It is a wake-up call to a country that is forgetting about its own paradise here on earth. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were one Religious Belief?.   One belief. One set of rules to live by. Then there would not be any religious wars in the Middle East. No conflict here between religious schools and taxes. No wars between Christians and Protestants in Ireland.  No hatred for each other. It is probably a dream that will never come true. But at least in China there is something that is sparking a change. A change for the better. People are beginning to respect and worship the paradise we have here on earth. Our exotic endangered animals.

In the mountains in a remote corner of China not far from Tibet filmmakers were seeking an endangered species of monkey with unusual features.  It is a rare snub- nosed monkey. It can take weeks to find them in very cold and remote conditions. They finally find them where tracers can spot them. With all the construction all over China, natural forests are being depleted there too. There are only 2,000 of these types of monkey left in the wild. They live in a tiny Provence of China’s Yunnan Provence. It is the last unspoiled regions left in a vast country where wilderness is fast disappearing. Imagine what a beautiful world this would be if we all fought for our wildernesses the way we fight for our Religions.

These monkeys are unique because they live at a higher elevation than any other creature on earth. So, finding them and being able to take pictures of them can be a thrill. Holding them prisoners in a zoo is not the answer. Preserving the natural homes of all living things IS the answer. One photographer had such a dream that he lived for three years in the mountains, and saw the monkeys only twice. After his pictures were published and gained international attention, the monkey’s fate were changed. No one even knew there were a kind of monkey that had red lips and a pink face. Finally people said that something must be done to safe these cute little animals from going extinct.

Logging was destroying the animal’s limited habitat. There was a public outcry and the government listened and the snub-nosed monkey became a species as protected as the panda. It was a victory that many say was the turning point and the birth of a conservation   movement in China. I would like to call it a religion that is spreading across the country. An eco-tourism industry is starting to grow globally. Worship each other and worship the land we all live on.