May 23rd, UB, Mongolia
I hardly recognize this city from my first visit 8 years ago. Cranes and scaffoldings fill the skyline. Traffic lurches and grinds. A cacophony of horns and power tools accompany a burgeoning population increasing daily with nomads who flood the city limits. In fact, last week I read in the Ulaan Baatar Post that UB is now the most polluted city in the world due to the abundance of vehicles and wood burning stoves. When I first visited, it was possible to run for miles on broken sidewalks beside light traffic. My biggest concern then was the chance encounter with foraging packs of dogs. Now, UB has a huge population with a limited infrastructure. Recent émigrés from the steppes come in hopes of a job and an easier urban life. Together we walk through UB’s tangled chaos, dodging busses and gapping manholes; around us foreign money fast at work building structures that scrape the sky.
Because of Mongolia’s rapid development, we are more committed than ever to help Mongolians deal with the accompanying environmental pressures. I’m here for our second annual Compassion and Conservation conference; an effort aimed empowering Mongolian monks to be conservation advocates. Last week, TTF, along with Gandan Monastery, World Bank, NEMO, Alliance of Religions & Conservation (ARC), and the Mongolian Ministry of Nature and Environment hosted over 50 Buddhist nuns and monks from each province in Mongolia to address Mongolia’s environment.
Monks are becoming increasingly active on sustainability issues. As the price of gold continues to rise, the gold mining industry in Mongolia is explosive. Recently in eastern Mongolia, 60 monks staged a sit-in at a sacred site where a Chinese company was illegally mining and stopped the operation. Sacred sites in Mongolia are a top tier priority for the monks and conference dialogue centered on the need for a united front in the protection of these special areas. Conference topics also included: the promotion of traditional construction practices for monasteries; solar energy in monastic communities; ecology and environmental education for young monks and members of the lay community on environmental practices; reducing waste; and looking for the ancient ecological teachings that can be found in the ancient sutras which were hidden during the 60 years of communist rule last century.
The work at last week’s workshop represents a global effort that ARC and the UNDP launched to engage faiths around the world to design and implement strategies for environmental protection and to encourage a global network of believers to improve their relationship to the Earth. At our Compassion and Conservation conference, Mongolia’s Buddhist leaders announced an eight year plan of action for Mongolian environmental protection. Thirty similar plans crafted by a variety of traditions from nine major world faiths were announced at Windsor Castle in November 2009, by Prince Philip, founder of ARC and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon.
The Mongolian plan is focused on several key issued: emphasizing traditional construction practices of monasteries; reviving taboos in sacred places that will discourage digging, polluting rivers, cutting trees, and killing animals; advocating biodegradeable khadags (silk ceremonial scarves tied to trees, rocks and shrines); reduction of incense use; and to continuing to examine sacred texts or sutras on the importance of nature in Mongolian Buddhism. Of Mongolia’s 600 plus sacred sites in Mongolia, at least 280 have rediscovered their own associated sutras.
The outcomes of the conference were really exciting. The monks are issuing an edict to encourage monasteries and temples to save energy and water, and monitor their consumption; develop solar capabilities; expand community gardens and green sites around monasteries; raise public awareness on traditional environmental practices; educate for forest fires prevention and other impacts caused by human factors; and to advocate reduction of plastic bags and bottles. The monks are pursuing campaigns on land and river protection by targeting mining companies without modern technologies or restoration capabilities; introducing an auspicious day of environmental celebration every year; planting trees (learning which species to plant depending on conditions and how to maintain growth); hosting environmental workshops for nomads on grazing practices; and discouraging illegal hunters from killing wildlife.
After the conference, Chimga, Sue and I celebrated the energy in the monk body and their deep commitment. Not only has UB grown since I first arrived, but so have the seeds of passion on the part of the monk body. They are truly motivated--the biggest issue right now is helping them not bite off more than the can chew! During a debriefing, while we were discussing implementation and tying up loss ends with the Buddhist leadership, Sue, Chimga and I were urgently rushed out of a room at the Gandan and handed yellow khadags. Visiting Gandan is the 9th Bogdo, a reincarnate of Zanabazar, the founder of Mongolian architecture and the country’s most celebrated lama and artist. We were whisked into private apartments guarded by several security guards and told to wait. After a few minutes, we kicked off our shoes, shed our purses at the assistance of stern monks, and were ushered into a back room. There sat Zanabazar, living his ninth life on Earth. We received a quick blessing from the ancient man, cross-legged and tired, loudly coughing. This beloved bodhisattva, so revered in Mongolia, is clearly nearing a time when he will depart this life and return again. It was a very special note on which to end our work...
As I pack to return home, I feel inspired in a way that has alluded me recently. Step by step, we see a deepening environmental commitment —incredibly important due to the increasing symptoms of rapid modernization! I leave eager to work on next goals and feel blessed (literally!) to be working with such incredible people. I can say to you with absolute conviction, is that across the planet, in a city that’s bursting at the seams, there is hope for a cleaner, greener world.
Betsy
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