Ecology Buddhist Monks?

I'm not sure what defines a religion, but how are religions defining their ecological relationship?

Buddhists have always been known for their harmonizing relationship with the environment, as their beliefs encompass samsara and the re-birthing cycle of the universe, but in Thailand a small contingency of monks decided to spread their ecological knowledge.

This movement is also known as "The ordination of the tree", and involves monks protesting against mass deforestation, by providing spiritual whole-ism. 



I think this is an interesting concept because instead of a social movement just naturally affecting an area, there are monks going into farm lands and intentionally trying to use their religious beliefs as a temple for conservation. Not only is in an innate ideology that Buddhists must practice good conservation, but they tie it to many religious rituals like ordaining trees. This ritual of "ordaining" a tree is taking a tree and wrapping it in orange, to simulate the monk and his devotion, and they perform a ceremony making the tree sacred.

This movement has been going on for over twenty years and yet we still know so little about it in the US, but we do know that illegal "grooming" is being done over massive acreage regardless.

-Jordan Carlson


In addition...

Buddhist monks in Thailand are also very conscientious about the wildlife around them. When I visited Thailand a number of years ago, my family and I were taken on a tour on one of the rivers that ran by a number of temples. Once on a boat and going upstream, the tour guide began to hand us bread, and told us to throw some into the river. As soon as the bread hit the water, literally hundreds of fish began to swarm around the boat. Although it took me by surprise at first, the tour guide began to tell us that the Buddhist monks in this area strongly believe in allowing the fish that inhabit that river to flourish. No one is allowed to fish in that area, so it is quite literally overflowing with fish.


^Kinda like this...^

Especially since Thailand has had many problems with overfishing and deforestation in the past and even today, the monks' conservative practices help the environment to replenish all that humans have taken away from it. To some it may seem like a great ecological social movement, the monks do it simply because it is what they believe in; It has always been their way of life. I feel that we could definitely learn from the monks in the sense that the US needs to be enlightened (no pun intended) about the word conservation....

-Daniel Li