Tibetan Buddhism is considered as the guardian of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a paradise for diverse species, with its rigorous doctrines.

“The Tibetan Buddhism stresses the harmony between humans and the nature. Despite harsh natural conditions, however, Tibet has done a good job in environmental protection. This has much to do with the Tibetan Buddhist dogmas requiring quietness during self-cultivation in order to better merge oneself with the nature,” said Cao Ziqiang, 75, former vice president of the High-Level Tibetan Buddhism College of China.

The plateau has offered this religion an ideal environment for its expansion. There, all lamaseries have luxuriant woods, vast pastures and fertile land.

“To cherish the land has naturally become a mission for those Buddhist followers,” Cao said, adding: “Meanwhile, some Buddhist disciplines and taboos have helped protect the ecological environment as well. For example, the precept of no killing is actually regarded as a respect to life and conducive to the protection of both animals and plants.”

Tibetans have internalized these disciplines into self-awareness and have been pursuing them to the letter in their daily life. “Tibet’s weak ecosystem has been protected to the utmost this way,” he said.

According to China Meteorological Administration, the growth rate of temperatures in Tibet is four times the national average. Consequently, Tibet has become a big victim of climatic changes. Its Buddhism, closely tied up with the nature, has no choice but to accept this reality.

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From the Big News Network

A five-day photo exhibition was organised by a Buddhist monastery at Dharamsala here to commemorate twenty years of the passing away of the tenth Panchen Lama.

The exhibition concluded on Thursday.

On view were rare photographs and vintage Thangka paintings (traditional Tibetan scroll art) that showed the lives of Panchen Lamas.

The organisers wished that through this exhibition the world will remember the forgotten Tibetan Buddhist lineage of spiritual leaders.

The main aim of the exhibition was to show the world that the tenth Panchen Lama had consistently worked for the welfare of the Tibetan people, and also that he had struggled to preserve Tibetan theological culture despite Chinese conquest and rule.

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Sponsors and a Tokyo museum hosting a Tibetan Buddhist exhibition have come under heated criticism from pro-Tibet activists who say the display is politically biased because of the lack of reference to historical facts about the region.

Pro-Tibet supporters have rallied near the Ueno Royal Museum every weekend since the exhibition, titled “Tibet: Treasures from the Roof of the World,” opened Sept. 19 with China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the Chinese Embassy listed among its official sponsors.

The activists have also delivered speeches with commentaries on the history of Tibet and issues related to the region.

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A Buddhist nun has taken in more than 70 orphans and displaced children, raising them and sending them to school for the past 11 years.

Despite her limited savings, Zhenrong (真融) managed to establish an orphanage in Yilan County’s Wujie Township (五結), making ends meet by producing and selling dried Chinese radish, and spinning “like a Tibetan prayer wheel” as she ferries the kids to and from school.

It all began in 1998 when she saw two boys dressed in rags wandering near a river in Suao (蘇澳).

Talking to them, she learned that the boys, ages six and seven, had to scavenge for food because their father was a jobless alcoholic and their mother had left.

She allowed the boys to live at her mini-monastery named after Samantabhadra, a boddhisatva who symbolizes truth and reality and who, in Tibetan Buddhism, is considered an Abi-Buddha or primordial Buddha.

“There is a sad story behind every child I have taken in,” she said.

The youngsters were originally displaced or abandoned because their parents had either died, separated or had been locked up for drug or alcohol abuse.

“Some babies were sent here after being born out of wedlock to teenage girls,” she said.

“It grieves me that none of the abandoned babies’ parents have ever visited since,” she said.

With about NT$4 million (US$120,000) in her savings account, she took out a loan of more than NT$8 million from a bank the next year to buy an abandoned resort in Wujie, where she set up an orphanage, which allowed her to take in more children.

Since it cost at least NT$70,000 per month to run the home and her monthly mortgage was NT$80,000, Zhenrong needed to make money and began curing Chinese radish, making it a staple of the home’s dining table.

Her dried radish turned out to be a major source of income after a restaurant franchise operator from Taipei visited the orphanage and offered to buy her product.

Zhenrong also raised money by running a recycling plant and soliciting donations from Buddhists.

She said she finds her life of hardship and toil quite rewarding when she sees “her” children receive an education, become socially adapted and emerge from their shells after an early childhood of poverty and being uncomfortable even making eye contact with other people.

“Their wardrobe now is basic but clean,” Zhenrong said.

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