Fight To Preserve A Way Of Life

Fight to preserve a way of life

The traditions of the Karen population around the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary are becoming more difficult to sustain

By: AMITHA AMRANAND and YINGYONG UN-ANONGRAK

Published: 14/05/2009 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: Outlook

Supachai Ponthip recalls that swimming across the Songalia River in Kanchanaburi province during the New Year once exhausted his 18-year-old body. Less than 20 years later, Supachai says he can wade through the same body of water, which now only comes up to his waist when a new year arrives.

"I like to take my son for a som tam along the river. I tell him that one day he will be bringing his own children here and telling them of the time when there was once a river," says the father of a nine year-old boy. "I believe that will really happen if we don't change our behaviour toward nature."

A Pwo Karen and native of Kanchanaburi, Supachai grew up listening to his ancestors' stories. Today, as these stories begin to disappear from the memories of the old and new generations of Karen people in Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, a Unesco World Heritage Site, so do the water and the forest.

Continued here: http://www.bangkokpost.com/leisure/leisure...e-a-way-of-life

-- Bangkok Post 2009/05/14