3rd International Eco-Temple Meeting, India October 2019

Schedule

October 15th or before: arrival in Delhi

• please arrange your own accommodations. You might ask Gautham or Kanchana for advise on places to stay

October 16: Visit Edible Routes Foundation farm with Kanchana Facebook

• Morning around 9am visiting Aali or Jupex farm. Run a farm visit, session on ERF work and then session on sustainability and conscious consumerism followed by a simple organically made (some picked from our farm) lunch at farm. Finishing around 2:00 or 3:00 pm.

October 16 late afternoon/evening: travel to Deer Park by private car 

• We will rent vans and travel halfway on 16th evening to the nice city of Chandigarh (4-5 hours), spend the night, and continue to the next morning (another 7 hours), arriving Deer Park early afternoon on the 17th. The cost of the van is 2,000 rs per person
• Please choose and make your own reservation for one of these two hotels in Chandigarh for one night on the 16th:

1. Icon Hotel
2. Capital O Hotel

• If you wish to fly or take the train separately, please arrange on your own
• Here are good suggestions for getting to Deer Park from their homepage:
  http://deerpark.in/how-to-get-here/

• see accommodations information below

October 18-19 main Eco-Temple meeting at Deer Park: Tentative Themes

October 18 Morning

8:00-9:30 Review of Eco-Temple Group developments from last meeting and short updates from participants on their work

9:30-9:45 tea break

9:45-11:30 Exploring Economic Sustainability – How to attract investment and economically sustain an eco-temple community development scheme

• We have many members with a variety of levels of experience in attracting investment in their eco-temple community development schemes. Rev. Okochi successfully built his through establishing a micro-credit bank. Ven. Miao Hai, on the other hand, attracted significant corporate investment for solar panels, but is now looking towards smaller self-sufficient methods of building eco-temples. Phra Sangkom developed Right Livelihood businesses, like ecological forest products, for his temples. Gautham continues to explore a variety of funding schemes to build his eco-temple in Tamil Nadu. In general, we engaged Buddhists have many great ideas for the environment and for community development, but not so many for financial management and social enterprise. As INEB in general is prioritizing this field of social enterprise, it is also important for us to further explore in building our work.
• Special Presentation by new member Rev. Ryogo Takemoto on his new Buddhist temple based solar energy company (45 minutes with translation)
• Group conversation and input from other members’ experiences (60 minutes)

11:30-13:30 lunch break

October 18 Afternoon

13:30-15:00 White Pollution

• White pollution (i.e. single use disposable plastic) has finally become a global concern, and we are suddenly seeing a shift away from using plastic bags and plastic straws. But, of course, the issue is much, much larger than this ,and the concept of “reduce, reuse, recycle, and recirculate” which was initially generated in Germany is not enough. Ven. Miao Hai sees a technology shift—like the one we have seen to solar power and other renewable energy sources in the last 5 or so years—will be essential in making the big shift away from the destructive use of plastic. Kanchana has been long working on this issue. Furthermore, our host, Deer Park has a long standing zero waste program not only within its property but also as a community campaign within Bir. So what can our Eco-Temple Communtiy Development Project do for this issue?
• Presentation by Kanchana and someone from Deer Park about this work? (Ven. Miao Hai cannot join us this time) (30 minutes)
• Group discussion (60 minutes)

15:00-15:15 tea break

15:15 tour of Deer Park’s zero waste program and walk around the town of Bir

October 19 Morning

8:00-10:00 On the Road to Myanmar

• We have been planning to have our next major Eco-Temple meeting in Myanmar for some time now and have tentatively scheduled to conduct it in the winter of 2020 (between mid January and mid March). As such, it would be good to learn about what is going on in Myanmar with our partners and think more deeply about how our meeting there in 2020 can benefit us all.
• Presentations on eco-temple work in Myanmar (45-60 minutes)
• Group discussion and confirmation of Eco-Temple meeting in Myanmar 2020 (60 minutes)

10:00-10:15 tea break

10:15-11:30 Presentations by any other members

11:30-13:30 lunch break

October 19 Afternoon

13:30 TBA Further presentations & Discussion OR interaction with Vikalp Sangam

October 20 bus trip to Dharamsala for start of INEB Conference on 21st

9:00 Group photo and gathering plus departure for Dharamsala and INEB Conference event on 21^st. The bus ride is only two hours but we may stop and visit some other interesting ecological activities on the way there.

• please arrange for your own lodgings at Dharamsala as per information coming from main INEB Office on the conference. We will be there only one night so you might be able to leave some bags behind. 
• Link to INEB Conference Registration and Information

Accommodation Plan & Costs for Oct. 17-20

• Meals are 100 rupees/person/meal. Perhaps we can take up a dana collection to help support the monks for their food and lodging and anyone else who needs help. These costs for using Deer Park are very low so we should be grateful for their generous hosting!

• If you need separate private accommodations, please search by yourself for your own guest house in Bir as soon as possible since it is high season in this area and accommodations are filling up. And let me know your final plan.