How Buddhist Monks in Ladakh Fight Climate Change

On the morning of Earth Day, April 2018, several thousand people converged on the central plain of the tiny village of Yerat high up in the Indian Himalayas to plant trees. Carrying an assortment of shovels, picks, kitchen spoons, and even make-shift butter tin spades, the assembled villagers, monastics, school children, members of the Indian armed forces, and other volunteers diligently and cheerfully set about digging holes and trenches to plant several thousand native trees, as well as sea buckthorn and red-branched onbu bushes. Divided into teams by village and affiliation, in just a few short hours the entire plantation site was filled with over three thousand saplings. Participants then packed up their assorted tools and moved on to the day’s second plantation site, downstream in the nearby village of Chillam. When I asked volunteers during my research on Buddhism and the environment in Ladakh why they chose to participate in the large-scale plantation events that day as well as in previous years, the reply was unequivocal: they were inspired to participate because of their devotion to His Holiness Kyabgön Chetsang Rinpoche and his vision for a more verdant and organic Ladakh.