Abstract
By and large the indigenous peoples enjoy a rich knowledge and worldview related to the sustainable management of the cosmos (creation) and anthropos (humankind) in their ancestral homeland that is best described as the indigenous cosmologies of sustainability. These cosmologies, akin to mystical spirituality of nature/earth, have guided the different indigenous communities and their religious leaders to engage in diverse religio-cultural practices that defend and promote their mystical cosmologies of sustainability.
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- 1.
Upon finishing his Ph.D. in 2008, Dr. Sunthorn Wonjomporn has unwaveringly worked as the Executive Director of DSAC (Diocesan Social Action Committee) of the Chiangmai Diocese of Northern Thailand. For more than 32 years, he has being mobilizing the Karen communities in Northern Thailand as a sustained movement of the marginal highland communities. These indigenous communities are still steeped in the everyday mysticism of their religio-cultural traditions. Inherent in this tradition is a perennial cosmology of sustainability that enables the indigenous communities to sustainably manage the resources of the ancestral homeland.
- 2.
According to Dr. Wongjomporn (2008, 306), the wisdom of the Karen communities on egalitarianism is articulated as “we will eat together, and we wills starve together” and reciprocity, “We are related, therefore we are.” See Sunthorn Wongjomporn, “Re-creating Sacred Space through the Water Spirit Ritual: A Model for Sustainable Development in DokDaeng Village, ChiangMai, Thailand.” Ph.D. Dissertation, Asian Social Institute, 2008.
- 3.
Wongjomporn (2008, 307) unequivocally states that the villagers are inculcated with the traditional beliefs, values, principles and teachings of the elders with counsels like “do not be greedy, do not accumulate resources, we have to eat just to meet our basic physical needs, just wear clothes only to get warm” and therefore live as “‘good persons’ by sharing, caring for and serving others.” In this way, “things they have, if they are being shared with others, especially the needy, will help them feel happy and they can eat rice deliciously, will sleep soundly without any worries about security, and danger will not approach us. This means that, if everyone in the community has food to eat, and resources are shared equally, there is no theft, and no crime occurs in the community. They will live together peacefully” (Ibid.).
- 4.
The Worldwatch Institute (2003, 174) in their state of the 2003 World Report highlighted, “the challenge for the environmentalists and other advocates of sustainability…may be to build a greater appreciation for the importance of spirituality into their work. Public overtures toward people’s spiritual sensibilities could be a powerful step forward for sustainability. This is important not simply to win religious peoples as allies, but because spirituality is important for development. All development activities are embedded in a cultural context….” (Wongjomporn 2008, 306).
Bibliography
Trakansuphakon, Prasert. 2007. “Space of Resistance and Place of Local Knowledge in the Northern Thailand Ecological Movement.” Ph.D Dissertation, Chiangmai University.
Vichitporn, Naiyana. 2001. “The Transformation of Gender Roles in Resource Management of a Karen Community in Northern Thailand.” MA Thesis, Chiangmai University.
Wongjomporn, Sunthorn. 2008 “Re-creating Sacred Space through the Water Spirit Ritual: A Model for Sustainable Development in DokDaeng Village, Chiang Mai, Thailand.” Ph.D Dissertation, Asian Social Institute.
Starke, Linda. 2003. State of the World, 2003: A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Towards a Sustainable Society. London: Earthscan.
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Fung, J.M. (2017). Indigenous Cosmologies of Sustainability. In: A Shamanic Pneumatology in a Mystical Age of Sacred Sustainability. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51022-4_4
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