Monk sets up program to teach children about plateau ecology

Tashi Sangye is devoted to protecting the ecology of the Golog Tibetan autonomous prefecture on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau - one of the cleanest areas left in the world.

The 45-year-old lama monk knows that, due to rapid tourism development and climate change, environmental degradation is a significant issue facing the plateau, an area of incredible natural beauty.

He also sees fewer local children capable of naming the animals and plants surrounding them because of a lack of educational resources.

It was these observations that spurred Tashi Sangye to initiate the Children of Flowers program in 2011, he said on Friday, International Volunteer Day.

The public information program is a collective effort by Tashi Sangye, fellow lama monks and local herdsman to educate the plateau's youth about the unique environment they call home.

Every July and August, Tashi Sangye and other volunteers teach Tibetan children basic information about the plateau's flowers using stories, songs and games.

"The name of this white flower is 'lamb flower'," he tells the youngsters. "The story goes that they appear after ewes give birth to lambs in the grassland.

"The place where 'lamb flowers' bloom is where I was born; The warmth of mom's sheepskin coat brings me to sleep."

He even sings the household song Mother's Sheepskin Coat to capture children's attention in remote areas.

More than 1,200 children aged between six and 12 have taken part in the program.

The next step will be to call on volunteers to educate the children about rare local animals.

"As long as they know them, especially in childhood, they will protect them for a lifetime," he said.

Tashi Sangye was sent to the Palyul Monastery's subsidiary temple in Jigzhi county at the age of 13 by his impoverished parents. Now, as a Khenpo, the holder of a spiritual degree given in Tibetan Buddhism, he has achieved high social status among local herdsmen.

He loves observing and drawing birds, and has recorded the habits of nearly 400 species.

In 2007, he founded an ecological protection association that now has more than 100 volunteers, including local herdsmen and lama monks from temples in Jigzhi county.

In addition to giving lessons on plants and animals, his volunteers also monitor changes to the mountain snows and lakes on the plateau. They have published eight picture albums in the Tibetan language and Mandarin, introducing local ecology to the public.

The biodiversity of the region is guarded by foreign NGOs and volunteers as well as by its residents.

When Tashi Sangye was observing birds around his temple in the 1980s, George Schaller, a senior conservationist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, a New York-based NGO, was beginning his study of plateau wildlife in Changtang, a vast region in northern Tibet where few people live.

A branch of the WCS was established in Lhasa in 2007. In the past seven years, volunteers have studied one of the planet's most desolate places to protect animals and help them live with people.

Zhao Huaidong, who is in charge of the WCS's program in western China, said, "We try to resolve conflicts between humans and wildlife and teach local people how to build a harmonious relation with nature."

China's 46,000 glaciers, most of which are on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, are a major source of the country's largest rivers. But statistics show glaciers on the plateau and surrounding areas have shrunk from 53,000 to 45,000 square kilometers in the past three decades.