Monica Lindberg Falk - Post-Tsunami Recovery in Thailand

Of all the huge natural disasters that claimed the lives of thousands in Asia, the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 was the largest, estimated to have killed more than 230,000 people. The scope of damage brought about by this natural disaster urges focus on recovery and post-disaster reconstruction from several perspectives. Here we find an in-depth ethnography of Thailand and the role of culture and religion as an underpinning issue in post-disaster recovery.

Following the post-tsunami recovery over five years, the book provides knowledge on socio-cultural responses from affected local communities after natural hazards, and is based on original material collected in Thailand after the 2004 tsunami. With a focus on how culture and religion interplay in the processes of building resilience and decreasing vulnerability, it gives a deeper understanding of how disasters are experienced and dealt with on a local level. It examines survivors experiences of rituals and ceremonies that became a part of the survivors lives in new ways after the tsunami, offering psychological reassurance and religious efficaciousness as well as communication links between themselves and the deceased.

Using observations, narratives and material from in-depth interviews with survivors, relatives, relief workers, officials and Buddhist monks and nuns, this book contributes to the research on anthropology of disaster and to the development of research on cultural resilience and religion in post-disaster recovery. It will be of interest to scholars of Disaster Studies, Buddhist Studies and Asian Studies.

Monica Lindberg Falk is a Social Anthropologist at Lund University, Sweden. She is the author of Making Fields of Merit: Buddhist Female Ascetics and Gendered orders in Thailand (2007), and has published several articles on themes related to gender, Buddhism, socially engaged Buddhism, and Buddhism and disasters.

Editors:
Victor T. King

Michael Hitchcock

The books in this series address issues in processes of development, globalisation and change in Southeast Asia. Where appropriate, they contextualise change and local responses to it by providing ethnographic materials on social and cultural forms and institutions. Although all the contributors to the series examine modern and contemporary issues in the anthropology of Southeast Asia, the emphasis in each book differs as authors choose to concentrate on specific dimensions of change and globalisation or work out particular conceptual approaches to the complex issues of development. Areas of concern include: nation-building, power and the media; technological innovations in agriculture and rural-urban migration; the expansion of industrial and commercial employment; the rapid increase in cultural and ethnic tourism; the consequences of deforestation and environmental degradation; heritage and identity; contemporary expressions of religious affliliation; the modernisation of tradition; ethnic identity and conflict; changing gender relations; and the religious transformation of society.

The Changing Village Environment in the Southeast
Applied anthropology and environment reclamation in the northern Philippines
Ben J. Wallace

The Changing World of Bali
Religion, society and tourism
Leo Howe

Modernity and Malaysia
Settling the Menraq Forest nomads
Alberto Gomes

The Orang Suku Laut of Riau, Indonesia
The inalienable gift of territory
Cynthia Chou

Sex, Love and Money in Cambodia
Professional girlfriends and transactional relationships
Heidi Hoefinger

Post-Tsunami Recovery in Thailand
Socio-cultural responses
Monica Lindberg Falk

Post-Tsunami Recovery in Thailand

Socio-cultural responses

Monica Lindberg Falk

First published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

2015 Monica Lindberg Falk

The right of Monica Lindberg Falk to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Falk, Monica Lindberg, author.
Post-tsunami recovery in Thailand : socio-cultural responses / Monica Lindberg Falk.

pages cm. (The modern anthropology of Southeast Asia)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Tsunami reliefSocial aspectsThailand. 2. Disaster victimsRehabilitationThailand. 3. Indian Ocean Tsunami, 2004Social aspects. I. Title.
HV6032004.T5 F35 2014

ISBN: 978-1-138-02357-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-77632-3 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear

This book is a product of several years of research and I am indebted to a large number of people without whom this work would not have been possible. My first thank you goes to the survivors of the disaster, their relatives, the Buddhist monks, nuns, villagers and aid workers for generously sharing their knowledge, experiences and everyday life with me. I would like to thank the mae chis relatives in Phuket with whom the mae chis and I stayed when we visited Phuket and Phang Nga in January 2005. I would also like to thank the family who invited my assistant and me to stay in their knock-down temporary shelter when they had moved to a house in the village, and also for their help to rent a partly damaged house in Nam Khem. I particularly want to thank my assistant Nantana Pidtong. Without her knowledge, patience, integrity, empathy and skills in working in a post-disaster situation, this study would have been difficult to carry out.

I wish to thank my colleagues at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University, for taking an interest in my work and their appreciated comments. I also wish to thank Mahidol University International College for hosting the project and I am grateful to my Thai colleagues for fruitful discussions and insightful comments on findings from this study. I owe special thanks to Hiroko Kawanami, Samuel Geoffrey, Anne Guillou, Silvia Vignato, Jean-Christophe Gaillard, Pauline Texier, Leslie E. Sponsel, Marja-Liisa Keinnen, Sunita Reddy and Harish Naraindas for organizing panels at conferences and for valuable comments on my papers based on the material from this post-tsunami research. The manuscript has benefited from close readings and constructive comments by Routledge anonymous reviewers and I extend my thanks to the editorial team at Routledge. I also want to thank Kay Hutchings for her patience and for proofreading the text.