กระบวนการสื่อสารเพื่อสืบทอดประเพณีถือศีลกินผักจังหวัดภูเก็ต

Abstract

This research aims to study the communication process in maintaining the Vegetarian Festival of Phuket Province from the past to the present, the elements of the tradition that have changed according to the context of the community and the change in roles of the tradition. The study has been carried out by means of analyzing relevant documents, indepth interview, participant and non-participant observation. The target groups of the study are knowledgeable people about the vegetarianism tradition of Phuket Province, people in the locality consisting of elder people, adults, children and teenagers, shrine board, caretaker of Huad-Kua Shrine or ritual performer, external agencies comprising the Phuket Public Relations Office, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Phuket Office, the Phuket Culture Office, for instance.

The result are as follow : (1) Context of Community of Phuket Province : the context of community has been the origin of vegetarianism tradition. In addition, the context of community has affected the maintenance of tradition. Namely, in the past, the context of community was the characteristic of a small town in which not many people lived. People knew and were familiar well with one another. The family had a strong relationship. Formerly, Phuket residents were involved in the occupations of farming, fishery and tin mining. Consequently, they could have free time for their family and participate in the traditional event. Therefore, people in the old days played a significant part in maintaining the tradition. But nowadays, Phuket Province has been transformed to be a large city with the arrival of people from different areas to live in more. Each person lives one's own life with somewhat lack of sense of belonging to the community, hence making the participation in the maintenance of tradition difficult. (2) History and Components of Phuket's Vegetarian Festival: according to traditional elements which are analyzed by the value-tree concept as conducted by the researcher, the roots of the tradition are beliefs and practices which are difficult for change. The trunk is the origin and vegetarian foods that support the roots to remain. Flowers, leaves, plant products are such as place of worship, costume, crackers, musical instruments that can be easily changed in accordance with the context of community. (3) Communication Process in Maintaining the Tradition: in the past, local people had the simple pattern of communication, that is to say, by words of mouth. Therefore, the tradition was not much distorted. But today, the same method has still been used in families, along with the fact that the external agencies like Tourism Authority of Thailand has come to conduct public relations, resulting in changes in several aspects. (4) Roles and duties of vegetarian festival have moved according to the context of the community. In the past, there were several roles and duties such as in the areas of disease treatment and being a spiritual anchor. At present, the said roles and duties increase; for example, being the point of sale for tourism, which are factors affecting the maintenance of changing tradition.