Buddhist practitioners pledge to protect environment at 6th Khoryug Conference

Dharamshala, Nov.13 (ANI):Buddhist practitioners have pledged to protect the environment while participating in the 6th Khoryug Conference being held here.

Kun Kyong, a Tibetan charitable trust has organised the conference on environmental protection for Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and nunneries in the Himalayas.

Representatives of 55 different monasteries and nunneries from India, Nepal and Bhutan are attending the three-day conference at Norbu Lingka institute here.

Emphasizing that the main goal of the conference is to do more for environmental protection, Karma Gyaltsen Sonam, an organiser from Sikkim, said,"Normally, monastery education is on the religious side, but now, as per His Holiness, the 17th Karmapa, Ugyen Trinley Dorjee's wishes, monasteries will work not only on the religious side, but also do some environmental issue works, and to help and guide other religions, nearby monasteries to teach together so that's is the main goal."

"They will analyse their past five years' works today and will also be discussing the next five year planning for Khoryug i.e. the Environmental Protection Committee," he added.

The chairperson of the conference, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ugyen Trinle Dorjee, will also attend the discussion from tomorrow onward, Sonam stated further.

Dawa Sherpa, a delegate from Nepal, said,"Today, we all are gathering here for Khoryug, which means environment and we are here to discuss past five years and future five years planning. The Khoryug conference has helped all of us. During the past five years, we have done lots of work like garbage management and rain water harvesting, solar energy and lots of things like tree plantation and many more. So, first, we will discuss these things today and tomorrow we will discuss next five year future plan."

The conference begins today and will conclude on Sunday. The annual conference was first started in 2009 under the guidance of the 17th Karmapa.