Thought of the week

A monk who grew up in Munkotra, before going to study in a monastery in southern India, told me that in his childhood, they also gave the surplus harvest as food to the fish in the river that flowed in front of the village. [...] A family that cleared a small plot of land and cultivated it became its de facto owner. Even today, there are no property titles for the lands surrounding the village. Tribal peoples also shared various sections of streams and rivers, rich in fish, where they fished.

Matthieu Ricard
carnets d'un moine errant p. 688