Growing up, Venerable Metteyya Sakyaputta’s family was considered more fortunate than others in his Nepalese village. They had matches and could provide fire for others to cook with and light their homes.
It’s a fight supported by Canadians led by Alberta environmental scientist Lori Forster. Forster, aka Guruma Bodhi, is Metteyya’s Dharma mother, who vowed in 2006 when Metteyya became a monk that she would take care of all of his physical needs so that he could dedicate his life to a higher purpose. Metteyya’s village of little more than 800 people sits at the base of the Chure mountains on what was once a lush, tropical wetland in the Terai region near the Indian border.
It also has an audacious plan to build a railway line through the Himalayas as part of its Belt and Road Initiative that it says would result in 2.5 million Chinese tourists visiting Nepal annually. Now, when the monsoon rains come, there’s flooding. As glaciers are rapidly depleting, so too are the rivers and wetlands.The water table has dropped from 12 to 58 metres due to the combination of climate change and increased population.
Metteyya sees it as a launching pad for them to become tour guides and even owner/operators of guesthouses.