Community History, Multicultural and Society : Factors Promoting Tourism Income of Phimonrat Sub-District Bang Bua Thong District Nonthaburi Province

Abstract

The Phimonrat sub-district, Bang Bua Thong district of Nonthaburi province was a newly established sub-district in the year 1989. By combining some areas in the northern part of Bang Rak Phatthana sub-district and parts of Bang Bua Thong sub-district. Phimonrat sub-district community is consisted of 8 villages. It is a multicultural society where Thai-Buddhist?, Thai-Chinese? And Thai-Muslim? live together. Both Thai-Buddhist and Thai-Muslim are settled for their livelihoods in specific groups in their respective areas. Most Thai-Buddhist live in village no. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 and there  are some scattered settlements among others. Thai-Muslim set up a village community mainly at no.  5 and no. 7. For the Thai-Chinese, they spread their livelihoods in each village of Phimonrat sub-district.  As Phimonrat sub-district is a multicultural community, it is impossible to truly understand each other’s history of different languages, lifestyles, traditions and cultures.

For the Phimonrat sub-district community problems, it is therefore need to know the community history and identity in building up the community unity. This will facilitate the public sector development and make it possible without obstacles.

The objectives of the research were to 1)  educate the community about its own history 2)  inspire the community members to engage in  multicultural society, and  learn how to add historical values to strengthen tourist attractions using the social capital of Phimonrat sub-district community 3)  promote the community members to have a body of knowledge, unity and reconciliation in a multicultural society in Phimonrat sub-district  4) give the community a history guidebook to be passed down to the next generation and to 5)  make preparation to generate income to  the community by developing a distinctive feature of multicultural tourism.

This research method was a qualitative research which included in-depth interviews of 20 key informants, small group seminars, participatory workshops, participatory research activities to support the unity and reconciliation of the people, and primary data emphasizing from field visits in Phimonrat sub-district.

The results of the research were that the participants were knowledgeable of the community's past and had contributed to the creation of a guidebook that would be given to upcoming generations.  Furthermore, the participants had an understanding of the social capital, traditions and customs of every ethnic group which might be used as a value-adding factor in tourism in the multicultural society of Phimonrat sub-district. As a result, the participants were prepared to take advantage of the community's assets to develop the Phimonrat sub-district into a multicultural tourism destination.