plant Medicine? Can Occupiers be Trusted?

Sat Feb 25 01:50:01 CST 2006

Mt. Washington, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Waning Moon before Tibetan Losar 2133

AN OPEN LETTER TO:

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO,
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, Research & Exploration,
THE CHINESE INSTITUTE OF BOTANY,
KUNMING INSTITUTE OF BOTANY, Yang Yongping
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN, Jan Salick
ELIZABETH ARNOLD 

RE: Creating Profitable Pharma Industry in Yunnan, China  while Protecting 
Tibetan Medicinal  Plants?  

You may fool some of the people some of the time but not all people all the 
time. Sure, let the fox watch the henhouse. 

"There is a revival of Tibetan culture in China, and that's led to a renewed 
interest in traditional medicine rooted in Buddhism."

[Revival? Since when did occupation and/or annexation become revival? ] 

"At the Kunming Institute of Botany,  {Yunnan, China ]  scientists analyze 
and synthesize the chemical compounds of China's wealth of medicinal plants. "

[ Erratum:  Analyze and synthesize Tibet's  fabled wealth of medicinal plants 
 ---[ to survey which ones to be patented.] 

Listen,  you Corporate goons and  minions----enough Tibetans and enough 
people around the world  know about biopiracy.The plant medicine world is not 
stupid.  

In the current map of China, the shameless Chinese has already changed the 
name of  the great land of Tibet to XIZANG.  

Why is the National Geographic, National Public Radio, and Missouri Botanical 
Garden helping  China rewrite history?   Who paid for the China & Tibet trip 
of the author?    The manner  and tone of this article  has given you away.  
How dare you use the word sacred?

Need I say more?

Firefly
POB 1456
South Pasadena, CA 91031

==================================
Himalayan Healing Plants
Sacred Protection for Medicinal Plants

 by Elizabeth Arnold  

 Enlarge 
Elizabeth Arnold

Shrine to Buddha in the home of Chindru, a practicioner of traditional 
Tibetan herbal medicine.
 Elizabeth Arnold

In the peaks where Chindru, pictured above, collects plants for his herbal 
remedies, some plant species have become scarce and others have simply vanished.

 > “The Tibetans keep reminding me that sacred sites are much greater than 
> just conservation sites. For them, it's a connection with the ethereal, with 
> eternity, with the universe.”
Jan Salick  

 Elizabeth Arnold
Buddhist pilgrims on the trail circling the sacred peak of Kawakarpo. They 
wear mitts and aprons because they prostrate themselves for the length of the 
journey, touching their foreheads to the ground to show their devotion. 

 Enlarge 
Elizabeth Arnold
Burning incense at a shrine with a commanding view of Kawakarpo, one of the 
holy mountains of Tibetan Buddhism. 

 Morning Edition,
 February 21, 2006 ·

At the Kunming Institute of Botany, scientists analyze and synthesize the 
chemical compounds of China's wealth of medicinal plants. The institute's deputy 
director, Yang Yongping, says the government's goal is to develop a profitable 
pharmaceutical industry in Yunnan Province -- and that leads to a firm 
commitment to conservation, to protect the source of potential new medicines. 

Many of these medicinal plants are under a dual threat: global warming and 
the growing global demand for them. 

"We have a moral responsibility to keep those species in our earth village," 
he says.
Conservation is already built in to Tibetan culture, where plants are 
considered both medicinal and spiritual. 

There is a revival of Tibetan culture in China, and that's led to a renewed 
interest in traditional medicine rooted in Buddhism.

The Chinese Institute of Botany has partnered with Jan Salick, an 
ethnobotanist from the Missouri Botanical Garden, to study medicinal plants and their 
cultural uses. Religion plays an important part of the healing process, she says. 
"It's not just plants that are ground up and you take as medicine -- it's a 
whole belief system."
Traditional doctors also hold a special status in Tibetan culture.  Elizabeth 
Arnold met with Chindru, a 70-year-old doctor in a tiny village carved out of 
the side of a hillside 100 miles northwest of Sumsteling. In the peaks high 
above this village where Chindru does his collecting, he's noticed a change -- 
some species have become scarce, others have simply vanished.

Part of the problem, Salick says, is the growing international demand for 
traditional medicinal plants. Salick's primary focus is the effect of climate 
change on high-altitude plants, but she says commercial harvesters are having a 
big impact on mountain biodiversity.

More than half the 6,000 plant species in Yunnan Province are used for 
medicinal purposes, with an estimated worldwide market of four billion people. 
Salick's aim is to partner with traditional doctors like Chindru to encourage 
Tibetans and Chinese to harvest plants in a more sustainable way to forestall 
wiping out entire species.
And fortunately, the underpinnings of conservation already exist in Tibetan 
culture. Holy sites, such as the eight sacred mountains of Tibetan Buddhism, 
have become pockets of biodiversity in a rapidly changing landscape.
"The Tibetans keep reminding me that sacred sites are much greater than just 
conservation sites," says Salick. "For them, it's a connection with the 
ethereal, with eternity, with the universe. So we don't have to... set aside lands 
and disrupt traditional practices -- we can use traditional practices for 
conservation purposes."

Botanist Jan Salick's research is supported by National Geographic Society's 
Committee for Research and Exploration, which in more than a century has 
provided nearly 8,000 research grants worldwide. The committee funds everything 
from primate research to Mayan archaeology to assessing the biological diversity 
of the deep ocean.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

News and Information: Position and Briefing Papers:
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last modified on October 18, 2005 at 12:00:57 PM.  

International Campaign for Tibet
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info at savetibet.org  

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