THE LOCAL THAI DESSERT WISDOM MANAGEMENT STRATEGY FOR THAI DESSERTS IN CONTEXT OF PROMOTION AND DEVELOPMENT TOWARDS TOURISM COMMUNITY: CASE STUDY BAN THA KHOI COMMUNITY, SUPHAN BURI PROVINCE, THAILAND

Abstract

This research is a study on local Thai dessert wisdom management data in Ban Tha Khoi, Suphan Buri Province in context of OTOP Nawat Witee based on analytical thinking frame of “dynamic and sustainability”. The in-depth interview, focus group and observation of Thai dessert making process of fifteen village scholars are applied together with information acquired from document analysis. The results prove that Ban Tha Khoi Community Thai dessert wisdom is living foundation of villagers that connects with cultural living and local traditions accumulated over a long period of time. The majority of desserts including made from local ingredients and local materials. The local Thai desserts are made for the purpose of religious ceremonies, community traditions and occupational season. They are systematically inherited and conserved for generations. However, modern values and cultures are disseminated to Thai society as well as rural communities, roles and significance of Thai desserts are inevitably affected and its status has been changed to “tourism product”. The strictness of profound belief, religious faith and tradition has been decreasing and directly affects popularity of local Thai desserts in communities. The inheritance from generation to generation disappears resulting in loss of scholars and inheritance process is limited in family. Local Thai dessert wisdom of community likely risks to heritage loss. OTOP Nawat Witee policy enables communities to restore its desserts as tourism activities through adjusted tourism products which impress visitors. The community tourism committee determines two goals namely local Thai dessert wisdom recovery and wisdom invention for community tourism activity promotion. Hence, it is a strategy competing with “dynamic and sustainability” with local wisdom as guarantee.