Abstract
Nowadays, the role of religious leaders in dissemination of ideas contributing to the ecological thinking in society is increasing. For instance, in 2013 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) initiated the program “Sacred Earth: Faiths for Conservation”. Buryatia is one of the three Buddhist regions of Russia along with Kalmykia and Tuva; for more than three centuries the Buryat people confess Buddhism, have a developed network of Buddhist temples and plenty of Buddhist leaders. Today, along with other environmental problems in the republic of Buryatia the forest fires are one of the major. For example, in 2015, about 900 thousand hectares of forest were burned in Buryatia. Anthropogenic factor remains the main reason of fires in these places, that is why following the request of the local government, the Buryat Buddhist leaders started to exert ideological influence towards ecological spirituality of the society. The study presents an analysis of Buddhist leaders public discourse. It answers such questions as: What ideas do Buddhist leaders use in their messages?; What principles of Buddhism have environmental potential and can be used to influence the population?; What is the peculiarity of the Buddhist worldview on environmental problems and what are the local characteristics of Buddhism which contribute to the effective perception of their messages?
Presenters
Bato DondukovSenior researcher, Department of Philosophy, Culture and Religion Studies, Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Federation
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
Buddhist Leaders, Forest Fires, Buryatia, Ecological Spirituality
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