(BKK Post) Doing good in Mae Jaem
Vagabond
Story by SUTHON SUKPHISIT
Bangkok Post 1. January 2002
Mae Jaem is a small amphoe (district) set in a valley in Chiang Mai.
At one time it was so closed off and remote that when residents or
civil servants wanted to get in contact with the outside world, they
had to do a lot of advance planning.
They would have to choose a season when a horse or mule could walk
easily, then prepare provisions, medicine, and the personal effects
they would be taking with them. A number of people would need to do
business outside at the same time, so that no one was travelling
alone. The trip from Mae Jaem to Chiang Mai city took about 10 days.
This area was still communist territory 25 years ago. Members of the
Communist Party of Thailand hid there, and machine guns and sandbags
are still displayed in front of the amphoe's police station as
mementoes of the era. But when a road was built up Doi Inthanon to
give access to the radar station there, another descending road was
constructed that entered Mae Jaem.
The fighting stopped, and Mae Jaem became brighter and more open.
The local culture and traditions, including handicrafts and religious
customs, retained their purity, and the honesty and sincerity of the
local people will impress any outsider who visits the area.
Wat Pa Daed is a temple that boasts one of the most beautiful viharn
in northern Thailand, and it is one of the 12 most significant temples
in the North on the basis of its murals. The style of the painting has
its roots in folk art created by Thai Yai artisans whose skill and
deep religious faith found expression in simple but eloquent
illustrations of the Buddhist Jakata.
Wat Pa Daed has been protected and cared for both by people in the
area and by outsiders. Especially important to its preservation has
been the fact that the monk who administers it has a full
understanding of its importance.
The temple fulfils its responsibilities as a community centre well.
Traditionally, it is a basic principle of temples and the communities
they serve that they assist and keep watch over each other. Wat Pa
Daed has a school for novices that has now been in operation for four
years. It is a project that must continue to move forward and improve,
but it is difficult, and will take a lot of effort.
Phra Suthat Wachirayano, the deputy abbot of Wat Pa Daed and director
of the Wat Pa Daed School, which is also known as the Pali
Sathit-suksa School, explained the background of the school.
``Our school offers education from the Mathayom 1 through the Mathayom
3 level. Currently there are 66 novices studying here, all villagers
from this amphoe. There are Karen, Hmong, and Lawa boys. The reason
they come to study is that their parents send them here to become
novices and get an education. Their families are poor, and they feel
the boys will be out of the way of dangers like carousing and drugs.
``Other boys come here on their own. They've seen their friends,
relatives, or older brothers come here, and they follow their example.
``In either case, we must request payment of 350 baht per term, with
two terms per year. It's not a lot, but we don't want to provide
everything free. They also have to pay for their books, because we
want their parents to have a part in the school, and to show
responsibility they have to make it clear that they have made a
definite decision to send their sons to school.
``The wat takes care of expenses for accommodation and food. As
regards the food, even though the boys are only novices, they must go
out with their begging bowls in the morning. There is enough rice for
both breakfast and lunch, but the food to eat with it that they get on
their begging round only does for the morning meal. They have to make
their own lunch. It's a good thing that in the rainy season the
novices have to raise vegetables. Then only pork, chicken, and fish
have to be bought. But in the summer everything has to be purchased.
``Novices are like children everywhere; they like to play, they want
toys, they love to eat sweets. We let the boys run a cooperative
system where everyone puts in money and becomes a member. The money
can be used to buy sweets, toys, notebooks, pencils, and pens, or
anything else they want to put in the coop. Then the members can
subsidise their own merchandise.
``The boys earn a very small income from religious services. The monks
at the temple preach every day, and all of the novices do, too. The
kind of preaching they do is just to read a religious text, or a
Jataka. This preaching is done by the novices on a rotating basis, and
villagers who come to the temple make merit by giving a little money
to the boy who reads on a given day. The novices also get some money
for chanting prayers from the Tripitaka at merit-making ceremonies or
funerals.
``Every year at around the end of December we ask the general public
to make merit by taking part in a pha pa ceremony. According the
ancient tradition, the pha pa is the presentation of cloth to the
monks by villagers. They hang it on the branches of trees, and it is
up to the monks to consider how they are going to put it to use.
``If they want to use it to make robes, they monks sew and dye it.
That's why you'll see that the monks' robes are made from a number of
pieces of cloth that are attached to each other.
``But the pha pa that we organise is more concerned with education.
Instead of cloth, we ask the villagers to present money that we use
for educational purposes. It goes to buy books, paper, tools used in
teaching, and tools used by craftsmen and in farming.
``It is during this pha pa that we set up our educational event. The
system of education we use here at the wat includes both material in
the standard curriculum, and material that is local in focus. We have
people who are experts in local types of work come and teach during
our educational pha pa. They are villagers, but we give them the
status of teachers who can communicate their traditional local wisdom.
