ABSTRACT
There has been a significant proliferation of writing that asserts the affinities of traditional Tibetan cultural-religious concepts with contemporary environmental protection concerns, and thus the value of Tibetan culture and Tibetan Buddhism for conservation. These claims have appeared in books as well as numerous published and unpublished essays and articles by influential Tibetan Buddhist leaders, Chinese and Tibetan social scientists and members of grassroots environmental organizations. This chapter is concerned with analysing and unpacking these claims. The chapter begins by noting the entanglements of Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan culture in these claims. Critical literature about indigenous knowledge and representations of the ecological native shows that such claims are almost always evaluated from the perspective of Western environmentalism. The chapter presents a framework of reverse environmentalism, paying attention on how Tibetan cultural claims about the efficacy of their practices for conservation contain within them at the same time critiques of Western methods and goals of environmental protection.
