The Applied Model of Creating the Youth’s Gratitude:

Abstract

This research has the objective to study the traditional heritage of the Phuan people and the applied model of the tradition in creating the virtue of gratitude with the youths in Thailand.  This is a qualitative research, consisted of 3 sample groups of people: 1) The Thai Phuan youths of less than 20 years old and parents who are older than 25 years old  2) A group of people involved in developing the virtue of gratitude of the youths 3) A group of specialists involved in promoting cultural tradition and national values. Totaling 38 persons of key informants.  The data collected was done by document analysis technique, observation and in-depth interview. The results were analyzed by context analysis technique.

It is found that:  1) One of the important Thai Phuan traditional events  is when the Thai Phuan people make the  Krayasart sweet (whole grain sweetened rice) and food to offer in a traditional religious ceremony of dedication to the rice producing guardian angels and to the Thai Phuan ancestors who are spirits with no relatives (Yee and Jiang spirits). The offering is held at the fork-intersection of the public road in the area, representing the expression of gratitude 2) the applied model of the Phuan traditional event, strengthening the morals of gratitude for youths, is organized by the Thai Phuan network in Pak-Phli district of Nakhon Nayok province.  There are 2 main designed cultivated socialization activities: Activities of House, Temple, School (HTS), and activities during the traditional event, that both activities are related to one another.   It is found that the activities held during the traditional event have a direct effect in creating gratitude while the activities of HTS have an indirect effect towards creating the gratitude of youths.