Disaster Management for Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries
Focus: Disaster Preparedness and Risk Reduction
Over 70 delegates representing 29 monasteries and nunneries gathered on 21-24 March 2016 at Vajra Vidya Institute in the sacred town of Sarnath for the 7th Khoryug Conference on Disaster Preparedness and Risk Reduction, chaired by His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje. This conference was organised and sponsored by Kun Kyong Charitable Trust and with collaboration with the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. The primary goal of the conference was to initiate disaster preparedness and risk reduction training for monks and nuns. With this training monasteries and nunneries would become equipped with effective disaster management plans and knowledge and ultimately supply first responders and educators to their local communities.
DAY 01: March 21, 2016
After a warm welcome by the conference’s host, Very Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche, His Holiness the Karmapa addressed the congregation and reiterated his resolve to prepare monasteries and nunneries for potential disasters and to train monks and nuns to become community actors and supports for disaster preparedness, response and recovery.
During the conference delegates will participate in a variety of educational presentations, group discussion, and hands on training. Khoryug has partnered with India’s National Institute of Disaster Management, represented by Professor Rakesh Kumar Singh and Professor Chandrani Bandyopadhyay, whose expertise will direct the educational component of the conference.
This component began with presentations from both professors. Professor Singh presented on the significance of protecting cultural heritage in the face of increasingly unpredictable climate- and human-caused disasters. Professor Bandyopadhyay introduced key concepts in disaster management, such as distinguishing between a phenomena like an earthquake and the disaster that follows. As Professor Bandyopadhyay effectively explained to the group, “An earthquake is a shaking of the ground that can happen anywhere. Why do similar magnitude earthquakes have disastrous outcomes in some places and mild outcomes in others? Because what matters is not the ground that is shaking but what is on top of the ground that is shaking.
Participants also heard from Dekila Chungyalpa, who highlighted recent Khoryug activities like the planting of over a hundred thousand saplings in 2015 alone. They also heard presentations from the Khoryug Country Coordinators of India, Nepal and Bhutan which summarized specific Khoryug projects in these countries over the last year, including organic gardening, rainwater harvesting and waste segregation for recycling.
The day concluded with a moving presentation by Khenpo Chokey of Pullahari Monastery in Nepal, who graciously shared insights and lessons learned during the relief efforts of the 2015 Nepal earthquake. His presentation not only grounded the day’s more theoretical learning in lived experience but also provided valuable advice for the coming trainings. Khenpo Chokey explained that when a disaster strikes our instinct may be to immediately rush to the aid of those in need. However, the efforts of Nepal monasteries and nunneries during the 2015 earthquake taught them that “We must not just rush into the situation without proper planning and preparedness. We must embrace compassion, wisdom and patience in our rescue and relief actions.
DAY 02: March 22, 2016
The first step in disaster management is to identify hazards and risks. During the second day of the Khoryug conference, participants consequently focused on deepening their knowledge of the hazards they face and learning how to identify the vulnerabilities that put them at risk for disaster.
To achieve this aim delegates spent the morning learning about the science of natural disasters from Dekila Chungyalpa, the Khoryug adviser, who explained how phenomena like plate tectonics, forestation, and the water and carbon cycle shape and spur disastrous events like earthquakes, floods and landslides. She further explained how climate change is resulting from human development and in turn exacerbating the severity and frequency of natural disasters, particularly in the Himalayan region.
Professor Bandyopadhyay from the National Institute of Disaster Management then led the conference in both a presentation and group activity on risk assessment in monasteries and nunneries. After offering the conceptual framework for assessing risk, Professor Bandyopadhyay organized delegates into a scavenger hunt to search for vulnerabilities and risks present in various locations around Vajra Vidya Institute. The activity allowed participants to identify typical disaster risks that are found in most monasteries and nunneries ranging from exposed wiring and poor ventilation in a butter lamp house to the lack of emergency exits and training on how to use a fire extinguisher in a hostel.
In the afternoon delegates worked with Lhakpa Tsering and Damaris Miller to brainstorm the particular disaster risks in their area and to imagine an actual disaster scenario. Delegates were presented with two educational guides that Khoryug has produced on disaster management, including a poster with short tips and guidelines for management of earthquakes, floods and fires as well as a booklet with more extensive information. Both materials are available in English and Tibetan and delegates drew on their own experience to provide feedback for improving the documents for wider distribution.
Dekila Chungyalpa and Mr. Rakesh Singh closed out the day by transitioning the group into developing action plans. Dekila shared a presentation on mitigation measures that monasteries and nunneries can take to reduce their vulnerability in the case of a disaster. She demonstrated how many of the environmental projects monasteries and nunneries have already undertaken double as mitigation measures, such as solar energy, organic gardening and rainwater collection and lauded monasteries that are adopting green design strategies into new constructions.
