14 January 2006, Amaravati: Tesi Environmental Awareness Movement (TEAM) has conducted a three-week environmental leadership and awareness raising activities at Amaravati starting from 22 December 2005 in its efforts to make the 30th Kalachakra a memorable eco-friendly spiritual gathering. TEAM is using the presence of a large number of Tibetans at the Kalachakra as an occasion to raise environmental awareness through youth empowerment, leadership and service training in ecological issues. TEAM also distributed 10 different kinds of brochures and posters during this religious event, placed educational posters and banners in prominent places and held an exhibition on endangered species and animal product usage especially focussed at Tibetans from Tibet. TEAM will continue to conduct these activities until the end of the Kalachakra.
During these three weeks, TEAM conducted workshops for 30 Tibetan students from four different schools on general and specific environmental topics such as the “three R’s” – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle – and waste management, endangered species and the preservation of ecosystems. These students not only received a series of Earth Steward workshops but also engaged in hands on daily Earth Service activities such as (a) door-to-door awareness raising campaigns on endangered species and waste management and (b) daily clean-up of the main Kalachakra areas. While doing this they focused strongly on spreading the concept of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle for effective waste management through exemplifying how to sort out recyclable wastes and freely distributing cloth bags to the pilgrims. “It was not done for ourselves but for the benefit of all. I am proud to do such work and I promise to continue the work till the end of my last breath” says Tashi Tsering a Class XI student taking part in TEAM’s environmental programme.
During the workshop, students also chalked out action plans to start a practice of student environmental activism in their schools and Tibetan communities – requesting their school authorities to stop using plastic and styrofoam cups and plates during the school functions, planting trees, organising environmental events and writing articles on environmental issues.
TEAM would also like to acknowledge the kind assistance of the local officials and the great efforts put in by the local Indian authority in cleaning the entire Kalachakra area very efficiently. TEAM has been sorting all collected wastes for optimal recycling during our clean-up work at the teaching and stupa sites. However, such a big event can but only produce large quantities of wastes. More than 50 percent of the wastes are plastics which are being dumped near the river Krishna or burnt in open air with heavy environmental and health costs. TEAM has informed the pilgrims of the situation and would like to request greater consideration of waste management in future events of similar magnitude.
Tesi Environmental Awareness Movement (TEAM) is a newly established non-profit and non-governmental organisation set up to revive the ecological consciousness of the Tibetan people. TEAM aims to combine the ancient Buddhist values of the interdependent nature of all life forms and modern, sustainable and pro-nature ways of living. TEAM is the first effort of its kind by young Tibetans in exile working to promote environmental education and conservation work.
