Tulku & his protection for the Holy Mountains & Sacred lakes
The 1st Ecological Culture festival on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau was a merger of traditional culture & environmental protection ideas--- picture taken by Liu Jianqiang
<Southern Weekend>2005-09- 08
Editor’s note: starting from this issue, the ‘sustainable development’ page will be incorporated into <Southern Weekend>. ‘Sustainable development’ is a rather ‘high-tech’ term but it’s related to our daily life—it’s about the satisfaction of the present generation’s needs while not taking away the resources of future generations. In other words, to advance in economy & at the same time conserving the natural environment & resources that are essential for our survival. We can’t take all our ancestors left to us & giving none to our future generations.
Our ancestors was aware of this: –“don’t ruin the pond to get your fish, don’t burn the forest for your hunting”--- it was already said 2100 years ago in Huai Nan Zi Chapter Shu Er—A book written in the Han Dynasty.Thus we have the present world. Today, the target of China’s sustainable development in the 21st Century is to get the country onto the road of advancement in production & prosperity & at the same time with a good environment.
We wish our report on sustainable development could depict the issues through vivid examples.Of course we need a wider angle – especially what the current government promotes- scientific development views & to construct a harmonious society.Thus we will look at the issues from different angles.
Journalists:Liu Jianjiang, Cao Xiaofan
A Tibetan tulku will make herdsmen who kill wild animals carve sutras on the stones as punishment. This is how tulku protects the Holy Mountains. Tibetan Buddhism believes in treating all beings equal & forbidding killing. Thus the Tibetan herdsmen opine that environmental protection is doing good deeds.Combining environmental protection & Tibetan religion is a practical means for the protection.
In red robe, with beads in hand, tulku Zhu Ga stood on Holy Mountain Lamanaola, 5170m above sea level.Down the mountain, a suspicious jeep was speeding near-- another gang for the caterpillar fungus? Bringing with him several other monks, tulku rushed down the mountain & stopped the car.
Tulku Zhu Ga was previously head of the management committee of Qinghai Province Zaduo county Rili temple. He resigned from the post & patrolled the area with several monks in the harvest seasons of caterpillar fungus to prevent damages done to the Holy Mountain.
Here is Qinghai Province Zaduo county Diching village, source of Lancang River. It takes a few days’ ride on horseback to go from the foot of the Holy Mountain to inhabited places, but this still cannot stop the poachers.
“We’re from the geology team,” said the guys. They gave Zhu Ga a piece of paper on which stated that they came to inspect the mines & needed to ‘dig a few holes’ there. “You have the formal assignment?”Tulku Zhu Ga asked. As county representative of the People’s Congress & Prefecture representative of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee, he understands that it’s very easy to get whatever sort of ‘papers’.
His irresistible firmness sparkled from his eyes through the dark brownglasses. The gang mumbled & left.
Protection by Tulku & the Tibetans
The Tibetans have been venerating & protecting, conserving Holy Mountain Lamanaola generations after generations.The mountain is one of the most famous ‘Holy Mountains’ in Kang Ba.In the Tibetan legend, the Qinghai-Tibet plateau is a pure land where the Gods visit.There is a Holy Mountain in each mountain system.There are many precious & endangered animals & birds near Diqing: white-lipped deer, musk deer, snow leopard, lynx & brown bear etc. Birds like snow cock, vulture etc also inhabit here.
55 years old Zhu Ga is a re-incarnated tulku. He is the son of a “head of hundred families”He is the most popular person near Diqing.He’ll ride on the horse for 3 days to go to Lancang River source to perform Buddhism rituals in every Spring. He felt that it’s his mission to protect the Holy Mountains, the wild lives, the pastures & Lancang River.“You see, here is 3 Great Rivers sources, ‘Water tank of China ’.The environments of the up reaches of Changjiang River & Yellow River were heavily damaged, that of the Lancang River here is still OK, thus we have to conserve it.”Zhu Ga told our journalists early this August.
But it has become more & more difficult to conserve the environment.
In June 1982, many local herdsmen went to collect caterpillar fungus & hunt wild animals.Zhu Ga reflected the situation to Diqing committee & requested that a piece of grassland on Lamanaola Mountain be set aside as conservation area.He also performs Buddhism rituals every year in Diqing & calls for local people’s voluntary protection for the Holy Mountains.
