Life in the slow lane: ethnic Po Karen preserve tradition at Ban Huai Din Dam

[webfact]

Life in the slow lane: ethnic Po Karen preserve tradition at Ban Huai Din Dam

By English News

At Ban Huai Din Dam village in the central province of Suphan Buri's Dan Chang district, local residents are descendants of the Po Karen, an ethnic minority who still adhere to their original way of life with the forest.

The Po Karen have settled in the village for more than 200 years. They value the forest and have promoted among them the conservation of their way of life as well as that of the forest itself. The village was awarded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2004 for successfully preserving and managing its forest.

The elderly at Ban Huai Din Dam teach their younger generations how their lives since their ancestors have attached to the forest in order to create awareness and the importance of the forest among the young.

"The forest is one of our four requisites, it is our economy. We have no money, but we can live our lives if our forest is abundant. Therefore, forest conservation is in parallel with culture and beliefs of us Karen people. If there's no forest and the Karen go live in the city and do business, I don't think the Karen will succeed. They are not born with business minds," commented Guai Ngamying, local Po Karen ethnic at Ban Huai Din Dam.

At the village, there is a 300-year-old Bodhi tree which is the centre of local residents life where they gather for spiritual and other activities such as ceremonies to remove bad luck or a festive eating ceremony after the harvest season to thank the rice goddess.

Akachai Niemhom, Ban Huai Din Dam village head, admitted that urbanisation has come to the local community. However, he said the local Karen still persist to their identities as seen by their use of language, their costumes, their house construction using bamboo, as well as local entertainment and music among young children.

"Locals here preserve their culture. They still wear clothing they weave, and that's part of the income. The language they use is also theirs -- the Karen language," said Mr Akachai.

The Po Karen community here exemplifies those who cling to their roots. Not only do the local Po Karen preserve their way of life, but also the tradition they keep brings in revenues as a by-product of tourism. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2014-02-08

[DeepInTheForest]

Definitely on my list to visit, and learn from. Surely there must be paths that are more sustainable than the one we seem to be irretrievably stuck on. I think there must be happier ways, and I'm always gratified when I encounter them. And the people who keep the better part of human nature alive.

[Johpa]

The Pwo Karen are having no more luck preserving their culture than the other Thai Karen groups such as the S'kaw Karen. They are treated as second class citizens by the Thais, especially by the racist Sino-Thai Bangkok elite. Dependent upon the land, they suffer from the environmental degradation of Thai forests by corporate interests. And they suffer from really medicore schools. But like all the Thai Karen groups, their culture suffers most from assimilation as it just becomes so much easier to assimilate with a new Thai family name than to endure life as an outcast minority.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Johpa

[DeepInTheForest]

And yet they are still here... Johpa's comment is surely spot-on. It must be true for every indigenous group around the globe, at least that i can think of. But the indigenous are not wiped out entirely, some are still around. If we value them, support them, honor their ways and fight for their rights, maybe they can show us a different way. There are many ways, and none is perfect, and only a truly psychopathic one is without merit... at least that's how my thinking goes. We have to see what we can do.

[canopy]

I'll give you that they have their share of pressure put on them, but I would like to understand what they mean by forest conservation. Hilltribes in my area just take everything of value from forests more than anyone else. And this is inside national forest borders mind you, not their land which was ruined by them long ago. There is no conservation. To a hilltribe a forest is to be exploited, endangered species hunted, areas burned, and when there is nothing left they just encroach deeper. So what are the po karen in particular doing for conservation as the article alludes? It looks like they have 2 sacred trees. Maybe that's it.

[Briggsy]

There are community forests all over Thailand. These are designated by law. Certain limited activities such as foraging are permitted and they are managed by a local committee. The vast majority of these are in the hands of ethnic Thai villages. Sustainable management of forest is not a preserve of hill tribes, although it is debatable if Karens can be classed as hill tribes. Indeed the slash and burn culture of most hill tribes is actually complete mismanagement of forest, reliant on a very low population density.

[canopy]

I understand community forests. However, in my observation they will exploit anywhere they can get to where there is something of value including clearly marked national forests. One of the hill tribes on my mountain did slash, burn and farm in a very visible area in a national forest and astonishingly to me no one complained. They kept expanding it, clearing more forest and dousing the whole area with poisons for their crop and one year their fires got out of control and caused a massive forest fire as they stood and watched it dumb faced. Years went by and only then were they eventually told to stop (hurray). But the damage was done. The trees and everything are gone. Where there was forest is now just rolling hills of grass and weeds. Hill tribes still go through the national forests hunting and gathering everything they want. I ask them what they do if the forestry tries to stop them and they said just run away and go back again. National forests are not respected by these people. If there are exceptions or even those practicing sustainability I sure would like to learn about them.