For centuries Tibetans have lived with nature, always seeking to learn and understand its nuances and rhythms. Our religion, Buddhism, has played a role in this respect. A general taboo against exploiting the environment was a direct result of our Buddhist knowledge and belief about the inter-relationship between all plants, animals, as well as the "non-living elements of natural world" have became a part of our daily lives. And after living like this for hundreds if years, it has become difficult for any Tibetan to differentiate between the practice of religion and concern for the environment.

Furthermore, we Tibetans have always been aware of the interdependent nature of this world. We know that our large country, with its diverse flora and fauna, its primal forest cover, and above all the many great rivers which rise in Tibet, is a source of life to an area many times larger than Tibet itself. For most of Asia, Tibet's environment has always been of crucial importance., And so for centuries Tibet's ecosystem was kept in balance and alive out of a common concern for all of humanity.

This balance was ensured through two main approaches:

1. Approaches which had the Government backing; and

2. Approaches evolved by the society.

First, let me elaborate on the different approaches undertaken by the Tibetan Government.

RILUNG TSATSIG OR DECREE FOR THE PROTECTION OF ANIMALS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

In the Horse Water Year (1642) His Holiness the Great Fifth Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, became the spiritual and political mentor of Tibet. From this date, in the tenth month of every year, a Decree for the Protection of Animals and the Environment was issued in the name of the Dalai Lama.(1) One of the Decrees (or "Tsatsig") issued by Great Thirteenth Dalai Lama states:

From the first month of the Tibet calendar to the 30th of the seventh month, with the exception of tigers, leopards, bears, hyenas, rats and Rishu (no translation available), nobody will hurt, let alone kill, the different birds of the air, animals of the hills and forests, fish and otter of the water or air, no matter how big or small.(2)

In the absence of the Dalai Lamas, the Regent issued the tsatsig. For example, a tsatsig issued by the Regent Tagdra in 1940 reads:

From this Iron-Dragon year, the Tibetan Government has decreed that in each and every village and town in Tibet on every 8th, 15th, and 30th day of each month, the 4th day of the 6th month, the 22nd day of the 9th month, and the 25th day of the 10th month, no domestic animals should be killed for the purpose of selling their meat for profit of for food.(3)

On special occasions and on the advice of the state oracle (the Nechung oracle) a special tsatsig would also be issued. For example, on the 28th day of the 7th month of the Wood-Monkey year (1944), the Regent Tagdra issued a special tsatsig proclaiming:

For the health of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for the sake of the Dharma and for the benefit of all sentient beings, the village heads, officials and governors of all districts of Tibet are commanded to prevent the killing of all animals, except predatory hyenas and wolves. The fish and the otters of the water, animals of the hills and forests, birds of the air, all animals and insects endowed with the gift of life, big or small, must be protected or saved.(4)

The tsatsigs were dispatched throughout Tibet and had to be read by the village heads, officials or governors in public meeting specially convened for this purpose. The assembled public would agree to abide by this effect would be duly drawn up and sent to the Tibetan Government. In front of every district office and governor's office there were special notice boards where the tsatsig would be displayed throughout the year.

Clear directions were also given for the implementation of the tsatsig:

The governors and official of each district must send out observers and agents to see that this decree is faithfully observed in all the regions of the land of snow. If not, the respective observers and agents must report the violation of the tsatsig to me (Regent Tagdra) personally, with proper, unbiased proof.(5)

The direction goes even further, warning the officials:

If the Tibetan Government hears of or if the concerned governors report, that the individuals, whether high humble, consider these tsatsigs routine and continue to violate them, they will be punished according to the law of the land. If the lawbreakers are caught, not only they but the governors of the districts where this tsatsig is broken will also be punished.(6)

and:

Each governor of all districts must submit a report to the Kashag (Cabinet) of how they are enforcing the Tsatsigs in their respective areas.(7)

In addition, every year in the fourth month (known as Saka Dawa) the Tibetan Government issued a "Meat Law", whereby the eating of meat was total prohibited up to the fifteenth day of the month. Later it was extended to a full month by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.(8)

However, exception was made to these rules during the winter months:

If one cannot survive without either the sale or eating of meat (because of high altitude) killing is permissible. But if one can live without selling meat, the killing of yaks and other domestic animals should be avoided and district must make sincere attempts to look into the matter.(9)

Similarly, the local high Rinpoches or lamas also issued tsatsigs. This traditions was prevalent throughout the three provinces of Tibet, These tsatsigs were considered the most effective way to preserve the religion, life, peace happiness and health for all sentient beings and also to prevent disease or war amongst all sentient beings.