Mr. Rakesh Kumar finished the session by clearly laying out a framework for creating a disaster management plan that encompasses crucial elements like mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery and capacity building. Participants will spend the next two days receiving hands-on training and creating their own disaster management plans. Reflecting on the conference thus far one delegate noted, “We used to feel helpless when we thought about natural disasters but knowing now that there are things we can do to protect ourselves makes me feel more confident.
DAY 03: March 23, 2016
The third day was dedicated to first aid training led by Jeff Wagner, a first aid instructor from the well respected and US-based organization National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). Jeff taught monastics a variety of topics in first aid, including assessing and addressing immediate threats to life and caring for stable but injured patients.
Through a combination of presentations, demonstrations and partner exercises, participants were introduced to new skills such as opening an airway with the Heimlich maneuver, taking and monitoring vital signs, making a physical examination, lifting a patient with a spinal injury and caring for wounds and burns. The training provided a condensed overview of wilderness first aid and gave monastics a taste of the more extensive education that Khoryug hopes to organize in monasteries and nunneries during the coming months.
Conference participants spent the final sessions of the day beginning to form disaster management plans. Delegates were divided into groups and then worked together to create and draw an imaginary monastery and design a plan to protect that monastery in the case of an earthquake or flood. The groups were guided to brainstorm around specific emergency needs, broken into the categories of immediate response, water and sanitation, food and nutrition, shelter and health.
The groups returned with elaborate designs that allowed them to visualize the specific risks in their monasteries and nunneries as well as the particular measures they could take to prepare for disaster. For example, one group recognized the lack of evacuation areas currently in their monasteries and nunneries and consequently included in their drawing a designated safe area for monastics and community members to use in a disaster.
By sharing their extensive brainstorming the groups prepared to narrow their focus for the next day, when each group will develop an extensive preparedness, response and recovery plan for one of the emergency need categories.
DAY 04: March 24, 2016
The fourth and final day of the 7th Khoryug Conference concluded by synthesizing the past three days into disaster management plans. These plans will provide monastics with a reference and model to use as they return to their monasteries and nunneries and begin designing specific initiatives to implement over the coming year.
Before this synthesis could begin participants were introduced to the final piece of disaster management – recovery. Mr. Rajesh Kumar Singh from the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) presented a framework for approaching short term and long term recovery that encompasses the effects of disaster on both humans and valuable monastic texts and relics. Dekila Chungyalpa, advisor to Khoryug, then led the participants through a concise review of disaster management in which she recalled the main pillars in disaster management: risk mitigation and reduction, response and recovery.
Delegates spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon finalizing their plans and presentations on the topics of immediate response (including search and rescue and first aid), water and sanitation, food and nutrition, shelter and health. In addressing these topics they considered all three stages of disaster management as well as the diversity of disasters in which these issues must be addressed.
In the presentations that followed, groups examined both general disaster management strategies as well as specific ideas for mitigation, response and recovery. For instance, one group representing an imaginary “Karma Disaster Proof Monastery” explained their detailed plan for establishing first aid, search and rescue, and evacuation teams and how they would deploy those teams during a disaster. Their report combined particular lessons from their first aid training with their newfound organizational knowledge of disaster management planning. Another group shared illustrations of their hypothetical monastery to demonstrate how an extensive organic garden could provide fresh produce during a disaster when other food sources may be limited.
Upon hearing these carefully designed plans, His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, addressed the conference. He thanked the delegates for their invested participation and NIDM for their affirming support and expertise. He noted that monasteries and nunneries have a responsibility to serve their communities, particularly during a disaster, and the best way to do so would be to guide actions that protect them well before any disaster should strike. He asked delegates to use the strategies provided in these workshops along with the lessons learned by the Nepal monasteries and nunneries during the 2015 earthquake.
Lama Thinley of Bokar Ngedon Chokhor Ling Monastery, the Khoryug Country Coordinator for India, spoke on behalf of the delegates. In his expression of gratitude he emphasized his appreciation that their attitude towards the topic of disaster had changed from being a superstitious and fearful aversion to a determined and resolved focus on finding solutions. Dekila Chungyalpa presented future plans for delivering more in-depth training to monasteries through localized workshops on each of these topics over the next year.
