SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt

The Meaning of Sufficiency Economy
International Conference
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have been particularly attractive to young men (between 18 and 45) from Ban Nôn
g Tün. In 2005 26 men from the village had taken 2-3 year contracts to work in T
aiwan. Another 34 men had already worked there.
A young man in B?n Nông Tün just back from working three years at a
factory in Taiwan with his wife, his mother-in law, and son, 2005. Note
electric clothes washing machine purchased with money he had made. (photo
by Charles Keyes)
What is particularly noteworthy is that most migrants whether they work in
Thailand or work abroad return to the village. If men or women leave before
marriage, they may well end up marrying someone who is not from the village.
Women who do so typically will bring their husbands to live with them in the
village. Men (and some women) who leave after marriage see their work as essential
providing support for their families. Their incomes as well as remittances sent back
before they return makes it possible for their families to have suburban style homes
and to have many consumer goods associated with the middle class.
Photo on left shows the totality of household belongings of a woman in
1963 who was the great grandmother of the boy on the right in the house in
2005 of his aunt and uncle (photos by Jane Keyes)
Monies earned outside the village are also now often used to invest in new
local enterprises. These enterprises include convenience stores, small restaurants,
vehicle repair shops, and pickups for transporting goods and people. At the most
patronized convenience store the most popular item for sale were cellphone cards
used primarily for villagers to stay in contact with relatives working elsewhere in
Thailand or abroad.
Some also invest in agriculture, purchasing small tractors or other equipment
which is hired out. And some villagers invest in a traditional form of wealth –
namely cattle – albeit in some cases of a newer and more expensive breed. Today,
Ban Nông Tün, like most other villages in northeastern Thailand, is far from the near
ly self-sufficient agricultural community we first observed in the early 1960s.
The Village Remains a Moral World
While those who are born in Ban Nông Tün may spend most of their liv
es away from the village, most continue to retain a sense of membership in a moral
community that is manifest in the village. The wat today contains entirely new
structures compared to the early 1960s. Almost all the new structures have been
financed through merit-making rituals organized by those working away from the
village. Some men return to the village to ordain at the wat, while more become lay
followers after they retire.
The village today has two monastic establishments. In addition to the
traditional wat, since the 1980s one or two forest monks have found a place to reside
in either the forest associated with the phîpûtã, the tutelary spirit of the village, or in