SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt

More documents

Recommendations

Info

216 The Meaning of Sufficiency Economy International Conference there is a ‘Buddhist economics’ which contrasts with the ‘materialist economics’ of the post-Christian and Communist West. Where modern or materialist economics is centered on commodities and the product of labor, Buddhist economics is centered on work and the worker. “Modern economics ... tries to maximise human satisfactions by the optimal pattern of consumption, while [Buddhist economics] tries to maximise consumption by the optimal pattern of productive effort.” In the same vein, “while the materialist is mainly interested in goods, the Buddhist is mainly interested in liberation” (Schumacher 1973: 57) and production is the means to this end. Buddhist economics is best pursued within societies that emphasize selfsufficiency: “From the point of view of Buddhist economics, therefore, production from local resources for local need is the most rational way of economic life, while dependence on imports from afar and the consequent need to produce for export to unknown and distant peoples is highly uneconomic and justifiable only in exceptional cases and on a small scale” (Schumacher 1973: 59). Prior to King Bhumipol’s famous speech, other Thai had also strongly advocated the adoption of Buddhist economics. By far the most influential was the late Buddhad?sa Bhikkhu. In numerous sermons he provided an articulate defense of an ethic which would foster suppression of personal greed in favor of redistribution of wealth to alleviate suffering more generally 3 . The highly respected Buddhist ethicist, the Venerable Prayudh Payutto, also strongly advocated the type of Buddhist economics sketched out by Buddhad?sa (see Prayudh Payutto 1994). Some lay followers of Buddhad?sa have attempted to create community organizations dedicated to what Buddhadasa had termed dhammic socialism. In an essay on “Buddhism and Development: Is Small Beautiful?” Sulak Sivaraksa (1981), for example, looked positively for inspiration to both Buddhad?sa and Schumacher. Sulak argued that the premises of ‘development’ promoted by economists and politicians entail accentuating the very desires that Buddhism considers the major impediments to the attainment of Nibb?na. Professor Chatthip Nartsupha in many of his works has identified Buddhist economics with the economic practices of Thai rural communities (Chatthip Nartsupha 1981, 1984, 1999, 2005). King Bhumipol gave authoritative backing, thus, to an economic philosophy that has long been advanced in Thailand as a Buddhist critique of the excesses of capitalist development. Such a critique has not, however, deterred any Thai government since the middle of the 19th century from promoting the integration of the Thai economy into a global capitalist system. As a result, there is almost no one in Thailand today – save perhaps for a few forest monks – who is not dependent on a global market for income and/or for acquiring many needed goods and services. Nonetheless, there are some for whom Buddhist ideals of tempering desire, moderation and communal selfhelp still influence their economic practice. 3 See Buddhadãsa (1986, 1989); Jackson (1988); Radical Conservatism and (1990).
The Meaning of Sufficiency Economy International Conference 217 Such a stance is, I suspect, most manifest among people who live in or were born in rural communities. The rural population of the country is still largely concentrated in northeastern Thailand. I will in this paper argue that the economy of northeastern Thai villages is a product of practices that are primarily oriented towards a global capitalist system, but which are also tempered by Buddhist ideals. I will draw on research which I have carried out for more than four decades in a rural community in Mahasarakham province in the center of the northeastern region to demonstrate that villagers there have fully embraced capitalist development in seeking to improve their own lives and/or those of their children and descendants. At the same time, I will also show that their success in the capitalist economy has for many been a consequence of an ethic that is rooted in village Buddhism. I will show further how practices and institutions associated with village Buddhism provide a sense of sanctuary from the vicissitudes of volatile capitalist economic forces. The dialectical practices of Buddhist and capitalist economies found in rural northeastern Thai society contrasts, I suggest, with the untempered capitalist ethic that is particularly manifest among the Thai urban middle class. A NEARLY SELF-SUFFICIENT ISAN VILLAGE Ban Nông Tün: A Central Isan Village In 1963-64 Jane Keyes, my wife (who took most of the photos I will show), and I first undertook fieldwork in rural northeastern Thailand. We chose a village in what I term the Isan rural heartland – the provinces of Khon Kaen, southern Udorn, Kalasin, Mahasarakham, Roi-Et, Yasothon, western Ubon, northern Surin, Sisaket, and Buriram, Chaiyaphum and northern Khorat. In this region the vast majority of people have long based their livelihood on the cultivation of glutinous rice in rainfed fields. They traditionally supplemented their diet with fish caught in the Chi and Mun rivers, but few in this central Isan region, unlike villagers living near the Mekong, depended primarily on fishing for their living. They also differ from villagers in the more hilly areas of the region – Loei, eastern Kalasin, Sakon Nakhon, and parts of Nakhon Phanom and Mukdahan – where lowland wet-rice cultivation is more difficult. The people of the Isan heartland are predominantly Thai-Lao, that is, they are speakers of dialects closely related to those found in central and southern Laos and have long followed cultural traditions which are also the same as those found in these areas of Laos. They differ in culture and language from the peoples of southern Sisaket, Surin and Buriram whose primary languages are Khmer or Kui, another Mon-Khmer language as well as from the people of Khorat who speak dialects related to central Thai.
Page 1:
Group 2 Sufficiency Economy and Gr
Page 5 and 6:
The Meaning of Sufficiency Economy
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12: As the national network grew, maint
Page 13 and 14: The Meaning of Sufficiency Economy
Page 23: Sufficiency Economy and Grassroots
Page 26 and 27: 180 The Meaning of Sufficiency Econ
Page 59: Sufficiency Economy and Grassroots
Page 89: The Meaning of Sufficiency Economy
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
8 The Meaning of Sufficiency Econom
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
show all

SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?