The Cultural Transferring Process of Miang for Self-Reliance in Highland Communities

Abstract

This research aims to study 1) community context and Miang resources management for self-reliance in highland communities 2) the cultural transferring process of Miang for self-reliance in highland communities and 3) guidelines for environmental learning for sustainable development. Using qualitative research methods by conducting fieldwork to collect field data from related agencies and databases collected by the community. As well as in-depth interviews with village headman, community philosophers, and other community stakeholders, focus group, observation, both participatory and non-participatory. Including collecting data from research papers and online databases. The tools used to collect field data are; structured interviews, focus group recording, and observation records. Analyze the data by content analysis and prioritizing the data, present in a descriptive format, from the summary of the research results as follows; 1) Community context and Miang resources management for self-reliance in highland communities found that Ban Mae Ton Luang community, Thep Sadet Sub-district, Doi Saket District, Chiang Mai Province is Pa Miang community. Located in the Phi Pan Nam mountain range which is an important watershed in Upper Northern Thailand. It is a watershed forest area of class 1A and community lifestyle is tied to the utilization of forest resources. The community has agricultural wisdom that is blended with Pa Miang and rainforest, called “Miang Culture” which is an important indigenous plant of the community. Including indigenous wisdom in the cultivation of integrated agroforestry that focuses on producing food for household consumption and maintaining environmental balance rather than producing products to meet the market and villagers in Pa Miang communities have participated in the creation of the Miang culture along with preserving the forest with indigenous wisdom for sustainable development and utilization of Miang culture. It is related to community resource management for self-reliance of Ban Mae Ton Luang community, called “Poi Innovation of Mae Ton Luang”, which consists of 3 aspects of self-reliance; 1) social and cultural for self-reliance 2) economy for self-reliance and 3) natural resources and environment for sustainable self-reliance. 2) The cultural transferring process of Miang for self-reliance in highland communities found that it is a “horizontal culture transferring process”, it is characterized by the transmission process through the absorption of knowledge from the way of life and being in constant contact with Miang culture to form a “life-style” which has a mechanism for transmitting characteristics, “the flow of knowledge from generation to generation through context, way of life, community” is a process of transferring through Lanna language to make it easy to remember 5 steps; Step 1 “Hien Hu” (Learning) Step 2 “Ya Jang” (Practice) Step 3 “Sang Tor” (Inheritance of Indigenous Wisdom) Step 4 “Pho Heat” (Indigenous Wisdom Transfer) and Step 5 “Tuoi Hoi” (Conservation and Preservation of Indigenous Wisdom) 3) Guidelines for environmental learning for sustainable development from the conclusion of the research, found that the guidelines for environmental learning for sustainable development focused on the students to change the educational paradigm. With an important goal is “Green Citizenship” consists of 5 units; 1) Miang as a community economic plant, consisting of 5 minor plans 2) Way of community, people: Miang: forest, consisting of 7 minor plans 3) Community power and Pa Miang conservation, consisting of 5 minor plans 4) Creative media for strong Pa Miang communities, consisting of 4 minor plans and 5) From community way to green citizenship, consisting of 5 minor plans. It was found that each learning plan encourages learners to learn about green citizenship in 6 areas; 1) soil, water, forest and ecosystem conservation 2) community resource management 3) green energy 4) conservation and Inherit local wisdom 5) green citizenship and 6) creative learning. There is a learning process in 3 phases, 7 steps, called “UCD for BIP DECS Model”