Kaeng Buan of Ban Taling Daeng and Local Food Security

Abstract

This study aiming to answer a question of how local food wisdom is related to food security and how the identity of Kaeng Buan is different from other kinds of food is a case study of Ban Taling Daeng, Nong Bua Sub-district, Mueang District, Kanchanaburi Province.  The study employed qualitative research method and applied anthropological research methods  in collecting data from related documents, and field data was collected using semi-structured interviews, and participant, and non-participant observations.  The data was validated at all the steps. The study area was Village No. 8 of Ban Taling Daeng, Nong Bua Sub-district, Mueang District, Kanchanaburi Province. 

The study found that “Ban Taling Daeng” is an old community on the banks of Kwai Yai River, and geo-socially, it is a community of kinship with diverse cultures and traditions.  Geographically, this village has Kwai Yai River running through it and most of its banks are covered with laterite soil resulting from decomposition of rocks in the humid climate.  The community is an agricultural society where people collect vegetable from natural resources for consumption as they depend on local resources.  Ban Taling Daeng has food wisdom as a starting point and important foundation of food security in terms of nutrition and health through inheritance from their ancestors.  Particularly, “Kaeng Buan”,  is a local dish that is unique and reflects beliefs and the traditional way of life of the local area inherited from ancestors.   The word “Buan”   presumably comes from the way all of its many ingredients are placed in a Krabuan or line.  This dish is popular for important merit-making ceremonies in the village.  Each time  of cooking requires help from many people in preparing raw materials which results in unity of people in the community. Men are responsible for preparing raw materials locally available while women are responsible for cooking and enhancing the taste as it involves complicated steps and its method of cooking is considered a local wisdom.  For example, to prepare pork intestine, they knead it with guava leaves and table salt to eliminate the fishy smell, and to make Kaeng Buan smell and taste good, they have to put in it he right amount of rice whiskey.  Selecting local raw materials, applying the use of raw materials from outside the community, and the method of making Kaeng Buan show specific food wisdom that is different from  other communities.  Therefore, it can be said that the wisdom of making Kaeng Buan has been inherited to people in this community which gives it an identity and food security making it able to sustainably maintain the way of life bared on the local resource diversity.