Folk Beliefs and Ecological Environment

　　——Take Sacred Mountain Belief in Tibetan Regions and Ecological Protection as Examples

　　Kalsang Gyal (China)

　　Abstract

　　Sacred mountain belief is a popular traditional belief pattern with strong folk atmosphere in Tibetan regions. Among the world religious beliefs, sacred mountain belief is different from natural worship or totem worship, and it is also not really a formal religion. We may call it Tibetan folk belief or highland cultural pattern, which has an important historical meaning and contemporary value of reference in the human-nature and other ecological civilization history. This article will give an all-round discussion of the interactive relationships between sacred mountain belief of Tibetan regions and ecological environment, from the views of sacred mountains’ human geographical concept, the secular features, the sacred features, and their relationships between village ecology and environment protection.

　　Keywords：Folk Beliefs, Traditional Culture, Ecological Protection

　　Introduction

　　Ecological environment is an essential condition for the life of human-being and sustainable development of society. Thus, it is an important obligation or responsibility of every individual, every ethnic, every region and country, to conserve the ecological environment. As in the vast land of Tibetan plateau, most Tibetan people who live there believe in religions, despite of the Tibetan Buddhism, folk beliefs also feature Tibetan people’s beliefs. Folk beliefs, like those towering sacred mountains, graceful holy lakes, sacrifice platforms of various forms, ritual path to the horizon, villages and monasteries in the cloud of incense, prayer flags that flying everywhere, mysteries that running a long history, incense burner that set by every family and fairy tales that known widely , with the monastery centered Tibetan Buddhism, constructed a colorful religious culture life in Tibetan regions, and this religious culture became the source of shaping the ecological ethic of Tibetan people.

　　Among them, sacred mountain belief is a wide spread traditional religious cultural phenomenon. Among the world religious beliefs, sacred mountain belief is different from natural worship or totem worship, and it is also not really a formal religion, so sacred mountain belief is classified as a folk belief for the time being. It takes both of the secular world and the sacred world, this side and other side of the world, into consideration. Thus, sacred mountain belief not only contains the intrinsic sacredness, also highlights the extrinsic secularity. What is special is that natural environment of every sacred mountain and the area surrounds it, has already been a truly born natural conservation area, and it perfectly matches the idea of natural conservation area that advocated by the nation. Therefore, sacred mountain belief has become a cultural resource for protecting the ecological environment.

　　The Concept of Human Geography of Sacred Mountains

　　Compared with orthodox religion, sacred mountain belief is just a symbol of folk belief that exists in the rural grassroots culture, which has a strong folk cultural feature. Particularly, sacred mountain belief not only reflects the realism spirit that people focusing on their social lives, but also contains the pure cultural atmosphere that belonging to the village civilization. In another word, sacred mountain belief is a folk belief culture, with the pure and simple glamour given by the village civilization and the strong vitality granted by the grassroots culture, which is seeking for the harmony of society, the happiness of family and the health of individuals. Take the sacred mountain—Mt. Kha Ba Dkar Po, as example, it presents the concept of human geography of sacred mountains in Tibetan regions.

　　And the objective basis, of the construction of the concept of human geography of sacred mountains, is natural environment. That is so say, without Mt. Kha Ba Dkar Po and its surrounding area, there will be no concept of human geography of Mt. Kha Ba Dkar Po, nor the object of folk belief. Thus, those high mountains or snow peaks, numerous animals and plants, and various creatures, have provided infinite cultural contents for sacred mountain belief of local Tibetan people.

　　The Secular Features of Sacred Mountains

　　The secular features of Mt. Kha Ba Dkar Po, it is known that Mt. Kha Ba Dkar Po not only has a image of a warrior, but also has wife and children, and these members are all attached to those snow mountains surrounding Mt. Kha Ba Dkar Po. Since every sacred mountain in Tibetan regions has a secular feature, it is easy for those Tibetan people to get closed to sacred mountains and to have direct conversations with them, then, sacred mountain belief becomes a folk cultural activity. Everyone can tell or pray to sacred mountains the confusion he met in daily life or the hope in his heart by holding sacrificial ceremony. As for the ceremony of sacrificing to sacred mountains, based on the offerings, its style ranges from the simple to the grand one, which is decided by the time and the conditions of individuals or community. Besides, though every sacred mountain has its unique prayer or mantra to highlight its own feature, the offerings used in the sacrifice are of unity and universality, which tell us the close relationship between sacred mountains and the secular society. Thus, sacred mountain belief is a traditional social activity that reflects the Tibetan people’s caring about their real lives and a secular folk belief as well.

