BANGKOK -- As Thailand rapidly converts from agrarian state to economic dragon, a growing number of Thai people are looking for solutions to modern society's own brand of ills. The Bangkok-based Spirit in Education Movement (SEM) points to the country's traditional Buddhist roots for answers.
SEM was established in 1995 as an alternative education institution with funds from a Right Livelihood Award (known as "the alternative Nobel Prize"), the same year that Thai Buddhist Sivaraksa Sulak was honored for his ". . . vision, activism and spiritual commitment in the quest for a development process that is rooted in democracy, justice and cultural integrity."
"We are bringing back the Thai traditional way of living, but making it practical and up-to-date," says SEM's Kuntiranont Wallapa. "We look for what is special in Thai tradition, and we find it in Buddhism, new interpretations from the scriptures that suit modern people."