Holly Mountains and Sacred Lakes

Tibetan people’s ideas, methods and procedures about ecosystem conservation are extensively reflected in their protection practice of the Holly Mountains and Sacred Lakes, major vehicles of Tibetan traditional ecosystem protection culture. We promote the survey, collection and research related to the protection of Holly Mountains and Sacred Lakes, keeping the best parts of the traditional practiceand assimilating the current major ideas about environmental conservation. Our objective is to rebuild the image of Holly Mountains and Sacred Lakes in Tibetans’ minds, making them the core Tibetan habitats to be preserved. At the same time, lobbying should be made towards the governmental authorities at various levels to push them to make the protection of Holly Mountains and Sacred Lakes their priority environmental protection action.All these aim at building a brand new mode of environmental protection compatible with Tibetan culture.

Tibetan’s practice of protecting Holly Mountains and Sacred Lakes reflects not only their respect, awe and gratitude towards Nature, but also their cherishment of karma life cycle. This is based on the view that Nature is a whole, not centered on humans but on the emphasis of theinherent value of the ecosystems, different from the positions held by many people who tend to be mechanical, individualistand human-centered when dealing withenvironmental issues. Tibetans also consciously protect the land through some tabous. They think the violation of such tabous would cause disasters and this idea is deeply rooted in Tibetans’ psychology and morale. The belief in karma, the respect of nature, the traditional tabous and the collective code of ethics all together form factors which are strongly interconnected and contributing to the conservation of environment. Culturally speaking, all of them are working for the benefit of nature as a whole with homogeneity.

Since 2004, our association has been developing the project of Holly Mountains and Sacred Lakes in the 3 Great Rivers’ Sources Area, the major population of which being Tibetan. Feasibility studies have been carried out with respect to the habitats in the holly mountains or sacred lakes or places, i.e. Gaduojuewu Holly Mountain, Lamanaola Holly Mountain, Kegawa Holly Mountain, Saikang Temple, Zeri Temple, Gawu None Temple, Gaer Temple and Labu Temple. Photos of more than 240 flowers in the neighborhood of the Sacred Mountain of Gaduojuewu have been taken and both their popular and scientific names have been ascertained. Detailed protective measures have been taken with respect to some flowers on way of extinction, specific people have been assigned to take care of specific areas on a periodical basis. We also encouraged the local people to take their own initiatives to protect Gaduojuewu Holly Mountain, Lamanaola Holly Mountain and Kagawa Holly Mountain. This action has been highly appreciated and strongly supported by local communities and people.

Fig 1 The Association arranged for the key protection personnel of Holly Mountains & Sacred Lakes to attend the symposium on Holly Mountains & Sacred Lakes & management of conserved lands held in Kangding, Sichuan

Fig 2 Key protection personnel of Holly Mountains & Sacred Lakes

with Chancellor of Beijing University

Fig 3 The renowned Holly Mountain, Gaduojuewu, in Kangding

Fig 8 Purifying the mountains & the lake