The Tibetans were also encouraged to cultivate the land. On the eighth day of the first month of the Water-Ox year (1913), His Holiness the Thirteenth Dalai proclaimed:

From now on, no one is permitted to obstruct anyone from undertaking cultivation for tree plantation any available vacant lands. No one, including the government , private or religious institutions, should ever obstruct these healthy and beneficial deeds.(10)

And a few decades later, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama writes in his, widely-read Human Approach to World Peace:

All beings primarily seek peace, comfort and security. Life is as dear to the mute animal as it is to any human being, even the simplest insect strives for protection from dangers that threaten its life. Just as each one of us wants to live and does not wish to die, so it is with all other creatures in the universe.(11)

Evidence of the successful implementation of these approaches can be found in the records of various Western travelers, explorers and naturalists who visited Tibet. For example, British explorer Kingdom Ward wrote before the first World War:

I have never seen so many varieties of birds in one place, one great zoological garden.

Josef Rock wrote in the National Geographic in 1930:

Wherever I looked, saw a wild animal grazing contentedly.

German traveler Dalgleish reported sighting a herd of ten thousand Chiru (white rumped antelope) and in the forties Leonard Clark reported:

Every few minutes we would spot a bear, a hunting wolf, herds of musk deer, kiangs ( wild asses), gazelles, big horned sheep, or foxes. This must be one of the last unspoiled big game paradise.

EARTH CONSERVATION RITUAL

Every year in the second month the Tibetan Government organised an Earth Conservation Ritual of 'Vase'.(12) The ritual was performed for seven days by eight monks of the Mangyal monastery and one monk from the Gyuto Tantric College. His Holiness the Dalai Lama also participated in the ritual.(13)

There is an officially approved text known as Sa-Chue Bumpa for the Earth Conservation Ritual. Thousands of mud vases were made and filled with different types of five precious metal, trees, grains, incense , water, milk, cloth, medicinal herbs and the eight belongings of "Lu" (the water goddess).(14) These vases were then divided between different deities. One vase was make of silver, after the waters of a particular lake which always shimmers like silver to offer to the water goddess. After completing the ritual, the vases were taken to be put in different mountains and lakes of Tibet. This was done by three Namgyal monks in the areas around Lhasa, and one monk each from Namgyal and Gyuto monestaries, together with an "atrung" (official postman) in western, northern, and southern Tibet. However, only one Atrung was sent to eastern Tibet. On the fifth day of the fourth month, the silver vases were put into Meldro Lake, 160km from Lhasa, where the deity Lugyal Madoe Zechen resides.

The vases were tied with three rain pills. The rituals of the rain-summoning pills were completed at the same time as the Earth Conservation Ritual. These pills were intended to ensure the purity, quality and quantity of existing water, to give fresh life to the lake, and finally, to summon the rain to improve life and the environment on earth.(15)

WATER AND RAIN RITUAL

In the third and fourth months in every year rain is scarce in Tibet. The Tibetan Government undertook the following measures to ensure proper rainfall:

First, every year during these months, eight monks from Namgyal monastery were went to seven lakes in and around Lhasa. They would recite special texts to summon the rain.

Second, the Tibetan Government would issue a decree banning construction work, both public and private, when the rainfall was not satisfactory. During the fourth month in particular, construction work was completely stopped.

Third, the Tibetan Government would invite 'gomchen' or hermits who specialized in summoning rain over lakes, to perform special rites in the area around Lhasa.

Finally, if the rain still did not come the government ordered a mass reading of the Kangyur (the doctrine of the Buddha) in the fields for several days. At this time no meat would be served. After completing the reading of the 108 volumes, the scriptures were carried in a circular procession around the fields by monks. The public also joined in this ceremony dressed in their best attire(16)

Another method employed by government to summon rain was to order the public to play with water in the streets for two or three days. Even the ministers and high lamas were not spared, water was thrown over everyone who went in the streets. This was done during the months of water scarcity to prompt the water god.(17)

PURIFICATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT

From time to time, the government performs the Purification Rites of Objects (Religion) and the Environment. This purification is to eradicate all the evils confronting the environment and to maintain its originality.

INCENSE BURNING FOR PURIFICATION OF THE ATMOSPHERE

One traditional means of purifying the atmosphere is by offering incense, or "Sangsol". This can be performed individually or in groups, on occasions such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama's birthday, marriages, the day of the Tibetan New Year, or other important events.

