Skin cure fad threatens elephants in Myanmar

Tough hide: A piece of dried elephant skin being displayed in a traditional medicine shop near the Golden Rock pagoda in Mount Kyaikhteeyoe. — AFP

MOUNT KYAIKHTEEYOE (Myan­mar): Under the shadow of Myanmar’s famed “Golden Rock” punters haggle for the latest traditional medicine cure – slices of skin from the country’s fast disappearing wild elephants sold for a few dollars a square inch.

A set of stairs winds behind one of the Buddhist country’s most holy sites to a maze of shops openly selling everything from pieces of ivory and tiger’s teeth to vials of bear oil.