By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, December 24: His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinely Dorje on Tuesday launched a new website dedicated to environmental protection in the Himalayan region.
www.khoryug.com is a bilingual website in Tibetan and English run by the newly formed association of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries for carrying out environmental projects under Karmapa’s leadership.
Khoryug, Tibetan word for environment, is being used to refer in short to Rangjung Khoryug Sungkyob Tsokpa, the newly formed association that have taken Karmapa’s vision to heart and are committed to developing environmental protection projects in their own locales.
Khoryug is a network of 36 Kagyu Buddhist monasteries across India, Nepal and Bhutan that are working together to help create an environmental awakening in the Himalayas on the importance of forest protection, water conservation, wildlife preservation, climate change adaptation and waste management.
Accordingly, the website intends to offer educational resources on different environmental issues and a forum for people interested in the environment. The network of monasteries will manage much of the information availabale on the website that will include updates by monasteries on progress made in their respective environmental projects.
From time to time, the respective monasteries will also update their progress on the website and will manage much of the information available there, a statement on the website said.
Launching the website at Tergar Monastery in Bodhgaya, the Gyalwang Karmapa underlined 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.”
Karmapa also 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,” Karmapa said, adding “Too often we behave as if others existed for us, and as if the Earth was ours alone to use as we wish.
“Our actions based on such attitudes have had cumulative effects that are devastating for the Earth itself.”
Emphasising humans are but one of the immense number of species of life on this planet, Karmapa said: “We, nevertheless, dominate the planet as if it were ours alone, and we are responsible for virtually all the damage done to it.”
Using a Powerpoint presentation to underscore his points with images, Karmapa took the audience on a dazzling tour of the galaxy, pointing out along the way that we humans have nowhere else to go if we destroy the earth’s natural environment.
“Yet unlike humans, the earth is endlessly forgiving,” Karmapa said.
“When someone commits heinous crimes, 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, therefore, all have a responsibility to consider what practical steps we can do to respond in kind to this great kindness that we receive from the Earth.”
Dekila Chungyalpa, Director of the Greater Mekong area for the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and Khenpo Kelsang Nyima from Rumtek spoke on the significance of environmental protection.
The event concluded with a moving rendition of the song ‘Aspiration for the World’, composed by the Karmapa himself and sung by a chorus of students from the Tibetan Children’s Village School.
Although the primary audience for the presentation were Tibetan monks and nuns, translators were on hand to deliver the message to the international audience in nine different languages.
Many devotees, including foreign students who are currently in Bodhgaya to attend the upcoming Kagyu Monlam and the annual winter teachings, attended the event.
In recent years, Karmapa, one of the most influential Tibetan spirtual figures, has called for special environmental commitments from Kagyu monasteries, nunneries and centers and has undertaken plantation activities by monasteries.
Last year Karmapa chaired two conferences on environmental protection for Kagyu monasteries and nunneries, with a goal of building environmental management capacity within the Kagyu Sangha.
He believes that ultimately Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and nunneries should become leaders on environmental issues, working within their community to address threats stemming from environmental problems.
