temples), and Shandong, China (Zhengjue Temple). From the basis of these groups, we had a period of presentations followed by peer review and extended discussion on each project. On the afternoon of the second day, the group had a final exchange, much of which centered on issues and difficulties in sustaining the shared work. The group wants to continue what we felt were the dynamic and practical conversations of the two days without getting bogged down in the building and maintenance of yet another new network requiring excessive amounts of e-mail communication and documentation which is an added burden for non-native English speakers with poor internet access. In this way, we will seek to develop the EcoTemple Community Development Project more as a meme, or as a method or path, rather than as a fixed project with fixed membership. This means that we will try to further develop the Eco-Temple Community Design Scheme so that it can be used as a planning and action tool for our own and any other eco-temple community initiatives in the world. We hope to continue to enrich the design scheme and further our own work based on a number of cooperative agreements mentioned in the above temple community profiles and through an ongoing series of small meetings and site visits (often with a particular learning theme), which we have already
begun. Further, in order to save resources and increase the likelihood of participation, we will try to hold our group meeting during large INEB and ICE general conferences, while conducting the site visits before or after, as follows: April 2015: South Korea (2nd ICE conf.) & site visit: Japan (theme: nuclear & clean energy) January 2016: Sri Lanka (INEB general conf.) & site visit: south India (theme: earth bricks & environmental justice in new Buddhist communities) December 2016: site visits (2): Thailand (opening of Phra Sangkom’s Smart Pagoda) Myanmar (theme: ecological use of bamboo) July 2017: Indonesia (3rd ICE conf.) & site visit: (TBA: Muslim eco mosques?) November 2017: Taiwan (INEB general conf.) & site visit: China (theme: solar energy) In the intervening periods, a basic homepage with profiles of the main member eco-temple communities and the evolving Eco-Temple Community Design Scheme will be maintained on the homepage of the Japan Network of Engaged Buddhists (JNEB) and the new ICE homepage. BUILDING ECO TEMPLE COMMUNITY IN TAMIL NADU From January 31 to February 3, 2016, 5 members of the Interfaith 24
Climate and Ecology Network (ICE) (under the International Network of Engaged Buddhists INEB) took a three day study tour of the site for an eco-temple community development project in the region of Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, South India. The tour was conducted in conjunction with ICE’s Eco-Temple Community Development Project, Group Work Meeting held in Sri Lanka from January 29-30. The purpose of this tour was to inspect the site for the building of an eco-temple and to brainstorm on cooperative action with locals and our host, Gautham Prabhu Nagappan (also an ICE member). Gautham is the Executive Director of the Foundation for His Sacred Majesty (FHSM), based in Chennai, which has been working in this region for 7 years among the most marginalized communities of former outcaste or untouchable Hindus, now referred to as Dalits. The Foundation has been mobilizing multi-stakeholders participation in the design and implementation of a self-sustainable model on education and alternative livelihood to achieve community empowerment with the ideology of Dr. Ambedkar and the great Buddhist monarch of ancient India, Ashoka. FHSM is working on a number of levels from human rights advocacy to sustainable agriculture, income generating projects, youth education and mobilization, and Buddhist education and practice. The proposed Sukhavati Eco Temple