Abstract
Palm-leaf manuscripts are an important part of the heritage of the Lanna culture of northern Thailand. The purpose of this article is to explore the practices and attitudes towards managing palm-leaf manuscripts in three communities in northern Thailand with a view to developing a community-centric understanding of sustainable care for palm-leaf manuscripts. The study was based on interviews, which were analysed thematically. It was found that Buddhist beliefs in earning merit and the cultural value of palm-leaf manuscripts underlie community involvement. Leadership was also important, although models of leadership were different in each case. External organizations such as universities play a key role in cataloguing, preserving and using palm-leaf manuscripts. Digitization, although central to the value to external organizations, does not really promote community access. Reflecting on the drivers and challenges in the three villages, a model of community-driven care for palm-leaf manuscripts is proposed.
Keywords
Introduction
Historically, in parts of northern Thailand, particularly in what was formerly the Lanna Kingdom, palm-leaf manuscripts (PLMs) were an important means of documenting knowledge. Monks, novices and other ordained people made and used them (Digital Library of Northern Thai Manuscripts, 2016; Ongsakul, 2005). Reflecting Indian and Sri Lankan influences, the content of PLMs mainly relates to the Buddhist religion (Ongsakul, 2005). Indeed, the Lanna Tham alphabet used for PLM inscriptions was believed to be a sacred language (Injan, 2002; Ongsakul, 2005; Veidlinger, 2007). But PLMs were also used to record local wisdom in various domains, such as history, astrology, literature, local folklore and medicine (Veeraprajak, 2011). As such, they are an important part of local culture, and worthy of care and preservation.
Although PLMs are easily accessible in temple museums and the hor trai – halls where Buddhist texts are usually kept in monasteries – they have been significantly devalued since the Lanna Kingdom was united with Siam, now known as Thailand, in 1939. Following unification, the Lanna people were obliged to learn the Thai language, which led to people losing interest in studying Lanna Tham scripts, knowledge of which became confined to monks and a few lay people (Ongsakul, 2005; Wyatt, 2003). The predominance of the Thai language and the era of printed documents exacerbated the situation for PLMs in Thailand further. Today, even many of the monks who are directly involved with PLMs cannot read Lanna Tham script (McDaniel, 2008; Veidlinger, 2007). Many PLMs have been damaged or destroyed through insect attacks (see Figure 1), humidity, biodegradation and general neglect (Abhakorn, 1997).
A PLM that has been attacked by insects.
Nevertheless, local communities – both monks and lay people – remain interested in caring for PLMs, even if they lack expertise in handling ancient documents or the financial support to obtain the tools and equipment needed (Jarusawat, 2017, 2019; Jarusawat et al., 2018). In this context, this study explores the practices and attitudes towards managing PLMs in three communities in northern Thailand (Ban Hong, Ban Saluang Nai and Pa Tum Don) with a view to developing a model of community involvement in sustainable care for PLMs.
Literature review
The growing regional interest in PLMs must be set in the context of a wider revival of Lanna cultural forms, such as costume, dance, martial arts, music, cuisine and handicrafts. Traditional music has seen a major revival, for example (Akins, 2013). One vehicle for this is wisdom classrooms, such as the Lanna Wisdom School, where the public are taught about a range of traditional practices. Naturally, this is not a case of unchanged traditions simply being reproduced. Some traditions are lost; others are reinvented (Akins, 2013). Nor is the revival always unconnected to more material considerations such as the commercial value of reviving traditional cultures to promote tourism (Schedneck, 2017).
The local revival of interest is echoed in academic interest around PLMs. Indeed, there is extensive literature on them, but primarily written by scholars of Buddhism and Thai culture (McDaniel, 2018). More information related topics are with the challenge of preserving them, and such matters as digitization and producing metadata schemas to enable effective retrieval (Lertratanakehakarn, 2014; Manmart et al., 2012). Most of this literature focuses primarily on technical aspects. A particular focus is digitization. Influenced by western concepts, many university libraries emphasize the digitization of PLMs: for example, the National Library of Myanmar, Kerala University Library in India, and Kelaniya University Library and Peradeniya University Library in Sri Lanka have sought to develop digital libraries of PLMs (Alahakoon, 2003; MacFarlane, 2020; Mohamed Sageer and Francis, 2014; Ranasinghe and Ranasinghe, 2013; Sahoo and Mohanty, 2015; Weerabahu, 2019). The concept of digitization is believed by many libraries in Thailand and other countries to be the best method for preserving ancient manuscripts (Kumar et al., 2009). Yet there is growing recognition that truly sustainable approaches to information services, especially relating to cultural heritage, imply community participation.
