A few weeks ago I was made aware of the health concerns surrounding the sacred turtle of Ho Hoan Kiem, a lake in Hanoi, Vietnam. Believed to be one of only four or five of its species remaining, the turtle is revered by many Vietnamese people as a symbol of the legend of Kim Qui, the Golden Turtle God. While the exact age and gender of the Hoan Kiem turtle aren't known, for years people have flocked to the lake hoping to see it when it surfaces for air, or, in warmer weather, when it climbs out of the lake to bask.
This spring the sacred turtle was removed from the lake, however, after spectators and biologists noticed that it had several wounds all over its body. The wounds could have come from injuries (as people do fish from the lake), age, or from the amount of pollution that has accumulated in the lake. After the turtle's removal, people began cleaning the lake while veterinarians work to save the turtle. (In the picture above, a wound is somewhat visible on its mouth, and one can see how dirty the water is. For a more disturbing look at the water conditions, see this YouTube video.)
I find the sacred turtle fascinating for several reasons. Firstly, I love religious myths involving turtles, and, as stupid as I realize this sounds, I find them spiritually uplifting, the perfect animal to appear in some many myths the world over. Secondly, it's a very unusual-looking turtle. Its face is almost feline, and it looks almost like an otter with a shell. Thirdly, the feelings that Vietnamese people have for the turtle are just inspiring. I was particularly taken by a news article in which one woman says that, before visiting the lake, she prayed at a temple to see the turtle. It's not very often that we, especially in the West, encounter interactions with living religious objects; even the most religious people in the West can't go outside expecting to see a living, breathing embodiment of the sacred. The fact that this particular embodiment of divinity is a turtle, naturally, makes it a newfound subject of interest for me.
The sacred turtle also sheds light on our interactions with our environment. Despite being home to a revered animal, Ho Hoan Kiem is still a veritable dumping ground for humans. Images and video of the lake reveal shocking discolourations in the water from chemicals that have leeched into it, as well as islands of floating trash. While, as far as I know, the exact cause of the turtle's wounds hasn't been determined, a good look at some of the sludge in the lake makes it clear that pollution is definitely a suspect. Reports from Vietnam (which I've had to run through Google's translator, since I don't speak a word of Vietnamese) seem to confirm that pollutants played a major part in the turtle's illness.
According to reports from this week, the turtle has made a full recovery and the lake has been cleaned for its return.
In honor of the turtle's recovery and its legend, I've decided that the next few entries of The Shelled Life will take Cụ Rùa Hồ Gươm as their inspiration. I haven't decided whether or not the entries will make up one larger poem or a series of them, but that's the point of workshopping them. I'm heading back to England this weekend to start my PhD so updates might be spotty for a couple of weeks.
In the meantime, have a brief video of Cụ Rùa taking a swim:
