Conclusion
The Asoke group has managed to create very healthy and functioning village communities in the traditionally poorest regions of Thailand.

The villages are self-sufficient in food, in such household commodities as shampoos, detergents and herbal medicines. More expensive goods are collectively owned and money is pooled through various foundations for new investments.

The Asoke villages have become showcases for the local authorities and all Asoke centres are involved in training thousands of Thai peasants in organic farming, economic self-sufficiency and Buddhist ethics.

Whether the central government and the Bangkokian elite really want to have strong local communities with proud and self-confident peasants, who would refuse to buy foreign imported goods, remains to be seen. It has still been the policy of the recent governments to emphasise exports of cash crops, environmentally unsustainable tourism and further globalisation which are all totally contradictory to the ideas of Schumacher's Buddhist economics and Asoke's self-sufficient village communities.

References
(See also books about the Asoke Movement)

Ames, Michael (1964) Magic-Animism and Buddhism. A structural analysis of the Sinhalese religious system. Journal of Asian Studies Vol. XXIII. pp. 21-51.

Heinze, Ruth-Inge (1977) The Role of the Sangha in modern Thailand. California.

Insight into Santi Asoke III (1992) Unpublished manuscript. 120 pp. Bangkok.

Rigg, Jonathan (1997) Southeast Asia, the human landscape of modernization and development. Routledge. London.

Schumacher, E.F. (1973) Small is beautiful: a study of economics as if people mattered. Special edition: 25 years later...with commentaries. Hartley&Marks, Vancouver 1999.

Spiro, Melford (1967) Burmese Supernaturalism. A study in the explanation and reduction of suffering. New Jersey.

BOOKS AND ARTICLES ABOUT THE ASOKE MOVEMENT

Apinya Fuengfusakul (1993) Empire of Crystal and Utopian Commune: Two types of contemporary Theravada reform in Thailand. Sojourn Volume 8, Number 1, pp. 153-183.

Heikkilä-Horn, Marja-Leena (1997) Buddhism with Open Eyes. Belief and Practice of Santi Asoke. Fah Aphai, Bangkok.

Jackson, Peter (1989) Buddhism, Legitimation, and Conflict. The political functions of urban Buddhism. ISEAS. Singapore.

Olson, Grant (1983) Sangha Reform in Thailand: Limitation, Liberation and the Middle Path. Chapter VII. The people of Asoke: Purity Through Strict Discipline and Vegetables. Unpublished MA-Thesis May 1983, University of Hawaii.

Suwanna Satha-anand (1990) Religious Movements in Contemporary Thailand. Buddhist struggles for modern relevance. Asian Survey Vol. XXX, No 4, April 1990, pp. 395-408.

Swearer, Donald K. (1991) Fundamentalistic Movements in Theravada Buddhism. in Marty, Martin E. & R. Scott Appleby (eds) Fundamentalisms Observed. Chicago. pp. 628-690.

Taylor, Jim L. (1990) New Buddhist Movements in Thailand: An 'Individualistic Revolution'. Reform and Political Dissonance. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Vol XXI, No 1 March 1990, pp. 135-154.

Taylor, Jim L. (1993) Buddhist Revitalization, Modernization, and Social Change in Contemporary Thailand. Sojourn Vol. 8. No. 1. pp .62-91.

*** Marja-Leena Heikkilä-Horn (Ph.D.) teaches Asian History and Religions at Mahidol University International College and has written several books in Finnish on Southest Asian History and Cultures.

*** Rassamee Krisanamis (M.A.) teaches Spanish at Faculty of Arts Chulalongkorn University and has translated several children's Books from Spanish into Thai