One of the most influential models of community participation is Arnstein’s (1969) ladder of participation, developed in the context of policy development. This captures the degrees of participation, from non-participation through tokenism to citizen control. Non-participation relations are more like public relations to gain consent for a preset plan. Informing is the first step up the ladder towards participation, but there is a risk that this is top-down and one-way. Consultation is the second step, but again there is the risk that this is mere window dressing. Placation is the enlistment of a few token representatives in governing bodies, but falls short of letting real power go. Citizen control can be achieved on three levels according to Arnstein (1969): through partnership where power is really shared, delegation where citizen delegates hold power, and full citizen control. There have been many attempts to update this model, particularly for Global South contexts (Choguill, 1996), but it remains a useful reference point. Another useful model is that proposed by the International Association for Public Participation (2007), which has five layers of participation: informing, consulting, involving, collaborating and empowering. These offer useful generic starting points but it is important to find a model that considers both the specific cultural context and the specificity of the heritage context.
Ganjanapan (2001) is well known in the region for developing a concept of community participation reflecting local needs. He advocated the importance of community involvement because he believed that neither individuals nor the state could be trusted not to look at communal resources (such as forests) from an exploitative perspective. Yet this does not take us much further in the context of contemporary cultural heritage.
A number of models of community participation also exist specifically for library and information science contexts, such as that proposed by Sung and Hepworth (2013). They suggest that there are eight keys to ‘modelling community engagement’ – namely, accountability and hierarchy, belonging, commitment, communication, a flexible approach, expertise and familiarity, genuineness, relevance, and sustainability. The two main factors affecting community engagement and activities in the community are the influence of authority and willingness to learn. But examined closely, this model does seem to be very specific to a western context, with data drawn entirely from the UK, with its long-standing democratic conditions but lack of religious consensus. Thailand is a very different cultural context.
Thus, we have useful reference points but lack well-developed models that are relevant to both the regional context and the needs of cultural heritage. Also, significantly, the story tends to be told from the point of view of external agencies, with power making room for community participation, rather than thinking about how the community itself has energy and forms of local leadership that might be driving care for its heritage. We do have one other useful starting point: in a previous article, Jarusawat et al. (2018) analysed community participation in the preservation of Lanna PLMs. The article contrasts the viewpoints of different stakeholders in how they value PLMs. It identifies a model of an upward spiral of growing community participation, echoing the five levels proposed by the (International Association for Public Participation, 2007) but adding a lower level, ‘support’, and recognizing the role of leadership and on the other by expert activities. This is, again, presented from the point of view of external agencies promoting increasing community participation. The current article seeks to shift the focus away from collecting institutions to study three cases where bottom-up initiatives to preserve PLMs were found. This should enable us to model community-driven processes of participation.
Methodology
This was a qualitative study that aimed to explore the views of the participants about a social phenomenon, and so interviews were the most appropriate method of data collection. Data from three communities – Ban Hong, Ban Saluang Nai and Pa Tum Don – was collected from January to June 2019. These villages were chosen because they are places where PLMs are known to be kept with care, and there is active participation by the local community. So, they should be seen as examples of current good practice rather than representative of common practice. The individual participants were selected on the basis of a mix of purposive and snowball sampling. Table 1 presents the occupations, age and gender of the 25 interviewees involved in the study.
Summary of participants.
Semi-structured interviews (30–90 minutes per person) were conducted. The questions were divided into three parts: (1) personal information – for example, age and occupation; (2) their involvement in PLM management; and (3) their views on how PLMs should be managed and, more specifically, who should be involved (clergy, lay people, external parties) and what each of their roles should be. The specific interviews questions were as follows: What is your involvement with palm-leaf manuscripts? Are palm-leaf manuscripts important to you? If yes, how? How do you think palm-leaf manuscripts are important to Lanna? What is the situation of palm-leaf manuscripts in your community, and in Thailand more generally? How should Lanna cultural knowledge be protected? What role and potential role does the community have in this? How should palm-leaf manuscripts be stored? What do you think about the digitization of palm-leaf manuscripts? How are Lanna/local people involved in looking after palm-leaf manuscripts? How should they be involved? What should the role of experts and libraries be in looking after palm-leaf manuscripts? How can libraries help the community to develop collections, such as of palm-leaf manuscripts or other cultural material?
