SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt
SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt
SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt
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The Meaning of Sufficiency Economy <br />
International Conference<br />
233<br />
Bunniyom Buddhist Economics of the Asoke Group<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ABSTRACT<br />
The Asoke group has presented its own version of ‘sufficiency economy’,<br />
which can be studied in their rural centers in Thailand. The Asoke Buddhist group<br />
has well-established villages in several provinces in Thailand; Nakhon Pathom,<br />
Nakhon Racthasima, Nakhon Sawan, Chiang Mai, Sisaket and Ubon Ratchathani.<br />
Santi Asoke in Bangkok is mainly the administrative centre which coordinates<br />
between the various villages and activities. Besides the more established centres<br />
with monks, nuns, schools, rice fields, gardens and various other activities, there are<br />
new centres which are starting to practice same kind of activities albeit with smaller<br />
numbers of lay people. There is a new centre in Trang in the South and a small plot<br />
of land also in Phanggna, where Asoke practitioners are trying to start growing food.<br />
There are Asoke villages in Chaiyaphum, Loei and Chiang Rai. Altogether there are<br />
over twenty Asoke villages in Thailand.<br />
The Asoke villages have rice mills and after milling, the rice is usually sent to<br />
the Asoke shops and supermarkets in Bangkok and other towns. Same applies to the<br />
fruits and organically grown vegetables. The villages also produce herbal shampoos,<br />
detergents and medicine. All products in the shops are sold on very low prices as the<br />
group does not aim to make profit but aims to make spiritual merit. The economic<br />
system behind the Asoke activities in called bunniyom – meritism. Earning spiritual<br />
merit in the Buddhist sense is for Asoke people more important than making money<br />
and profit. With these principles the group goes entirely against capitalism,<br />
consumerism, globalisation and commercialisation of human life. During Thailand’s<br />
economic ‘boom’ years in the 1980s and 1990s, the Asoke group’s slogan was ‘Dare<br />
to be poor!”.<br />
Keywords: sufficiency economy, Buddhist economics, bunniyom, samma ajiva