Buddhism and Ecology News

A survey of visitors to Gandantegchenling Monastery was conducted within the context of the World Bank “Sacred Urban Landscape Protection Initiative – Environmental Education and Conservation Management for Monasteries in Ulaanbaatar”, in the framework of assistance to Gandantegchenling Monastery in developing an environmentally-sound management plan for the Monastery and its surrounding residential area.

The main objectives of the survey were to gather information about the frequency and patterns of visits to Gandantegchenling Monastery, and to obtain non-directed opinions and suggestions from visitors concerning the monastery’s future development.

The results of the survey showed that there is a significant variability in the frequency and patterns of public visits to the Monastery, and that a wide variety of problems are perceived by visitors as needing to be addressed. Owing to the open-ended nature of this survey and to the relatively small nature of the survey population, it is impossible to state with great precision the degree to which visitors might support any specific development recommendation; but we stress that the overall objective of this study has been to generate a list of problems and issues that should be taken into consideration in planning the development of Gandantegchenling Monastery, rather than to rank such issues or their solutions based on their degree of public support or their objective merit.

Overall, it is possible to group the suggestions provided by visitors for the development of the Monastery and its surrounding region into the following broad categories:

• Appearance of the site (landscaping, cleanliness, organization)
• Services offered to the Buddhist community (speed, cost, flexibility, hours of operation, facilities)
• Information needs (site interpretation, spiritual guidance, information about the monastery and events)
• Monks (professionalism, relations with visitors).