Afghanistan moves to salvage ancient Buddhist city – and its economy

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MES AYNAK, Afghanistan -- It had the potential to be another Afghanistan Buddha disaster, recalling the Taliban’s destruction of two ancient statues that had stood for centuries in this country’s west: A buried Buddhist city lost to time was about to be obliterated by what promised to be one of the largest copper mines in the world.

<< The base of a life-sized Buddha, one of more than 200 found at the Mes Aynak site, sits along with hundreds of other statues depicting figures from Buddhist life and teachings in Afghanistan. | Jay Price/MCT

Now, however, thanks to delays in construction of the massive mine and a hefty influx of cash from the World Bank, the 1.5-square-mile Mes Aynak complex is an archaeological triumph – though bittersweet.

An international team of archaeologists and more than 550 local laborers are now frantically excavating what turns out to be a unique window into Afghanistan’s role on the ancient Silk Road connecting China and India with the Mediterranean.

With its Buddhist city, a ring of perhaps a half-dozen monasteries and a striking complex of workshops and mine shafts built into a high mountain ridgeline at an altitude of 8,200 feet, the site shows the interplay of Buddhism, mining and trade during the years it was in operation, now thought to be from the fifth to the late eighth centuries.

It underscores the conflict between cultural preservation and Afghanistan’s desperate need to find a way to survive as the international community winds down its involvement in the country. The copper here may be worth $100 billion by some estimates, five times the estimated value of Afghanistan’s entire economy, in which the government and military are funded mainly by foreign countries. The best private-sector jobs are with foreign relief groups.

A Chinese consortium agreed in 2007 to pay $3 billion for a 30-year lease on the mine. It was the largest private investment in Afghan history, and Afghan officials hailed it as a key component in building an economy that one day won’t rely almost solely on donor nations and the opium trade. They said it would generate hundred of millions of dollars a year for the government eventually and would provide thousands of jobs.

The massive, open pit mine, though, would destroy most or all of the ruins, which were larded with well-preserved frescoes and more than 1,000 statues, including hundreds of Buddhas.

The specter of Buddhas being dynamited or bulldozed immediately sparked comparison with one of the greatest cultural disasters in Afghan history: the Taliban’s destruction in 2001 of the giant Buddhas set into cliff walls in Bamiyan province. But a small group of French and Afghan archaeologists cut an informal deal with the Ministry of Mines in 2009 for time to perform a "rescue excavation," to recover as many key artifacts and document the site to whatever degree possible before the mining begins.

When that will be, they don’t know. A December deadline came and went. Now they have until June to finish work on the primary sites, said Mossadiq Khalili, the Afghan deputy minister of cultural affairs. Work on some of the monasteries on the edge of the mine area could continue for several years, he said.

The archaeologists feel almost certain that they have until at least 2016, because so little progress has been made on the mine. There seem to be no firm plans yet for the necessary power plant, smelter and rail line, or for the mining operation itself.

"So, if that’s correct, it means that there is, I won’t say plenty of time, but a reasonable, good amount of time to work on this site," said Philippe Marquis, the director of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan, which has been operating in the country since 1922 and acts as an adviser to the Afghan government.

What makes the prospect of success even greater, Marquis said, is the international interest in getting the mine up and running. Afghanistan has long been desperately poor, but it’s thought to have untapped oil, gas and mineral reserves worth perhaps more than $1 trillion. The World Bank, keen to see the mine project succeed, committed $8 million last year to the archaeological project.

Without the copper mine, Mes Aynak and its artifacts very likely would have been destroyed anyway, Marquis and others think, looted by dealers in stolen antiquities, the fate of many Afghan archaeological sites. But with hopes for an economic boon, there’s a strong chance that the site will be documented and its artifacts preserved.

Many of the site’s statues and paintings have been removed, and the rest will soon follow, said Nicolas Engel, an assistant director of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan.

It’s an adventure just to visit the site, in Logar province about 25 miles south of Kabul. Al Qaida trained here before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the highway is still subject to occasional Taliban assaults. The massive copper mine site is fenced and heavily guarded. One tunnel, apparently dug by the Russians when they occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s, is thought to be booby-trapped, and land mines left from their presence are still a major hazard. One laborer was wounded last year when he struck a mine while digging, Engel said.

Everywhere are the telltale signs of copper mining going back centuries. Blankets of fused slag – the byproduct of the old copper-smelting operations – tint the mountainside black. In one place the slag was piled nearly 40 feet high, evidence of thousands of years of production.

Shovels and picks ring out against rock as local laborers dig. Large sections of the city have emerged, as have roads and alleys that cut across several neighborhoods. Several monasteries, each on a hill or mountain above the main city, have been excavated, and more than 1,000 sculptures have been found, including Buddhas more than twice life-sized. Ancient manuscripts and decorative woodwork also have been uncovered.

On a recent sunny day, British archaeologist Thomas Eley sat on a wall sketching the layout of a small building and pondering a small indentation beside a heavily scorched depression in the floor. More than 700 coins had been found in the building, and he said it appeared to be a place where coins had been made from the copper smelted atop the mountain.

Across an ancient street and several buildings away, another archaeologist was sketching the unusually thick walls and small, extra-secure doorways of what may have been a bank where copper and coins were stored. All around them, laborers were uncovering more buildings, more pieces of the puzzle of Mes Aynak.

"I’m an archaeologist, so of course I’m sad about what will happen here, but it’s also life, and life has to go on," said Usman Ishanzada, who’s from Tajikistan. "If this mine can bring some life and jobs for local people, why not?"

The site poses intriguing questions about the era when Buddhism was the dominant religion in Afghanistan, Marquis said.

"The odd thing is all these Buddhist monasteries," he said. "Monks are not supposed to be miners, because Buddhist monks are not supposed to be working.”

The way monasteries are arrayed around the city and mine creates almost a wall around the site, which almost suggests a type of military activity, too, which would be a previously unknown role for monks.

The success of the project from a scientific and economic standpoint is becoming a positive lesson for the Afghan population and once-skeptical officials in the government, who thought the archaeological efforts would slow the mine and cause problems. Instead they’ve pumped money into the local economy, improved security and made it clear that such work can coexist well with economic development projects.

It’s also showing that even projects unrelated to mines may have big benefits for local communities, Marquis said.

It seems unlikely, he said, that the Afghan government will stop work on the excavation without any mining. That not only would trigger an international uproar but also would make hundreds of workers jobless, a major security issue. Many workers here already acknowledge that they were part of a rocket attack last August that was staged to protest the destruction of villages that sat atop the mine, Marquis said. Their hostility, however, has turned into enthusiasm now that they’ve been hired on.

The plan is to remove all the artifacts, even the largest statues and the domed shrines called stupas. For now, some statues are being stored in shipping containers at the site, and some have been sent to the national museum in Kabul. Afghan officials hope to build a museum just north of Mes Aynak.

Marquis said it was possible that time wasn’t the major challenge now.

"Our biggest problem has become the long-term conservation of all these things that are being saved," he said. "We need to work on a plan for what to do with them."

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/12/185592/afghanistan-moves-to-salvage-ancient.html#storylink=cpy

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Next Economy, Buddhist Economy

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Pittsburgh, PA (USA) -- November 6th, 2012: the day we vote on economy… the year of apocalyptic partisanship… the year of promises of new economy…

I usually don’t mess with economics.  The last time I spoke on the topic was when I re-phrased the all-too-familiar “It’s economy, stupid!” meme into “It’s psychology, stupid!” in my 2009 Huffington Post blog.

My question is this:

What kind of economy are we trying to build?

The kind of economy where everyone who wants to work can work?

Or the kind of economy that works by itself without the need to work?

Or the kind of economy where work doesn’t feel like work?

These are all very different questions and the answers to these questions range from industrial age pragmatism to utopian fantasies.

But I am looking for something in the middle, for an economy of the Middle Way for the middle class…

Is there such a beast?

Turns out there is and it’s called Buddhist Economics as described (in the 1970s) by E. F. Schumacher in “Small is Beautiful” (a must read!).

A couple of excerpts and a few points.

