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Conservation |
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Conservation Ethics of Kham Communities in Tibet |
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The role of traditional knowledge in the conservation of nature has been established beyond doubt. It has flourished where formal knowledge system has not yet reached or failed. Local or regional traditional knowledge in different parts of the world is deeply entrenched in the religious and/ or cultural ethos of the region. This holds true even in the case of Kham, in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.
Kham is situated in the eastern end of the Himalayas, between Qinghai-Xizhang Plateau and the Central Plain of China. It has been identified as one of the places with the richest bio-diversity i.e., over 12,000 species of vascular plants. The region is strongly influenced by Tibetan-Buddhism and indigenous religious practices.
Like most indigenous people, the people of Kham attribute a spiritual significance to conservation. They are not deliberate conservationists or ecologists, but for them, the spiritual significance of conservation is more important than the ecological one. The people of Kham believe that there is an intrinsic value to Nature. They believe that life is sacred with an innate, intrinsic value and all creations are vested with a spirit, meaning and purpose. All elements of the sacred whole are interconnected, interdependent and interrelated at the deepest levels and should be treated with utmost respect.
The Tibetans have two categories of landscapes, neri - the mountains and locales which are embodied by divinity and yul-lha – those with a human personality. These local divinities are honoured and appeased through the building of lartse, the wooden or stone cairns on mountains or hilltops which are constructed annually, based on the lunar calendar. The yul-lha and gzhi-bda and other folk divinities are part of Tibet’s animistic and shamanistic tradition respectively, which has not been overcome by Buddhism.
There are three ethnic groups of people inhabiting the region, the Naxi, the Musuo and the Pumi, whose distinct but definitive beliefs contribute to the conservation in the area. Some of their practices are presented below.
The Naxi people have a presiding deity Shu, who is responsible for governing Nature. Every year, the people worship Shu and pray for their continued health and prosperity. They usually make offerings at a spring or pond as means of repayment for the forest products excluding timber collected from the woods and reconciliation with Nature.
The Mosuo people are animistic, embodying divinity in lifeless object, and this is expressed through the veneration of Gan Mu embodied by Lion Mountain and by Shin Ami embodied by Lake Lugu, a sacred lake. The people believe that animals and trees should not be killed without reason. They also have sacred trees and wells and they appease their spirits at local altars or during festivals.
The Pumi people have traditionally conserved forests, plants, fish and wild animals. They have taboos about polluting sacred lakes, killing of animals or trees in sacred areas. Those who transgress these taboos are expected to go for repentance to either a Tibetan Lama, a local Lama or to the local wizard, hangui, to appease the local gods and sacrifice a ploughing animal for the village feast.
Lake Lugu is embodied by a Pumi goddess Tai An Yan Soo and is believed was created from the tears of the goddess Gan Mu , the Lion Mountain.
They believe that polluting the lake will incur the wrath of Goddess Tai An Yan Soo, hence they have traditionally used a system of zoned fishing by families.
The knowledge system of the various ethnic groups living in and around Kham is diverse and heterogeneous. Conserving the diverse, contextual and yet compatible knowledge of small communities is an uphill task. People living barely 100-200 mt away from each other use different conservation strategies for the same resource. Unravelling the heuristics of such diverse knowledge system is a challenge for the academicians and intellectuals studying this system.
Conservation strategies based on traditional knowledge thrive on contextual, cultural and religious values. We need to provide the institutional space for such knowledge. Unless the deep interconnection between context and knowledge is understood, no developmental strategy can be compatible with the traditional knowledge based conservation practices and vice versa. (JohnStudley@compuserve.com)
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee, 17(1) & (2): 31&41, 2006 |
