Pic : turtles in some pagoda in Vietnam

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ian_zhang

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hey ! this my very first thread in this forum despite the fact that I have been visting it everyday. I hope these picture make you pleased
You know, for Buddhist. when you release some things back to nature, it means you had released the sorrow of yourself too, and it will also make you lucky. People believe that, so many many Buddhist come to pagoda to buy birds and turtles in order to help them back to nature. For bird, its easy, just open the cage to set them free, but you can not do the same thing to turtles, so they put them into the pagoda. I came to a lot of pagodas in my country, and try to take as much nice pictures as I can
October0819.jpg

In the picture above , I counted there are 42 ones :cool: and I dunno if I wrong ???
Despite the bad living condition, they still continue growing, some guy very big, maybe over 60cm in length. people put all kinds of them together and eat the same food ( usually vegetable), but amazingly, I havent seen anyone died ( the water is superb dirty !!! )
October0832.jpg

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You guys see the turtle in the center of picture( the one with long neck ) ? I have one . and never have I seen it eaten vegetable, It just eats meat, my mom jokes that it has royal blood running inside, so it just tastes the costy food
October0825.jpg

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and some......
September0812.jpg

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I noticed the biggest one, but it very hard for a picture ( taken by mobile phone ) to show you how big it is. that turtle maybe over 50 kilograms
October0824.jpg

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October0821.jpg

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there are still a lot of pictures left, I will choose the best ones and post it later.......
Those pictures above, I taken it in On Lang pagoda, it is an ancient pagoda ( over 110 years ). If you have opportunity to visit Vietnam, try to pay it a visit
cheers
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Ian: Welcome to the forum! Thanks so much for posting the pictures of the turtles at the pagoda. It was very interesting to see all the different varieties of turtle and tortoise living together. I'll bet our Danny can identify all of them. I can see several red ear sliders a couple either greek or hermann tortoises, some asian box turtles, but the large turtles I don't know what they are. Come on, Danny: tell us what you see!!

Yvonne
 

egyptiandan

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Okay :D

Well in picture #1 there are plenty of Red-eared sliders. There are also Elongated tortoises, Snail eating turtles; Malayemys subtrijuga, Asian box turtle; Cuora amboinensis kamaroma and what looks like a Bells hingeback.
#2 more Red-ears, Asian box turtles, Snail eaters and an Elongated.
#3 more Red-ears, Asian box turtle, Elongated tortoise, the ones on the right are from lower to upper, Temple turtle; Heosemys annandalii (was Hieremys annandalii), Temple turtle, Giant asian pond turtle, Heosemys grandis.
#4 Red-ears, Temple turtle, Asian box turtle, Elongated tortoise and not sure what the large one is in the top left corner.
#5 Red-ears, Temple turtles, Giant asian pond turtles (left and right)
#6 Red-ears, Asian box turtles, Elongated tortoises and the top middle turtle looks like a Thread turtle, Mauremys sinensis (was Ocadia sinensis)

Danny
 

Yvonne G

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I knew we could depend on you for the scoop!!

thanks, Danny.

Yvonne
 

ian_zhang

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Danny , can you please tell us what the name of it is ? I come there many times,and I always see it lies silently at the top left corner. I have some more
pictures about it
October0836.jpg

maybe it is temple turtle too :-? from far, it looks like a water melon :p
October0835.jpg
 

Barry

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If you can see if you can at least separate the I. elongata from the rest of the turtles. Those are not supposed to be with the water turtles at all.
 

egyptiandan

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Yes the one in the corner is a Temple turtle.

Danny
 

terryo

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What a wonderful, interesting story. Thanks for all the pictures too. Is there any other part of the pagoda that has more water, or is that it? Who feeds them? This is like a history lesson. I love it.
 

kevantheman35

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thats pretty cool but sad that there stuck in a pagoda. would be an awesome place to visit
 

ian_zhang

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Hi everybody
At first, I wanna say that giving the tortoises just a little water seems pretty reasonable. 'cause there is nobody specializes in taking care of them, so they just supply them enough water for living ( better than nothing,right ? :( ),and then, it will be easier for people to clean the turtles' " cage ".
I notice that an very old man will be in charge of feeding the tortoises. He gives them vegetable ( always ) and some fruits ( rarely )
That ancient Pagoda is a yearly destination of many Buddhist, It name "On Lang" Pagoda
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ah...hmmm :-?
I also have some pictures of another pagoda. It is very far from On Lang pagoda, and it is much older (I heard that it is over 130 years ) :|
unfortunately, I come in the day which people cleans up the " pond " ( I dunno I should call it lake or pond :| ) So I cannot take the picture of the water turtles, but i have some pic of another ones ( in the place near the pond ):cool:
October0846.jpg

If you look at the picture above clearly, you can see 2 little turtle, it is Red-Ear-Slider
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At first, just 2 tortoises notice the food I gave
October0848.jpg

.....
then, rest of them begin moving :D
October0849.jpg

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Food war :rolleyes:
October0844.jpg

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You know, almost each of them is over 40cm (nearly 20'') in length, some guys is much more. and there are still some very little ones, just 13- 18cm
October0845.jpg

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some lazy ones still sleeping
October0842.jpg
 
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stells

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I'm not sure how anyone can say they are nice pics i find them extremely sad and upsetting to be honest..
 

ian_zhang

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stells said:
I'm not sure how anyone can say they are nice pics i find them extremely sad and upsetting to be honest..

yeah, you're right.pic sucks at both quality and content, when I taken those pics, I had chosen the best place of it. actually, there's some area is much more dirty, I just wish people could release those turls and torts back to the real nature. But you know ? In some Asian countries, turtles (and even dogs) can be a really good meals for some kind of people. So at least keeping them in a small place better than looking them become a "turtle soup",right ?
I think the Admin should remove this thread. it is really hurtful when looking the tortoise treated like that
 

Yvonne G

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ian_zhang said:
I think the Admin should remove this thread. it is really hurtful when looking the tortoise treated like that

No...its very educational to see how animals are treated in other countries. I am glad you posted the pictures for us, Ian. As far as the folks at the Pagoda are concerned, they are doing nothing wrong. They are providing a safe place and food for the turtles . It might not be up to the standards of those of us who treat them as pets, but at least they are not being killed and eaten!

Yvonne
 

egyptiandan

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The pictures are fine. It's always good to see how not to keep turtles and tortoises.
I'm going to slightly disagree Yvonne that it's better than being eaten. It's great that the Red-ear sliders have been taken out of the wild and prevented from breeding. It's not great that the native turtles and tortoises have been also. They are for all intensive purposes dead to the wild population as they will not be reproducing and passing on their genes.
So whether you keep a turtle or tortoise alive for the rest of his or her life (without letting that animal reproduce) or eating it, it still comes out the same. Living in crowded stressful conditions that are sure to shorten their lives or being eaten. :( Not very good choices, that weren't of their choosing. The animals will be dead no matter what the choice, just a question of time. :(

Just my view on the whole situation.

Danny
 

terryo

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Your pictures are wonderful Ian. They are an education for all of us here, so we can learn about other countries. We all have different cultures and ways of living. Very interesting.
 

Laura

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Can you show us a larger picture of the entire area? what are they really living in. The Bigger Picture, so to speak.
Very interesting.
 

Granolagal

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Welcome Ian! Thanks for sharing.
Very eduactional and enlightening..though it is truly saddening. Simply hiding your pics with not stop it though...

Cheers, Carley
 
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