“Even at the cost of your own life, you must never kill other beings.
Both evil human leaders filled with great pride
And the evil caste of hunters chased by their own karma
Will misunderstand this even if it is explained most properly and most clearly.
He who has taken the Bodhisattva Vows,
Has shame and a conscience, and acts carefully,
By following the ten virtuous actions
And avoids causing any harm or misery to innocent beings.
Seal off your hills from hunters, fishermen, and the like.
Do not take them as your subjects.” -from The Story of the Hunted Deer `The Messenger of Renunciation` by Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa.
“Animals are the means, Bodhicitta is the aim. The love for animals is innate and universal encompassing people of all religion, race, creed, and other narrow definitions.” –Lama Kunzang Dorje Rinpoche
“What emerged over those four weeks was nothing short of a miracle. Blood sugar levels dropped. Cholesterol readings improved. Energy returned to tired bodies. But most striking of all was the shift in collective spirit — a deeper, embodied compassion that could be tasted in every meal, felt in every action.” –report on Pema Choedling monastery after a 30 day Vegan diet
Introduction
I was recently in Bhutan, for the Kālacakra empowerment, but also in particular, I was asked to investigate veganism and animals rights there, and whether or not people were following the Buddha’s teachings on not eating slaughtered animals, and not supporting (or encouraging) the killing of helpless, voiceless animals. Interestingly, Bhutan has forbidden the commercial slaughter of animals on Bhutanese soil in alignment with Buddhist values on eating animals. Yet, the vast majority of restaurants and cafes there, from what I saw, all served meat and at times it was difficult to find specifically vegetarian (let alone vegan) options.
Many great Buddhist masters, from the past such as yogi Milarepa, and Drukpa Kunleg taught about not killing and eating animals. There are also several visible contemporary examples, such as 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje (who took a lifetime vow not to eat animals under the Bodhi tree, in Bodh Gaya since 2005, which many of us took with him), the recently passed renowned Kagyu-Nyingma yogi, Chatrel Rinpoche, Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro Rinpoche (Larung Gar), Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo and others, follow the Buddha’s teachings which clearly state deliberate killing of beings is unethical, and in particular eating the flesh of murdered animals. Only monastics were allowed to eat animals, but even then it was only in the context of being offered it when begging for alms, but the monastic still had to check if the animal had died naturally, and not due to deliberate killing by someone for food. The 17th Karmapa also stated that previous Karmapas had been strict vegetarians from the time of 7th Karmapa onwards, and that all Karma Kagyu monasteries are forbidden from purchasing or eating slaughtered animals.
These days, as I have written about on this website, and recently in Buddha’s Teachings on Eating Slaughtered Animals (Buddhist Door Global, 2024) many “Buddhist culture” countries (even India) have widespread butchery, mass slaughter factories, and eat animals outside the context of being offered when begging for alms, or when facing starvation. In fact, there were times I struggled to find non-animal product options, never mind vegan ones.
In this new report, I describe my own experience in Bhutan as a food consumer, and also my meeting with Lama Kunzang Dorje Rinpoche (founder of Jangsa Animal Saving Trust in 2022), a student of HH Dudjom Rinpoche and who completed his three-year retreat at Helembu, Nepal, under the guidance of H.H. Kyabje Chatral Rinpoche, and his admirable and unique activities in Bhutan to promote a vegan diet in his monasteries there and in India, and also saving animals lives.
I conclude that although initiatives like those of Lama Kunzang are valuable and beneficial, they are rare and unique as almost all the restaurants and hotels in the main cities of Bhutan serve meat as the main options, with few that are exclusively vegetarian (and hardly any that are solely vegan). So, despite the admirable “Buddhist” ban of commercial slaughter of animals for food in Bhutan, the killing animals to eat for profit business has sadly been transplanted to the original Buddhist land of India, from where Bhutan gets the meat imports. I make some personal observations about that in this report below. As one Bhutanese blogger put it:
“But what can you do as a Bhutanese, if you like traditional meat dishes like phak sha laphu (stewed pork with radishes) or no sha huentseu (beef with spinach)?The solution these clever Buddhists have come up with is simple – even though it might not be 100 % in line with what Buddha wanted: they have “outsourced” the slaughtering of animals to India. “
Talk about an understatement, it is clearly not what the Buddha would have wanted at all. Paying someone else to deliberately murder a defenceless sentient being, does not “let one off the hook” of participating in that act at all, in fact, some say it is even worse than doing it yourself, because one encourages others to accumulate negative and violent actions and a wrong livelihood.
