Roles of Female Spiritual Leader in development of Ban Kluai Karen Community, Wang Yaw Sub-district, Dan Chang district, Suphanburi Province

Abstract

The purposes of this qualitative research were to study 1)the role of female spiritual leader in developing Ban Kluai Karen community 2)the limitation of female spiritual leader in development of Ban Kluai Karen community and 3) the means for governmental to support spiritual leader in development of Ban Kluai Karen community, , Suphanburi province. Data was collected from 16 key informants selected from community’s representatives and governmental agency groups. In-depth interview method was also used to collect data. Data analysis employed content analysis approach and the content was validated by a triangulation technique.The research was found that:1)The roles of female spiritual leader in development of Ban Kluai Karen community; 1)Role as leader in social development, consisted of 3 sub-roles; the role of human-spiritual world connector, the role of knowledgeable person concerning ritual ceremony through 3 important Karen traditional activities including:paying homage to Julamanee Pagoda on the day of the full moon in the fifth month, Yellow thread tying around the arms, and house blessing. Each of these activities required the chanting leader or the ceremonial leader which was the temple leader. The leader acted as the communicator between the world, gods and the passing ancestors. Being the temple leader required experience, expertise and knowledge ability in terms of faith and rites as well as the role of community’s healer. 2)Role as a leader in economic development. 3)Role as a leader in environmental development.2)The limitations of a female spiritual leader in the development of Ban Kluai Karen community could be categorized in three aspects which were the restriction in terms of belief in regard to the gender of the spiritual leader, limitation on ability to communicate in Thai language, and limitation of knowledge that supported economic development.3)The guideline of governmental support for spiritual leader in development of Ban Kluai Karen community showed that the public agency should provide budget to support the activities as temple leader requests, to appoint the temple leader to be Wang Yaw sub-district development plan board member, and to collect work and biography of the temple leader for distribution and support Thai interpreter