Chiang Mai, Thailand
A living
A living
place of
rest, ritual
& roots
A multicultural community invigorating endangered cultural practices and seed saving in the hills of northern Thailand.
A multicultural community invigorating endangered cultural practices and seed saving in the hills of northern Thailand.
Panya Forest is a living experiment in what becomes possible when people from different cultures share a piece of land and a common purpose. We grow organic food together, preserve seeds, build with natural materials and commit ourselves to developing deep understanding in order to live peacefully with all beings, including animals, plants and minerals. In addition to learning basic land-based skills, we attempt to learn languages, dances, Myths and other forms of art that hold within them endangered understandings of what it means to be human.
Rooted in northern Thailand and open to the world, we gather farmers, students, wisdom-keepers, seekers, dreamers and change makers. The community holds us. The Land teaches us. We grow together, slowly, for the benefit of a time beyond now.
Preserving heirloom and indigenous seed varieties is our primary work. Within each seed is the blueprint for how to live well in a Place. We center this knowing in all we do.
🍯We strive to keep the myriad myths and stories that are interwoven with all we do alive and re-membered, not as mere entertainment and artifacts, but as meaning filled, intergenerationally Lived Story.
🪵We build our homes with mud, bamboo, and whatever our land generously offers, recognizing that our bodies are but extensions of the body of eARTh and our Homes, like our bodies, hold memory and weave us into ancestral Song.
🌾Our gardens are classrooms. We grow food without chemicals and work with Land, not against Her. We approach Land with reverence and consider long time implications of our actions.
🌍People from across the world live, cook, work, rest and celebrate here. We welcome worldschoolers, unschoolers, homeschoolers and life-long learners of all ages. We grow together.
🤚Our learning programs explore the edges of how we live and what is possible. We offer both short and long term opportunities to experientially mature.
We are currently receiving donations from our extended network to preserve our seeds, restore our land, and keep the community alive. If this work speaks to you, we would love your support.