Mr. Rajesh Kumar Singh of NIDM and Lhakpa Tsering of Kun Kyong Trust offered final thanks to delegates for their diligent participant and to His Holiness for his skillful guidance and direction. After gathering for a group photo in the bright spring sun outside Vajra Vidya Institute, the 7th Khoryug Conference on Disaster Preparedness and Risk Reduction ended with smiling delegates and a clear motivation to further pursue the training and planning that began during these four days.
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Last Updated: August 1, 2018 by kunkyong
7th Khoryug Conference
Disaster Management for Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries
Focus: Disaster Preparedness and Risk Reduction
DAY 01: March 21, 2016
After a warm welcome by the conference’s host, Very Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche, His Holiness the Karmapa addressed the congregation and reiterated his resolve to prepare monasteries and nunneries for potential disasters and to train monks and nuns to become community actors and supports for disaster preparedness, response and recovery.
During the conference delegates will participate in a variety of educational presentations, group discussion, and hands on training. Khoryug has partnered with India’s National Institute of Disaster Management, represented by Professor Rakesh Kumar Singh and Professor Chandrani Bandyopadhyay, whose expertise will direct the educational component of the conference.
This component began with presentations from both professors. Professor Singh presented on the significance of protecting cultural heritage in the face of increasingly unpredictable climate- and human-caused disasters. Professor Bandyopadhyay introduced key concepts in disaster management, such as distinguishing between a phenomena like an earthquake and the disaster that follows. As Professor Bandyopadhyay effectively explained to the group, “An earthquake is a shaking of the ground that can happen anywhere. Why do similar magnitude earthquakes have disastrous outcomes in some places and mild outcomes in others? Because what matters is not the ground that is shaking but what is on top of the ground that is shaking.
Participants also heard from Dekila Chungyalpa, who highlighted recent Khoryug activities like the planting of over a hundred thousand saplings in 2015 alone. They also heard presentations from the Khoryug Country Coordinators of India, Nepal and Bhutan which summarized specific Khoryug projects in these countries over the last year, including organic gardening, rainwater harvesting and waste segregation for recycling.
The day concluded with a moving presentation by Khenpo Chokey of Pullahari Monastery in Nepal, who graciously shared insights and lessons learned during the relief efforts of the 2015 Nepal earthquake. His presentation not only grounded the day’s more theoretical learning in lived experience but also provided valuable advice for the coming trainings. Khenpo Chokey explained that when a disaster strikes our instinct may be to immediately rush to the aid of those in need. However, the efforts of Nepal monasteries and nunneries during the 2015 earthquake taught them that “We must not just rush into the situation without proper planning and preparedness. We must embrace compassion, wisdom and patience in our rescue and relief actions.
DAY 02: March 22, 2016
The first step in disaster management is to identify hazards and risks. During the second day of the Khoryug conference, participants consequently focused on deepening their knowledge of the hazards they face and learning how to identify the vulnerabilities that put them at risk for disaster.
To achieve this aim delegates spent the morning learning about the science of natural disasters from Dekila Chungyalpa, the Khoryug adviser, who explained how phenomena like plate tectonics, forestation, and the water and carbon cycle shape and spur disastrous events like earthquakes, floods and landslides. She further explained how climate change is resulting from human development and in turn exacerbating the severity and frequency of natural disasters, particularly in the Himalayan region.
Professor Bandyopadhyay from the National Institute of Disaster Management then led the conference in both a presentation and group activity on risk assessment in monasteries and nunneries. After offering the conceptual framework for assessing risk, Professor Bandyopadhyay organized delegates into a scavenger hunt to search for vulnerabilities and risks present in various locations around Vajra Vidya Institute. The activity allowed participants to identify typical disaster risks that are found in most monasteries and nunneries ranging from exposed wiring and poor ventilation in a butter lamp house to the lack of emergency exits and training on how to use a fire extinguisher in a hostel.
In the afternoon delegates worked with Lhakpa Tsering and Damaris Miller to brainstorm the particular disaster risks in their area and to imagine an actual disaster scenario. Delegates were presented with two educational guides that Khoryug has produced on disaster management, including a poster with short tips and guidelines for management of earthquakes, floods and fires as well as a booklet with more extensive information. Both materials are available in English and Tibetan and delegates drew on their own experience to provide feedback for improving the documents for wider distribution.
Dekila Chungyalpa and Mr. Rakesh Singh closed out the day by transitioning the group into developing action plans. Dekila shared a presentation on mitigation measures that monasteries and nunneries can take to reduce their vulnerability in the case of a disaster. She demonstrated how many of the environmental projects monasteries and nunneries have already undertaken double as mitigation measures, such as solar energy, organic gardening and rainwater collection and lauded monasteries that are adopting green design strategies into new constructions.
