Today’s Good People, Good Works will be presented in Chinese, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

Everyone in this world should know one thing: that is, no matter how much money we have, we cannot take one penny with us when we die. Therefore, when we are alive, instead of seeking material wealth, we should be kind and helpful to the less fortunate people in this world, and then we can achieve greatness in our lives.

Earth-loving viewers, welcome to Good People, Good Works. Today’s program features Dr. Wender Yang of Formosa (Taiwan) who is the president and founder of the non-profit HIMA Foundation. The Foundation is responsible for the New Loulan Project that seeks to revive a thriving green oasis that once existed in Xinjiang, China’s Taklimakan Desert.

Approximately 2,000 years ago, Loulan was a prosperous city-state that supported much life and featured a vibrant culture. Located along the historic Silk Road, it once was a prominent economic hub and connected China, the Mediterranean and Europe.

The desert in Xinjiang is at the west end of China. Taklamakan Desert began to desertify around 2,000 years ago and it continues to expand with the speed of 168 square kilometers per year so far. The condition of desertification is very serious.

Around the third century AD, the area’s forests were subject to intense logging which led to an acceleration of the desertification. Continual sandstorms devastated Loulan and soon the entire city-state disappeared into the vast arid desert. In 2000, Dr. Yang traveled to Xinjiang in search of the Loulan people.

We went there for an adventure, looking for the most mysterious race, the “Loulan.” On the way, I saw two elders walking around in 40~50 degrees Celsius temperatures and the surface temperature was even over 70~80 degrees Celsius.

So I went to them and said, “I can take you to where you want to go.” Then they got in the car and asked my translator (also my driver), “What are you doing here?” I replied: “We are here to look for the Loulan People.” They looked at each other for awhile and said: “We are Loulan People.”

Upon reaching the Loulan settlement, featuring approximately 800 households, he found that people were living under extremely unfavorable conditions. They were suffering from insufficient food and water and protection from the harsh elements. Out of his genuine desire to help better the welfare of the Loulan people and to restore the beauty of the land, Dr. Yang gave up his high salaried position at a well-established company, founded the HIMA Foundation and dedicated himself full-time to the New Loulan Project.

The Loulan Project is a project that we started seven years ago. We hope that we can restore this beautiful, ancient place where people and nature co-existed in harmony.

Dr. Yang started by monitoring the growth and distribution of trees in the area. He also had experts analyze the soil and water to determine the prospects for planting greenery. Fortunately, through the right selection of plant species, Dr. Yang and his team were able to grow flora even in these challenging conditions.

It’s more difficult to plant trees in a desert than in other areas. Therefore, the New Loulan Project is to create the only “desert forest” in the world. In other words, we want to turn the desert green again.

We planted herbaceous plants, and a common shrub named Ammannia gracilis, also known as “the Beauty of Desert.” We also planted tall trees. For example, we planted 108 hectares of Populus forest in Arakan. Populus is also called “the Hero of the Desert,” which is the first barrier to block the wind and the sand.

So these three kinds of plants together can form a forest in the desert. It creates harmony between nature and people. Up to last year, we had restored an area of three square kilometers of desert and changed it into a better place to live.

The most important thing is that they feel very proud that they have enlivened this lifeless area and made beautiful flowers grow again. We’ve made a deal with the local government. This year we’ll expand the project and work together with 200 families.

In the next two years, each family will be responsible for restoring about two square kilometers of land. So the total area is approximately 168 square kilometers. This way we’ll find the balance between the force of desertification and the greening of desert in Xinjiang desert.

If a group of common people like us can rejuvenate this place, I think that other people would have no excuse to say, “We cannot make it,” or, “It is too difficult to do.” Everybody could help start the recovery of the environment.

When we come back, Dr. Wender Yang will further discuss the New Loulan Project and how it is revitalizing the land and life of the local people. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

The power of kindness inside us is a very important factor that keeps me going. The power of kindness can generate a lot of energy that can make one’s wish come true. Whenever we need help, we always meet people who are willing to lend us a hand.

When people are working together, we become more and more powerful. I am very grateful for the help from Heaven because this is not something that I can accomplish by myself. The key reason for our success is that God has given us power. So many great Bodhisattvas have come to help us and I am really very grateful for all this.

Welcome back to Good People, Good Works. Today’s program features Dr. Wender Yang of Formosa (Taiwan) who is the president and founder of the HIMA Foundation. The Foundation started the New Loulan Project to restore an ancient oasis and improve the lives of residents of the Loulan region in Xinjiang, China’s Taklimakan Desert.

