So far our travels through Thailand have found endless natural beauty, smiling people, inspiring craft. Thailand is a very easy place to travel, the country is well prepared for the millions of tourists that visit the country each year. Life for the tourist can easily consist walking the endless markets of beautiful handimades, enjoying a constant array of Thai delicacies, somtum salads (spicy green papaya) and fresh coconut shakes to name a few.
Now since my intent for this trip was a voyage of discovery more than a vacation I started to feel a bit frustrated with the tourist tracks that had been laid down through the coun
try. After endulging for a week or two I was starting to feel that my method of travel was becoming unsustainably self indulgent for my own health not to mention the trail of plastic cups and bottles I left in my wake as I toured. With frustration growing, at the reality that I was really a big wallet full of baht in the eyes of many Thais, I was looking for something that would bring some deeper discovery. Chaa and I reformulated our trip to head north to a 10 day vipassana, then continue on to Laos to visit an organic farm, an attempting a jump off of the tourist tracks.We live in a fascinating point in human history. And it is my intent to write and share my experiences from this perspective. We as a global community are experiencing the peak of oil, the massive populations of the subcontinent and China going middle class, mass ecological destruction, global warming, resource wars, abuses of power by multi-nationals, governments and the media. If you feel that I have made overstatement here I invite you to have a look these links….
Despite this perspective I do not feel desperation or nihilism there are a lot of amazing ideas and intiatives that are being realized the world over, in some of the most unlikely places and by people who have some of the least access to educational and financial resources. I a
m excited to be living in this time and traveling the world. Being another set of eyes, to see all of this and share the highlights with you. That is part of the point of this blog is to spread some good news and good ideas. And so I will follow up that above list with twice as many positive, regenerative, hopeful links that contain ideas and stories that will inspire and might just change the future of life on the planet here are a few and there will be a larger list of links compiled…
m excited to be living in this time and traveling the world. Being another set of eyes, to see all of this and share the highlights with you. That is part of the point of this blog is to spread some good news and good ideas. And so I will follow up that above list with twice as many positive, regenerative, hopeful links that contain ideas and stories that will inspire and might just change the future of life on the planet here are a few and there will be a larger list of links compiled…earth building and food:
Global Conciousness Project
Maharasi University:
Intention Experiment
http://www.theintentionexperiment.com/
http://www.theintentionexperiment.com/
Earth Building:
BaanDin.org
Sustainable Living and Seed saving:
Ok so on with the story...
It was late one evening in an internet shop in the ancient capital ayyuttha that I was accessing the more inspirational pockets of consciousness on the web.
I learned about a couple of small projects in the north one of which was, PUN-PUN, with a humble website I thought it was an anamoloy in a culture and landscape that is increasingly being dominated by hyper-consumerism.
That night I found that there was a sustainability tour offered by pun-pun. We changed our plans to go to Vipassana and headed to Isan province on the next train out of town, a mere few hours away from that late night stillness in the internet shop. I really had little idea of what it was that we would find as we slid across the landscape in an old wooden train car with wide open windows that allowed us to experience the sights and smells of the passing landscape. I knew that we would be traveling considerable distance to find sites of organic, self sufficient lifestyle and traditional medicine. I knew it would be worth a peek.
We caught up with our group. Thirteen people, from all over the western world, a community leader in earthen building, a farmer from Holland, a hobby gardener from England, earth building geeks from the Canada and the us, a writer from SF bay area, interested in susutainable development (check out her blog at >...http://amandakovattana.blogspot.com/ ).
And of course our tour guides, translators and inspiration Peggy Reents and Jo Jandai and their son Thon, who are leaders and great advocates in Thailand in earthen building,
(check their biographies at the bottom of this article). It was a diverse and interesting group. And as alica and I climbed on the bus, a wave of curiosity and excitement came over me, leaving the logistics and linguistic barriers of solo travel behind and being taken on a inside look at Thai rural culture and the sustainable developments in Thailand.
During our travels we would cover some 800kms, eat all organic food, visit 13 sites of sustainable development ranging from a family farm, to university research sites, to massive spiritual communities, co-ops, medicine makers, we would eat all vegetarian organic local grown meals, play theater games with each other, watch educational films, slideshows about world wide innovative and work on some earthen buildings, all in a 10day period.