Music? Love is All You Need by The Beatles, Be Healthy by Dead Prez, and Meat is Murder by The Smiths.
Commercial slaughterhouses forbidden in Bhutan but mainly meat dishes on the menu with a notable lack of vegan/vegetarian restaurants and fresh fruit and vegetables in main cities
One of my first guests on the Dakini Conversations podcast, was a Bhutanese man, TV producer and presenter, Karma Dendup whom I interviewed about his Jangsem/Meatless Mondays campaign (inspired by Sir Paul McCartney of The Beatles fame) to encourage Bhutanese people to end the negative actions of eating animals, and protect the environment and health as well.
Although, many animal rights and environmentalist activists would (rightly) argue that going with eating meat is not sufficient to protect helpless millions of animals mass bred for slaughters, nor the huge and catastrophic environmental effects of mass slaughter of animals on the natural environment and natural resources such as land, water, food and so on. People forget that all those animals need places to be housed, water, food and so on, and it is estimated over 30 percent of all food grown on the planet is given to animals bred for slaughter. Insane eh?
When I was in Thimphu, there were no vegan or vegetarian only restaurants, which considering it is a Buddhist cultural country was surprising to say the least. There was the lovely Ambient Cafe that seemed to be one of the few places who actively served vegan and vegetarian meals. Due to higher altitudes, potatoes, mushrooms and fiddlehead ferns are all widely available in Bhutan and are used in local dishes. Some of the most famous dishes in Bhutan, chillis with cheese (Ema Datsi) or spicy potatoes with cheese (Kewa Datsi), are vegetarian after all (which even if not vegan is at least better than eating animals)!
However, having spent significant amounts of time in countries like Thailand, and India, I was also surprised at the lack of easily available (and cheap) fruit and vegetables there. Along the main street and in the convenience stores, there were hardly any around or that seemed easily available. Whereas in Thailand, and India they are on every street corner, with fresh fruit even in convenience stores like 7-11.
Considering almost all the restaurants in Paro and Thimphu served meat dishes, with very few vegan options (if any), I was surprised to learn that most meat was imported from India (see below). It was also surprising that there were not greater amounts of fruit and vegetables imported for the overall health of the nation, especially as the Bhutanese have banned killing animals on Bhutanese soil.
The Bhutanese “solution” of exporting the “negative karma of killing animals” to India
I found this travel blog about being vegetarian/vegan in Bhutan:
“Bhutan’s deep Buddhist roots foster respect for all living beings. While not everyone is vegetarian, the culture discourages animal slaughter and many Bhutanese observe “meatless days”. Most meat is imported from India, and many Bhutanese observe no-meat days on the 1st, 15th, and 30th day of the lunar calendar. These days are a good opportunity to enjoy a fully vegetarian Bhutan.”
Although this seems to be true, it is still difficult to understand how one can say a “culture discourages animal slaughter” (commercial slaughterhouses are forbidden in Bhutan) and yet from what I saw the majority of restaurants and cafes serve animals as the meals.
In fact, as The Bhutanese recently reported: “India remains Bhutan’s main source of meat imports, but the export of beef from India is constrained by its internal policies. As an alternative, Bhutan has recently approved the import of beef from Brazil after completing risk assessments in February 2025. While private importers have shown interest, no beef consignments from Brazil have arrived yet.”
Yet importing it from India means that Bhutanese (foreign money) is still supporting killing and all the negative results from that in India (the original Buddhist nation). So some might say it is even worse that it supports the same “forbidden trade and business” in India. Especially as India, of all the countries in the world I have visited is the easiest to be vegetarian in, and most of the vegetarian restaurants in SE Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Bhutan itself, were Indian ones.
In addition, India also has a much longer history, culture and tradition of not eating animals rooted in the Vedas, Yogic practices and teachings, Ayurveda, Hinduisim, Jainism and Buddhism. However, even India is sadly changing for the worse (around sacred Buddhist sites such as Bodh Gaya) due, it is said by local Indians and restaurant owners, the “foreign addiction/habit J” for eating meat of Tibetans, Bhutanese, Nepalis, Thai, SE Asian, Chinese and western pilgrims. I will write more about that another time though!
