The Innovation to Develop Creative Districts Based on Buddhist Principle and Local Culture to Increase the Value of Grassroot Economy of Ethnic Communities in Mae Hong Son Province

Abstract

This research is a research and development model. The objectives are 1) to study the creative district potential of the community 2) to develop a creative district spatial innovation model based on Buddhist capital and local culture to raise the value of the grassroots economy. The research was carried out in 4 stages, namely, step 1: basic information study, step 2: tool design and development, step 3, experimentation, and step 4, evaluation and improvement. The tools used were questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and forums. Data were collected and quantitatively analyzed using a computer program, and qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis.

The research results found that: 1) The overall creative district potential of the community was at a high level when considered by each aspect.  In descending order of average as follows: Environmental, followed by economic, social, physical and management respectively. 2) The development of creative districts and spatial innovation based on  Buddhist capital and local culture was conceived as a model called the "ECAP Model", which is (1) E= Environment,  (2) C= Culture, (3) A= Activity, and (4) P= Person and Community, which has common factors as follows: 1. To develop a physical environment based on religious capital and local cultural combined with the diverse natural resource strengths of ethnic communities, 2.To elevate the local wisdom and culture of the tribes to connect stories with products and community tourism activities in order to create jobs and income for local people. 3. To drive experiential tourism activities based on Buddhist capital and local culture for tourists to exchange knowledge, 4. In order to have a sense of belonging to that region, to strengthen the process of involvement and cooperation within the community. And 3) Therefore, assessing the target group's knowledge from the training, it was found that their pre-test training scores were at a medium level and their post-training scores at a high level.