From Ritual of Bad Luck Removing to Sustainably Driving Community’s Economy: A Case Study of Bantoon Subdistrict, Muang District, Phayao Province

Abstract

This study aims to examine the lessons learnt from the ritual of bad luck removing at Bantoon Subdistrict, Muang District, Phayao Province, to develop the forms of model products under the name “Boon Thung Set”, to investigate the financial potential, and to evaluate the values of community’s economy. The study employed participatory action research (PAR). Twenty participants, including community leaders and community’s cultural product producers, were recruited through purposive sampling. The findings revealed that the development of ritual and its implementation to the cultural product design comprised the following 3 themes: removing bad luck ritual as a traditional tradition valued by Lanna people, materials and food used for manufacturing products, and ritual and pray chanting in the form of QR code. The researchers used the derived themes to produce a cultural product, adjusting it to match the community’s needs as well as the customers’ needs. The analysis of economic and cost-benefit, it was found that the products “Boon Thung Set” could generate more incomes to the community with the average annual income of 9,832 baht (8.24%) for each household. Regarding the analysis of capital and benefits, it was found the financial value, taking 2 months as a payback period. The significance of this study could be that the concepts on the ritual or the cultural capital can be used for economic development. In other words, these can be used for developing tangible cultural products. It can further be used as a guide for developing the community’s economy in the future.