Design and Development of Community Product Prototype from Wisdom Heritage – Tai Dam Alphabets

Abstract

          The Tai Song Dam was one of the ethnic groups in Thailand with unique linguistic wisdom and cultural heritage inherited from their ancestors. In Ban Don Sub-district, Uthong District, Suphanburi Province, Tai Song Dam people have inherited their wisdom heritage – Tai Dam language speaking. The language was used for communication among them, but there is almost no one who can write the alphabets. Without preservation and restoration, there will be in inevitable loss of language and cultural heritage. The Design and Development of Community Product Prototype from Wisdom Heritage – Tai Dam Alphabets was therefore a form of preservation and restoration Tai Dam language
         The objectives of this research were to study the community product prototypes   from wisdom heritage – Tai Dam alphabets to design the community products from those alphabets and to study the consumers' satisfaction with the community product prototypes. The samples were divided into 2 groups. The first group was 36 key informants: including, wisdom heritage owners, cultural leaders, community enterprises, and youth groups which were selected by using purposive sampling. The second group was 495 consumers: including, working age people, adults, and people who are interested in the products which were selected by using convenience sampling. The research instruments were an interview guidellines and a satisfaction questionnaire. The Research methodology consisted of 3 stages: 1) Data Collection – by the interview and focus group, 2) Design and Development of Community Product Prototypes, and     3) Satisfaction Assessment of Community Product Prototypes. The data were analyzed using     content analysis and descriptive statistics.
          The research results were found that 1) in terms of reading and writing Tai Dam characters, few people can read and write those. This was found only in the elderly and a group of volunteers trained by the Tai Dam Society (Thailand) which is one of the reasons that may lead to the disappearing culture. Since the books or journals are written in Tai Dam, the cultural inheritance should be taken as an urgent matter by the cultural inheritance group. 2) In addition, there were 5 product prototypes: keychains with Tai Dam alphabets, clock with Tai Dam alphabets and numbers, fabric bags, pillows with Tai Dam alphabets, and shirts. 3) The overall satisfaction with the community product prototypes was at a high level in all aspects.