Trying (and failing) to circumvent the central principle of Buddha’s teachings on eating animals: non-violence
This exporting the killing of animals to India (as a bizarre and irrational) way to try and avoid the negative results of the killing actions, reminds me of the artworks of Tibetan artist in exile, Tenzin Gyurmey whom I interviewed and whose artworks I reviewed in 2023. Gyurmey later went on to be awarded the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art prize.
One of Gyurmey’s most striking paintings (see image) was of him as a youth, about his feelings of deep shame and guilt while eating meat with his “Buddhist” parents, and going on trips with his Tibetan “Buddhist” mother to purchase buff (male cow) meat in India cross- state where it is not illegal. The question again, surely has to be how desperate are such “Buddhists” for animal flesh that they would go to such lengths within India itself, to purchase “sacred cow” meat?
It all seems to make a “mockery” of the central principle of non-violence/non-killing of Buddha’s key teachings on ethics and conduct in the Vinaya, Mahayana and Tantrayana, which apply regardless of whether or not you personally killed the animal. If one pays someone to murder any being, then surely you are equally, if not more, guilty of the crime of killing?
Lama Kunzang Dorjee Rinpoche- following in his guru, Chatrel Rinpoche’s footsteps, Saving Lives and giving up consumption of animals
Before I went to Bhutan, I had been informed that there was a vegan only monastery there, founded and run by Lama Kunzang Dorje Rinpoche (bio here), who heads the oldest Bhutanese monastery, Jangsa Gompa in Kalimpong, India and two monasteries in Kurteo Lhuentse , Eastern Bhutan , and one in Gelephu in Southern Bhutan.
Lama Kunzang Dorje was a close student of the renowned Tibetan Buddhist master, Chatrel Rinpoche, who was known for his outspoken and uncompromising stance on not killing or eating slaughtered animals and also on saving their lives, whenever and wherever possible. Chatrel Rinpoche wrote a poem on the Benefit of Saving Lives, here.
Meeting Lama Kunzang Dorjee Rinpoche in Thimphu (November 2025)
While I was in Thimphu, I requested to meet Lama Kunzang and he kindly met me in one of the best places to eat there, the Ambient Cafe, to speak about his excellent activities on the first vegan monastery in Bhutan, and other outreach activities on Buddhism and diet, the environment and health.
On meeting Lama Kunzang and speaking about his activities in relation to animals, even though we all agreed it was not in accordance at all with Buddha’s teachings to eat slaughtered animals, and very damaging to the environment, he explained how as it was an ingrained habit in many these days, could not be too gung-ho “radical” about it, and had to approach it sensitively and with an educational focus.
I asked him if it is “aggressive” or “radical” when seeing a human being slaughter a child or dog in front of us, and how many of us would feel repulsed and might rush in to stop and protect it, which is what many animal rights activists (such as PETA) feel when they hear and see huge animal slaughterhouses, where the daily killing is just hidden. However, it is nonetheless true that many meat-eaters get very emotional, and often aggressive when being challenged on (what they see) as a personal dietary choice (which of course it is not personal and effects millions of animals, land, water, environment and of course slaughter-house workers who are psychologically traumatised by their “horror killing” work).
Lama Kunzang explained to me that this initiative to encourage Bhutanese people to stop eating murdered animals, is also supported by the Bhutanese Royal Family, and by HH 70th Je Khenpo, head of the monastic body in Bhutan (see Je Khenpo’s letter published on the Jangsa Animal Saving Trust website):
The first vegan monastery in Bhutan: Pema Yoedling, Gelephu
Lama Kunzang Dorje Rinpoche’s monastery is in Gelephu, Pema Yoedling, which I hope to visit one day, as it is being promoted by the Bhutanese as the new “mindfulness city” and the vegan monastery there seems to be one in a variety of progressive initiatives planned for it.
Lama Kunzang explained to me that they were not only implementing and encouraging monks and others (in schools) to have a vegan (or vegetarian) diet but enabling and empowering people to know the benefits to the health, animals and environment of doing so. Not an easy task when the whole world is being encouraged to eat slaughtered animals by a highly profitable commercially, yet also heavily subsidised, meat industry intent on selling everyone cheap meat, at low cost prices and the message that people need to eat meat for protein. A message that is not true (as the Indian yogis know well) but also ignores the fact that various meats are listed as toxic by the World Health Organisation for their cancer-causing carcinogenic properties.
