This article identified values and creative culture for community health promotion through the use of boat racing in Wiang Sa district, Nan province, which is located in Northern Thailand as the case study. The author...This article identified values and creative culture for community health promotion through the use of boat racing in Wiang Sa district, Nan province, which is located in Northern Thailand as the case study. The author applied qualitative method to reveal the possibilities of community-based health care. The in-depth interview and participatory observation were adopted to investigate the context, problems, and current situation from the stakeholders during May to October 2013. The results showed that Wiang Sa district hold the traditional boat racing for more than 177 years. Before 1979, the boat racing was a traditional village collective activity, after that, the tradition has transformed into sports game in which the promotion of community health and tourism has been introduced. Values of boat racing of the people in the community included： （1） Aesthetic value--the unique characteristics of the regatta; （2） spiritual value--religious rites and relating rituals which was the source of the regatta; （3） social value--participation in various stages of racing from mutual thinking and practicing, and benefits among the group of villagers at various ages. Today, the regatta become a social symbol characterized by the community creative culture in many areas： promoting village cooperation, increasing social harmony, valuing the role of women, stimulating non-alcohol racing scheme, creating sharing collective activities for the youth and the elderly, etc. The health promotion, even though it only occurs in a short time of the racing course, especially among the rowers, it is considered as the beginning of building a positive attitude towards community health promotion through the use of the regatta as a social innovation.展开更多
文摘This article identified values and creative culture for community health promotion through the use of boat racing in Wiang Sa district, Nan province, which is located in Northern Thailand as the case study. The author applied qualitative method to reveal the possibilities of community-based health care. The in-depth interview and participatory observation were adopted to investigate the context, problems, and current situation from the stakeholders during May to October 2013. The results showed that Wiang Sa district hold the traditional boat racing for more than 177 years. Before 1979, the boat racing was a traditional village collective activity, after that, the tradition has transformed into sports game in which the promotion of community health and tourism has been introduced. Values of boat racing of the people in the community included： （1） Aesthetic value--the unique characteristics of the regatta; （2） spiritual value--religious rites and relating rituals which was the source of the regatta; （3） social value--participation in various stages of racing from mutual thinking and practicing, and benefits among the group of villagers at various ages. Today, the regatta become a social symbol characterized by the community creative culture in many areas： promoting village cooperation, increasing social harmony, valuing the role of women, stimulating non-alcohol racing scheme, creating sharing collective activities for the youth and the elderly, etc. The health promotion, even though it only occurs in a short time of the racing course, especially among the rowers, it is considered as the beginning of building a positive attitude towards community health promotion through the use of the regatta as a social innovation.
