Editorial Foreword 72.2 (May 2013)

Herders and monks of Tangkor Township, Sichuan, burned pelts of leopard, otter, tiger, and other animals in February 2006 after the Kalachakra Initiation Ceremony at which the fourteenth Dalai Lama stated that Tibetans should not wear them. Among the many contested rationales for this and other burnings across the Tibetan Plateau were religious loyalty to the fourteenth Dalai Lama, national unity, a desire to neutralize growing signs of wealth inequality, saving the animals as sentient beings, rectifying Tibetans' slipping global reputation through a demonstration of their environmental awareness, and a rejection of the regime of commodification of statist development efforts. Many people who filmed the events described their desire to have the videos inspire other Tibetans, to provide evidence of their heeding of religious teachings, and to communicate to the world that Tibetans were no longer backwards in their environmental consciousness. The circulation of such home videos by Tibetans has...