WWF青海、甘肃大型猫科动物市场调查报告.pdfVIP

Asian Big Cat Species Market Survey of Tibet, Qinghai, and Gansu Provinces WWF Lhasa Field Office March 2007 1. Introduction The tradition of wearing exotic animal skins has long symbolized the courageousness of heroes in Tibetan areas such as Amdo and Kham, where the people still have very strong blood bonds to the old Tibetan military, and this type of clothing has also long been worn in the Tibetan regions of Ngari and Nagchu. Historically, however, this has not been the case in Lhasa and Shigatse, where the wearing of leopard and tiger trimmed traditional garments only arose over the past several decades. While the wearing of sheepskin-lined clothing is a practical response to the extremely cold climate in Amdo and other areas of the Tibetan Plateau, in general the majority of these clothes are of simple design. However, until the past year top-quality sheepskin-lined outerwear, such as jackets and robes with silk or wool exterior shells, were often trimmed with leopard, tiger, and otter fur. The widespread increase in the wearing of tiger, leopard, and otter trimmed garments in Tibet resulted from the rapid development of the Tibetan economy, which has not only improved the standard of living for many Tibetans, but also increased the economic and cultural interaction between different regions of Tibet. Consequently, throughout the 1980s and 1990s the regional fashion trend of wearing traditional Tibetan garments trimmed with exotic furs spread throughout the Tibetan cultural area. Over the last 25 years it has been possible to see thousands of Tibetans wearing otter, leopard, and tiger skins during large festivals, in what appear at times to be large gatherings of endangered