So although, the fact that almost 95 percent of hotels and restaurants in Bhutan were serving slaughtered animals as food, a surprising fact considering the Buddhist culture of Bhutan and its emphasis on the environment, it was encouraging to see the efforts of Lama Kunzang swimming against the “meat-eating” tide.
Example of Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa “Story of the Hunted Deer” and yogi Milarepa on “evil custom”
On the Jangsa Animal Saving Trust website, there is a downloadable e-book English translation of a story by the Dzogchen Master Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa (1730-1798) spiritual heir of Longchen Rabjam (Gyalwa Lonchenpa) called The Story of the Hunted Deer `The Messenger of Renunciation` (translated into English by Lama Kunzang).
When I read this, and his heart-rending aspiration that hunters of animals for food abandon such work, it reminded me of Milarepa’s Song on the Evil Custom of Killing Animals to Eat (see my translation of that here), as well as the songs Milarepa sang to the Hunter and the deer, which I translated before here. I also interviewed the living heir of “the Hunter” family lineage (descended from the hunter Milarepa sang to, see e-book with song and interview here).
Buddha’s teachings are crystal clear, but we can also approach the matter like a young, kind, innocent child
For those who are not convinced that the Buddha clearly taught both monastics and laypeople not to eat animals, I would encourage you to read the Vinaya Sutras on the three-fold purity rule when being offered meat as a monastic begging for alms, the teachings Buddha gave on wrong livelihoods (which includes butchery and killing animals for profit), Chapter 8 of the Lankavatara Sutra and also contemporary examples, such as 17th Karmapa (see video clip here) and others as to why we should not need religious scriptures to understand it is unethical and cruel and unnecessary.
Please also listen to my video podcasts with leading scholar-translator, Dr. Geoffrey Barstow, whose books on past and present strict vegetarianism in Tibetan and Himalayan regions is a must-read for anyone who wants to know how many great Buddhist masters actively took vows never to eat slaughtered animals, despite the lack of plant-based food there. And also the podcast with one of the leading figures on animal liberation and rights, Prof. Peter Singer (2024) who when I asked Singer about it, referred to the 14th Dalai Lama’s eating meat for health reasons as “absurd” and unnecessary.
Plans for the future in Bhutan? Global Conscious Food Summit
After meeting Lama Kunzang in Bhutan, he kindly informed me that the Government of Bhutan and the Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA), along with the UN Development Programme and partners, are hosting the first Global Conscious Food Systems Summit in Bhutan, from 31 August – 4 September 2026. This again shows that the Bhutanese are serious, and recognise the spiritual, health and environmental need to eat “healthily” not only in terms of personal but also spiritual and environmental “health” too. Here is a short video by the Bhutanese Prime Minister speaking about this forthcoming Summit.
In any case, I would actively encourage all those who are interested in supporting veganism/vegetarianism in Bhutan, saving lives, and animal and environmental protection to support Rinpoche’s activities via Jangsa Animal Saving Trust and his monasteries in India and Bhutan.
Sources
https://teahouse.buddhistdoor.net/buddhist-teachings-on-eating-slaughtered-animals/
Click to access Lankavatara_Sutra_Chapter_Eight_Tr._Suzuki.pdf
https://www.jangsaanimalsaving.org
Endnotes
[1] “Now a vegan and tsethar practitioner (practise of saving lives), Lama Kunzang Dorje Rinpoche set up the Jangsa Animal Saving Trust and saved more than 650 bulls and other similarly ill-fated animals from being killed in slaughter houses by buying them. At the age of 19, he met H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche who had come to Tashigang, Bhutan, to give the Empowerment of Rinchen Terzod.As both his parents were disciples of H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche, he received the Empowerment and transmission of the Great Terton Dudjom Lingpa and H.H. Dudjom Rinpoches’s Sungbum before he joined the monastry in Gangtok where he stayed for 13 years receiving the empowerments of Kama, Terma, Yabshi, Jigling Tsapoe etc and various other Trilung from H.H. Kyabje Dodrupchen Rinpoche. He did his three-year retreat at Helembu, Nepal, under the guidance of H.H. Kyabje Chatral Rinpoche.”