Report from the 37th IVU World Vegetarian Congress, Goa, India, 10 - 16 September 2006

Taken from the official report of the IVU, and expanded with personal impressions and experiences of one of the participants.

Yet another IVU Congress has come and gone, almost 100 years of them now, but more of that below.

Some people ask if these Congresses are worth the bother, a few hundred delegates flying around the world to listen to talks that they could probably read on the internet anyway. Of course it all depends on what you want from them but there is nothing quite like sharing a meal (100% vegan and fabulous quality) with a group of people from several different countries, or meeting in the flesh the writers whose articles you might already have seen online. Even if an individual Congress doesn't change the world, there is a cumulative effect of meeting every couple of years for almost a century, the networking opportunities are unique.



And it can be a lot of fun too.



The congress venue was a modern holiday resort on the shore of the Indian Ocean with all the comfort and luxuries that one could imagine, but in all honesty probably did not need. The contrast with the real world outside of the resort could not have been bigger.

The weather could have been better. Although the monsoon season should have been over, the rain came hammering down on several days, and by the end, the whole of the beautiful sand beach had been washed away.

This Congress attracted visitors from at least 20 countries, not a record number but what was significant was that half of those countries were in the Asia-Pacific area. A group of 21 arrived from China, a large delegation from Indonesia, many others from Australia, Iran, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand - and of course lots from India.

There were plenty of us from the West too, but we were really just extras in this Congress. Did you notice Iran and Israel in that list? John Davis (webmaster and manager of the IVU) had the pleasure of a drink in the bar with friends from both (at the same time). If only the rest of the Middle East could duplicate an IVU Congress...

One of the newly elected IVU councillors, from Africa, had to miss the congress as he was on a business trip to China - but he read about it in the English language Chinese newspaper in his hotel room, as the newly formed Chinese Vegetarian Union had brought their own reporters with them.

Sometimes it can be hard to see the impact of events until we are able to look back on them with hindsight. The first, and so far only, IVU Congress in East Asia was in Chiang Mai, Thailand in January 1999 - at the time it didn't seem to have set the world alight, but maybe some things have to smoulder for a while. That Congress saw the foundation of the Asian Vegetarian Union which appeared to get off to a slow start. Their first Congress was in India in 2001, then a long silence until the 2nd Asian Congress in Bangkok earlier this year. But a lot was happening behind the scenes. The President, Jashu Shah from India, along with the Deputy President, Dr. Maitree Suttajit and General Secretary Dr. Pichai Tovivich, both from Thailand, were developing contacts, especially in China. The Chinese government had initially refused to recognise the new Vegetarian Society as they thought it was some sort of religion and it took a flight to China by our guys from AVU to resolve matters.

The group from Indonesia commented during the Congress that only 20,000 of their 60,000 members were actively involved - most Western Vegetarian Societies would be delighted to get a tiny fraction of that activity!

The next AVU Congress will be in Taiwan in August 2007 - watch this space for more details. With vast numbers of Hindu and Buddhist vegetarians, the Asia-Pacific region has been something of a sleeping giant of international vegetarianism - but there are signs that it is beginning to wake up in a big way.

My personal end to the Indian Adventure was a trip to the nature reserves and sites of natural beauty in Goa and the neighbouring Karnataka. It was a true adventure, an experience of the real India. Shankar Narayan,a vegan from Goa had organised this journey privately (as an alternative to the expensive post-congress trip through India) and gave us unforgettable memories of this land. Thank you, Shankar.


This report was written by John Davis and Hildegund Scholvien