Recycling Bodhisattva: The Tzu-Chi movement’s response to global climate change

Abstract

This article traces the emergence of climate change discourse and its related practices in one of the largest and globally most influential Taiwanese Buddhist organizations – Tzu-Chi (Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu-Chi Association). The authors analyse more than 500 volumes of Tzu-Chi’s periodicals and describe its recycling practice from the social organizational perspective. Our findings suggest that climate change discourse has emerged in recent years as a response to increasing natural disasters, particularly typhoons. Practices such as recycling are implemented in order to address this crisis through the cultivation of a disciplined inner self. The article compensates for the lack of current studies on what Buddhist organizations actually do for the environment and how they address climate change. It also offers a correction to the studies on environmental movements, in which religious environmentalism is often overlooked.