Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Muban website

While many of the municipalities and Tambon administrative organizations have websites already, some even with an English section, I just came across the first fully bilingual website of a village. What is even more surprising is the fact that this village is located in the agricultural and rather poor Northeast region (Isan), and apparently the website was done by some villages themselves, even the English part. And the many photos on the site give a good image of the rural life.

The village is Ban Duan Noi (บ้านดวนน้อย), village 4 of Mueang Khaen subdistrict, Rasi Salai district, Sisaket province. It is located 12 kilometer from the district center and 51 from the province center. They included the satellite image of their village in Google Maps, but the street map of that area does not include any village names.

The total area of the village is about 3500 rai (ไร่) or 5.6 km². 52 rai is the settled area, 79 rai is public land, and the majority of 3369 rai is farm land. The village has a total of 414 citizen, 211 men and 203 women, living in 79 households. Of these, 72 households do farming, 60 have lifestock, and 7 are working as employees. 75 of the households have an annual income of more than 20,000 Baht. The village has one temple, but no school.

Also interesting is the history. The village dates back to the year 1852. Kamtha together with 7 other families from the village Ban Don Mai Ngam (Nong Mi subdistrict) started the new settlement 15 kilometers from their former village. At first they named it Ban Kao (บ้านเก่า), but after many of the people died of Malaria the name was seen as having a bad karma and thus changed it to Ban Duan Noi.

Even the complete list of village headmen is given on the website.
  • Khamtha Phaha (นายคำตา พาหา)
  • Boonma Phaha (นายบุญมา พาหา
  • Kerd Phansi (นายเกิด พันธ์ศรี)
  • Thongsa Phaha (นายทองสา พาหา)
  • Thamma Amnuay (นายทำมา อำนวย)
  • Khun Kaewpanya (นายคูณ แก้วปัญญา)

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