![]() ![]() One of traditional medicine’s central tenets is the balance of yin and yang within the body. The horns were “commonly used for febrile seizures, very high fevers and for internal heat that affects the blood,” says Steve Given, who teaches traditional Chinese medicine at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Rhino horns were first described in traditional-medicine pharmacopeias more than 1,800 years ago-but their prescribed usage had nothing to do with alleviating a bad hangover. “I felt very cool and much better, and was able to have another party and drink alcohol with guests that very afternoon,” the man recalls. He consumed the concoction the morning after a big drinking session. The man ground up the horn using a special ceramic bowl, dissolving some of the powder in a glass of water before refrigerating it. In one, a man recounted receiving a small piece of rhino horn from a friend who was concerned about how frequently he had to drink while entertaining clients for work. Willemsen shared some testimonials her team collected from the rhino-horn users they surveyed. “They say, ‘Hey, I’ve got some rhino horn, here you go so we can get pissed tonight and you won’t have a hangover tomorrow.’” “It’s easy to get rhino horn today through Facebook, online forums, or e-commerce websites.” The reality may not be quite so wild: “It’s not a drink to enjoy by itself, but it’s used as a tonic to prevent or cure a hangover,” says Madelon Willemsen, the head of Traffic’s Vietnam office. There are also tales of parties where powdered horn is snorted like cocaine. ![]() There are now stories of Vietnam’s nouveau riche reveling in their newfound wealth at “ rhino-wine associations,” gatherings where people down drinks of rhino horn powder mixed with alcohol or water. ![]() The number of ultra-high net worth individuals-those with more than $30 million of investable assets-has grown 320 percent in the past 16 years, a rate quicker than either China or India. Frequently referred to as “ Asia’s next tiger” because it has one of the fastest growing economies in the world, Vietnam boasts a GDP that has steadily increased by 7 percent every year since 1990. Vietnam sees more rich people as each year goes by. Following interviews with 249 users, ITC concluded that “the main rhino horn buyers were rich people who bought rhino horn for use in family or to give to other people as gifts.” Traffic’s last big survey, involving 720 people in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, was conducted in 2013, when they identified four main groups driving the demand: those who believe rhino horn can cure cancer, young mothers who use it to treat feverish children, the affluent who view it as a “health and hangover-curing tonic,” and rich businessmen who give it to superiors to get into their good books.Ī more recent report, published by the International Trade Center in April, whittles down these observations even further. Since 2007, the nonprofit organization Traffic has been studying rhino-horn-consumption patterns in Vietnam. ![]() But these days, it’s wealthy young businessmen driving the demand-and their interest in horns lies beyond its purported medicinal benefits. A piece of horn used to be sought after by older Vietnamese folk, who would visit traditional medicine shops in Lãn Ông street and elsewhere for that special ingredient to add to herbal tonics. But weeding out rhino-horn consumers is a challenge. The Vietnamese government is now facing fierce international pressure to put an end to the crisis, before rhino populations are devastated beyond repair. In one of the most recent arrests, police seized two frozen tigers cubs, four lion pelts, and nearly 80 pounds of rhino horns in raids conducted across the country’s capital, Hanoi. The Southeast Asian nation is the largest consumer of rhino horns in the world, and the illicit trade is so strong that it’s fueling a poaching crisis in South Africa, where more than 1,000 rhinos have been killed in the past year alone. But I had come in search of something a bit more elusive: rhino horn.Īlthough banned in Vietnam, rhino horn is still available for purchase-if you know how to find it. Plastic bags were stuffed with monk fruit, lotus seeds, and strips of bark. Red ginseng and artichoke tea was packed in cardboard boxes. Dark-colored ointments filled glass bottles. I was on Vietnam’s “traditional medicine street.” Shophouses all along the row were stacked with herbs and medicines. The second was the smell: somewhat musty, sometimes sweet, and unmistakably herbal. The first was how quiet it is compared to the rest of Hanoi’s Old Quarter: The flow of motorbikes is less incessant, the lights a notch dimmer. As I turned down Lãn Ông street, two things struck me. ![]()
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