Asianlayleaders.com – The concept of sustainability or sustainable development from the perspective of the villagers encompasses at least four major elements such as spiritual sustainability, economic sustainability, environmental or ecological sustainability, and social and cultural sustainability. All elements are interwoven and overlap each other, as shown below:
Spiritual Sustainability
The Karen elders all insisted that they could not live without carrying out religious rituals and ritual practices as a “must” to do. As highland farmers, their way of life totally depends on natural resources therefore they consider religious traditions to be a source of deep ecological perspective. Many different scholars also stressed the importance of spirit ritual in re-establishing and maintaining a healthier relationship with the natural world.
The rise of awareness of a religion-spirituality based earth-human is a process of holistic co-existence with all different forms of life. The villagers realize that they cannot survive without nature and their lives totally depend on earth resources.
This is in accord with Posey and Dutfield (1997), who state that, “The ecological crisis and other environmental degradation emerged from the scientific revolution which completely replaced the organic or holistic worldview of nature from the mindset of the people with the metaphor of the world of the machine. We must re-think and re-feel that human ecology is deeply conditioned by beliefs about our nature and destiny, that is, by religion or religious traditions or spiritual traditions of the indigenous people. The concept of sustainability is embedded in indigenous and traditional livelihood systems.
In this sense, Tucker and John Grim noted that, “Religions have an important role to play in projecting persuasive visions of a more sustainable future.This is special true because our attitudes toward nature have been consciously and unconsciously conditioned by our religious worldviews.” Lynn White (1994) observed this similarly when he noted, “What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them. Religion thus situates humans in relations to both the natural and human worlds with regards to meaning and responsibility.” The Dalai Lama pointed out that, “A sense of responsibility rooted in compassion lies at the very heart of an ecological ethic; today more than ever before life must be characterized by a sense of universal responsibility, not only human to human, but also human to other forms of life (Tucker & John Grim, 1998).
According to Steve C. Rockefeller (1994), living sustainability depends on accepting a duty to seek harmony with each other people and with nature. The guiding rules are that people must share with each other and care for the earth. Harmony must take no more from nature than nature can replenish. This in turn means adopting lifestyles and development paths that respect and work within natures’ limits (Earth Charter Project, (2003).
The above mentioned situations clearly reaffirmed by different scholars with almost the same solution, as well as Posey and Dutfield (1997) said that, the ecological crisis which emerged by unsustainable development cannot be solved by science and technology alone, since the roots of the unsustainability are largely lack of religion and spiritual dimension, the remedy must also be essential religious or spirituality. Schell (1983) also encourages us that Creation-Centered Spirituality or religious traditions represent the appropriate spiritual paradigm for the wisdom and the earth survival in our time today (in Fox, 1983).
Economic Sustainability
In the aspect of economy, sustainability must be based on the philosophy of the sufficiency economy, which signifies the arrangements that people make in households or in a community or in the community of communities, to draw sustenance from nature to meet their basic needs.
The villagers have a sense of “enough” based on a less-materialistic conception of the good or luxurious life and are aware of the responsibility on the part of the comfortable and the wealthy to lighten their demand upon earth’s bounty so that it may provide for all. This is evident in the old saying that “We will eat together, and will starve together.’ We cannot eat alone, it is not delicious, and we believe that “the more we share, the more “Ta” or the Absolute Being will bless and provide for us”.
Social Sustainability
Social or community sustainability is the most solid foundation element that gears towards other sustainability aspects. As we have seen, the villagers perform their personal umbilical cord tree ritual, community forest ritual, ancestor and community as well as the community running water spirit rituals, because they regard these rituals are the most significant in re-establishing the unity and relationship of the community together with nature and_ the environment.
Ecological Sustainability
The economy must come to terms with environmental realities that make endless material growth unsustainable. The claim of sustainability, however, must transcend anthropocentric self-interest. Without of sense of awe and reverence before the goodness and grandeur of the whole created order, humans will not likely preserve their habitat(Larry L. Rasmussen, 1996).
The environment as a basis for sustainability, and development and environment are not separated concepts, nor can one be successfully addressed without reference to other. The environment is a resource for development. Successful development requires policies that incorporate environmental considerations.
According to Yos (2001,) for the indigenous people, religious beliefs and rituals therefore form part of indigenous wisdom that operates not only on a socio-economic level but also on a spiritual level by implementing moral standards and interdependence between communities and forests. Local knowledge, in terms of beliefs and rituals is the arbitrator of legitimacy relating local peoples to their environment. It is integration between principles and reasoning, with the application of beliefs and rituals as legal measures for laying down community mandates. Beliefs and rituals are also closely related with local knowledge, especially in terms of agricultural production and resource management. Religious beliefs and rituals not only provide a sense of inner security amidst the risk and uncertainty of agricultural production, but they also lay down a moral framework upon which equitable distribution of resources and production is guaranteed. The moral framework of production and resource management is expressed in terms of local customs and taboos, prohibitions against trespassing and over exploiting common property resources. Prohibitions that will affect individual or community balance in the form of kuedor bad omen, jinx, and failure in crop production or even sicknesses should a violation occur.
Nicholas Hildyard (1993) makes helpful distinction based on the notion of Chiapas that, “Local peoples’ notion of sustainable development view the environment as “what is around their homes” Government and business and international organizations view environment as “what is around their economies”.
It can be concluded that in the past, religion and science separated from each other, religion does not need science and science does not need religion but the people need both because they believe that all things have an inner spirits. Today, more than ever, we need a worldview that validates spiritual inquiry, for it is the spiritual aridity of our current time that lies behind so many of our crises. Currently, there is a common awareness among religious — scholars, anthropologists, environmentalists or even scientists that science and technology alone cannot solve the environmental or ecological crisis, therefore we are required to call for a truly balance environmental and ecological spirituality. Sustainability cannot be managed within a capitalist world economy because sustainability or sustainable development is not only economics growth or development, but the entire web of life on which we depend for our long-term survival. Sustainability in view of the indigenous people encompasses of beliefs or spirituality sustainability, moral based economy sustainability, ecological or environmental sustainability, social, and livelihood sustainability. Thus, sustainability requires a respect for nature-it evolution, life support systems, and all living beings-in all its intricacy, fecundity, diversity, beauty and fragility. One among other possibilities to achieve sustainable development through the introduction of integral perspective into the life sphere of earth-human process by Wilber (1996) and also reaffirmed by other religious scholars and indigenous spiritual leaders in our working communities as prominent witness to sustainable community development as found through their lived- experiences.
By Dr.Sunthorn Wongjomporn
Ref:
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Nicholas Hilyard. “Fox in Charge of Chicken”, in global, ed. Wolfgang Sachs. London Books, 1993.
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SunthornWongjomporn (2008): Re-creating Sacred Space through the Water Spirit Ritual: A Model for Sustainable development in DokDaeng, Village,Chiang Mai, Thailand
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White Lynn Jr. The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis, 1967.
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Wilber, Ken. The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion.New York: Broadway Books, 1999.
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Yos (2001) Biodiversity Local Knowledge and Sustainable Development. Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
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“ Eco-Spirituality” [www.eco-spirit.org]