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Thrangu Environmental Club would like to present some of our work in the recent months in Thrangu Tashi Yangtse Gompa, Namo Buddha.

Because of the combination of the area’s natural beauty and the grandeur of the monastery, our monastery has become a major tourist destination for Nepali pilgrims, foreign tourists, and school groups. This makes environmental protection especially important at our monastery: It is not just that any garbage and environmental degradation visible to many visitors. We also have a wonderful chance to help educate a broader public by providing both information and a good example. Due to our devotion to His Holiness, the Gyalwang Karmapa and our beloved teacher, His Eminence, Thrangu Rinpoche, we decided to put our 100% effort into protecting the environment.

This is the reason why we formed the Thrangu Environmental Club, which now has over thirty participants. We have two monk leaders at Namo Buddha, two in Thrangu Tashi Choling in Boudhanath, and one at Sekhar Retreat Center outside of Bhaktapur.

In Namo Buddha, the Thrangu Environmental Club has begun a variety of environmental activities, including planting trees, waste management, conserving water resources, collecting rain water, saving electricity, cleaning the surrounding area, and so on. 

Some main activities that we have completed are:

Planted a large organic vegetable garden.

Begun to educate monks and the surrounding community about reducing waste and garbage.

Organized weekly cleanup sessions. During these sessions, organic, non-organic, and recyclable garbage are separated. Organic waste is composted and used for the monastery vegetable garden; other garbage is disposed of properly. This has lead to an immediate improvement in air quality because garbage and waste is no longer being burned, which in turn has lead to improved health in the monastery.

Future projects include installing a biogas to reduce pollution from organic wastes, carbon emissions, and reliance on propane and fossil fuels, and investigating installing a large-scale rainwater collection system.

The goal is to implement as many of the Karmapa’s 108 methods as possible.