{"id":22998,"date":"2020-12-01T01:35:40","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T01:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=22998"},"modified":"2020-12-02T12:26:01","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T12:26:01","slug":"how-taiwan-uses-buddhist-literature-for-environmental-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-taiwan-uses-buddhist-literature-for-environmental-education\/","title":{"rendered":"How Taiwan uses Buddhist literature for environmental education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Natasha Heller<\/a>, University of Virginia<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges that the world faces. A United Nations report has cautioned that greenhouse gas emissions due to human activity are at a record high<\/a>, \u201cwith no signs of slowing down.\u201d Many nations are recording weather extremes, higher average temperatures and rising seas. Meanwhile, the first wave of increasing numbers of climate refugees<\/a> points to how a changing environment will reshape human life.<\/p>\n

The changes in climate may have been caused by previous and current generations of adults, but it is the future generations that will have to deal with its worst effects. Today\u2019s children will play a critical role in protecting the environment.<\/p>\n

Confronting the crisis will require much change \u2013 and education is an urgent first step.<\/p>\n

As experts<\/a> have said<\/a>, this education will need to start early, so that environmentally friendly practices become habits at a young age.<\/p>\n

Taiwan offers an example of how to teach children about caring for their environment.<\/p>\n

Environmental attitudes in Taiwan<\/h2>\n

By the early 1990s, rapid economic development had led to environmental degradation<\/a> in Taiwan, an island in the China Sea and home to nearly 24 million people<\/a>. The air quality in the cities was hazardous, a third of rivers were polluted and garbage often didn\u2019t make it to landfills.<\/p>\n

Today, however, the Taiwanese take pride in their island\u2019s natural beauty \u2013 from coastal wetlands to lush green mountains \u2013 and in their success in protecting the environment.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A 77-year-old volunteer working at a recycling center run by a nonprofit Buddhist organization in Taipei, Taiwan.<\/span>
\nCHRIS STOWERS\/AFP via Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Taiwan is especially known for its high rates of recycling<\/a> and elaborate sorting systems that even include a category for food waste destined for pig slop<\/a>. According to self-reported figures<\/a>, Taiwan now recycles 20% more than the U.S. \u2013 and any visitor can attest to the seriousness of recycling efforts.<\/p>\n

As a scholar of Chinese Buddhism<\/a>, I have been looking at how religious groups address contemporary issues, including environmentalism, in children\u2019s literature.<\/p>\n

Teaching children<\/h2>\n

In Taiwan, over a third of adults identify themselves as Buddhist<\/a>, more than any other religion, making it a significant cultural force. Buddhist groups have been at the forefront of efforts to care for the environment. Included in their effort is Buddhist literature for children that reflects environmental concerns.<\/p>\n

Picture books on this topic take two approaches: In one, bodhisattvas<\/a> \u2013 wise and powerful supernatural beings that can appear in the world to help human beings \u2013 serve as models for children in the way that they protect the environment.<\/p>\n

For example, in the book, \u201cSamantabhadra Bodhisattva\u2019s Great Battle against the Trash Monster<\/a>,\u201d published by the Buddhist organization Dharma Drum Mountain, the first page of the story introduces a bodhisattva who wants to transform the polluted world into one that is pure.<\/p>\n

This bodhisattva meets a young boy who says he has nightmares about a monster made out of trash. As it turns out, the monster has been appearing because the boy\u2019s room is a messy mountain of garbage. When he cleans it up, the bodhisattva prompts him to properly sort everything he throws away, reflecting real practices.<\/p>\n

Then the little boy decides to become a \u201clittle pioneer of world environmentalism,\u201d and accompanies the bodhisattva in cleaning up parks and beaches. In this story, the little boy\u2019s concerns grow from his own room to the bigger world, with the bodhisattva modeling compassionate action.<\/p>\n

Historically, bodhisattvas have been invoked to help people in times of extreme need (such as a storm at sea), and intervening for the good of the environment updates their role for contemporary times.<\/p>\n

In this case Buddhism is central to the story, and cleaning polluted spaces becomes a metaphor for spiritual purification. The reader looks to a bodhisattva or Buddha as guide, and is inspired to take action.<\/p>\n

Caring for the environment<\/h2>\n

But in other cases, Buddhist organizations do not use figures like bodhisattvas to teach about environmentalism.<\/p>\n

The stories do not feature bodhisattvas as characters, and the narratives may not be obviously Buddhist, but offer environmental education in the context of a broader Buddhist education. Being a well-rounded Buddhist, in other words, means knowing and respecting the environment.<\/p>\n

They may use stories about plants and animals to teach children about such things as the life cycle of coal and symbiotic relationships between animals, like that of rhinoceroses and oxpeckers, which are popularly thought to eat ticks and other insects, though the reality is more complex<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Children learn about biology and how living beings are interconnected. This lends itself to thinking holistically about the environment, and these stories often prompt children to look at the world from the perspective of other living beings.<\/p>\n

Published by a major Buddhist organization, the book \u201cRecord of the Wanderings of a Plastic Bag<\/a>\u201d goes a step farther in presenting other perspectives.<\/p>\n

A plastic bag starts out as plaything for a baby, then becomes a place for the cat to nap. The family\u2019s grandfather claims it to collect tomatoes, and when he is finished, he washes the bag and hangs it to dry. A bit later, he uses it to carry worn-out shoes to be repaired, at which point the bag blows away.<\/p>\n

It travels joyfully on the wind accompanied by a leaf and a candy wrapper, but is eventually swept up into a garbage bag. A dog rips open the garbage, and the bag blows away again, only to be picked up by a child with a stick who treats it as a toy. After it is abandoned by the child \u2013 very sadly for the bag \u2013 it is picked up, recycled and transformed into shopping bag. This is a happy ending, reflected by the bag\u2019s happy smile.<\/p>\n

The author, Liu Rugui, writes that she used the bag as a character in the hope of stimulating children\u2019s compassion, leading them to cherish the objects that they use. \u201cCherishing,\u201d according to Liu, leads to a deeper understanding of environmentalism.<\/p>\n

There is connection between being able to take the perspective of a plastic bag \u2013entailing both intellectual and emotional responses \u2013 and valuing that object, which otherwise might be seen as a piece of trash.<\/p>\n

Young readers are prompted to take the perspective of these nonhuman characters, changing how they think about the world and their own actions. This connects to the Buddhist teachings of karma and reincarnation<\/a>, which mean that every intentional action has a consequence.<\/p>\n

Equally important, although one couldn\u2019t be reborn as a plastic bag, one could be reborn as an insect or endangered animal. On another level, taking the perspective of a plastic bag helps readers to understand how all elements of the universe are interconnected, a teaching that takes its most sophisticated philosophical form in Huayan Buddhism.<\/a><\/p>\n

Impact of children\u2019s literature<\/h2>\n

By showing children that they have responsibility in caring for the environment, these books work to produce what sociologist Bengt Larsson<\/a> has called, in a 2012 paper, \u201cecological selves<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although studies on the long-term effects of children\u2019s literature are limited, there\u2019s some evidence that this approach is effective in fostering concern and care for environmental issues.<\/p>\n

[Deep knowledge, daily.<\/em> Sign up for The Conversation\u2019s newsletter<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

For example, a study in Australia<\/a> found that anthropomorphism, which attributes human traits to animals and things, increased children\u2019s concern for parts of the environment, as did their emotional investment in the stories. That is, certain types of books do seem to change children\u2019s attitudes.<\/p>\n

As I found in my research, this is something Buddhist organizations recognize as well and incorporate into their educational mission. Growing up Buddhist means growing into environmentalism and global citizenship.\"The<\/p>\n

Natasha Heller<\/a>, Associate Professor of Religion, University of Virginia<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Natasha Heller, University of Virginia Climate change is one of the biggest challenges that the world faces. A United Nations report has cautioned that greenhouse gas emissions due to human activity are at a record high, \u201cwith no signs of slowing down.\u201d Many nations are recording weather extremes, higher average temperatures and rising seas. Meanwhile, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":22999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2450],"tags":[3203,139,3499,9041,4966,236,726,6610,9042,4886,6567],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22998"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22998"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23001,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22998\/revisions\/23001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}