How long does daikon grow? What sorrows does lemongrass save from? What is natural soap made of? City dwellers rarely know the answers to these questions, but in Thailand, there are places where one can transform into an Earth person and learn something important.
Threads lead us to eco-projects where the main value is careful treatment of small seeds. This is where love for the earth, animals, and ultimately, for oneself, begins.
In the northeast of Thailand, «where the road ends» — 50 kilometers north of the city of Chiang Mai in the Mae Taeng province — lies a small community called PunPun. On the map, this point looks somewhat isolated: a red flag amidst a vast green field. There are indeed few roads in the area, and one of them ends precisely at the cluster of farmhouses. Twenty people here engage in organic farming and seed conservation. If you call ahead and make arrangements, you can come here — for a day or for several, alone or with a group. Residents advise printing out the map on paper — there’s a chance that the navigator won’t help. How did these people end up here, and what are they busy with every day? We talked to the founder of the project, Jon Jandai.
I was born a farmer in a remote region of Thailand. Like in other parts of the world, we didn’t have wealthy farmers. Therefore, most of us had to leave for the city to earn a living. After seven years of this lifestyle, I started to think that the city wasn’t meant for people; it was for robots. Despite all my efforts, I ate poorly, slept poorly, and gained nothing. And I wanted a better life for myself. This doesn’t mean having a car or a beautiful house. For me, a good life means having freedom, love, and the ability to easily obtain what I need. City life couldn’t give me that.
In the city, I ate poorly, which meant I didn’t take good care of my health. So I thought, «The first thing I need is good food.» And I started gardening. The work of a farmer produces enough food to feed six people, while in the city, I couldn’t even feed myself. So why leave the village?
I also thought that I wanted a good house. But in the city, to get one, you have to work for 30 years. And every time I saw a bird, I felt ashamed. The bird didn’t go to university, it doesn’t have hammers and saws, but it can build a beautiful house in a few days. And a smart person, like you and me, can’t. So I started intuitively building a bamboo house. I spent two hours a day for three months, and the house turned out good. And then I learned to build with clay.
Then I thought, «Right now, I don’t have a lot of money, but I want to do what I love and get what I need.» I learned to make soap and shampoo, toothpaste — everything I use every day. Just imagine: you buy a bottle of shampoo (it can cost 100 baht or more), use it for a month, and buy a new one. When I learned to make shampoo, I found out that the liquid itself is cheap, we mostly pay for the packaging. Every time the product runs out, the packaging goes to waste. Why? To learn how to make everything at home, I spent 200 baht, but now I have enough shampoo for the whole family for two years. And no bottles, I just fill up all the empty containers.
In order to have unrestricted access to fresh and nutritious produce, seeds are necessary. Currently, they are controlled by a limited number of companies, making us dependent on them. I believe that whoever controls the seeds, controls the entire world.
But control should be in the hands of farmers, as it always has been. But now they have to buy seeds, and they are expensive. You can’t even imagine how expensive they are! Sometimes, one kilogram can cost 30,000 baht, which is about 1,000 US dollars. And they don’t get any cheaper.
Originally, I planned to live on the farm just with my wife. Nobody wanted to be our neighbors, the road ends here. We are far away, it’s difficult to reach us. But many people came to visit, and some didn’t want to leave afterward. They stayed for years, and as a result, we formed an international community.
We had no experience in creating a community. We simply «played». Whatever happened, we learned from it. The first thing we encountered was that people no longer know how to be together because capitalism has destroyed all human relationships, resulting in a wall of privacy. The word «personal» separates you from other people. Even married couples often cannot maintain their marriage and divorce, seeking someone else and divorcing again simply because they find it difficult to be with each other. They don’t learn to live together; they remain individualists.
How to break down this wall of privacy? We try not to own anything. Everything belongs to everyone. We use everything together, eat together, do everything together.
There are currently 20 people living here. We have only one kitchen: we take turns cooking, share meals. We help each other grow and raise children. Like a big family. It’s very healthy and fun, so we continue to learn. We don’t have a ready-made recipe, formulas, theories. We just try.
Organic farming in Thailand is developing slowly but steadily. Mostly, people start practicing it because conventional farming forces them to take out loans. They have to invest a lot of money into their business and sell their produce at low prices. That’s why more and more people are opting for an alternative, organic farming.
There are many opinions about organic farming. It is believed to mean growing plants without chemicals. But what we do is not just about the absence of chemicals — we run the farm primarily for ourselves. What does simply refusing chemicals lead to? To standard business. And when you grow for yourself, you get good food, a good life, a happy family. We know that farming cannot make people rich. We don’t need to try to grow money. But we have 30 types of vegetables and 20 types of fruit trees growing. There is a forest area with its own microclimate, our ecosystem is balanced. That’s what organic farming means to us. Maybe it sounds childish?
Firstly, stop using chemicals in agriculture. Secondly, refrain from burning (clearing areas through controlled fires). And thirdly, do not remove organic residues such as leaves and dry branches. It is necessary to leave them where they are. By following these rules, the soil becomes richer. When we first bought the plot, there were no trees on it, it was very difficult to dig the soil. The soil turned out to be nutrient-poor. We started following these three rules, and as a result, the soil became enriched, making it easy to grow plants.
After we bought the land, we had no money left. We simply had nothing to invest in soil enrichment and everything else. We didn’t even have enough for food. The first three months, we were saved from hunger by a banana tree. But just two years later, we already had the basics for life. When you share, you eventually get something in return. This is what harmonious relationships with nature are all about — when we don’t harm it, don’t damage the soil. A person takes care of the tree, it takes care of the soil, and the soil takes care of us.
The principles of ecotourism and careful treatment of nature permeate throughout the Kingdom of Thailand and in some spheres have led to significant changes. Inspired by the PunPun farm, we visited the ethical elephant farm Hug Chang ChiangMai to see how the new generation of Thais views the modern arrangement of such establishments. Let’s clarify that our editorial team does not support keeping animals in captivity. However, in Thailand, many people historically work on elephant farms, and while elephants were historically used for military purposes, transportation, and logging, redirecting the specialization of sanctuaries to the tourism industry now seems to be the most gentle alternative to mass unemployment.
Норм, the owner of the elephant sanctuary, tells:
For many, like myself, this is a family business. My aunt and dad ran the farm together. Elephants are culture and tradition, and we want to share this with the guests of Thailand. They are not just mythical and cute creatures, but a real part of the Kingdom’s history. Elephants truly hold great significance here in religion, culture, and everyday life. At every sanctuary, they will proudly tell you their story of how the elephants came to them. Elephants and humans work side by side here, I don’t know, for 700 years or even more? Dozens of people interact with elephants from childhood, as it happened in my family — we live alongside them and take care of them 24 hours a day. We teach farm workers the ethics of interacting with animals and have opened our own veterinary center.
The elephant, in fact, is like a human. Deep into the night, it sleeps, but closer to the morning, when the mahout wakes up, the elephant is taken to have a shower — that’s how its day begins. Our elephants really love water: they bathe for most of the day, and we invite guests to join in the bathing rituals, rubbing the elephant’s tough sides with a brush. That’s already the elephant’s working day: spending three to four hours interacting with guests, and then the mahouts lead the elephant back to the water. Afterwards, we give the elephants a spa treatment with black mud, give them a back and side massage. And then comes their favorite part — lunch. The elephant eats for three to four hours, during which time the mahout also goes back to his family for lunch. That’s how simple the day is.
From early childhood, the mahout spends time daily with his ward. He feeds and cleans it, engages in upbringing, and maintains a connection. Each elephant has its own unique character, and the mahout adjusts to each one for life. The mahout and the elephant even have their own language and commands known only to the two of them. We don’t bother the baby elephants in their first year of life; they are always with their mother. Then, like children, they start «school» — classes at a government institution a couple of hours’ walk from here, where they are taken care of and taught to interact with humans. Unlike wild elephants, which only obey the call of nature, farm-born babies are quite obedient. Their upbringing is not an overly difficult process.
