Buddhism, the arts, sustainable agriculture, employing organic & natural methods of production, cultivating the crop, spinning weaving & making finished products, researching the history & present economic situation of the Cotton Industry, community development on the Sarvodaya principle & Mahatma Gandhi's influence on the Peace Process.

 

Linking young people to their past history, traditions & customs in the Cotton Industry, reviving them, creating new ones relevant to the 21st Century, expressing their ideas via the arts, including performance art.

 

Teachers & students worked together at school & attended a series of arts workshops involving well known artists & performers at The Dhamma Park Gallery & Heritage Gardens.

 

This culminated in an exhibition of their work. Prizes were awarded for the Best Portfolios & Performances.

Originally running for 9 months in 2003, the project continues to the present day & goes from strength to strength. We currently employ two Yong villagers to spin and weave our organic home grown indigenous brown and white cotton, using traditional looms and spinning wheels.

The Yong community settled in Lumphun province about 200 years ago, after emigrating from Yunnan which was originally part of Sipsong Lanna, in Northern Burma & is now part of the People's Republic of China. Their traditions and culture is still very much alive and efforts are being made to preserve their language.

We decided to expand this activity into researching and experimenting with natural dyes. Our special advisor is a 4th year award winning student of textile design at the Rajamongkol Lanna University of Technology Payap, Chiang Mai.

Our Proposal was accepted by the Funding Committee of the Community Development Organisation of Lumphun who awarded us 100,000 Baht to develop this project. We have also re designed a herb garden for medicinal plants and created an area for special plants and trees which produce raw materials for natural dyes.

We will progress to designing and making clothes and accessories from our cotton fabrics as well as the traditional designs which we already produce. We are planning an exhibition area and facilities for teaching school groups and others who are interested in preserving this ancient craft.

We are hoping to continue the Drama project which, after a Summer camp 200 and a series of workshops in 2004, resulted in a hilarious informal impromptu performance at the local market on the theme of all the Arts based workshops, “Cotton from Adam and eve to Astronauts.”

Our original intention was to involve the students from several schools in creating a revue or Play based on this theme, for Theatre in the Environment, using our gardens and the Dhamma Park Gallery and moving the action and the audience from place to place as the drama progressed.

It was hoped that a play or revue would become a resource for each school to re enact for other schools which could be used for future performances for successive generations of students as an entertaining and educational resource. Unfortunately the funding promised for this never materialized. The ultimate goal was to:

Present a public performance of the play, combined with an exhibition of portfolios, paintings, poetry, music and cotton products, involving all the students, Teachers and parents in designing, painting and making costumes, scenery and props. Choreographing dance and movements.

To continue with lessons in Dramatic Art for students and teachers who were very enthusiastic having had no previous opportunities to study Drama.

To continue to combine the message of positive self development, with Mahatma Gandhi as the role model.

Preservation of ancient crafts.

Sustainable lifestyles.

Sustainable organic agriculture.

The dangers of GM plants & seeds.

The value & health benefits of producing natural fabrics & materials.

Creating new fabric designs & fashions.

Encouraging the younger generation to continue this peaceful, ancient craft.

We hope very much to revive the Drama Project, if funding can be found. We hope to design more Field trips for research.