The incense should be burned on a stone heath, or in a large urn-shaped burner and should not be trampled by people or animals. Wood, not coal, should be used as fuel and the substance to be burned as incense should be fragrant, such as the leaves of fern or juniper, or the branches of coniferous trees, rhododendron, red or white sandalwood. In addition, tsampa, butter, sugar, medical plants and other substances free from the taint of alcohol, onion or garlic are burned. At the end of the offering, the participants stand in a row and throw a handful of tsampa (roasted barley flour) in the air and shout "Ki Ki Soso Lha Gyalo" (Victory to the gods).

In the fifteenth of the fifth Tibetan month World Incense Offering Day is celebrated. This is a public holiday and a day for picnics. The origin of this day dates back to the completion of the first Buddhist temple, popularly known as Same, in Tibet in the 8th Century.(18)

Incense offerings are made to lamas, protector deities, country deities, lords of the soil, etc., to promote rain, forests, the prosperity and vitality of the earth; to prevent disease, war, misfortune, to create wealth and to bring peace to all sentient beings who smell the smoke.

THE APPROACHES OBSERVED BY SOCIETY

The monks and nuns, farmers, nomads and other lay Tibetans had their own prescribed practices and conventions which showed for the environment. After living in Lhasa in the 1940s, Hugh Richardson wrote:

I have never seen less evidence of hatred, envy, malice and uncharitableness. The Buddhist ethic pervades all aspects of Tibetan culture. The Tibetan system produces a people who in the upper levels were self-controlled, intelligent, often deeply learned, capable, unpretentious and dignified. The majority of people made efforts with nature, not against it.(19)

The Tibetan way of life essentially prohibits the killing of any sentient beings. Children are taught from birth that all life is sacred. In his classic work, Seven Years in Tibet, Heinrich Harrier wrote of the frustration of working with Tibetans on the dyke that to this day protects the capital city of Lhasa from flooding:

There were many interruptions and pauses. There was an outcry if anyone discovered a worm on a spade. The earth was thrown aside, work suspended and the creature put in a safe place.

Monks and monasteries were forbidden to deal in any kind of livestock.(20) For three months in the summer, monks and nuns, comprising one-fifth of Tibet's entire population, went into retreat. From the sixteenth of the sixth Tibetan month until the thirtieth of the eighth month, they would not leave the grounds of the monasteries. Such retreats served to prevent the killing or accidental crushing of worms, insects, larvae, etc. which develop during the summer, and to protect the plant life. Instead, the monks and nuns would pray for the well-beings f all sentient being.

The farmers had their own traditions. They would get together and make their own laws concerning the preservation of their environment for the current year. For instance, when the seedlings were growing, the following rules were observed:

i) Monks and nuns were not allowed to go near the fields. Their celibate lifestyle was seen as being contrary to fertility- giving vibrations.

ii) No quarrels or games take place in the middle of fields. If this occurred, the normal punishment for doing this was doubled.

iii) No one should go to the fields without proper clothing.

iv) The firing of any kind of gun was forbidden. All noisy festivities or unnecessary shouting were banned.

v) Brides, bridal parties or funeral processions were not allowed to pass through the fields. This avoided damage to the crops from crowds. Furthermore, it was considered unhealthy to bring the bodies of people who had died from disease in contract with th fields, rivers or lakes.(21)

Anthropologists Melvyn Goldstein and Cynthia Bell have documented how, before 1959, the nomads carefully divided their regions into sections in a "pasture book". The number of animals allowed in each pasture was carefully regulated, and penalties were quickly enforced on offenders. Livestock census were taken every three years , and areas carefully guarded against overgrazing. By following this system, the nomads managed to conserve the health of these grasslands through centuries of continuous use.

MINERAL RESOURCES OF TIBET

For centuries, the rich mineral sources of Tibet were not extracted except for some gold. Tibetans believe that mining the natural resources of country would diminish the natural strength of the land, would invite displeasure of the deities and would bring harm to society.

For instance, gold was mined in Lake Manasorovar in Western Tibet in the 1900. But following an outbreak of small pox attributed to the wrath of the pressing deity of the mine, the Tibetan government stopped the mining.(22) Similarly, Khenrab Kunsang Mondrag, a Tibetan trained in mining, surveyed some parts Dakpo and Lokha in the 1920s and found petrol in large reserves. But the government did not give permission to extract the petrol on the grounds that this would affect the eco-system.(23)

PLANTS AND WATER

Central Tibet alone has more then 5,760 varieties of plants of which 3,000 have any economic value. In additions, there are more than 1,000 varieties of medicinal herbs, such as safflower, fritillary (Fritillaria thunbergii), Chinese catepillar fungus, Chinese angelica, red dotted salvia (salvia mititiorrhiza), dangshon (Codonopsis pilosula). Many of them are of high economic value and easy to collect because of their concentrated growth.(24)

