the examples that are presented, you will come to understand
what is now crystal-clear to those who have lived and seen the
tangible outcomes created in Doi Tung.
Compounded with opium production and trade, decades of
deprivation, violence, misery, lack of access to public health,
education and market had created a "disaster-zone" of under-development.
It was this situation that the Princess Mother, Her Royal
Highness Somdet Phra Srinagarindra Boromarajajonani found
when she went to live on the Doi Tung mountain. In Thailand, she
was affectionately called Somdet Ya (Thai: สมเด็จย่า), "the Royal
Grandmother" but the various hill tribe peoples, to whom she was
a special patron, called her Mae Fah Luang (Thai: แม่ฟ้าหลวง),
"Royal Mother from the Sky" or "The Heavenly Royal Mother" for,
due to her age, she often used a helicopter to visit poor villages
with her team of volunteer medical doctors.
The Princess Mother understood correctly the extent of the disaster
of poverty and de-forestation that she found in Doi Tung. However,
she also understood that the disaster12 was not inevitable, not the
result of bad luck; instead, she saw how the problem was clearly
man-made. Indeed, it was man-made and made by some the
worst part of the society of men: traffickers of opium, heroin and
human traffickers had created a social system rotating around
crime and violence. She saw that to make change happen, there
had to be a paradigm shift - a new vision was required.
For example, she often stated “I will plant a forest in Doi Tung” and
“Let us help poor people to help themselves”. It was an entirely new
view of development assistance and development aid. It was no
longer about donating cash or goods to needy people; it was about
empowering them to be at the centre of their own sustainable devel- opment process. That very Copernican revolution of development
models has now been recognized as a model of best practice and