Schumacher explains:

“There is universal agreement that a fundamental source of wealth is human labor.  Now, the modern economists have been brought up to consider “labor” or work as little more than a necessary evil.  From the point of view of the employer, [labor] is in any case simply an item of cost, to be reduced to a minimum… say, by automation.  From the point of view of the workman, [labor/work] is a “disutility;” to work is to make a sacrifice of one’s leisure and comfort, and wages are a kind of compensation for the sacrifice.  Hence the ideal from the point of the employer is to have output without employees, and the ideal from the point of view of the employee is to have income without employment.”

Exactly: that’s what I, as an immigrant to this country, have witnessed over the past 20 years  – employers try to get rid of employees and the working public keeps dreaming the American dream of early retirement.

I am a big fan of the television show “Shark Tank” and after the last episode I said to my wife: “the American dream is well alive.”  Week after week I am blown away by inventive, hard-working people that seem to be motivated by the fantasy of financial independence (which is fine) and early retirement (arguably problematic).

This gets at one of my initial questions: what kind of economy are we trying to build – an economy that works by itself?  That seems to have been the American dream – to work hard, strike it rich, and not have to work anymore.

So, that’s the American way, the American economics.  Here’s the Buddhist way, the Buddhist economics, in Schumacher’s words:

“The Buddhist point of view takes the function of work to be at least threefold: to give a man a chance to utilize and develop his faculties; to enable him to overcome his ego-centeredness by joining with other people in a common task; and to bring forth the goods and services needed for a becoming existence.”

Making this kind of living would be “right livelihood” in terms of the Buddhist doctrine of Noble Eightfold Path.

Schumacher continues:

“To strive for leisure as an alternative to work would be considered a complete misunderstanding of one of the basic truths of human existence, namely that work and leisure are complementary parts of the same living process and cannot be separated without destroying the joy of work and the bliss of leisure.”

Schumacher never formally challenges the American economic dream (of striking it rich and becoming financially independent and retiring early) but, indirectly, his theorizing about Buddhist economics is exactly that kind of challenge.

I love what I do (but I am not what I do).  I have no plans of retiring.  And I am not a workaholic: I work 3 long days, seeing clients back to back, and these 3 days of work are some of my best days on this planet.  Not because I am “helping” someone (I resent that view anyway, the view of mental health as a “helping profession” – just about any occupation can be construed as such – plumbers too are in a “helping profession;” this whole “helping profession” business is just a bit too self-congratulatory, too ego-boosting for my taste).

I love what I do exactly because when I do what I do I cease to be my conceptual self, I vanish into the flow of the moment, I disappear into my work not as some escapist workaholic but as a cliff-diver into the oblivion of the water.

I realize I am fortunate that I am able to do what I do.  But I also have no false modesty about the matter: I have worked hard, very hard for this privilege to work in a manner that develops my faculties and in a manner that meditatively erases my ego and in a manner that also happens to have social value.  And it’s exactly because of this privilege to work that I don’t have the American dream of striking it rich and retiring early.

(All this book-writing that I’ve done – that was me chasing the American dream, wanting to pay off the student loans fast and get a lifestyle upgrade.  But I am mostly done with that – I mean with craving and book-writing…  Not just because I grew and matured but also because I am finally catching on to the fact that the American dream of striking it rich through book-writing for no-names like me is mostly a pipe-dream).

I am rambling and, perhaps, over-sharing (and that’s okay, that’s what blogging is about).  So, I want to end this voting-day blog-post with this summation:  in my humble opinion, to build a new economy we have to let go of the old dream, of that American dream that equates work with necessary evil.

And I’ll let Schumacher wrap this up for me:

“While the materialist is mainly interested in goods, the Buddhist is mainly interested in liberation.  But Buddhism is “The Middle Way” and therefore in no way antagonistic to physical well-being.  It is not wealth that stands in the way of liberation but the attachment to wealth; not the enjoyment of pleasurable things but the craving for them.  The keynote of Buddhist economics, therefore, is simplicity and non-violence… amazingly small means leading to extraordinarily satisfactory results.”

