ข่าวเด่น

The Maniq Living Heritage Forum 2026 continued at Walailak University on Wednesday, August 26, its second and final day, centered on ethnobotany and academic panels on the politics of Indigenous knowledge in Asia.

The day opened with a keynote by Dr. Piyarat Parinyapong Charoensap, Assistant Director of the Plant Genetic Conservation Project under the Royal Initiative of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn (RSPG), who framed the Maniq as a living demonstration of self-reliance built on inherited forest knowledge. She organized her talk around three categories of national resources — non-living physical resources, living biological resources, and cultural and intellectual "wisdom" resources — saying that the Maniq embody all three at once. Preserving that knowledge, she said, is not about keeping communities frozen in the past, but about keeping a reservoir of survival knowledge available for moments when modern systems fail. She pointed to Japan as an example, where traditional herbal practices remain woven into everyday health routines even in modern emergencies. 

She connected that knowledge to national economic strategy, noting that Thailand's 13th National Economic and Social Development Plan identifies wellness- and herb-based tourism as a leading source of income, with Thai herbal products already ranking among the world's top ten. But she was direct about the legal obstacles facing communities like the Maniq: entering protected forest areas to gather traditional plants is illegal under Thai law, and several species used in Maniq medicine fall under CITES protections. She urged Walailak University to work directly with the Maniq to survey and formally register their traditional knowledge, which she said would let the community negotiate benefit-sharing under the Nagoya Protocol.

Dr. Piyarat also walked through several plants long used by the Maniq for everyday care. Among them: het ngu, or snake mushroom, ground with water into a paste and applied to bite wounds to help draw out venom; a wild ginger that grows in the forks of forest trees, boiled into a drink for colds and nasal congestion; a bitter forest vine known as ya luk khat, boiled into a drink and used, according to traditional knowledge, as an herbal contraceptive; plai rhizome, applied to the skin or carried while migrating to a new settlement, believed under traditional custom to guard against unseen forces and skin ailments such as hives; tam tok, a forest herb Maniq husbands forage for and prepare for their wives to aid recovery after childbirth; and bitter tree-root tonics, boiled into a drink to build strength before hunting or gathering wild honey.

She closed by returning to the day's broader theme: preserving traditional knowledge is not about resisting change, she said, but about ensuring that whatever comes next does not come at the cost of losing it.



Following the keynote, members of the Maniq communities from Phatthalung, Satun, and Trang — around 60 people in total — were guided through Walailak University's Maniq Ethnic Museum, which documents their traditional way of life and livelihood.

The day's academic program then moved into three panel discussions: one on the politics of Indigenous knowledge in Asia, with scholars from Thailand and India; one on state power, law and the refusal of Indigenous peoples, with speakers from Thailand, Indonesia and Russia; and one on Indigenous knowledge, forests and environmental justice, with scholars from Malaysia, Thailand, India and China.

The day culminated in a roundtable bringing together a senator, a subdistrict mayor, independent researchers and the Chairman of the Civil People’s Committee for the Care of the Mani People, followed by a closing plenary and the Walailak Declaration on Indigenous Knowledge and Living Museum.









News by Settaboot Onphakdee, Division of Corporate Communications