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LiveScience
LiveScience
Sascha Pare

Buddhist ritual saves exotic fish from slaughter — only for 'adventurous' Tibetan otters to feast on them instead

Fish The Tibetan Plateau
Eurasian otters (Lutra lutra) showed a preference for non-native fish that are released during Buddhist rituals. (Image credit: Michael J. Cohen via Getty Images)

A Buddhist ritual has created an all-you-can-eat buffet for otters living near rivers on the Tibetan Plateau, new research suggests.

"Fangsheng," meaning life release, is the religious practice of saving and releasing animals that were destined to be slaughtered. Buddhist texts recommend the ritual as a way of "paying back debt," "erasing bad luck… healing illness" and "extending one's life," among other benefits, according to a 2020 study in the International Journal of Interreligious and Intercultural Studies.

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