Ecological Ethics and the Tibetan Earth Ritual

Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 2014

In this article I examine conceptions of the environment in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of Treasure revelation that I propose are founded upon systems of exchange and relationality. Tibetan religious specialists known as Treasure revealers do not simply remove a Treasure from its place; they often leave a 'replacement Treasure' intended to appease both the local protective deity believed to be in charge of guarding the Buddhist Treasure and nourishing the local environment. I demonstrate that the logic of Treasure revelation is based on forming an interdependent exchange between humans and the land they inhabit. The source of the Treasure becomes a place deserving respect, protection, and devotion on both religious and ecological levels. I call this phenomenon 'the ecology of revelation', and I maintain that this is a fundamental socio-religious ethic characterized by respect for the environment and awareness of humans' connection to it.

Cornell University Press, 2022

In order to create a better future in the struggle with climate change, many people are turning to Buddhism and its environmental principles of interconnectedness and compassion. But do Buddhist values really lead to ecological sustainability, and if so, how? Do Buddhists of different types even agree on how we should live ecologically? This seminal book is the first to answer these questions through a comprehensive, critical, and innovative examination of the theories, practices, and real-world results of Buddhist environmental ethics. In synthetically exploring lived ecological experiences across seven Buddhist worlds from ancient India to the contemporary West, this book helps one to discern attitudes and practices that lead to beneficial ecological interactions from alternative orientations that may result in unsatisfying outcomes. Further, the book’s journey clarifies our understanding of crucial contours of Buddhist vegetarianism or meat eating, nature mysticism, as well as cultural speculations about spirituality in nonhuman animals. With its accessible style and personhood ethics orientation this book should appeal to anyone who is concerned with how human beings interact with the nonhuman environment. Representing the definitive analytic treatment of Buddhist environmental ethics, the book also offers great value in university classrooms involving environmental studies, religious studies, cultural studies, or philosophical ethics.

Religions, 2023

Abstract: Buddhist environmentalism in its varieties across the world is an integral part of the global environmental discourse centered on exploring new planetary ethics for sustainable futures. While recognizing the Buddhist role in global environmental movements, the author of this article proposes that the observable strength of Buddhist environmentalism is in local and global environmental advocacy grounded in the Buddhist ethics of interdependence, even as, canonically, Buddhism does not offer what is commonly recognized by scientists and scholars as traditional ecological knowledge or religious ecology. To substantiate this, this article offers a textual assessment of the Buddhist canon’s lack of systematic ecological knowledge, and a case study of how freeing domestic animals and advocating vegetarianism among contemporary Tibetan Buddhists in China, inclusive of non‑Tibetan converts, mainly benefits human wellbeing and at the same time is entangled in social affairs that have little to do with the ecological wellbeing of the Tibetan Plateau and urban China. This debate is by no means intended to negate the successes of Buddhist environmentalism; instead, it draws fine lines between the claimed canonic basis of Buddhist ecology, the strength of Buddhist environmental advocacy, the everyday practices of Buddhism, and the aspirations for strengthening the ecological foundation of Buddhist environmental activism. Thinking in line with eco‑Buddhists, the author concludes the article by proposing an Earth Sutra, a hypothetical future canonic text as the ecological basis of Buddhist environmentalism. Keywords: freeing animals; vegetarianism; eco‑Buddhism; environmentalism; Earth Sutra

I present a case study of Tibetan Buddhism as a lived religion embodied in the greater environment of a village in eastern Amdo, Tibet. Specically, I explore the interconnectedness of place-based Buddhist practices that, I argue, present an example of care for sacred landscapes in Tibetan Budd-hism. Based on my ethnographic work, I make a threefold argument. First, Buddhism in Tibet can be viewed as 'an emplaced religion' signifying the antecedent role of place in forging the complex intertwinement of the Earth and humans. Second, the sacredness in the local landscape entails a shared, hierarchical entwinement of place, humans, and gods. Third, the way the villagers, especially the lay tantric yogis, consecrate their environment expresses their connection and care for the landscape.

