The Roles of Sangha in Community Development in Tha Chin Subdistrict Municipality, Muang District, Samusakorn province

Abstract

The study aimed 1) to study the role of Buddhist monks in the community development in Tha Chin Subdistrict Municipality, Muang District, Samusakorn province 2) to compare the roles of Buddhist monks in community development classified by their gender, age, education, profession and monthly income, and 3) to study the people’s guidelines in supporting the roles of Buddhist monks in the community development. The sample size table by Krejcie & Morgan, the sample size consisted of 375 people by using simple random sampling method. The research instrument was a questionnaire constructed by the researcher with reliability at 0.897. The statistics used in the research were frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, F-test, and comparison of mean difference by pairs employing Scheffe's method with one-way analysis of variance (One way ANOVA).

Findings were as follows: 1) The role of Buddhist monks in the community development in Tha Chin Subdistrict Municipality, Muang District, Samusakorn province, in overall, was high. When each aspect being taken into consideration, it was found that aspect of social was highest mean followed by the environment, cultural and economic for public health was the lowest mean .With classification according to gender, age, educational level, occupation and monthly income, it was found that people’s opinions on the role of monks in community development were at high level.  2) With regard to the comparison of the Buddhist monks’ roles in the community development in Tha Chin Subdistrict Municipality, Muang District, Samusakorn province classified by gender, age, education level, occupation and income per month, people’s opinions on roles on Buddhist monks in community development were not different. The people’s opinions with different age, education, occupation and monthly income were the statistically significant difference at .05.  3) Regarding the guideline to promote the role of Buddhist monks in the community development in Tha Chin Subdistrict Municipality, Muang District, Samusakorn province, it was found that people suggested the role of Buddhist monks in the development on social aspect, expecting that Buddhist monks should preach and train people to unite and live together in a harmonious way, acting as a spiritual leaders and as a good model in following the Buddhist sufficiency economy, arranging the temples to be the center to support the profession or the promotion of products. In the cultural community, Buddhist monks should train people to know about local culture and traditions for children and young people in the community in order to inherit traditions. In the public health, monks should be good models and teach Dharma to promote the healing of diseases or drugs to people in the community. With regard to the environment, Buddhist monks should be good examples of community in keeping the community clean and restoring forests and watersheds in the community.