“I would like to ask everyone to do whatever you can to preserve and protect the environment so that we can prevent any future disasters.” –17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje (August 2026)
17th Karmapa’s statement about the environment and natural disasters
Yesterday the 17th Karmapa Facebook page posted a short and moving message in English, by HH 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje. I did not see a message in the original Tibetan.
“I was deeply saddened to hear the news of the recent floods and landslides on the border between Nepal and Tibet. Hundreds of people—including many from Tibet and Nepal as well as visitors from all over the world—have lost their lives. Many more are still missing, and houses, buildings, and bridges have been swept away. Not only have many lost their lives, many people in this region have also lost their livelihoods.
Hearing of this, I felt we must do something to help. Thus I would like to ask the Kagyu monasteries and nunneries in Nepal to organize relief operations to bring aid to the people. I will provide support for these efforts.
As we can see with our eyes, the environmental situation throughout the world and in the Himalayas in particular has grown more severe. Temperatures have risen, glaciers are melting, and rainfall has grown stronger and more unpredictable, leading to floods, landslides, and severe storms throughout the world. But we see the destructive results most clearly in the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau.
I would like to ask everyone to do whatever you can to preserve and protect the environment so that we can prevent any future disasters.”
Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje
29 August 2026
As many will know who read and follow my work over the past six years or so, I have been particularly interested in promoting, preserving, translating and transcribing the 17th Karmapa’s teachings and activities related to the environment and the importance of abandoning eating and killing animals for food not only for ethical and animal welfare reasons, but also for its catastrophic impact on the environment and planet’s natural resources.
The connection between global warming, climate change and melting glaciers and eating meat
As my own humble offering and response to the Nepal-Tibet flooding tragedy and 17th Karmapa’s message, I have created a couple more video clips with specially created subtitles of the 17th Karmapa’s teaching from the Arya Kshema teachings (Day 17, Feburary 2021) one of the most important and moving teachings given by the 17th Karmapa in his lifetime on this topic.
Rising global temperatures driven by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are the primary cause of mountain glaciers melting. Rising Air Temperatures are due to: Burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrial activity release greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide that trap heat in the atmosphere, raising global and high-altitude temperatures.
It is clear that the huge scale of mass factory farming and breeding animals for human consumption, ten times the world’s human population is slaughtered every year, it not only cruel, but also extremely dangerous and wasteful, and one of the biggest reasons for climate change and global warming. It is also threatening and consuming the planet’s natural resources of food, water, land and so on.
Compassionate aspirations for the dead and injured humans and animals are important and beneficial. But so is caring for animals and the environment in kinder, and less cruel ways for profit and food, to protect animals from harm whenever possible, and ensure climate change and global warming does not burn up and destroy the entire planet.
In this new video clip, the 17th Karmapa speaks about how thinking “I did not kill the animal, or get someone to kill it for me” is not acceptable:
More clips to follow soon. For a video clip from a recent podcast interview I did with leading animals rights advocate and charity founder, Maneka Gandhi, speaking about the “divine” impact of 17th Karmapa on animals rights and vegan diet promotion, see here:
May we put into practice what we preach. NoBody is a Product, may we stop treating humans and animals as “objects” for human consumption to be bought and discarded after use. Music? NoBody is a Product by Adele Tomlin/Dakini Songs.
Other Video and Written Sources
Other clips from that Day of the Karmapa’s 2021 teaching are here:
In this video the 17th Karmapa explains how and why eating meat was strictly forbidden in Karma Kagyu, for the full teaching, see here.
Giving up meat for compassionate reasons, and the natural example of children. In this short video clip from a teaching in 2021, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa speaks about the need to give up eating meat in the Mahayana due to compassionate reasons. For full video teaching see here.
For other transcripts and videos of the 17th Karmapa’s teachings on not eating or killing animals, Buddhist view on eating meat, and his own lifetime vow not to eat slaughtered animals and more, see:
Including a free e-book compilation and transcription, together with extensive footnotes, of the 17th Karmapa’s teachings on this topic, see here: https://dakinitranslations.com/…/meat-is-murder…/
Read also my recent autobiographical excerpt “Contradiction on the Plate” (2026) about my experience of seeing so many Buddhists in India, SE Asia and Nepal killing and eating animals, despite being Buddhist cultures and countries: https://dakinitranslations.com/…/the-contradiction-on…/
May it be of benefit to humans and animals who all want to live and be happy and free from suffering, just like humans. Sending compassion and aspiration prayers for those in Nepal and Tibet, who lost their lives, loved ones, friends and more.