On the invitation of the Rangjung Yeshe student society at Kanying Shedrub Ling, Govinda Sharma gave a an introduction to permaculture at Utpala cafe in Bouddha, Kathmandu.
At the time of the Buddha, monks have famously gone for alms begging in the surrounding villages. There are also instructions found in the Buddhist texts that monasteries should not be build too close to settlements, nor too far away. This rule was obviously purely made for that time's context, where monks and nuns had to walk from the monastery to the village and back each day for alms. When Buddhism moved to other countries, for example China, the situation changed however, and monastics in some monasteries in China had to grow their own food, since going for alms was socially not so much appreciated as compared to the situation in India. In Tibet, at first during the time of the Tibetan empire, the king assigned seven families to take care of each monastic. After the collapse of the empire, in later ages and in some cases up to the present day, monasteries own huge swats of land which are then worked by lay people, very much like the feudal system in Europe, or lamas go out on tours through their area to collect food and funds.
But now we have entered the 21st century, Buddhism has spread around the globe and the situation has changed again. Buddhist communities such as Lerab Ling or Gomde Pyrenees are slowly growing and are becoming large centres. How should such communities be fed? Also, given the current environmental crisis, what is going to be an ethical way (perhaps we can say in accord with the Dharmic principle of not harming) to feed such communities? What is the Buddhist ethics of the 21st century? If we buy all our food from the global market, what environmental impact does that have?
Now of course there are many environmental problems and hopefully also many solutions. As Buddhist, there is no reason to be philosophically invested in one particular solution. To deal with some modern day problems, we might occasionally need modern day solutions. One of them is permaculture. Permaculture can be defined as a "set of design principles centered on whole systems thinking, simulating, or directly utilizing the patterns and resilient features observed in natural ecosystems. It uses these principles in a growing number of fields from regenerative agriculture, rewilding, and community resilience."
Govinda Sharma is one of the top permaculture teachers in Nepal, has over three decades of teaching experience, and also has a degree in organic agriculture from the renowned agricultural university of Wageningen in the Netherlands.
Before starting the lecture Govinda was shown around the Saturday farmers market at Utpala cafe, which is becoming increasingly popular.
Govinda was also given a tour through the monastery. The monastery is currently exploring the possibility of starting the production of ornamental flowers and food according to permaculture design at a barren plot of land.
Then the lecture commenced. The first part of the lecture looked at the question 'why is permaculture needed'? This consisted mostly of looking at a wide variety of ecological problems such as deforestation, massive use of pesticides, eutrophication through an excess of nitrogen, increase of floods and droughts, global warming and so on.
At the time of the Buddha, monks have famously gone for alms begging in the surrounding villages. There are also instructions found in the Buddhist texts that monasteries should not be build too close to settlements, nor too far away. This rule was obviously purely made for that time's context, where monks and nuns had to walk from the monastery to the village and back each day for alms. When Buddhism moved to other countries, for example China, the situation changed however, and monastics in some monasteries in China had to grow their own food, since going for alms was socially not so much appreciated as compared to the situation in India. In Tibet, at first during the time of the Tibetan empire, the king assigned seven families to take care of each monastic. After the collapse of the empire, in later ages and in some cases up to the present day, monasteries own huge swats of land which are then worked by lay people, very much like the feudal system in Europe, or lamas go out on tours through their area to collect food and funds.
But now we have entered the 21st century, Buddhism has spread around the globe and the situation has changed again. Buddhist communities such as Lerab Ling or Gomde Pyrenees are slowly growing and are becoming large centres. How should such communities be fed? Also, given the current environmental crisis, what is going to be an ethical way (perhaps we can say in accord with the Dharmic principle of not harming) to feed such communities? What is the Buddhist ethics of the 21st century? If we buy all our food from the global market, what environmental impact does that have?
Now of course there are many environmental problems and hopefully also many solutions. As Buddhist, there is no reason to be philosophically invested in one particular solution. To deal with some modern day problems, we might occasionally need modern day solutions. One of them is permaculture. Permaculture can be defined as a "set of design principles centered on whole systems thinking, simulating, or directly utilizing the patterns and resilient features observed in natural ecosystems. It uses these principles in a growing number of fields from regenerative agriculture, rewilding, and community resilience."
Govinda Sharma is one of the top permaculture teachers in Nepal, has over three decades of teaching experience, and also has a degree in organic agriculture from the renowned agricultural university of Wageningen in the Netherlands.
Govinda Sharma
Before starting the lecture Govinda was shown around the Saturday farmers market at Utpala cafe, which is becoming increasingly popular.
Govinda at Himgiri organic hub stand
Govinda talking with leading figures of the monastery Buchung and Shedrub Gyatso
Shedrub Gyatso showing the nursery
Inspecting the composting
This little monk was trilled when a walnut fell out of the tree right in front of him
Then the lecture commenced. The first part of the lecture looked at the question 'why is permaculture needed'? This consisted mostly of looking at a wide variety of ecological problems such as deforestation, massive use of pesticides, eutrophication through an excess of nitrogen, increase of floods and droughts, global warming and so on.
Eutrophication causes algae to bloom and suffocates all live in aquatic bodies
In the second part of the lecture Govinda looked more at what permaculture can offer in terms of solutions to these problems. He mainly emphasised that even small things which we can apply immediately in our lives such as refusing plastic bags is also permaculture.
A full room at Utpala
The last part of the talk consisted of some practical tips in the field. We looked at soil, sun, water, wind direction and much more.
In the fields
You can listen to the talk here.
