IMPORTANCE OF BUDDHISM AND PRESERVATION OF LOCAL HISTORY

Abstract

               The objective of the academic article is to demonstrate the importance of Buddhism and the preservation of local history. As Buddhism was the spiritual center of the local people and had been part of the local history for a long time. Therefore, it was necessary to preserve the history as a process in a new way that was not the local nationalist history. In addition, the purpose of historical preservation was also to ‘restore’ the history to the people in order to have them perceive and recognize their status in the whole history. The new-style study of local history was aimed at the study of social activities or experiences in a locality, including local people at all levels as a creator and an owner of the history. According to the study, the people were given an opportunity to participate in the study process with the purpose to create the knowledge base from the local history. The study of local history made people understand and recognize the background of people’s life in a locality. The knowledge would restore the people’s awareness of history in the community after it was deteriorated and forgotten by the old wave of development. The people’s self-confidence, absent for a long time, would also be recovered until they were more potential to apply their ancestor’s wisdom to their daily life. On the other hand, their comprehension of local history remained a strong power to assist the people in localities to rehabilitate religious and cultural institutions, to empower the villagers capable to choose their own life, and to encourage the people with dignity of human beings to choose more appropriate choices for themselves.