Tibetans who lived there describe it as an unspoilt area, a true paradise on earth. But since the occupation, that is no longer the case. Trees and timber have been exploited for years, to the point where entire forests have disappeared. However, since 18 April last year, the monks of Dzogchen Monastery in Sichuan province, together with the Tibetan community, have begun planting thousands of new trees to reforest the hillsides surrounding the place of prayer.

New trees to protect the environment

Launched by Lama Tenzin Lungtok Rinpoche, the reforestation campaign aims to plant at least 15,000 trees "to combat climate change and protect the environment", according to an anonymous source interviewed by Rfa (Radio Free Asia). The wooded area has in fact been heavily damaged since the 1960s. Entire slopes today are bare and barren, no longer able to retain water or regulate the temperature of the surrounding environment.

China "saw in the great forests of Kham a free resource to exploit, without even the need to build roads", said Gabriel Lafitte, an Australian expert on the region. "The simplest alternative was to raze entire hillsides from the bottom to the top and roll the tree trunks down to the rivers below." Since the late 1990s, logging has been banned, but little or nothing has been done to restore the area.

The Dalai Lama's concern

Tibet's supreme spiritual authority also says he is concerned about the current state of his homeland. He recounts that "a few thousand Tibetans from India went to visit their home regions. When they came back, they all told the same story. They said that about forty or fifty years ago there were vast forests covering their home areas. Now all those tree-covered mountains have become as bald as a monk's head."

The Dalai Lama speaks of climate change and altered natural cycles, as occurs when entire habitats are destroyed. Not only the Amazon or Sumatra, then. "Large-scale deforestation in Tibet is a matter of great sadness. It is not only sad for that area, which has lost its beauty, but also for the local population, who now struggle to collect firewood", the Dalai Lama explains. "The deforestation of the Tibetan plateau, according to experts, will change the amount of reflection from snow into space (forested areas absorb more solar radiation) and this will affect the monsoon in the coming years, not only in Tibet, but in all the surrounding areas." Explaining once again how everything on Earth exists in perfect balance.