Environmental Ethics, 2023

This article considers the possibility of constructing an authentic environmental ethic from Buddhist sources. It first outlines the major critiques of historical Buddhist approaches to the natural world and parses some of the philological and linguistic barriers to such a construction. It then considers some of the recent philosophical critiques of such a project and reviews the major points of tension between the Buddhist philosophical tradition and the kinds of environmental ethics found in the land ethic and deep ecology. Ultimately, this article asserts that such tension is relieved if we begin from Buddhist philosophical principles and construct an environmental ethic from the ground up. It argues a Buddhist environmental ethic emerges from the combination of the goal of liberating all sentient beings from duḥkha, an understanding of duḥkha as dependently arising, and a novel recognition of the environment as a major cause of this duḥkha.

Representations of Green Tibetans connected to Buddhism and indigenous wisdom have been deployed by a variety of actors and persist in popular consciousness. Through interviews, participatory mapping and observation, we explored how these ideas relate to people's notions about the natural environment in a rural community on the Eastern Tibetan plateau, in Sichuan Province, China. We found people to be orienting themselves towards the environment by means of three interlinked religious notions: (1) local gods and spirits in the landscape, which have become the focus of conserva- tion efforts in the form of 'sacred natural sites;’ (2) sin and karma related to killing animals and plants; (3) Buddhist moral precepts especially non-violence. We highlight the gaps between externally generated representations and local understandings, but also the dynamic, contested and plural nature of local relationships with the environment, which have been influenced and reshaped by capitalist development and commodification of natural resources, state environmental policies, and Buddhist modernist ideas.

International Journal of Social Science and Humanity

The aim of this article is to analyze one of the most outstanding works of Buryat didactic literature – The Mirror of Wisdom by Erdeni Khaibzun Galshiev (1855 – 26 June (9 July) 1915) and to identify the Buddhist ecological values in it. We argue that in the modern context of global environmental awareness as well as local ecological problems in the Baikal region, Russia, The Mirror of Wisdom, and its described practices for laymen have become extremely significant and can serve as the guideline for sustainable living. We start with the overview of the historical background of Buddhism on the territory of the republic of Buryatia, Russia, go on with the general structure of The Mirror of Wisdom by Erdeni Galshiev, and proceed to the analysis of ecological values, such as non-harming to other creatures, the law of karma, non-attachment, and so on. The analysis shows that although written a century ago and not aimed initially to bring together the inter-related issues of population, c...

2009

New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 2021

Buddhist monks have become increasingly visible in environmental movements in the last few decades, including in Arunachal Pradesh, India, my fieldwork site. Monks in environmental protests have contributed to the popular representation of Buddhism as ecological. A review of existing literature suggests that what we are looking at is a re-interpretation of Buddhist traditional philosophy by modern environmentally conscious people and contemporary Buddhists. I argue that as anthropologists, we have to note that while Buddhism can help mobilise lay activism, local practices about the environment do not often overlap with Buddhist doctrine. I illustrate this through the example of the ban on yak meat in Arunachal Pradesh, which is linked to wider Hindu nationalist politics in India. Environmental activities in the Buddhist Himalayas cannot be understood simply through the lens of Buddhism and one has to adopt a more pluralistic approach that is accommodating of customs that do not fit within an imagined "environmental identity" (Sharma 2009). I propose Himalayan environmentalism as an alternative to Buddhist environmentalism, not to disregard the role of Buddhist belief but to show how Himalayan environmentalism goes beyond Buddhism in scope. Second, my intention is not to propose a uniform model for the Himalaya, but to point to the processes at work between culture, politics, and ecology, and to the role of power in fashioning environmental identities. I support my argument with empirical data from my own fieldwork and those of scholars working in other parts of the Himalaya.

International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

The article deals with the importance of the moral potential of Buddhist culture for the formation of ecological stereotypes of modern human behavior. Rituals, rites and customs of environmental importance, and the main philosophical categories of Buddhist ecological ethics that influenced the attitude to nature in the Baikal region are considered. The basic provisions of the ecological ethics of Buddhism, in particular, such concepts as Karmathe expression of human environmental responsibility, Ahimsa-the principle of nonviolence, Bodhichittakindness and compassion for all living beings. The special value of these concepts lies in the fact that they have already had a beneficial effect on the mentality and ethical culture of the peoples of many countries, softening the mores and instilling respect for the Environment.