Rules are then set: anybody digging for caterpillar fungus & hunting wild animals in the Holy Mountains will be fined for pack cows with saddles. The rules were announced before the people.Around 1989, some herdsmen hunt musk deer & snow leopards with tongs.Tulku Zhu Ga started to patrol the mountain & turned in 30 tongs in a month’s time.He made the tongs into knives for carving sutras on stones & made the hunters & diggers carve stones as punishment.
Under the suggestion of Tulku Zhu Ga, the Village Committee assigned people to patrol Lamanaola Mountain. Zhu Ga lived at the foot of the mountain & brought more than 20 monks to patrol the mountain in seasons for collection of caterpillar fungus.Conflicts always arise between them & the poachers.In 2002, two herdsmen were found digging caterpillar fungus and each was fined 5000 yuan.In 2003, three diggers were caught, it was decided that each of them be fined 2500 yuan & to carve 2500 stones.
Herdsmen who did a good job in conserving the Holy Mountain will be awarded a cow or a horse.Over the years, 10 horses & 16 cows of the Zhu Ga family were given to the herdsmen.The 82 years old Angza, due to his high morals, always advises his family & other villagers to conserve the Holy Mountain and was offered the Ha da.
“But these measures can only be applied to the local people, they’re not effective on the foreigners” Zhu Ga said.
The best caterpillar fungus of the country is found here, thereby attracting thousands of foreigners to rush in for them.Last year, 37000 foreigners came to Zaduo county and had dug thousands holes in the pastures of Lancang River source.
The remoteness of Lamanaola Mountain cannot stop the caterpillar fungus collectors.In 2003, thirty foreigners were in the mountain digging for the fungus.Zhu Ga led 100 villagers to drive the poachers away.Last year, Zhu Ga sent two people to wait on the mountain for 3 nights and found more than 40 persons from Langqin county. Confrontation nearly arose & had to be settled by police.
Over these years the price of caterpillar fungus inflated from 30 yuan a catty to 20,000 yuan.Many foreigners are fixing their eyes on the fungus, obviously they cannot be prevented only by local force.
NGO comes to assist
Luzhi came. She is the professor of the Biology faculty in Beijing University, representative of CI (Conservation International) China project. CI is a non-profit-making international organization working on the conservation of bio-diversity in the world.
“The environment around the Tibetan Holy Mountain areas are on the whole very good”said Luzhi,“this made me realized that the traditional beliefs of Tibetan Buddhism can play an important role in conserving bio-diversity. Luzhi is of the view that Tibetan Buddhism promotes respect for life & Nature. Traditionally each Tibetan village & monastery has their own Holy Mountain & Sacred Lake; normally they are the hills, forests, lakes & rivers nearby.And now, only in these places can we still find wild animals.Local people live in these delicate environments, not only do they conserve the Holy Mountains & Sacred Lakes, they also accumulate precious rural knowledge & sustainable management mode for natural resources.”
The professor bumped 3 days on the mountain road to attend the ecological culture festival.She expressed that CI would help Tibetans to conserve the Holy Mountains & 3 Great Rivers sources via communication with government; grants, knowledge & management.
She said the benefits for conserving the Hlly Mountains & Sacred Lakes would go beyond their locations. The Holy Mountains & Sacred Lakes situate on the sources & upper reaches of Changjiang River, Yellow River & the international rivers, Lancang River & Nao River.These rivers are affecting the lives of 5 billion people in an area around 3 million sq. miles. Many Sacred Lakes are important plateau wetlands, conservation of these lakes will significantly affect the ecological, social safety & sustainable development in Tibet, China & Southeast Asia.
It is now very popular to set up new Natural Conservation areas in Western China. But little money were put into the projects, thus many of them face the problem of insufficient funds & staffs. Religious traditions provide a new way for conserving Holy Mountains & Sacred Lakes. But Luzhi thought that this system withcommunity inner restriction as characteristics also faced clashes: on the one hand we needed to promote & conserve traditional culture & on the other hand when the inner-restricted management mechanism came across threats e.g. uncontrolled economic development, its effectiveness will be hindered.
