“In the forests of the wilder parts of the borders of Laos and Thailand and Cambodia, there has been enormous loss. The burning and cutting down of the trees have been happening for decades. When my teachers were first living in these forests and jungles, there were tigers and elephants and wild bulls. Then modernization changed it all. Forests were cut down, and the natural world was decimated, affecting all the animals. And so the forest monks decided on a compassionate response. Some of the abbots and the monastics went out into the remaining stands of forest, took off their robes, and put them on the great old teak trees. They ordained the trees as abbots of the forest and went through all the chanting and rituals to make it so. And because there was such reverence and belief in the sacredness of the robes and the monastics, that part of the forest has remained untouched.”