Here are a few of the highlights:
The Story of the Santi-Asoka movement in Thailand and how they intend to
“Feed the Whole World Garbage”
Of the largest and most impressive examples of sustainability that we witnessed on the tour was the efforts of the Santi-Asoka Buddhist Movement. A sect of Theravada Buddhism was established by former television personality and songwriter Phra Bodhirak. He was originally ordained by a Thai Singha. Asoka meaning “no sorrow” or “happiness” in Thai, is gaining momentum in Thai society. Although exact numbers are difficult to source the late
the latest report I found published in 2003 suggested the Asok movement includes thousands of members living throughout the country and hundreds living in 18 self-sustaining communities. You can be sure the numbers are larger since the movement has been growing expo
nentially.
They extol a system of “meritism” that can be described as pro-self reliance, pro-community, anti-materialist and anti-consumerist. This is best expressed in their dictum to “eat little, u
se little, work a lot, save the rest for society” Everyone living in the community must adhere to Buddah’s Five Precepts, which include no killing, no lying, no sexual misconduct (sex without commitment), stealing, or taking of intoxicants. The day begins at 3:30 am and after two hours of meditation, members spend most of the day working. They eat two meals a day…and work all day with a smile.
Arriving on A New Earth…
Upon arriving at the Ratchtani Asoka Community, which is an impressive sustainable compound. Arriving there it felt like science fiction, I just been transported to another planet, some eco- utopian village authored by Star Hawk. Our songthaow bus wound through the verdant streets, passed beautiful stilted homes, massive houseboats perched on rocky outcroppings, gardens cultivated full of food, sculptures and water gardens. Boheimoth hulls of beached boats placed curiously throughout the village. We stopped infront of a massive building that looke
d like it had been built by giants, flanked on one side by two trees that towered 200 ft into the sky. These people are seriously organized and thrivingly self sufficient. The Asoka symbology the rudder features promonatly at the entrances to their villages. And being there I was really reminded of biblical accounts of the great flood, and it made feel that I was standing in one of the sites that would survive such eco-catastrophy. And as tour commenced I realized that they were in fact truly prepared for such a flood. The land that the village is built upon was given to the Asoka and I am sure that that the philanthropist considered the land uninhabitable seeing as it floods about eight feet for three months a year! All of this beautiful cultivation gets washed out every year, the Asoka don’t seem to mind, it is a good opportunity for all to pull together, practice non attachment and relax on the large communal houseboats. The
Asoka pay for much of their expenses through their recycling efforts, check the photos of their recycling center. And it is through these efforts that they jokingly say that “they want to feed the whole world garbage” proceeds of simple recycling funds incredible educational and chartible efforts throughout the country.
Social Business Model:
From our guide we learn that the Asok have a curious business model, first they often give crop surpluses away, feeding the poor, the protesting, the ill. Secondly they make all natural soaps and natural fermented agricultural products, these sell for below market value in their stores and restaurants in the cities, food is also all organic. They also produce medicine. Not only that but each Asoka community hosts trainings that range from weekend to month long in self-sufficiency and organic farming techniques free of charge to thousands of Thai farmers who have become economic slaves through agricultural chemical dependency. The Asok had many farmers turn to them for guidance after the devestation of the 1997 Asian economic collapse that hit Thailand particularly hard.
Detoxing from Economic and Chemical Dependancies
On this tour I got to see first hand the links between chemical dependence on the land forcing people into debt and desperation. Consumerist dreams and economic dependence often leading to personal chemical
dependances in the cities.
Many of the farmers that we visited have started growing organic and become increasingly interested in self-sufficiency because they were increasingly seeing it as a better option than disasterious health effects of chemicals and economic enslavement. These are not intellectual decisions but based on experiential knowledge. It is a difficult decision to detox land. For anyone who has gone through or known someone who has experienced chemical detoxing. The process is analogous, at some point one remembers that there was once vivacity that is no longer experienced. Thai farmers have felt this in the considerable loss of biodiversity and deforestation that has occurred in the last thirty years. This loss of biodiversity has increased the farmer’s dependence on market goods and money, the rice paddies are no longer habitat to various fish, frogs, birds and insects, that were all at one time food staples. With the use of chemicals all of this has been lost, and so they must spend the meager amount that they make from their crop to pay for more chemicals and market food to sustain their lives. When the decision to “go clean” is first made there is a period of barrenness and transition that often causes relapse to old ways. The organic co-ops and farmers groups and aska trainings help through this transition stage which can take up to three years in order build up the quality of soil to sustain organic farming. The farms that we visited had seen amazing gains Biodiveristy and personal health and happiness, and community, which are the truest measurements of wealth.
