A BRIEF HISTORY OF OUR RESEARCH IN THAILAND


Since 1986, my wife, Dr. Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel (Director, Buddhist Studies, Chaminade University), and I have been visiting Thailand during most summers to collaborate with Thai colleagues in researching various aspects of spiritual ecology and sacred places in relation to biodiversity conservation with special attention to Buddhism. From the outset of our first visit to Thailand it was obvious that religion was often a factor in the daily lives of many people and that this influenced their relationship to their natural environment as well, thus our interest in spiritual ecology began. While some 95% of Thai are Buddhists to some degree, elements of Animism and Hinduism are often incorporated in their beliefs, rituals, and values as well. Through more than a decade of library research we have explored and published on the subjects of Buddhist ecology, spiritual ecology, and sacred places in general as some of the background for our field research in Thailand..

Our first field research project investigated the influence of religion on the use of wild animals by comparing adjacent Buddhist and Muslim communities in southern Thailand. Several Thai colleagues at Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani were most kind and helpful in collaborating in this project, but most of all Professor Nukul Ruttanadakul of the Biology Section should be acknowledged. He was also most helpful with several subsequent projects, including a modest side study of the ethnoprimatology of macaque monkeys trained to pick coconuts on plantations in which religion is also a factor.

Our subsequent research projects in southern Thailand pursued the role of traditional community-based sacred places in nature in biodiversity conservation with particular attention to individual trees, groves, and forests that local people consider to be sacred. Community-based sacred places in nature tend to restrict, if not totally prohibit, the use of biotic resources in the area. Because these community-based places are more diverse and widespread, even though small in area, they complement the more recent system of government established national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in the country. Customary religion may also be a stronger sanction than government laws and regulations in protected areas.

In recent years, we have shifted our research regionally, mainly to the Chiang Mai area of northern Thailand, and topically to explore the possible ecological relationships among Buddhist monks, sacred caves, bats, forests, and biodiversity conservation in collaboration with Thai colleagues. Our first regular fieldwork on this long-term project is planned to start in the summer of 2006, although we have already published a theoretical essay on the topic as background.

A more modest new project focuses on the potential ecological relevance of the Thai custom of maintaining spirit houses on the grounds of individual homes, villages, businesses, schools, government buildings, and other establishments throughout the country. These individual spirit houses are usually provisioned daily with small offerings of water and various kinds of food like rice and fruit. Because of its ubiquity and character, this custom may well have some relevance in facilitating the conservation of smaller wild animals such as birds, bats, rodents, and insects.

The results of these research projects are listed in the Publications section on this web site.

Previously published book chapters and journal articles are being reworked for two books to be published within the coming years.

It should also be noted that this research has stimulated the development of the optional Spiritual Ecology Concentration which was launched in 2003 within the Ecological Anthropology Program at the University of Hawai`i and includes two specialized courses cross-listed between Anthropology and Religion, 444 Spiritual Ecology and 445 Sacred Places. However, these developments also reflect the rapid growth of interest in the subject of spiritual ecology within the academic and public arenas throughout the world. For example, see these web sites:

Forum on Religion and Ecology at Harvard University
http://environment.harvard.edu/religion

Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature
http://www.religionandnature.com

(The above web site includes a new journal and a new organization on the subject as well).

Some additional background on our research can be explored under the “Special Projects” section at:

http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu