Readiness and Developing Plan of Monasteries for Ageing Society in Chonburi Province

Abstract

This research article consisted of three objectives: 1) to study the readiness of monasteries in responding to the ageing society, Chonburi Province, 2) to find out the guidelines for the development of monasteries, and 3) to set up a development plan of monasteries. The research method was based on a qualitative technique. Ninety-five key informants were purposively selected from each monastery of 11 districts and 1 special administrative region in Chonburi Province. The data were collected through the semi-structured in-depth interview and analyzed by frequency, percentage and content analysis.

The results were as follows: 1) Readiness of monasteries in responding to the ageing society including six factors i.e. car parking place/area, stairs/sidewalks, toilets/rest rooms, chairs/seats, teaching billboards/signs, and others was at the lowest level, and then these factors, especially teaching billboards/signs needed to be developed the most. 2) Guidelines should be composed of five parts i.e. who, what, when, how and where (budget), consented with the National Strategic Plan for Reforming Affairs of Buddhism, concerning with the Global Age-Friendly Cities: A Guide as well as the idea of Universal Design. 3) The development plan was the short term/urgent agenda which ought to be finished within one year; the things to be developed were teaching billboards/signs, toilets/rest rooms and stairs/sidewalks, and the major participants were lay devotees, Buddhist monks/Monasteries and community leaders; the budgets should be derived from lay devotees, governmental sectors and community leaders; and the key informants revealed that physical participation and public relations were the things that they provided to the monasteries the most.