Schumacher – writing in the 1970s – was right then and is right now: an economy that is based on craving, an economy based on competing with the joneses is an economy of jonesing, an economy of addiction.  We don’t just need more jobs, we also need a rehab of the American dream.  We need a pattern break.

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Pavel Somov, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and the author of "Eating the Moment" (New Harbinger, 2008), "Present Perfect" (NH, 2010), "The Lotus Effect" (NH, 2010), "Smoke Free Smoke Break" (2011), and "Reinventing the Meal" (in press, 2012). He is in private practice in Pittsburgh, PA. His book website is www.eatingthemoment.com

Marla Somova, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist in private practice and an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Counseling at Carlow University in Pittsburgh, PA. She is the co-author of "Smoke Free Smoke Break" (2011).

Source: http://blogs.psychcentral.com/mindful-living/2012/11/next-economy-buddhist-economy/

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Application of Sufficiency Economy

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In a "sufficient economy", generation of material wealth is not the ultimate aim. Instead the final goal is to create environmentally healthy, self-sufficient communities in which basic human needs are met through Iocal natural production methods.

Bangkok, Thailand -- Five years ago Wat Doi Pha Som initiated an environmental revitalization process in the Samoeng District based on the principles of sufficiency economy. The initial development projects addressed the necessary prerequisite to any reforestation project, which was sufficient natural water resources. The soil quality in the local area was very dry with little nutrients and very limited growth potential.

<< Phra Sangkom Thanapanyo Khunsiri from Wat Doi Pha Som in Chiang Mai, Thailand devotes himself to promoting "sufficiency economic practices" among the local communities

Modern farming methods had made local farmers dependent upon expensive chemical fertilizers to regenerate soli nutrients for each year's crops.

The high investment required for modern farming had pushed many people to abandon their ancestral farming tradition and to take Jobs in the nearest urban center, Chiang Mai city, two hours away. The local area also suffered from bush fires and drought during the dry summer months.

The monks at Wat Doi Pha Som identified the principle cause of the many environmental and economic challenges facing the local residents to be the lack of adequate water resources in the local ecosystem. Water is a necessary ingredient for all plant growth and healthy ecosystem function. By addressing this basic need of all living organisms, the process of holistic restoration began.

Environmental Restoration and ProtectIon

The key in addressing the issue of water scarcity was creating environmental structures that retained natural water resources (mountain springs, rain water). The rainy season is capable of providing sufficient water resources to support the needs of both a thriving forest ecosystem and local agricultural practice.

Deforestation of the land in favor of expansive farmlands removed necessary natural structures for water retention and increased water lost to run-off, which left the area's soils thirsting during the non-rainy season months. The monk's initial development projects constructed a long network of check dams able to retain natural water resources in a series of small reservoirs. The construction of the check dam system involved local community members, military personnel, and government officials.

The collaboration between both local and external organizations (Government, Military, NGOs) is a key pillar In Wat Doi Pha Som's sustainable development scheme. Twelve months after the check dams' construction, the moisture content and growth potential of the local soil steadily increased. Currently there are over 100 check dams of different sizes [0.25m-2m] in the Hoi Bong watershed.

Reforestation efforts during the first year of development complemented the check dam network by supporting the soil's ability to retain natural water resources. Plants from the 'sufficiency economy' three categories of resourceful plants (Food, Usage, Economic) were planted.

<< These "check dams" helps to retain moisture content and enables growth potential of the local soil

These included banana, papaya, rice, guava, coconut, teak, bamboo, and red wood. The local ecosystem saw improvement in biodiversity and water retention and habitat restoration for numerous birds and wildlife.

In the four years following the first year of the revitalization process, development projects continued to improve the system for natural water retention. The creation of a water line system involved upgrading wooden check dams to concrete and the creation of separate water storage reservoirs, known in Thai as "monkey cheeks:'

These storage reservoirs collect and diffuse moisture to the surrounding soil and can be tapped to meet community needs during the dry season. During this time as well. the reforestation process continued. More resourceful plants were planted and as soil moisture increased, an increase in the number of annual harvests coincided.