Building Homes from Earth
“The most difficult thing in earthen building is to change ones attitudes” – Jo Jandai
Our tour leaders, Peggy and Jo are essentially responsible for bringing earthen building to Thailand. Back in the mid Nineties Jo was visiting the Mesa Grande, in Taos NM, Mesa Grande is the oldest known continuely inhabitited structure known. It was built with Adobe, mud brick techniquie. Jo noticed that the climate of his native Isan Province was similar to that of NM, and thought that the technique might be transferable. Having photocopied a book about the process he returned to his farm and started experimenting with the technique. Having found that it was very well suited for the environment he and his amercian wife Peggy started teaching workshops to everyone from interested Americans to Burmese womens groups. Jo has now become a public personality in the media, constantly giving TV and magazine interviews he also travels the country teaching workshops. Jo introduced the technique to the Asoka and now there are thousands of Baan Din (adobe buildings) in Thailand. The phenomena has been growing exponentially not only because the resultant buildings are cheaper, made from local materials, can be raised by communities, but they are more comfortable in the hot days and cool nights because of their thermal mass characteristics. The walls are like batteries, during the day they radiate the cool of the evening and during the night radiating the heat of the day. The buildings are remarkably easy to build and a lot of fun. In our time here I have had the chance to work on a couple of buildings and am looking forward to spreading this incredibly empowering and practical technology with me and teaching others.
What’s Next for Xaaq and Chaa’s "spirit of adventure!"?
I learned about a couple of small projects in the north one of which was, PUN-PUN, with a humble website I thought it was an anamoloy in a culture and landscape that is increasingly being dominated by hyper-consumerism.
That night I found that there was a sustainability tour offered by pun-pun. We changed our plans to go to Vipassana and headed to Isan province on the next train out of town, a mere few hours away from that late night stillness in the internet shop. I really had little idea of what it was that we would find as we slid across the landscape in an old wooden train car with wide open windows that allowed us to experience the sights and smells of the passing landscape. I knew that we would be traveling considerable distance to find sites of organic, self sufficient lifestyle and traditional medicine. I knew it would be worth a peek.
We caught up with our group. Thirteen people, from all over the western world, a community leader in earthen building, a farmer from Holland, a hobby gardener from England, earth building geeks from the Canada and the us, a writer from SF bay area, interested in susutainable development (check out her blog at >...http://amandakovattana.blogspot.com/ ).
And of course our tour guides, translators and inspiration Peggy Reents and Jo Jandai and their son Thon, who are leaders and great advocates in Thailand in earthen building,
(check their biographies at the bottom of this article). It was a diverse and interesting group. And as alica and I climbed on the bus, a wave of curiosity and excitement came over me, leaving the logistics and linguistic barriers of solo travel behind and being taken on a inside look at Thai rural culture and the sustainable developments in Thailand.During our travels we would cover some 800kms, eat all organic food, visit 13 sites of sustainable development ranging from a family farm, to university research sites, to massive spiritual communities, co-ops, medicine makers, we would eat all vegetarian organic local grown meals, play theater games with each other, watch educational films, slideshows about world wide innovative and work on some earthen buildings, all in a 10day period.