We asked Dr. Yang what lessons does the history of Loulan hold for the rest of the world?

Nowadays, humans are greedier, so they use large bulldozers and electric saws to fell trees. A tree that took one day to cut before, takes only a second to fell now, and thus we’ve caused greater damage to larger areas. The destruction of Loulan in the ancient times serves as a very costly lesson for us to learn.

Nowadays, the threat against the ecology has expanded to the whole world. If we don’t preserve this Earth well, the Loulan tragedy may extend to the whole world. Actually, it is already happening today.

During the revitalizing process, Dr. Yang realized that the cultivation of indigenous plants such as the Apocynum Venetum (Dogbane) which is used to make a traditional herbal tea famous for its healing properties could be an avenue for the Loulan people to generate income for themselves. There are a total of six types of medicinal plants that grow only in the Taklimakan Desert.

In the desert, there are some very precious herbs, but only if they are grown in the desert can they have such a healing effect. Those herbs are very nurturing for our body. They are very important herbs listed in the Chinese “Bible of the Herbs,” Compendium of Materia Medica. We can only find these herbs in this area.

The New Loulan Project is not only about bringing life back to a barren desert, it is also about rediscovering the ancient Loulan heritage.

The most precious aspect of the New Loulan Project is actually the cultural aspect; During the process, we found that there were four or five ancient cities in and around the area of Loulan. One is in Niya, one is in Ying Pan, one is in Loulan and one is in Milan. These five sites were discovered around 100 years ago. This area has preserved the cultural exchange between the West and the East in the ancient times and even the origin of civilizations, and we’ve started to write about it.

We also have some videos about Loulan’s history over the past hundred years. We edited them into a documentary to help people understand the value of this place. We believe that people should love their homeland; people should see this place as humanity's cultural heritage. If people can understand this place more, they will cherish this historical and cultural heritage more. In this way, people will love the Earth more, as well as the whole of humanity.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, livestock raising is the main cause of deforestation and loss of biodiversity. Dr. Yang is well aware of the destruction caused by meat production and consumption.

We have been encouraging people to eat vegetarian and reduce meat consumption as much as possible, wherever they live, and they should do whatever they can to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Through different ways everyone can help to save the Earth, which is also to help ourselves and our later generations.

What does the future hold after the New Loulan Project’s completion?

If we can finish the New Loulan Project successfully, it will have several implications. We want to make the 800 farming households in the preservation area a model, where human beings live in harmony with nature in the desert. Currently Southern Xinjiang has millions of acres of cotton fields. We believe if these areas could be changed then, in addition to the southern part, the desertification of Xinjiang can be changed.

If we can restore the native plants and the original ecology in this process, we can expand the restoration area by 10, or 20 times and make the entire region green. So the whole environment will be improved. In this way, gradually we can reduce desertification areas and even deforestation. If more people participate in this kind of project, we can speed up the process of restoration and I believe that this will help reduce global warming.

In recognition of their outstanding work, Dr. Wender Yang and team were awarded the “Life Sustainability Awards” by the E-Renlai Magazine Formosa (Taiwan) for their selfless contribution towards the betterment of the Loulan people and the region.

We have gained so much from this Earth and Mother Nature. We feel that there is a call for us to give back to the Earth and the people.

This is what we have always been emphasizing, that is, the power of ‘goodness’. You must believe that people are really able to do something.

Dr. Yang is calling on the world to join hands and be the change to save our precious planet.

Greetings to all the viewers of Supreme Master Television. We hope that through this sharing process, we can call on people to take different actions and work hard together. We believe that with your participation, we can make the Earth a better place. With our kind thoughts and faith we can change the future of the whole planet. Thank you very much.

Our gratitude goes to Dr. Wender Yang and all those working to beautify the Taklimakan Desert. Their altruistic efforts and dedication will surely bring about a constructive new chapter in the life of the Loulan people.

For more details on the New Loulan Project, please visit www.NewLoulan.org

Thank you for joining us today on Good People, Good Works. Next up is The World Around Us, after Noteworthy News. May all peoples awaken now and quickly switch to the life-affirming vegan lifestyle to preserve our planet.

Woof, woof. Here I come, to the rescue!

Now, part of her training is to locate the source. But just as important is she’s got to let Joyce, her partner, know that she’s found it.

People say dogs see the world not with their eyes but with their noses.

Boots are obviously very useful to us if the dogs are working on rubble.

To learn about the role of rescue dogs in three different nations, please watch “Protecting Search and Rescue Dogs: Dedicated Teams from the UK, the US and South Korea”, Thursday, May 6, on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants.