17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, launches a new website on environmental protection

December 22, 2009, Tergar Monastery, report by Lhundup Damchoe and Jo Gibson, photos taken by Karma Lekcho

 

The launch of the website was brought forward from 1^st January 2010 to 22^nd December.

Following the conclusion of the teachings on Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend, His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje convened a special meeting in the afternoon, principally for monks and nuns from Kagyu monasteries and nunneries. The assembly hall was packed to over-flowing.  His purpose was to present  Khoryug: a newly-formed association of Kagyu Buddhist monasteries carrying out environmental projects under his leadership,  and  its new website www.khoryug.com.   

Khoryug,  the Tibetan word  for environment, and an abbreviated form of the full title,  Rangjung Khoryug Sungkyob Tsokpa  (Association for the Protection of the Natural Environment) is an association of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and nunneries  that have taken His Holiness's vision to heart and are committed to developing environmental protection projects in their own  areas.  Khoryug currently consists of thirty six monasteries and nunneries across India, Nepal and Bhutan, that are working together to help create an environmental awakening in the Himalayas, focussed  on the importance of forest protection, water conservation, wildlife preservation, adaptation to climate change and waste management.

The new website, www.khoryug.com , which is available in English and Tibetan, aims to provide a platform for His Holiness's environmental activities, project updates from the monasteries ,  and general updates on environmental issues. Each monastery or nunnery within the organisation has a dedicated  page.  Over the past two years, His Holiness has called for environmental commitments from within the Kagyu community, resulting in many forestation and water restoration projects. In the last year, he has chaired two conferences on environmental protection for Kagyu monasteries and nunneries, with athe goal of building environmental management capacity within the Kagyu Sangha. He said that ultimately, he would like Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and nunneries to become leaders on environmental issues, working within their community to address threats such as deforestation, water scarcity, wildlife extinction, pollution and climate change.

The meeting began with a presentation by Dekila Chungyalapa , Director of the Greater Mekong area for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF),  the largest conservation organization in the world. Dekila serves His Holiness as coordinator for his environmental projects. She stressed the importance of geographical areas that are part of the larger Tibetan cultural zone. She noted that three of the 19 areas in the world chosen for special attention by the WWF for their value in terms of biodiversity fall within Tibet and the Himalayan region. The rate of climate change in Tibetan and the Himalayan areas is ten times faster than elsewhere, with glaciers visibly melting from year to year. In addition, the mountains of this area are the source of rivers that support millions of people across Asia. As such, environmental conditions in Tibet and the Himalayas have particularly far-reaching consequences. Inhabitants of the region needed to take action and become part of the solution.

The next speaker was Khenpo Kelsang Nyima from Rumtek  Monastery,  Sikkim.  Representing  the 34 Khoryug monasteries, he described the reactions of many of the Tibetan monastics  who attended the first environmental conference convened by His Holiness in March 2009 in Varanasi. His Holiness led us to see, he said, how beautiful a place the world is. He further emphasized that His Holiness had impressed on them  that we humans have created environmental problems  through our greed, and must take responsibility for solving  them. Khenpo Kelsang Nyima praised His Holiness for his constant and far-reaching concern for others, not only caring for those in the present, but anticipating dangers in the future and working proactively to avert them. The khenpo then offered a report on the practical steps taken by the Kagyu monasteries and nunneries to work for environmental protection in their own areas. A wide range of projects were implemented, including cleaning water sources, planting trees, separating waste and recycling, composting, installing solar heaters, converting to low-energy bulbs, ending the use of plastic bags and bottles, and much more.

Next to speak was the Gyalwang Karmapa himself. His Holiness presented the need to work for the environment as a logical extension of our Dharma practice, connecting it to our Mahayana commitment to benefit others and to live in a way that is consistent with the basic fact of interdependence.

In a powerful address, His Holiness urged the audience to ask themselves whether the beautiful aspirations and prayers they make in the morning are carried out in their actions throughout the day. Often when opportunities arise to work to benefit others, we do not seize them, and if we ask ourselves why this is so, it is usually because we are simply working for our own egocentric concerns. Too often we behave as if others existed for us, and as if the earth was ours alone to use as we wish, His Holiness said, and our actions based on such attitudes have had cumulative effects that are devastating for the earth itself.

Drawing on the point made earlier by Dekila that we humans are but one of the immense number of species of life on this planet, His Holiness added that nevertheless we dominate the planet as if it were ours alone, and are responsible for virtually all the damage done to it.  His Holiness emphasized that this attitude is inappropriate as well as damaging, given our total dependence on others and especially on the earth itself, for our well-being and for our very survival. Gyalwang Karmapa noted that without the plants that yield oxygen, we would not even be able to draw a single breath.

Using a Powerpoint presentation to underscore his points with images, His Holiness took the audience on a dazzling tour. Beginning with the earth,  he showed its place within the solar system, the galaxy and the universe— a mere speck of sand—making the point along the way that if we destroy the earth through our thoughtless actions,  we humans have nowhere else to go. He then reversed the process, bringing us back to earth, and then step by step to atomic level until the final slide proclaimed  tongpa-nyi—emptiness.

His Holiness noted that, unlike humans, the earth is endlessly forgiving.  When someone commits a heinous crime, such as murder, he is shunned and expelled from human society. Yet however much harm we do to her, the earth never banishes us. Despite all the damage we have done thus far, she has never given up on us, but continues to yield her resources to us with great generosity. We all therefore have a responsibility to consider what practical steps we can take to repay this great kindness  we receive from the earth.

The event concluded with a moving rendition of the song Aspiration for the World, written and composed by His Holiness himself, and sung by a mixed choir of students from the Suja Tibetan Children’s Village school.