Mr. Rakesh Kumar finished the session by clearly laying out a framework for creating a disaster management plan that encompasses crucial elements like mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery and capacity building. Participants will spend the next two days receiving hands-on training and creating their own disaster management plans. Reflecting on the conference thus far one delegate noted, “We used to feel helpless when we thought about natural disasters but knowing now that there are things we can do to protect ourselves makes me feel more confident.
DAY 03: March 23, 2016
The third day was dedicated to first aid training led by Jeff Wagner, a first aid instructor from the well respected and US-based organization National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). Jeff taught monastics a variety of topics in first aid, including assessing and addressing immediate threats to life and caring for stable but injured patients.
Through a combination of presentations, demonstrations and partner exercises, participants were introduced to new skills such as opening an airway with the Heimlich maneuver, taking and monitoring vital signs, making a physical examination, lifting a patient with a spinal injury and caring for wounds and burns. The training provided a condensed overview of wilderness first aid and gave monastics a taste of the more extensive education that Khoryug hopes to organize in monasteries and nunneries during the coming months.
Conference participants spent the final sessions of the day beginning to form disaster management plans. Delegates were divided into groups and then worked together to create and draw an imaginary monastery and design a plan to protect that monastery in the case of an earthquake or flood. The groups were guided to brainstorm around specific emergency needs, broken into the categories of immediate response, water and sanitation, food and nutrition, shelter and health.
The groups returned with elaborate designs that allowed them to visualize the specific risks in their monasteries and nunneries as well as the particular measures they could take to prepare for disaster. For example, one group recognized the lack of evacuation areas currently in their monasteries and nunneries and consequently included in their drawing a designated safe area for monastics and community members to use in a disaster.
By sharing their extensive brainstorming the groups prepared to narrow their focus for the next day, when each group will develop an extensive preparedness, response and recovery plan for one of the emergency need categories.
DAY 04: March 24, 2016
The fourth and final day of the 7th Khoryug Conference concluded by synthesizing the past three days into disaster management plans. These plans will provide monastics with a reference and model to use as they return to their monasteries and nunneries and begin designing specific initiatives to implement over the coming year.
Before this synthesis could begin participants were introduced to the final piece of disaster management – recovery. Mr. Rajesh Kumar Singh from the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) presented a framework for approaching short term and long term recovery that encompasses the effects of disaster on both humans and valuable monastic texts and relics. Dekila Chungyalpa, advisor to Khoryug, then led the participants through a concise review of disaster management in which she recalled the main pillars in disaster management: risk mitigation and reduction, response and recovery.
Delegates spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon finalizing their plans and presentations on the topics of immediate response (including search and rescue and first aid), water and sanitation, food and nutrition, shelter and health. In addressing these topics they considered all three stages of disaster management as well as the diversity of disasters in which these issues must be addressed.
In the presentations that followed, groups examined both general disaster management strategies as well as specific ideas for mitigation, response and recovery. For instance, one group representing an imaginary “Karma Disaster Proof Monastery” explained their detailed plan for establishing first aid, search and rescue, and evacuation teams and how they would deploy those teams during a disaster. Their report combined particular lessons from their first aid training with their newfound organizational knowledge of disaster management planning. Another group shared illustrations of their hypothetical monastery to demonstrate how an extensive organic garden could provide fresh produce during a disaster when other food sources may be limited.
Upon hearing these carefully designed plans, His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, addressed the conference. He thanked the delegates for their invested participation and NIDM for their affirming support and expertise. He noted that monasteries and nunneries have a responsibility to serve their communities, particularly during a disaster, and the best way to do so would be to guide actions that protect them well before any disaster should strike. He asked delegates to use the strategies provided in these workshops along with the lessons learned by the Nepal monasteries and nunneries during the 2015 earthquake.
Lama Thinley of Bokar Ngedon Chokhor Ling Monastery, the Khoryug Country Coordinator for India, spoke on behalf of the delegates. In his expression of gratitude he emphasized his appreciation that their attitude towards the topic of disaster had changed from being a superstitious and fearful aversion to a determined and resolved focus on finding solutions. Dekila Chungyalpa presented future plans for delivering more in-depth training to monasteries through localized workshops on each of these topics over the next year.
Mr. Rajesh Kumar Singh of NIDM and Lhakpa Tsering of Kun Kyong Trust offered final thanks to delegates for their diligent participant and to His Holiness for his skillful guidance and direction. After gathering for a group photo in the bright spring sun outside Vajra Vidya Institute, the 7th Khoryug Conference on Disaster Preparedness and Risk Reduction ended with smiling delegates and a clear motivation to further pursue the training and planning that began during these four days.
Category: Khoryug - Environment Protection
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