Prime Minister of Mongolia to be first International President of ARC

	Prime Minister Nambaryn Enkhbayar in Ulaanbaatar in June 2003

ARC is delighted to announce that - alongside our Founder HRH the Prince Philip - we now have our first International President. In June 2003 the Prime Minister of Mongolia Nambaryn Enkhbayar accepted an offer by ARC trustees to be International President for an initial three years.

ARC’s patrons include leaders of all major faiths, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Prince Hassan of Jordan and Sri Kushok Bakula who is the 20th incarnation of the Buddha’s disciple. In choosing Mr Enkhbayar ARC has deliberately sought an internationally renowned figure, who embodies the links between faith and society.

Mr Enkhbayar is a devout Buddhist, having been brought up as a communist. He has pioneered both environmental and development policies in Mongolia, which draw upon and are often improved by Buddhist teachings and practice. He is increasingly playing a role as a mediator between the central Asian and Asian countries – a role which again reflects the principles he has derived from Buddhism.

“Let us recall the very famous fable when Buddha kept silent when he was asked what was the ultimate meaning of life. He said that when one was wounded he would not try to find out who did the shooting, what is the size of the arrow, what is it made of? Instead he would try to remove the arrow from his body as soon as possible. So maybe it is worthwhile to remove as soon as possible arrows that have wounded us: irresponsibility, lack of accountability, narrowness of our mind, ignorance of the fact that everyone and everything is dependent on causation and on each other.” From Papers from the meetings of the Mongolian Buddhists Parliamentary Group, edited by N Enkhbayar

How ARC is supporting the revival of Buddhist ecology in Mongolia