The interviews were conducted on-site, such as in temples, enabling the interviewer to be shown relevant material by the participants and for her to observe some of what was happening in context. Several relevant ceremonies and training events were observed and, with permission, photographed. In one case, a participant took the interviewer to his house to show her how he looked after the PLMs he owned. These observations enhanced understanding of local practice in context, helping to inform the data analysis.
After the data collection, a thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo 11. The data was analysed following the six steps suggested by Braun and Clarke (2006): familiarization with the data; generation of initial codes; searching for themes; reviewing of themes; defining and naming themes; and final write-up. The themes identified were: (1) religious beliefs; (2) community values; (3) leadership offering vision, passion and dedication; (4) external agency support; (5) sense of belonging; (6) building trust and continuity; (7) activities; (8) transformation and flexibility; (9) representative; (10) cultural pride; (11) volunteering; and (12) sustainability. Coded identifiers were used for the names of the participants to protect their anonymity.
Findings
Ban Hong
At Ban Hong, community involvement in PLMs had originated in the activities of the local abbot over two decades. As a novice, he developed the practice of using PLMs for ritual chanting. Later, he spent a number of years studying PLMs for a doctorate. Thus, his interest was both religious and informed by scholarship. It was his special personal interest in PLMs that had driven community involvement. He shared some of his knowledge with novices. In later years, he encouraged a group of around 20–30 lay people to be actively involved with PLMs too. They did not have direct knowledge of the PLMs, so their involvement was confined to helping with cleaning and making covers for them (Figure 2).
Community members in Ban Hong cleaning PLMs in the temple building.
The abbot also ran courses for village members to learn about such things as the religious ideas contained in the PLMs and Lanna astrology and herbal medicine, but this was more to raise awareness of the PLMs than to impart in-depth knowledge. Thus, participation was very much premised on the abbot’s leadership: It all depends on the leader, if the abbot wants it to be done. If he calls us to help, we will come. But if he doesn’t, the PLMs will remain silent. If the abbot calls, we come together again.…We don’t want to let what has been done in the past go to waste, so it is still there in the future. PLMs will survive for those who can read them and they can perhaps find content for a textbook on medicine.
The abbot also made connections with a German research foundation and a local university, which catalogued and microfilmed the PLMs in the 1990s. Scholars actively sought to involve the community in the care of the PLMs when they visited for scholarly purposes. At the start of their visits, they trained community members and novice monks in cleaning the PLMs. At the end of their visits, they organized an event where they reported back to the community on what they had discovered, such as the total number of PLMs, the interesting content they had found, and how the material had been classified. This helped the community to understand more about the value of the PLMs. Figure 3 illustrates a training session where experts from Chiang Mai Rajabhat University were reporting back to an audience of monks and community members at the end of a visit.
Novice monks and community members at a closing meeting with scholars in Ban Hong.
Ban Saluang Nai
The story in Ban Saluang Nai was somewhat different. Rather than being led by a cleric, a middle-aged lay woman had recognized PLMs as a vehicle to teach teenagers about the value of their culture. She had formed a group of around a dozen 12- to 13-year-old children, who were being trained to appreciate local culture and in the future to act as guides for religious tourists (mostly Thai people). A strong motivation for her was the desire to promote traditional Buddhist values and counter what was felt to be the pernicious influence of social media on young people. Further reinforcing this, learning the Lanna language was among the subjects in a number of wisdom classes she organized, as events to promote traditional culture. She could have developed other forms of involvement for the children, but it was significant that the focus was on traditional religious practices, such as PLMs. It was apparent that social cohesion around shared social values was a key element of her thinking. She commented: We need to help to develop the community to be better – not to change the community. We want to maintain a society like this as a warm community and live like a brotherhood, to help each other take care of each other.…We are a supportive community. Our community is about unity and reconciliation. We help each other in the community. We are a compassionate society. We’ll cultivate together like this. It’s fun. We love being here. Other villagers live individually or independently. Our community is the best.
A small number of PLMs, purely with religious content, had been digitized by a religious foundation. More recently, she had reached out to Chiang Mai Rajabhat University, which was planning to carry out more digitization and cataloguing. The woman was also seeking external support from Chiang Mai Rajabhat University to establish a community museum to exhibit the PLMs that were kept at the temple. However, as with other connections the community had made with expert groups, these were one-off projects, whereas the community desired a long-term relationship. An inhibiting factor in this case was that the woman was very active in preserving the PLMs but had a lack of knowledge about the PLMs themselves. She commented: The community should be involved in thinking, making decisions, planning, not waiting for orders, so we can operate spontaneously. Right now, we are building a Tripitaka hall or monastery library, which is the temple repository for the Buddhist scriptures. I hope, in the future, this will be the place to be connected to the activities, by using activities linked to the space to create a tradition in the community. All of these ideas must be shared by all community members.
Pa Tum Don
The case of Pa Tum Don was different again. Here, the abbot was not greatly interested in the temple’s PLMs and was too old to be very active himself. Rather, the driving force was a group of retired men, who had strong religious feelings and spent a lot of their free time in the temple. The temple was a social focus for their group. Their chief involvement with the PLMs was activities such as cleaning them, because they had limited ability to read or use them. As one of the villagers from Pa Tum Don remarked: If we have a body of knowledge that everyone knows together and uses continuously, it will be taken care of. If we don’t teach Lanna Tham writing and the knowledge from PLMs isn’t published, it won’t be literated. If there is no reader to read it, it is just a piece of paper or a palm leaf.
A particular dimension of this village was that many of the inhabitants were migrants from Burma, and the majority of the local villagers, who were Christian, were uninterested in the temple. So, participation represented a form of cultural pride, linked to the idea of Lanna culture, Buddhism and ethnic identity. However, this remained a minority of the community in the village, and the participants were worried about how interest could be passed on to future generations.
The group had the idea of cooperating with scholars from Chiang Mai Rajabhat University to reproduce content from the PLMs in easy-to-understand formats, such as comics or pieces of artwork. The connection with scholars at the Chiang Mai Rajabhat University was key to the dynamic ways in which PLMs might continue to be used. Yet it also created a form of dependency, which the villagers resented. As one interviewee commented: Developing community engagement is not easy. So, it is very important to have the external agencies or the experts as the middleman to promote the work. Also, it must be ensured that the activities are designed well for elders, otherwise they will not be able to conduct the work by themselves. Then, everything would stop when the experts or external agencies leave.
Digitization
Because the value of digitization is discussed in the literature, it is worth reporting on the theme of community responses to this process. Here, the views across the villages were similar. External partners that worked with the villages usually saw digitization as a key part of the strategy for the long-term preservation of and access to PLMs. The villagers were mostly in favour of digitization: it symbolized the cultural significance of the PLMs. However, although accessing the PLMs in digital form was theoretically convenient, the communities were not ready to do so in many ways. Only a minority could read the PLMs, either from learning from the abbot in Ban Hong or from being monks themselves in the past, so where the PLMs were not translated, they remained inaccessible even if digitized. There was also a complaint that reading the PLMs on a computer was not easy and made one’s eyes sore. As a result, the digital images of the PLMs were usually printed out, but this was very costly, as one member of the Ban Hong community commented. Other members from the Ban Hong community mentioned that the people who preferred reading PLMs in a digital version were few in number because it took up a lot of time and was seen as confusing.
Further, the communities often lacked the technology or skills to access digital content: ‘The community members do not have devices to access the digital files of the PLMs’, mentioned one of the members from the Pa Tum Don community. Another member from the same community stated: ‘We do not know how to access the digital form of the PLMs because we are elderly’.
Discussion
Table 2 summarizes the main features of the three case studies. They offer some contrasting elements and common themes. A common feature of all three communities was the importance of a focus of leadership, based on a passionate belief in the value of PLMs. Critically, however, the pattern of leadership was different in the three cases. Given the religious significance of PLMs, it is not surprising that leadership often lies with a cleric, as at Ban Hong. As a respected community figure, the abbot is highly likely to have a strong influence on the lay community. However, the other villages demonstrated the viability of lay leadership. The case of Ban Saluang Nai is particularly striking given the traditional exclusion of women from religious leadership – indeed, women were traditionally not even allowed to touch PLMs. The case reveals how far social attitudes have evolved. The character of the community members involved also differed: at Ban Hong and Pa Tum Don, it was primarily the elderly, whereas at Ban Saluang Nai, it was the young.
Community involvement in the care of PLMs.
There were many common elements underlying these differences. We have already referred to the need for a leadership focus. The foundation for community involvement was a mix of religious belief – particularly faith in earning merit through activities around PLMs as sacred objects – and the strong influence of religion on daily life. Given that the vast majority of Thai people are Buddhists, this is a powerful force. This was further linked to a strong sense of cultural pride and desire for social cohesion. Attempting to sustain or revive Lanna culture and its associated cohesive social values was a strong driver in Ban Saluang Nai and Pa Tum Don.
In addition, external organizations, particularly research institutions, played a critical role because local people had limited knowledge of reading the script or of technical issues such as preservation practices or cataloguing. External partners brought knowledge, expertise and sometimes financial support. But only trusted institutions were involved in this way and collaborations with external organizations did not always run smoothly. External partnerships also tended to lack continuity, with an intervention relating to a particular project; when this was completed, the relationship was lost, whereas the local community sought sustained engagement. Community involvement was enthusiastic but inherently limited by the lack of knowledge of the scripts to practices such as cleaning and making covers.
In all three cases, the initiatives had a strong ‘bottom-up’ driver from the community rather than primarily being initiated by external entities such as scholars or heritage collecting organizations. Yet there was a degree of dependence on external expertise. In terms of Arnstein’s (1969) ladder, the role of external entities was one of partnership, where local people offered access to the PLMs to scholars and libraries in return for access to their expertise. This expertise was needed for interpretation, translation, cataloguing and preservation, including through digitization.
Examining the participation within the communities themselves, four interwoven factors appear to be critical: leadership, religious beliefs, respect for Lanna cultural heritage and social values emphasizing social harmony. There was a strong sense of the need for a strong leadership figure with a vision of the importance of PLMs. Participation in PLM-related activity was also driven by Buddhist beliefs. PLMs were considered holy objects and it was believed that merit could be earned in participating in activities related to them. PLMs also had strong cultural associations and, along with other forms of traditional knowledge, were being revived out of a strong regional interest in traditional cultural heritage. Social values in respect to authority and community (themselves shaped by Buddhism) appeared to play an important role in explaining the response to leadership. An attraction to respect for leadership figures is combined with a strong sense of community and desire for harmonious social relations.
Nevertheless, community involvement was found among a minority of citizens. A major barrier to further engagement was the lack of ability to read or write the script. Relatively few local people could read or write the Lanna Tham script. Digitization did not always involve transliteration and translation, and digital objects were regarded as inaccessible anyway. More fundamentally, there is a pattern among young people of turning away from Buddhism and traditional social values, which poses a long-term challenge to the relevance of PLMs. In this context, the efforts being made at Ban Saluang Nai to involve young people are particularly significant.
A model of community-driven care for PLMs
Based on the key elements identified in the three villages, we propose a model of the key components for community-driven care of Lanna PLMs (see Figure 4). This centres on the community, in contrast to the model presented in Jarusawat et al. (2018), which was more of a model of how external partners try to create and sustain local participation. In the new model, it is recognized that the energy behind sustained care lies in the community itself.
A model of sustainable community-driven care of Lanna PLMs.
Community involvement in managing PLMs was underpinned by religious beliefs, especially the Buddhist notion of merit, which is believed to be received by doing good deeds. This belief constitutes a strong connection that binds people in a community together, and so, when associated with PLMs, is a powerful cohesive force. But it is quite abstract and some effort has to be made to associate it with PLMs. It is further linked to the value placed on cultural heritage and community values emphasizing harmony, but these seem to be eroding, especially among young people.
Thinking about the development of momentum behind PLMs as a process, in the early stages, participation by the community is usually shaped by a leader, who brings vision, passion and dedication towards the PLMs. In all three cases, this was critical, although the individual or group offering leadership was different in each example. It requires time. Responding to this leadership, people in the community gather together for activities or events that can help move the community up a series of steps towards the potential for sustainability. A sense of awareness and ownership starts to be established, and the community members begin to recognize the value of PLMs. Community involvement in the activities or events related to the PLMs develops, at the basic level through regular cleaning activities among members, female members making woven cloth to cover the PLMs, taking donations for activities or management related to the PLMs. This has the potential to develop into more advanced-level, in-depth activities, such as initiatives like the Tak Tham ceremony, efforts to teach the Lanna script and the local guide project at Ban Saluang Nai. Ongoing participation is the key to sustaining the existence of PLMs in the community. Mangkhang (2017) has suggested that effective leaders in the Thai context attempt to create learning communities. This suggestion chimes with the findings of this study.
External agencies such as universities, research centres and libraries with expertise in PLMs play a vital role by promoting general awareness, providing training on how to clean manuscripts, cataloguing and publishing PLMs, studying the PLMs, and returning some of their newly acquired understanding to the community. External agencies help smooth community-based participation. Problems for the community, such as lack of funding and lack of technical knowledge to manage PLMs appropriately, are solved. This has to be premised on mutual respect, given that the motives for the different parties are somewhat different. The communities’ motivation focused on religion, whereas that of the external partners was mostly cultural. However, long-term collaboration remains challenging. It takes time to build up trust. External partners tend to work with one village on a particular project then move on to another village when it has been completed.
In the communities’ view, external financial support was needed to establish PLM learning centres organized by the community. Furthermore, it was thought that there was the potential for the content of the PLMs to be presented in adaptations such as songs, art pieces, comics, photographs and literature. Services and activities for the younger generation, such as handwriting-practice classes, Lanna Tham script classes and reading PLMs (and other ancient types of text, such as Pub Sa – books made from mulberry bark), would also be needed in the future.
Although digitization figures heavily in the plans of external partners, it does not seem directly relevant to how community engagement could be accomplished. For the local communities, it was engagement with the material objects that triggered their interest. They often did not have the technology to access digital versions and, of course, they could not read the scripts.
The model is not intended to suggest that there is a single pathway that would fit all communities. The overall guidelines for sustainable preservation of PLMs are suggested to the communities as an open-ended path; each community is able to choose its own way and apply the model to its own situation.
Conclusion
This article has explored different ways that local communities in northern Thailand are becoming involved in managing PLMs as valuable religious and cultural objects. Three cases were examined in depth and the differences and similarities in how they had developed analysed. A common element was the basis of motivation in religious beliefs, especially relating to earning merit. This was reinforced by growing interest in cultural heritage. Leadership, although coming from different sources in the three cases, was also important in stimulating and directing interest. Expert external partners also played a critical role in terms of training people to clean PLMs and raising understanding and awareness. Involvement was limited by the loss of the ability to read and write the Lanna Tham script. Building on this analysis, a model of sustainable community involvement in PLM management is proposed.
The research reveals some intriguing aspects that point to the need for further exploration. Given the apparent importance of leadership but the differing paths taken by the communities involved, it would be intriguing to explore local experiences of leadership for leaders and those who follow them, in order to establish commonality in what leadership means in this context. It would also be useful to explore the emerging nature of the learning communities created around PLMs. Another important aspect is the way in which local traditions are both revived and reinvented. PLMs are part of a wider revival of Lanna culture; at the same time, there are aspects, such as the increasing involvement of women, that reveal the extent to which this revival involves cultural change too. Understanding how this works would be important to sustainable community involvement. The current study examined three cases where the community was actively engaged with PLMs. A fuller understanding of why other communities engage far less is needed. For example, is this simply linked to the strength of Buddhist belief in the locality and how far can leadership work in such a context? This work would help further develop the model presented here so that it could be applied in contexts where the community is currently less committed but where some of the underlying favourable conditions exist.
There is clearly a need for libraries, archives and other heritage institutions in the region to become involved and to include local people in initiatives to describe and preserve PLMs. Ultimately, it is local communities that own the PLMs. Local communities continue to value them for religious and cultural reasons. The existing practices of sharing the information learned in the process of cataloguing and digitization are valuable. Working with local leaders and communities to build interest and awareness is important if, ultimately, it is community leaders who play the key role. Digitization, while of value to preserve PLMs, does not necessarily make them more accessible to local people. Transliteration and translation might be given greater emphasis because a major barrier is the lack of a widespread ability to read them. Presenting material from PLMs in alternative forms such as comic books, as imagined at Pat Tum Don, would also help widen understanding of their relevance, as would integrating them into other cultural initiatives such as wisdom classrooms, especially those directed towards the young, and modelled at Ban Saluang Nai. It is important that long-term relationships develop between local communities and external agencies.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
This research was financially supported by the Faculty of Humanities, Chiang Mai University, Thailand.
