Local Wisdom and Rural People Empowerment

Abstract

Over the past three decades, people in rural areas who suffered from the negative consequence of the country's development under the National Economic and Social Development Plans, formed a number of civil society organizations and sought for alternative development. To solve rural problems, leaders of these organizations revived local wisdom and used it as a fundamental part of organizational operations. These civil society organizations focused their activity on creating a better quality of life, and enhancing economic and social dimensions for the self-reliance of rural people.

This paper presents three civil society organizations, namely the Foundation for Education and Development of Rural Areas in Chang Mai Province, the Mae Ta Agricultural Community in Chang Mai Province, and the Satja Sasomsap Saving Group in Trat Province. Their achievements became well known in applying local wisdom and Buddhist principles to organizational operations. It has been found that these civil society organizations allowed members to mutually work together on rural and community issues to upgrade the quality of life, increase self-reliance, and reduce external dependency.