Khamkhian, a forest monk and meditation teacher, has campaigned to help poor people in the northeastern rural areas where he has established “rice banks” and “buffalo banks,” which function as independent local cooperatives where poor people can borrow the necessities for agriculture, such as grain and water buffaloes. If necessary, they can borrow rice for their own consumption. When they produce a surplus of rice, they deposit it in the rice bank. When a borrowed buffalo gives birth, half of the young buffaloes belong to the farmer and the other half belong to the buffalo bank.