This is a repository copy of Community participation in the management of palm leaf manuscripts as Lanna cultural material in Thailand.

Palm-leaf manuscripts are an important part of the heritage of the Lanna culture of northern Thailand. The purpose of this article is to explore the practices and attitudes towards managing palm-leaf manuscripts in three communities in northern Thailand with a view to developing a community-centric understanding of sustainable care for palm-leaf manuscripts. The study was based on interviews, which were analysed thematically. It was found that Buddhist beliefs in earning merit and the cultural value of palm-leaf manuscripts underlie community involvement. Leadership was also important, although models of leadership were different in each case. External organizations such as universities play a key role in cataloguing, preserving and using palm-leaf manuscripts. Digitization, although central to the value to external organizations, does not really promote community access. Reflecting on the drivers and challenges in the three villages, a model of community-driven care for palm-leaf manuscripts is proposed.

Palm leaf manuscripts (PLMs), with their strong bond to Buddhism, are one invaluable symbol of the Lanna culture of Northern Thailand. This study investigates the views about PLM management among local people in the Pa Tum Don community, Chiang Mai province, Thailand, and explores the potential for them to sustain the preservation of PLMs. A thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with community members found that they engage in activities related to PLMs because of their continued faith in the goodness in them. Although it is mostly older people that have been very active participants in preserving PLMs, they lack systematic preservation knowledge. Aside from digitization, establishing rituals using and reproducing PLMs, transferring linguistic knowledge and reinserting Lanna language into fundamental education are suggested as possible means to enable sustainable preservation.

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This article studies the social and technological barriers that prevent documented and undocumented female migrants in Thailand's Chiang Mai Province from improving their literacy skills and using social media such as Facebook. In July 2019, our team conducted nine focus-group discussions (FGD) with 38 participants using a picture sorting activity. Using graphics in the FGDs helped us to better engage with migrant populations with low literacy skills. Demographic information of each FGD participant was also collected. Findings show that Thailand's current laws for migrant workers are the barrier that have negative impacts on literacy improvement and social media usage among both documented and undocumented ethnic Shan female migrants from Myanmar. As Thailand's law only permits migrants to work in labor-intensive jobs with minimum wage and no benefits, they do not have time and energy to spend on learning the Thai language and other skills. This reduces the migrants’ abilities to interact with Facebook. Additionally, undocumented migrants could not buy a SIM card with the cellular data plan to use their Facebook account directly from their cellphones because Thailand's laws require all network providers to officially register all SIM card purchases and only sell to documented persons.