small is beautiful in asoke villages

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL IN ASOKE VILLAGES
* Marja-Leena Heikkilä-Horn

"As the world's resources of non-renewable fuels - coal, oil, and natural gas - are exceedingly unevenly distributed over the globe and undoubtedly limited in quantity, it is clear that their exploitation at an ever-increasing rate is an act of violence against nature which must almost inevitably lead to violence between men."
(Schumacher 1973)

"While the materialist is mainly interested in goods, the Buddhist is mainly interested in liberation."
(Schumacher 1973)

Introduction
The new millennium has started with increasing anti-globalisation protests, devastating terror attacks and wars. These developments have highlighted the importance of local economic self-sufficiency in terms of basic needs such as food and fuel. As Ernst Schumacher, a well-known German-born economist, puts it in his famous essay on Buddhist Economics in the book "Small Is Beautiful. Economics as if People Mattered", originally published in 1973:

"As physical resources are everywhere limited, people satisfying their needs by means of modest use of resources are obviously less likely to be at each other's throats than people depending upon a high rate of use. Equally, people who live in highly self-sufficient local communities are less likely to get involved in large-scale violence than people whose existence depends on world-wide systems of trade."
(Schumacher, edition 1999, 42)

The Buddhist Asoke group has been somewhat of a pioneer in Thailand in practising self-sufficiency in the village community level. The group has been highly successful in its endeavour and has become a showcase to the Thai government, particularly after the disastrous collapse of the "bubble economy" in 1997, and after the famous speech by H.M. the King, in December 1997, supporting and encouraging the Thai society to become more self-sufficient.

The Asoke group is a Buddhist group, established by Bodhiraksa.
< In Thai he is known as: Samana Phothirak or Pho Than Phothirak. >
Bodhiraksa is a Buddhist monk, who ordained in the state sangha some 30 years ago. He was not happy with the practice of the mainstream Buddhist monks and ended up forming his own group of disciples. The group is strictly vegetarian, puts emphasis on the monastic vinaya rules, ordains women as Ten-Precept nuns, and presents sometimes very radical interpretations of Buddhist Pali concepts, thus annoying the state Buddhist monastic order (sangha) and the traditionally rather lax and fun-loving Thai monks and lay Buddhists.

Asoke group's economic visions, however, have been met more positively. The group was founded in the 1970s, and the first Thai books and articles about the group, usually classified the Asoke group with its village communities as "Utopian".
< Suwanna Satha-anand (1990) refers to the two articles written earlier in Thai by Sombat Chantronwong "The Pathom Asoke Community. A Study of Buddhist Utopia", and Prawet Wasi "Suan Mok, Thammakai, Santi Asok" both from 1988. Apinya Fuengfusakul used the same term as late as in 1993 in her article "Empire of Crystal and Utopian Commune: Two types of contemporary Theravada reform in Thailand." >

The group has established several Buddhist centres in various parts of Thailand: Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom, Nakhon Ratchasima, Sisaket, Ubon Ratchathani, Nakhon Sawan and Chiang Mai. Several new budding centres are waiting to blossom in Trang, Chaiyaphum, Nakhon Phanom, Udon Thani, Roi Et and Loei.

The communities are economically based on organic agriculture. They have bought or rented fields for rice cultivation and gardens for vegetables. Each centre usually also produces its own tofu, mushrooms and drinking water. Additionally the centres produce and sell herbal shampoos, detergents, mosquito repellants, herbal medicine and herbal teas. These products are then sold to the public in cooperative shops on very small profit. Yet this income enables the centres also to invest in computers, cars, dental clinics and leaves them enough with resources to run primary, secondary and vocational schools free of charge, and, in case of emergency, to send the community members to a well-equipped modern hospital.

The Asoke group publishes also several monthly magazines which discuss both Buddhist and general topics from politics to traveling.

Buddhism as interpreted by the leader of the group,Bodhiraksa, is their greatest source of spiritual inspiration. One can also detect on the intellectual level the inspiration of Ernst Schumacher, the chapter on Buddhist Economics has been translated into Thai by Asoke sympathisers.
< The book was translated more than 20 years ago by a group of Asoke sympathisers. >

In this study, I will discuss some of the ideas of Schumacher, and show how they have been implemented by the Asoke group.

1. Right Livelihood - Samma Ajiva next