　　The Sacred Features of Sacred Mountains

　　The sacred features of Mt. Kha Ba Dkar Po, obviously, it is a religious concept relative to the secularity of human society, thus, it has essential differences with human’s real life. Firstly, sacred mountains belong to the spirit world, which is disappearing and reappearing in the high rack; besides, they have eternal lives that beyond time and space, living along with the nature; at the same time, sacred mountains make the alliance with the Buddha of the other world, and become the guard of Buddhist doctrine, the Dharma. And the Dharma has a very noble status in Tibetan Buddhism. Although it is hardly to find a reasonable and a valid statement or argument concerning this phenomenon in the teaching level of Buddhism, in the sense of social reality, it does connect the in-world and the out-world, strengthens the relationship between the religious sacredness and the social secularity. Thus, the sacred features of sacred mountains in Tibetan regions are highlighted.

　　Sacred Mountains and the Ecological Civilization of Villages

　　The number of sacred mountains in Tibetan regions, containing the small, the middle and the huge ones, is too many to count. Just in Deqin county, Diqing Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Yunnan province, there are about more than 300 sacred mountains. Among them, the huge one like Mt. Kha Ba Dkar Po has a general influence whose believers distribute widely. The middle one also has a strong influence in one region, among several villages, or in a village. The main purpose of Tibetan people believing in and offering sacrifice to sacred mountains by generations is to eliminate disasters and to desire the happiness and good harvest. When the drought or the hall comes, people will also pray and offer sacrifice to sacred mountains. Thus, sacred mountains hold an omnipotent status in Tibetan people’s real life. In a word, sacred mountain belief occupies an important position in Tibetan people’s life custom, and functions positively in sustaining a harmonic relationship between Tibetan people and their surrounding ecological environment.

　　Sacred Mountains and Natural Environment Protection

　　Sacred mountain belief is highlighting its infinite original ecological charm and strong native vitality in most Tibetan regions, and occupies an important position in spiritual and cultural field of Tibetan people. Especially since Tibetan people construct the concept of sacred mountain territory, all of its animals, plants and the scenery (even concludes the rivers, lakes and stones) are granted a sort of sacredness, which are treated definitely different with those in other areas.

　　What needs to emphasize is that the belief in sacred mountains or holy lakes of Tibetan people has become an important way to sustain the harmony between human beings and nature. In another word, every sacred mountain, every holy lake, have been effectively protected by granted as an invisible divinity. For those Tibetan believers, any animal or plant on sacred mountains will not be hunted or be cut down, any fish in holy lakes will not be caught, and even littering in holy lakes is forbidden. In this way, the areas of sacred mountains and holy lakes are exactly natural conservation areas themselves. Thus, Tibetan people’s devout belief and well protection of sacred mountains and holy lakes, plays an active part in protecting natural environment of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau directly or indirectly.

　　Epilogue

　　In conclusion, the deterioration or improvement of ecological environment is inseparable with people’s life style and economic behaviors, and the formation of life style and economic behaviors has a close relationship with people’s cultural traditions. Take Diqing Tibetan autonomous prefecture as an example, its folk beliefs, in form or in content, are rich and colorful as taking sacred mountain belief as a symbol. Especially by viewing Mt. Kha Ba Dkar Po, we can see the profound meaning of Tibetan people’s belief in sacred mountains. If we consider that Tibetan people’s belief in Tibetan Buddhism is a social activity for afterlife, then their belief in sacred mountains will be an idea or a cultural custom concerning the real life. Tibetan people, through sacred mountain belief, not only established a rule-based order but also built an equal and harmonic relationship between human beings and nature. Thus, there is no doubt that sacred mountain belief is accord with today’s ideas of protecting the natural environment, keeping ecological balance and building ecological civilization.

　　（Kalsang Gyal，Research Fellow，Institute of World Religions of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences）