DHARMA VOICES FOR ANIMALS

DVA is very excited to announce the launching of our third countrywide Project in Thailand. Led by our new Director of the Project, Dr. Chirra Taworntawat (Banks). Banks is a former monk and is currently a Buddhist practitioner. He has received his Ph.D. in public health at the renowned Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. Banks is also well known in Thailand for his vegan mentoring on his own YouTube Channel Coach Banks with over 414,000 followers.

DVA is working with the approximately 300,000 monastics in Thailand, the great majority of whom eat a great deal of animal flesh and animal products. Some of the biggest and most influential temples in Thailand are working with DVA by welcoming our presentations on the health benefits of a plant-based or, at least, a vegetarian diet.

The focus and goals of the US Center’s Project are to speak up for farmed animals by inviting, encouraging, educating, and supporting Buddhist retreat centers across the United States to transition towards (or wholeheartedly adopt) healthy, compassionate, climate-friendly, plant-based menus for all of their events. We estimate that we will be connecting with well over 1000 Buddhist centers that serve meals during their daylong and residential retreats in North America to an estimated 4 million Buddhists.

In partnership with Audrey Sanchez of Balanced, we have created a website that is a resource for US Buddhist Centers. Here you can download our 43-page Plant-Rich Menus Guide and our 32-page Plant-Rich Recipe Guide. These guides include reasons to add more plant-based meals, meal ideas and recipes, retreat center guidelines and suggested things to consider when making a food policy, testimonials from other centers and endorsements for working with DVA and Balanced, plus so much more.

DVA’s Vietnam Project connects with Pagodas (Vietnamese Buddhist temples) as our main operation. The Director of our Project, the Venerable Thich Thanh Huan, P.hD., has put together a team of volunteers to help spread the DVA's message at the 15,000 Pagodas. Our DVA team is supporting individual Pagodas to hold regular events, which include offering a Dharma talk on the benefits of a compassionate diet, screening of our film TỪNG BƯỚC CHÂN AN LẠC (Each Step of Peace and Bliss), followed by a discussion, and the offering of a free plant-based lunch to all participants.

DVA’s Vietnam Project cooking consultant and teacher, Vũ Liên Hà, teaches cooking classes in Hanoi and in Hue, central Vietnam. Her students learn how to prepare delicious and nutritious plant-based meals. Hà also engages current owners of restaurants that serve animal flesh, encouraging them to convert to compassionate food. One of her recent successes was to convert a well-known dog meat restaurant to vegetarian.