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hey ! this my very first thread in this forum despite the fact that I have been visting it everyday. I hope these picture make you pleased
You know, for Buddhist. when you release some things back to nature, it means you had released the sorrow of yourself too, and it will also make you lucky. People believe that, so many many Buddhist come to pagoda to buy birds and turtles in order to help them back to nature. For bird, its easy, just open the cage to set them free, but you can not do the same thing to turtles, so they put them into the pagoda. I came to a lot of pagodas in my country, and try to take as much nice pictures as I can

In the picture above , I counted there are 42 ones and I dunno if I wrong ???
Despite the bad living condition, they still continue growing, some guy very big, maybe over 60cm in length. people put all kinds of them together and eat the same food ( usually vegetable), but amazingly, I havent seen anyone died ( the water is superb dirty !!! )

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You guys see the turtle in the center of picture( the one with long neck ) ? I have one . and never have I seen it eaten vegetable, It just eats meat, my mom jokes that it has royal blood running inside, so it just tastes the costy food

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and some......

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I noticed the biggest one, but it very hard for a picture ( taken by mobile phone ) to show you how big it is. that turtle maybe over 50 kilograms

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there are still a lot of pictures left, I will choose the best ones and post it later.......
Those pictures above, I taken it in On Lang pagoda, it is an ancient pagoda ( over 110 years ). If you have opportunity to visit Vietnam, try to pay it a visit
cheers

Hi Ian: Welcome to the forum! Thanks so much for posting the pictures of the turtles at the pagoda. It was very interesting to see all the different varieties of turtle and tortoise living together. I'll bet our Danny can identify all of them. I can see several red ear sliders a couple either greek or hermann tortoises, some asian box turtles, but the large turtles I don't know what they are. Come on, Danny: tell us what you see!!

Yvonne

Okay

Well in picture #1 there are plenty of Red-eared sliders. There are also Elongated tortoises, Snail eating turtles; Malayemys subtrijuga, Asian box turtle; Cuora amboinensis kamaroma and what looks like a Bells hingeback.
#2 more Red-ears, Asian box turtles, Snail eaters and an Elongated.
#3 more Red-ears, Asian box turtle, Elongated tortoise, the ones on the right are from lower to upper, Temple turtle; Heosemys annandalii (was Hieremys annandalii), Temple turtle, Giant asian pond turtle, Heosemys grandis.
#4 Red-ears, Temple turtle, Asian box turtle, Elongated tortoise and not sure what the large one is in the top left corner.
#5 Red-ears, Temple turtles, Giant asian pond turtles (left and right)
#6 Red-ears, Asian box turtles, Elongated tortoises and the top middle turtle looks like a Thread turtle, Mauremys sinensis (was Ocadia sinensis)

Danny

I knew we could depend on you for the scoop!!

thanks, Danny.

Yvonne

Danny , can you please tell us what the name of it is ? I come there many times,and I always see it lies silently at the top left corner. I have some more
pictures about it

maybe it is temple turtle too :-? from far, it looks like a water melon

If you can see if you can at least separate the I. elongata from the rest of the turtles. Those are not supposed to be with the water turtles at all.

Yes the one in the corner is a Temple turtle.

Danny

Thanks for sharing, and the new education!

wow. i love those pics. i wish i could have a giant asian turtle in my pond.

What a wonderful, interesting story. Thanks for all the pictures too. Is there any other part of the pagoda that has more water, or is that it? Who feeds them? This is like a history lesson. I love it.

thats pretty cool but sad that there stuck in a pagoda. would be an awesome place to visit

Hi everybody
At first, I wanna say that giving the tortoises just a little water seems pretty reasonable. 'cause there is nobody specializes in taking care of them, so they just supply them enough water for living ( better than nothing,right ? ),and then, it will be easier for people to clean the turtles' " cage ".
I notice that an very old man will be in charge of feeding the tortoises. He gives them vegetable ( always ) and some fruits ( rarely )
That ancient Pagoda is a yearly destination of many Buddhist, It name "On Lang" Pagoda
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ah...hmmm :-?
I also have some pictures of another pagoda. It is very far from On Lang pagoda, and it is much older (I heard that it is over 130 years ) :|
unfortunately, I come in the day which people cleans up the " pond " ( I dunno I should call it lake or pond :| ) So I cannot take the picture of the water turtles, but i have some pic of another ones ( in the place near the pond )

If you look at the picture above clearly, you can see 2 little turtle, it is Red-Ear-Slider
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At first, just 2 tortoises notice the food I gave

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then, rest of them begin moving

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Food war

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You know, almost each of them is over 40cm (nearly 20'') in length, some guys is much more. and there are still some very little ones, just 13- 18cm

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some lazy ones still sleeping

nice pics. thanks for sharing

I'm not sure how anyone can say they are nice pics i find them extremely sad and upsetting to be honest..

(10-29-2008 01:34 AM)stells Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not sure how anyone can say they are nice pics i find them extremely sad and upsetting to be honest..

yeah, you're right.pic sucks at both quality and content, when I taken those pics, I had chosen the best place of it. actually, there's some area is much more dirty, I just wish people could release those turls and torts back to the real nature. But you know ? In some Asian countries, turtles (and even dogs) can be a really good meals for some kind of people. So at least keeping them in a small place better than looking them become a "turtle soup",right ?
I think the Admin should remove this thread. it is really hurtful when looking the tortoise treated like that