Here are a few of the highlights:
The Story of the Santi-Asoka movement in Thailand and how they intend to
“Feed the Whole World Garbage”
Of the largest and most impressive examples of sustainability that we witnessed on the tour was the efforts of the Santi-Asoka Buddhist Movement. A sect of Theravada Buddhism was established by former television personality and songwriter Phra Bodhirak. He was originally ordained by a Thai Singha. Asoka meaning “no sorrow” or “happiness” in Thai, is gaining momentum in Thai society. Although exact numbers are difficult to source the late
the latest report I found published in 2003 suggested the Asok movement includes thousands of members living throughout the country and hundreds living in 18 self-sustaining communities. You can be sure the numbers are larger since the movement has been growing expo
nentially.They extol a system of “meritism” that can be described as pro-self reliance, pro-community, anti-materialist and anti-consumerist. This is best expressed in their dictum to “eat little, u
se little, work a lot, save the rest for society” Everyone living in the community must adhere to Buddah’s Five Precepts, which include no killing, no lying, no sexual misconduct (sex without commitment), stealing, or taking of intoxicants. The day begins at 3:30 am and after two hours of meditation, members spend most of the day working. They eat two meals a day…and work all day with a smile.Arriving on A New Earth…
Upon arriving at the Ratchtani Asoka Community, which is an impressive sustainable compound. Arriving there it felt like science fiction, I just been transported to another planet, some eco- utopian village authored by Star Hawk. Our songthaow bus wound through the verdant streets, passed beautiful stilted homes, massive houseboats perched on rocky outcroppings, gardens cultivated full of food, sculptures and water gardens. Boheimoth hulls of beached boats placed curiously throughout the village. We stopped infront of a massive building that looke
d like it had been built by giants, flanked on one side by two trees that towered 200 ft into the sky. These people are seriously organized and thrivingly self sufficient. The Asoka symbology the rudder features promonatly at the entrances to their villages. And being there I was really reminded of biblical accounts of the great flood, and it made feel that I was standing in one of the sites that would survive such eco-catastrophy. And as tour commenced I realized that they were in fact truly prepared for such a flood. The land that the village is built upon was given to the Asoka and I am sure that that the philanthropist considered the land uninhabitable seeing as it floods about eight feet for three months a year! All of this beautiful cultivation gets washed out every year, the Asoka don’t seem to mind, it is a good opportunity for all to pull together, practice non attachment and relax on the large communal houseboats. The
Asoka pay for much of their expenses through their recycling efforts, check the photos of their recycling center. And it is through these efforts that they jokingly say that “they want to feed the whole world garbage” proceeds of simple recycling funds incredible educational and chartible efforts throughout the country.Social Business Model:
From our guide we learn that the Asok have a curious business model, first they often give crop surpluses away, feeding the poor, the protesting, the ill. Secondly they make all natural soaps and natural fermented agricultural products, these sell for below market value in their stores and restaurants in the cities, food is also all organic. They also produce medicine. Not only that but each Asoka community hosts trainings that range from weekend to month long in self-sufficiency and organic farming techniques free of charge to thousands of Thai farmers who have become economic slaves through agricultural chemical dependency. The Asok had many farmers turn to them for guidance after the devestation of the 1997 Asian economic collapse that hit Thailand particularly hard.
Detoxing from Economic and Chemical Dependancies
On this tour I got to see first hand the links between chemical dependence on the land forcing people into debt and desperation. Consumerist dreams and economic dependence often leading to personal chemical
dependances in the cities.Many of the farmers that we visited have started growing organic and become increasingly interested in self-sufficiency because they were increasingly seeing it as a better option than disasterious health effects of chemicals and economic enslavement. These are not intellectual decisions but based on experiential knowledge. It is a difficult decision to detox land. For anyone who has gone through or known someone who has experienced chemical detoxing. The process is analogous, at some point one remembers that there was once vivacity that is no longer experienced. Thai farmers have felt this in the considerable loss of biodiversity and deforestation that has occurred in the last thirty years. This loss of biodiversity has increased the farmer’s dependence on market goods and money, the rice paddies are no longer habitat to various fish, frogs, birds and insects, that were all at one time food staples. With the use of chemicals all of this has been lost, and so they must spend the meager amount that they make from their crop to pay for more chemicals and market food to sustain their lives. When the decision to “go clean” is first made there is a period of barrenness and transition that often causes relapse to old ways. The organic co-ops and farmers groups and aska trainings help through this transition stage which can take up to three years in order build up the quality of soil to sustain organic farming. The farms that we visited had seen amazing gains Biodiveristy and personal health and happiness, and community, which are the truest measurements of wealth.
Building Homes from Earth
“The most difficult thing in earthen building is to change ones attitudes” – Jo Jandai
Our tour leaders, Peggy and Jo are essentially responsible for bringing earthen building to Thailand. Back in the mid Nineties Jo was visiting the Mesa Grande, in Taos NM, Mesa Grande is the oldest known continuely inhabitited structure known. It was built with Adobe, mud brick techniquie. Jo noticed that the climate of his native Isan Province was similar to that of NM, and thought that the technique might be transferable. Having photocopied a book about the process he returned to his farm and started experimenting with the technique. Having found that it was very well suited for the environment he and his amercian wife Peggy started teaching workshops to everyone from interested Americans to Burmese womens groups. Jo has now become a public personality in the media, constantly giving TV and magazine interviews he also travels the country teaching workshops. Jo introduced the technique to the Asoka and now there are thousands of Baan Din (adobe buildings) in Thailand. The phenomena has been growing exponentially not only because the resultant buildings are cheaper, made from local materials, can be raised by communities, but they are more comfortable in the hot days and cool nights because of their thermal mass characteristics. The walls are like batteries, during the day they radiate the cool of the evening and during the night radiating the heat of the day. The buildings are remarkably easy to build and a lot of fun. In our time here I have had the chance to work on a couple of buildings and am looking forward to spreading this incredibly empowering and practical technology with me and teaching others.
