I Did Not Find My Buddha In Scriptures, I Found Him In Living Beings

The Himalayan region of India has always been a place of immense beauty, spirituality and lately compassion. Activists there are really coming out in numbers to spread veganism. One such ‘veganist’ is Dawa Liebe, who won the Lisa Shapiro Global Animal Activist award in 2017.  Her work in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, has truly started to make waves and we couldn’t wait to get her story. So we got in touch with Dawa to get her perspective on veganism, activism, religion and living in India.

Dawa’s Vegan Journey

Image Courtesy Dawa Liebe

I am Dr. Tenzin Chodhen aka Dawa, a practicing Dentist in a Tibetan primary health center in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh. I moved here five years back from Orissa, after working there for almost two years in a remote Tibetan settlement. I am Tibetan born in a Tibetan community called Mundgod in the northern part of Karnataka.

I was a hardcore non-vegan in dietary manners for my whole life. I turned vegan 4 years back and it is one of the most fulfilling transitions of my life. Ever since I was little, I remember struggling with this internal conflict about eating meat. When I was very little, I loved cow's milk the most and even remember occasionally going inside the cowshed to drop some hay or fetch drinking water and also helping in picking up their dung to make cow dung cake for our chulha in the kitchen. I grew up in believing they are happy in giving us their milk just like any farmer's child would.
We used to have few chickens for eggs and sometimes the mongoose will kill the chicken and we used to cook the dead body. It seemed little upsetting at that time but once it is cooked, there was just this food that we all loved. What a grave disconnecting period. We were always offered meat, eggs, and milk products because they were abundant everywhere and seem pretty normal to most of us.

The internet world played a major role in bringing live video images of how animals are raised and slaughtered. Such videos also made shocking revelations about how the animals could sense what was coming, just like us which brought spurts of emotions like fear, sorrow, and guilt. And this depressed me. These moving images brought me to a daunting crossroad in my life.

One of the major video footages which struck me the most was the Yulin Dog Meat Festival in China. The Chinese eat dogs and cats just the way we eat cows, chickens, goats, pigs, fish etc here in India or any other part of the world. As a dog lover, this cultural difference shocked me beyond imagination, but also helped me in my ability to see other animals deserving same love we give to our pets. Imagining my pet dog could be someone's meat helped me in breaking this concrete wall of Speciecism.

Veganism in Dharamshala

In the beginning, there was almost minimal to no awareness on veganism in the local communities, here in Dharamsala. Vegans or veganism is a new terminology for many people here. When we started advocating against dairy and poultry industries or against the consumption of honey, they were amused or unaware of this information. The response of individuals usually varies from shocked to angry or just disinterested.

Tibetan people have been defensive about their carnism nature by citing examples of how vegetation was impossible to grow in Tibet back in history. After 58 years of fleeing Tibet and living in exile in India or in foreign countries, we still use such illogical and anchoretic reasoning for our meat-eating addictions. 

Many people still misunderstand the Buddha’s teaching on eating meat which speaks about the three-fold impurities which state that - meat from an animal that was not seen, heard, or suspected of being killed for the sake of the meal is permitted. Well, these rules simply do not work in the world in which we live in. Between slaughterhouses, dairy farms and butchers, the pain and suffering exist even if it can’t be seen, heard or suspected of being killed when it is served in restaurants and cafes. This seemed a paradox to me when I was a naive vegan but alas, no religion mandates harming any other sentient beings. 

People here, as with many cities, have been heavily conditioned in believing that cows are happy to give milk and the farmers take good care of them or the cow milk is good for our bones. Most of them regard milk and eggs as vegetarian and generating the awareness on the same issues from ground zero required lots of patience and resiliency. This is why we really needed a group of vegans to band together and educate people on veganism and animal cruelty.

Vegan-ucating in Dharamshala

The Dharamshala Vegan Movement has really helped more people get acquainted with what veganism means and there is definitely a paradigm shift in accepting veganism in their daily lives from reducing meat consumption to using soy milk to wearing faux furs and faux leathers. 

DVM was co-founded by 4 vegans on 9th November 2015 - Nina, Tsetan, Varun Sharma (who has opened the Bodhi greens restaurant) and myself.  However, the movement was continued by so many volunteers from all around the world. I have to especially thank Umang, Benjamin, Gyen Lobu la, Derek, Sangmo, Shiwangi, Ani Norzom la for making the small team of DVM more stronger and active every weekend.  DVM primarily raises awareness about animal rights and veganism. The different programs we do here are restaurant outreaches, screenings, street outreaches and visiting institutions in and around Dharamshala.

Since our start, we have organized 18 public screenings in local restaurants with 14 different documentaries. We successfully organize vegan brunches, lunches, and dinners in different restaurants to introduce plant-based food, beverages, and desserts to members of the community. We have also visited and screened at 16 different colleges, monasteries and nunneries to introduce veganism and show the reality of animal agriculture.

Sometimes, we make vegan soy chai next to momo vendors on the street and offer it to people to try our vegan chai and vegan cake as an ethical, healthier substitute. Basically, every weekend we try to do new things to raise awareness on veganism with a very small group of people.
 

Dawa’s Hope for 2018

There are so many activists all around India who are vegan-ucating their local people from the grassroots level, allowing new transformation and leaving a legacy of a more vegan-ucated society. The grassroots movement from different cities to towns to villages is the basic skeletal framework of animal liberation front in India. We are all tiny "seeds" of veganism which depends on many co-existing values of kindness, patience and humility for us to be able to offer the most fruitful version of our seed abilities. 

With the growing force of the movement in India resulting from more vegan options, food chains, vegan festivals and even the fashion world, I am hopeful for a greater impact of ahimsa towards the animals and the less fortunate ones. May the younger generation stand up against the darkness of carnism and rebuild our nation with values of universal love and compassion towards the farmed animals.

2018 will be the best year for the animal liberation front in India and everywhere because we are wiser and focussed (and kinder) on our peaceful stand against violence and oppression.

What a beautiful message from Dawa. Her work, along with the people who volunteer with DVM is truly inspiring. We are so grateful for people like them who are really going out of their way to spread veganism with every action they take.

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