About the project
History
Dindang was set up by Bow (full name: Rewat Thongbunchu) – born in Nakhorn Si Thammarat province in 1980. “Before starting Dindang I had already worked on clay house building for 2 years. I am really passionate about it! A lot of people are interested in natural building, but there aren’t many places to go: it is difficult to find information or to participate in a workshop. This is why I would like to set up an educational center. In these times of economical and environmental challenges, natural building offers a sustainable solution for people without much money. Building a house by yourself teaches you about your abilities and potential: you are not dependent on other people or expensive materials - all you need comes from nature. You can experiment to find that lots of things from the local area can be used.”
Location
Dindang Living Home is located in a small village called Paksong, Phato district (Chumpon province) in the south of Thailand. The village is about 40 km away from the city of Ranong and has only a few hundred inhabitants. Most people work on one of the many small plantations in the area, growing fruits, palm trees, rubber trees etc. The village is surrounded by mountains, waterfalls and vast areas of natural and green rainforest.
Dindang was set up in the year 2007 with the assistance and donation of land from the Thai Child Development Foundation (TCDF). This organization has been active in the Phato area since 2003 and continues to give support to Dindang. During its first year Dindang has started to build some clay houses on the TCDF premises: in order to experiment with the various techniques and to have some example houses for the project of the coming years. From the start Dindang has been an informal organization, working mainly with volunteers.
Current and Future Plans
In the last 7 years DinDang welcome volunteer from all over the world to helped building the center facilities, such as living huts, kitchen and dining, toilet rooms, gallery, workshop, etc. The center is growing steady every year with a number of volunteers joined the project, students and local visitors, and number of new projects with locals has been set up. Besides promoting the natural building techniques, DinDang also focus on a living center with a long term approaches of developing of good example of self-sustainable living, with waste reduction, alternative energies, and by developing a permaculture garden to provide volunteers and the family with fresh organic food.
Currently Bow and the volunteers continue to work on the numerous buildings at the center, cobbing existing huts and toolshed, building rock walls, extending and replacing thatched roofs,
landscaping the surroundings and adding permaculture gardens throughout the interstitial spaces. Many more small projects such us decoration of the center and set up information
panels.
Bow had moved in to the center aiming to keep the life in the center growing and to welcome people on their visit. Together with volunteers Bow creates vegetable garden on the premises which have much of native plants that are easy to grow and tasty to eat. He is also starting to spend one day a week with volunteers at the permaculture land benching out paths, pruning the coffee trees, picking coffee and mangosteens when in season, gathering betel nuts, planting
more trees and plants, and finally optimizing the land to be a thick permaculture forest.
This past year we have been transitioning to living at the center. Bow and the long-term members with the option for longer stay volunteers can stay in one of the five clay huts; cook meal on a wood fire and developed the gardens such that we can pick much of our food right there, and by the end of next year we are hoping to have solar power set up so we can run the center with more independent and cleaner power ( you know, for our digital needs and the light so we can weave our baskets at night).
Simultaneously this is the year we are moving the focus away from building up the center ( building buildings) to transforming it into a living center, printing large information panels for our walk through visitors , and developing a pertinent workshop program for which to promote and educate natural building methods and the life style that goes along with the environmentally conscientious mind. We are also always looking at collaborating with local people and organizations and the possibility of community building projects
Week schedule
|
Arrival of new volunteer Every Wednesday
|
11.00 Pickup in Paksong at the meeting point and bring you to the DinDang Living Home. You will have a meeting, where you will be informed on DinDang, the aims and goals. A tour on the premises will be done.
|
|
Monday- Tuesday |
Free day
|
|
Wednesday |
08.00 Breakfast. 09.00-12.00 Work on aproject. 12.00-14.00 Lunch and resting time. 14.00-17.00 Work on project. 17.00-19.00 Free time. 19.00-20.00 Welcome Dinner. 20.00 Free evening. |
|
Thursday |
08.00 Breakfast. 09.00-12.00 Work on project. 12.00-14.00 Lunch and resting time. 14.00-17.00 Work on project. 17.00-19.00 Free time. 19.00-20.00 Dinner and dishes. 20.00 Free evening. |
|
Friday |
08.00 Breakfast. 09.00-12.00 Work on project. 12.00-14.00 Lunch and resting time. 14.00-17.00 Work on project. 17.00-19.00 Free time. 19.00-20.00 Dinner and dishes 20.00 Free evening |
|
Saturday |
08.00 Breakfast. 09.00-12.00 Work on project 12.00-14.00 Lunch and resting time. 14.00-17.00 Work on project. 17.00-19.00 Free time. 19.00-20.00 Dinner and dishes 20.00 Free evening |
|
Sunday |
08.00 Breakfast. 09.00-11.00 Work on DinDang perma-culture land 12.00-14.00 Lunch. 14.00-17.00 Work on DinDang perma-culture land. 17.00-19.00 Free time 19.00-20.00 Dinner and dishes 20.00 Free evening |