``Mae Jaem is famous for hand-woven textiles, for its woodcarvers and
blacksmiths, and for its sweets. All of the people who come to teach
here are experts in their subject, and are happy to pass on their
knowledge. Everyone has a good time, both the teachers and the people
who come to learn from them.
``We think that both forms of education, the standard curriculum and
the local subjects, must go together. The students acquire a wide
range of knowledge and understanding, and important traditional
learning is preserved and transmitted.
``We have been organising these events for two years. Once we did it
at the New Year, and it wasn't a success because people didn't want to
leave their homes. Another time we held it on December 5, the King's
birthday, and then there was also a small turn-out because people had
many other things that they wanted to do. This time we decided on
December 24 and 25.
``Each time our educational pha pa has lasted for two days. On the
first day, the education cloth is presented, and traditional local
knowledge is taught. Local teachers come and teach their subjects to
everyone who wants to learn. There are panel discussions about
education and the community. This year's guest was Acharn Sulak
Sivaraksa, speaking on the topic, `The Vision of Thai Education'.
``On the second day, the educational activities are centred
specifically on the novices. It is a kind of vocational preparation
for them, an introduction to the kind of work they might do. Many of
them will leave the temple right after the event, and will have to
find work. Although Mae Jaem is famous for its hand-woven fabrics,
that kind of work isn't really suitable for them.
``This is the extent of the wat's educational activities. At present,
there isn't a lot that the wat itself has to do. We've built a new
ubosot for the monks to perform religious services of the
sangkhakam-type like chanting prayers and conducting ordination
ceremonies.
``Originally we had no ubosot, and when we needed to perform such
services we had to go to Wat Yang Luang, which is about a kilometre
away. We only had a viharn, which is used for phithikam-type services
in which both monks and lay people take part, like merit-making
ceremonies and preaching sermons.
``Our viharn is an historically important one that has been registered
by the Fine Arts Department and is one of northern Thailand's major
historical sites. It has been carefully studied by experts and
preservationists. The wat has to be very careful to make sure that no
part of it is changed in any way, but we must also take measures to
ensure that it remains structurally strong and doesn't deteriorate.
``It's a very good thing that we were warned about this by
knowledgeable people, because not long ago one person who is a good
Buddhist wanted to make a large bell, a rakhang for the wat. We had to
consult an expert and bring in an artist who was a specialist to
design the structure in which the bell is hung to ensure that it
conformed stylistically with the viharn.
``In building the new ubosot, we followed a similar procedure. Local
artisans helped to design and build it. The structure has a pond of
water around it, which is called an uttokkasema. This is a traditional
feature of northern temples that is not much seen now.
``When it was finished, Acharn Sulak, who is a supporter of the wat,
took responsibility for creating murals for it. He arranged for an
artist, Tamnu Riphitak, to paint them. They are based on a local
Jataka tale. They are in the Thai Yai style to make them match the
style of the murals in the viharn, which were painted by Thai Yai
artists. In the past, most of the people of Mae Jaem were Thai Yais.
``Acharn Sulak has taken full responsibility for the mural project,
which has turned out to be quite expensive. Locating funds for it has
been very tiring for him.
``Some things that Wat Pa Daed still needs are volunteer teachers
(teachers are compensated, but the amount is small); old or new books
for the library; a set of the Tripitaka for young readers, published
by Thai Wattana Phanich, study and art materials; and money to pay for
midday meals.
...
Donations can be made to Phra Suthat Wachirayano at Wat Pa Daed,
Amphoe Mae Jaem, Chiang Mai. Money orders can be made payable to the
Mae Jaem Post Office or donations can be transferred into the
Photitham Sueksa account at the Mae Jaem branch of the Thai Farmers
Bank, account no. 419-2-09707-5.
---
Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com
K3
Vagabond wrote in message <3c30c3fc...@news.world-online.no>...
>An old-style education
>Story by SUTHON SUKPHISIT
>Bangkok Post 1. January 2002
>
Right, Mae Jaem........it was just a few years ago when this Thai community
was at war with the ethnic minorities further up the mountain. As most of us
realize the widescale deforestation is not caused by the slash and burn
agriculturists but by the Thai timber poacher...ists. Due to the wide scale
timber poaching water resources were being disturbed for the lower property
holders. Were ethnic minorities poaching timber ?
Of course.....but sold to the lower landed Thias.
I had a mia noi .....at one time , from Mae Jaem. The Bangkok Post can
certainly put a pleasant 'spin' on a volitile area when the readers want to
hear something 'cute'.
sawaddhi pee mai........in the
Fallang New Year.
....................Ken