“We are trying to communicate with government & People’s Congress & to strive for the recognition of the Holy Mountains & Sacred Lakes conservation mechanism by the nation, various legal authorities & control regulations. If we succeed, the practice will transcend from its role of local customs” she said.
The merger of Buddhism beliefs & environmental protection ideas
The help from CI to Tulku Zhu Ga & Diqing villagers is passed through the Snowland Great Rivers Environmental Protection Association.The Association is a local Tibetan environmental protection organization in which Za Duo is one of the leaders.
Za Duo said, “Tibetan Buddhism believes that all beings are equal & requires that killings be prohibited. This coincides with the ideas of protection for the environment & wild animals.Tibetans are particularly aware that environmental protection is to do good deeds.
But Za Duo distinguished the two,“We do not come to Diqing to conduct religious activities, we come to promote environmental protection.We wish to combine environmental protection ideas with their conservation of the Holy Mountains & Sacred Lakes. Actually, Buddhism teachings & environmental protection ideas are not totally the same.Environmental protection focuses on human, while Buddhism emphasizes that all beings are equal.”
Zhu Ga told that previously the herdsmen would break empty bottles on the pastures to prevent insects clawing into the bottles & die inside.But this would contaminate the pastures.After being taught the ideas of environmental protection, the herdsmen no longer break the bottles, they will not put bottles on the pasture either. But the bottles will still kill the insects ---- they collect the bottles & dispose of them away from the mountains.
The first step of cooperation of NGO with herdsmen is to help them with funds, knowledge & management; sponsor them to hold the 1st non-governmental Qinghai-Tibet plateau ecological culture festival.
The festival adopted traditional horse racing, keeping the horse racing, wrestling, singing, dances etc & embodied environmental protection ideas in the sutra talks of tulku & Kambu(scholars in the monasteries).The impoverish county government donated 1500 yuans to the festival & lent several big tents to the organizers.At the end of July, the festival formally opened, the theme was to “cherish life, treasure life, each living being is vivid & fresh.”
There was another point of the festival: asked the herdsmen to reject products made from wild animal furs.
Sun San, Senior Project Manager of CI, said that according to the survey on the 6 villages near Diqing, Tibetan costumes made from skin & fur of wild animals such as tiger, leopard, otter, fox etc were found in nearly every family. An average of 1 or 2 to 3 to 4 items in each family.There are more than thousand families in the 6 villages. The skins & fur were smuggled form India, Nepal & Burma.The villagers spent large sums to buy the products from the black market.The black market is a great disaster to the endangered tigers & leopards.
One night in August, in the candle lit tents, several hundreds of Tibetans were classified into female group, male group & monks group to discuss on how to treat the skins & fur of endangered animals.The NGO did not interfere, it was its target to let everyone in the Tibetan communitiesparticipate in the discussion & decision of the public affairs on their own accord.
“Wearing clothes made from skins of tigers & leopards will extinct the big cats in the world” said the 61 years old Erli,“I’ll never wear them again, I won’t lose anything.”
Tulku Zhu Ga said it’s not the Tibetan tradition to wear animal skins & fur. Wearing them is contrary to the Tibetan Buddhism teaching to cherish lives.
It rained heavily in the morning of 4th August. Hundreds of herdsmen sat on the grass, took off their hats, let the rain wet their body & listened attentively to the sutra talk.Tulku told the mass, “we have to protect our Holy Mountains, 3 Great rivers sources, China’s ‘Water Tank’.Don’t wear tiger & leopard skins, because if you wear them, you will induce people to kill the animals for the skins, you & them then sin alike.”
Erli came forward to the Tulku for the initial ceremony (a Buddhism ritual) & swear with a group of women: “I will never wear tiger & leopard skins again.”They then solemnly signed.Totally 113 people vowed that they would never buy products made from wild animals again.
Kang Zhoujie won in the fashion show.Luzhi declared the reasons of her victory: the red pulu gown she wore was made from hand-woven woolen fabrics, simple & elegant.It satisfied the requirements of warmth retaining & good-looking while dispensed with the use of wild animals’ skins & fur.The 17 years old girl flushed, 2 big bight eyes hid under the white Tibetan hat.
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