Buddhism and the Life of Dogs

A puppy in Laos

          Today we had a sad accident happen while driving on the chaotic roads of Laos.  We were in our van on our way to a village on the Mekong River when our driver was unable to avoid hitting a cute little puppy who was playing in the street.  It was not our driver's fault as the puppy was in the middle of a very busy road and we would have driven some of the many motorbikes off the road if we had swerved any more than we did, but it was still very sad.


          I can't help but compare two of the Buddhist countries I've visited - Laos and Bhutan.  Buddhists say that they cherish all living things, be it a human or an ant, but after we hit the puppy here in Laos, nobody said anything or seemed to have a thought about stopping to see if we could help the injured animal - in fact, when I turned around to see what happened (I didn't see the puppy in front of the car), all I saw were other dogs surrounding it to see what they could do.  In Bhutan however, if the same thing had happened, I'm sure that we would have stopped - probably every car on the road would have briefly stopped - to see how we could help the puppy, or to offer it prayers and solemn respect if it was already dead.  I wonder if the communism in Laos is the cause of this difference, or if there are just two different types of Buddhism.


          My family has spent a lot of time talking about the puppy and our dog who recently died, Mukluk.  We've posthumously named the puppy Sparky.

Bhutanese puppy (he likes french fries)