SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt

The Meaning of Sufficiency Economy
International Conference
237
emphasises nurturing and protecting all life. This has been taken as the guideline for
many Thai Buddhist monks who, for instance, have been trying to protect the
pristine forests together with the local communities against the illegal loggers and
the military. 10
Asoke implements this concept by nurturing and protecting all life: many a
barren land plot has turned into a lush garden in the hands of Asoke practitioners.
Northeastern Thailand, notorious for its droughts and unfriendly natural conditions,
has been one of the central areas for Asoke’s agricultural experiments. Asoke group
has, at the moment, three highly successful centres in the Northeast, Sima Asoke,
Sisa Asoke and Ratchathani Asoke, all of which, have become showcases for the
provincial and district authorities, and all of which are also involved in actively
training local people in the art of natural agriculture, self-sufficiency and sustainable
development.
To become a farmer, is practically the choice number one of a “right
livelihood” for an Asoke practitioner. The Asoke temples thank the farmers for their
daily food in all the Asoke temples at the communal meal. This must be honey to the
ears of the impoverished Thai peasants visiting the temples. Another alternative for
an Asoke practitioner, in more urban surroundings, is to become at least a part-time
gardener.
The export-oriented cash-crop monoculture economy has not only
impoverished the peasants of Thailand, but it has equally impoverished the soil. The
peasants are up to their neck indebted to the money-lenders and landowners, who
have recommended the use of expensive foreign fertilizers, pesticides and
insecticides. These fertilizers have then run into the rivers and rice fields killing all
life in those waters. In some areas the groundwater has been polluted. Therefore, the
second respectable occupation, for a serious Asoke practitioner, is “natural
fertilizer”.
Pollution has become a serious problem both in urban and rural areas - not to
mention the beach resorts. With the modern disposable junk-food culture, garbage is
piling up all over the country. In all Asoke centres, garbage is carefully assorted in
different boxes or sacks. The third “right occupation” is therefore garbage collector
and assorter. Much of this garbage is reused either as composting it into fertilizers,
or into micro-organisms, used for detergents. Old paper, bottles, broken glass and
metal scrap are resold. Plastic bags are reused in the Asoke shops for packing in the
goods for the customer. Garbage is burned and reproduced as cooking gas, for
instance, in Pathom Asoke.
Self-sufficiency is emphasised and all production at Asoke centres is primarily
oriented to their own people, and only secondarily to the wider Thai community.
There has been some demand for Thai herbal medicine abroad, for instance, in
10
One of the most famous cases was Phra Prachak Kuttachitto, a Buddhist monk in Buriram
who tried to protect the forests. Eventually he had to flee for his life. Jim Taylor (1993).