What’s Next for Xaaq and Chaa’s "spirit of adventure!"?
We will be seeing some of the north of Thailand on our way to Laos and China. We have few details yet but are meeting travelers that are giving us some interesting tips. And so until the next update check out some of the links
and lots of love
x!
and lots of love
x!
heres peggy and jo's biographies:
Jon Jandai is the most widely know earthen builder in Thailand. In 1997, he began experimenting with earthen building on his family land, where he has been organic farming and seed-saving all his life. When Kleiwerks International was invited to work in Thailand in 2002, Jon was there from day one. He has since been teaching villagers and farmers, activists and architects, and consortiums of NGOs. Jon is one of the main sparks of what is now a widespread earthen building movement throughout his country. He has even become somewhat of a celebrity after appearing in over 20 magazines, on the Oprah-version of Thai TV, in videos, newspapers, and radio-- impressive testimony for a humble farmer. Jon is Co-Founding Director of Pun Pun-- Thailand's leading demonstration and education center for earthen building, sustainable living, organic farming, and seed-saving. He is an avid seed-saver, educator by example, and emperimenter extraordinaire. He is also one of the most selfless and dedicated people one could ever meet. Jon has been Kleiwerks International Southeast Asian Liaison, Affiliate Instructor, and an alumni since 2002.
Peggy Reents is Co-Founding Director of Pun Pun-- Thailand's leading demonstration and education center for earthen building, sustainable living, organic farming, and seed-saving. Before this, Peggy worked in Northeast Thailand with local community development projects, activist organizing, and advocacy for sustainable agriculture. She helped start ENGAGE (Educational Network for Global and Grassroots Exchange)-- a student-based coalition involving people in cross-cultural communication, resulting in grassroots action in support of global social justice. Peggy is deeply dedicated to working with farmers and villagers, activists, and NGO's. She is also mother of the newest member of Pun Pun- her and Jo's baby, Tahn. Peggy is originally from Colorado in the United States. Peggy has been a kleiwerks Affiliate and alumni since 2002.
3 comments:
It's taken me this long to finally find you here and on flickr. (My notes failed me so googled you under Xaaq.) Your pictures are fabulous. So many angles and close-ups. Thanks for the mention and link. I am still processing all that we saw on our trip. I'm so glad to have met you and Alicia and am glad I can now follow you on your travels.
Per your link to Jesus Camp and regarding our conversation about fundamentalist religious movements, I was dismayed to find that a recent Newsweek article characterized the Santi Asoke Buddhist group as an "ultraconservative" religious group that had gotten involved in politics, implying that they, like the muslim fundamentalists that the world now accepts as automatically violent, are likely to spawn a violent uprising.
Since we have seen first hand the good that the Santi Asoke group have done for the farmers and heard their philosophy, we know how unfair this characterization is. Luckily with further digging I found a much better account by the Christian Science Monitor in which we are allowed to understand that the name "Dharma Army" represents a peaceful group of demonstrators and not one that has taken up arms.
This characterization of religious groups as fundamentalist and therefore dangerous and suspect, supports my point that the powers that be ie: transnational corporations controlling world economic systems, are using this characterization to defame all forms of protests against globalization and an unsustainable world economic system. And now the Buddhists too. Sigh.
P.S. Back to Jesus Camp again. I fully agree that this indoctrination of children into the fundamentalist right wing world of Christian dogma is harmful. And having been a target of their wrong headed and silly campaign against gays for so many years, I have fought against their infiltration into politics. This battle has made all good liberals wary of religious fundamentalism of any kind, but when I look at kids who have been indoctrinated by consumerist advertising, I have to wonder who is being the most harmed?
Meanwhile I have read this post twice and really enjoyed your thoughts regarding your travels and tourism and the search for sustainability. I've also checked out the oil crash link and will netflix it. Looking forward to more of your journey.
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