Currently at Wat Dol Pha Som, the revitalization process focuses on maintaining the completed check dams network through monthly surveys and repairs. The current reforestation focus is on protecting local forests from wildfires as weil as environmental terrorists that seek to extract forest resources illegally and unsustalnably.

The development of the alternative energy is an essential component of Wat Doi Pha Som's sustainable development scheme. Initial experimentation in the community has been a success in creating biofuel from locally grown sunflower oil and recycled cooking oil. Future development hopes to harvest clean energy through the construction of solar cells and small scale-hydroelectric dams.

Alternative Education

In 2007 the Alternative Education School at Wat Doi Pha Som was established. Eight students were enroiled in the first class. The revolutionary school seeks to serve students, families, local communities and Thailand by teaching sustainable development practices and self-sufficiency to the next generation of Thai citizens.

Students are empowered to be self sufficient citizens through project-based learning that encourages entrepreneurial development and requires integration of traditional subject material into practical application.

Wat Dol Pha Som's sustainable development scheme helps to protect local forests from wildfires >>

Students have created their own educational pathways focusing on rice trade, herbal medicine, environmental conservation, and vegetable seed saving. The school values and strives to celebrate local customs and culture.

Local community members teach students about cultural wisdom and traditional practices. Students have learned about local agricultural wisdom, how to make clothing, and how to construct a house using local building materials.

The school also focuses on serving students' families. Students do not attend classes far from home, in order to be able to serve their parents and elders by performing chores and cooking at home.

The Alternative Education School is looking to expand to provide university and graduate level studies in Sufficiency Economy. Currently, the school is looking for qualified professionals to share the principles of sustainable development and self-sufficiency with a growing student body. The school is also very interested in collaboration and grant support with similar educational institutions and foundations around the world.

Sufficiency Economy - What lies ahead

Wat Doi Pha Som has focused on applying King Bhumibol's economic principle of sufficiency economy in the local villages of the Samoeng District, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand.

The King's guidelines of Sufficiency Economy promote the planting of three types of resourceful plants:

plants that are edible (Food), plants that can be used for medicinal, cosmetic, sanitation, and other household purposes (Usage), andplants that can be transformed into products for sale (Economic).
Plants can belong to one or all of the three plant categories. For example the coconut tree produces food for consumption (coconut milk, coconut shavings), the coconut husk can be turned into charcoal for home usage, and the tree trunk can be turned into lumber for sale. By focusing on these three types of plantations, local communities benefit in four areas: Livelihood, Environment, Economy, Society.

Community members (humans, animals, plants) have resources capable of satisfying the basic needs of life (Livelihood). The local ecosystems are revived through the regeneration of diverse plant species and protected through the application of conservational practices (Environment - organic farming, formation of tree banks). Communities generate natural resources that could be turned into products for sale or exchange in local or regional markets (Economic). Ultimately, communities become selfreliant and in control of their own social-wellbeing (Society).

Sufficiency economy is founded first on the principle of local environmental conservation/restoration. In this economic system the generation of material wealth is not the ultimate aim. Instead the final goal becomes creatlng environmentally healthy, self-sufficient communities in which basic human needs are met through local natural production methods. Economic benefit becomes only a secondary benefit in the larger development scheme.

In making this economic theory a practical model for sustainable development, the monks at Wat Doi Pha Som define four necessary concentrations of development.

The first and central concentration is on "Environmental Restoration and ProtectIon". In the Samoeng District, this concentration narrows to focus on preserving the forest ecosystem [Dipterocarp forests].
The second concentration of development is "Organic Agriculture". The application of chemical pesticides and chemical fertilizers has harmful ecological effects and also creates dependency on dlstributers outside of the local community.
The third concentration of development is the creation and usage of "AIternative Energy". The discovery and development of renewable and environmentally-loving alternative forms of energy is essential for creating environmentally healthy,
self-sufficient communities free from a destructive dependence on fossil fuels.
The fourth and final concentration of development is "Educatlon".
The future vitality of 'sufficiency economy' communities depends on the education of the younger generation. Youth need alternative education models that develop practical vocational skills, promote creativity and equip graduates to be self-sufficient upon completion of their formal education.

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