Tibet's forests constitute the largest forest reserve at China's disposal. Their devastation has been widely documented and up to 1980 an estimated US$ 54 billion worth of trees have been felled and taken to China. With such colossal deliberate and mindless deforestation, Tibet's eco-system has rapidly deteriorated.(25)

Tibet is the principal watershed for the Asian continent. Four rivers, all with descriptive names, rise near Mount Kailash in the west. The Sengye Khabab (meaning out of the lion's mouth) flows through Kashmir to become the Indus in Pakistan. The Langchen Khabab (out the elephant's mouth) flows southward to become western India's Sutlej. The Mapcha Khabab (out of the peacock's mouth) becomes the sacred Ganges (though Gangotri in India is the accepted source for Hindus). And the Tachok Khabab (out of the horse's mouth) flows eastward and, joining the Kyichu river south of Lhasa, forms the Brahmaputra, which winds through Assam and Bengal.

A river known as the Ngochu rises in central Tibet and flows through Kham in eastern Tibet and into Burma, the Salween. From northern Tibet, two rivers, the Ngomchu and the Zachu, flow through Kham and into China as the Yangtse. The Machu river coming from the mountain of Machen Pomra in eastern Tibet, passes through Amdo and becomes the Huang Ho (the Yellow River) of China.

In addition there are more than fifteen hundred lakes scattered all over Tibet. These lakes, teeming with fish and surrounded by grasslands, provided ideal areas for animal husbandry.(26)

Tibet is mountainous and much of the terrain is very steep, so that many rivers have enormous drops in elevation. The potential hydro-electric power was never harnessed. The geothermal energy, solar energy and wind power were also not exploited.

RESPECT FOR NATURE

As a result of their upbringing, Tibetans have a great respect for all forms of life. Traditionally Tibetans have always lived n harmony with nature. They obey the environmental decrees issued by the government. Through their religion Tibetans strive to improve the vitality of the earth and protect life on earth.

As for the future policy, the 14th Dalai Lama, announced a Five Point Peace Plan for Tibet, on September 21, 1987, at the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in Washington, D.C. The fourth point of this peace plan was devoted to the environmental issue and stated that "what little is left in Tibet must be protected and efforts must be made to restore the environment to its balance state."

Finally, I conclude with the Nobel Peace lecture of H.H. the Dalai Lama on December 11, 1989, at University Aula, Oslo, where he proposed:

It is my dream that the entire Tibetan plateau should become a free refuge where humanity and nature can live in peace and in harmonious balance. It would be a place where people from all over the world could come to seek the true meaning of peace within themselves, away from the tensions and pressures of much of the rest of the world. Tibet could indeed become the creative centre for the promotion and development of peace.

* Paper presented at the Ecological Conference on Tibet in San Francisco, 27 October 1990.

NOTES
1. Regent Rading Rinpoche's tsatsing issucd in 1939.
2. The tsatsig issued by the Great 13th Dalai Lama in 1901.
3. The Regent Tadrag Rinpoche's tsatsig issued in 1944.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid No. 3
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. An interview with Master of Religious Cere-mony of the Present Dalai Lama.
9. Ibid. No. 3.
10. Shakabpa. Tsepon W.D. Tibet: A Political Ifirtory (Tibetan), Vol. 2.
11. The DaIai Lama, A Human Approach to World Peace (London, 1984).
12. Interview. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Lu/Nagal a kind of being regarded as belonging to the animal class believed to about subterranean realms, and soil pruductivity; some are Dhanna protectors, but they can bring retribution if they are disturbed; often in Buddhist an and in written accounts, they are portrayed as being half human and half snake.
15. Interview. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. An interview with professor Dagton Say, Tibetan Medical Institute, Dharamsala, India.
18. Swami Pramanannanda, Exploration in Tibet (Calcutta, 1950)
19. Richardson, Hugh E., A Short History of Tibet, (New York, 1962).
20. 13th Dalai Lama's proclamation of 1913.
21. Interview, No. 17
22. Shankhawa Gunne Sonam, Tibetan Governnent's Political and Religion ceremonies, (Dharamsala, 1984).
23. Interview, No. 17.
24. lbid.
25. Present Conditions in Tibet (Dharamsala, 1990) P. 20.
26. Shskabpa, Tsepon W.D. A Political History of Tibet (New York, 1967) (English) P.211.

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