Cultural impact of tourism

Monasteries are traditionally built in places of peace and solitude, external circumstance that encourage contemplation and meditation. These days thousands of people flow through Tengboche using it as a mere backdrop for their photos, a place to be consumed on their vacation. Tourists drink and sing late into the night. They bath naked at public water sources and wander around in very short shorts and skimpy clothing, which is offensive to the local people. Sunbathing on the monastery steps or playing football in front of it is common. Radios drown out the ceremonial music and tourists take flash photos of the monks during their daily meditation. The peace has been disturbed.

The Sacred Land Eco Center

The thousands of tourists visiting Tengboche have without doubt have an adverse effect on the environment there. For this reason the Sacred Land Eco Center was established to increase the awareness of tourists, and trekking agencies the Sherpa community about ways to reduce the negative impact of tourism, while still encouraging the increase of social economic development. The construction of the Eco-Center shows alternative construction methods that are sympathetic to the local Sherpa style but use less local hard woods. Thus, the Eco-Center aims to heighten awareness of our individual responsibility as well as giving a practical example to other areas facing similar problems.

The Eco-Center has a comprehensive, permanent exhibition entitled "Buddhism and Ecology" which you can visit at sacredland.net. The exhibition panels are illustrated with lots of beautiful photographs and cover topics as varied high altitude medicinal plants, traditional paintings, responsible tourism and important information for visitors.

Inside the Eco center are traditional paintings of the medicine Buddha surrounded by medicinal plants which grown in the area and the deities who protect the area. A short film shown to visitors at the Eco Center explains the sacred nature of Tengboche and gives some important information for tourists. Hopefully a reference library can also be established in the center. There is a small charge of 100 Nepali rupees ($ 1.50) for the exhibition and film. This is used to support the culture by giving money for food and education for the monks and supporting big ceremonies. In addition, income from the Eco Center is used to maintain the infrastructure that helps make tourism less damaging to the fragile environment like the toilets, water and electricity systems and support activities such as rubbish collections, forest management and medical herb plantations.

Additional info on the Eco Center

The Sacred Land shop

The monastery depends on donations and it is inappropriate to use these for secular purposes. Therefore, in order to raise money for the many activities undertaken by The Tengboche Development Project, a small shop was established. The shop sells appropriate souvenirs and directly supports all the activities and has allowed for some small scale projects that it would have been difficult to find funding for from other sources. In particular the income from the shop has been used to improve the facilities in the monastery itself. The Labrang, a small compound where the Abbot lives has been partially rebuilt, re-roofed and new toilets added. A new gate, prayer wheel houses and new monks rooms have been added. Books and schooling material has been provided. New material for the dance costumes has also been given to the monastery. In addition, the income from the monastery shop pays the teachers' salaries and a pension and medical emergency fund for the monks is also being established. This has all been made possible because of the income from the shop. If it continues to be well supported it is hoped that other monasteries and nunneries can also be helped. If you would like to see what is available at the shop, please visit sacredland.net.