Jon Jandai - Guru of Natural Living

Came across Jon Jandai who is the founder of self reliance centre Pun Pun in Thailand and thought it will be useful to introduce him here. They run a self reliance centre where a group of people live and do organic farming, earth building, home schooling for kids etc. 

According to him life is really easy and fun, man need not work this hard to make a living. He left his job in Bangok and started to cultivate rice and with 2 months work he had enough rice to eat and with less than 1 hour work per day he has enough vegetables to eat. He alone can make a earthen building....so it is such an interesting story....

More details of him can be seen from the following videos/links.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LovmKLQcQw4  - TED talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbYhzJToWfU - Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsb2_2X2hsk - Interview by Gajanand Agarwal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzjD3KQ65Es - Keynote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5X4DhbTCI8 - Jon Jandai in Bangalore

Captured from his TED talk

Life is easy this is one sentence, which I wanted to tell every one. So easy and fun, while I was in Bankok, I used to think life is very hard and complicated.

I was born in a poor village, north-eastern Thailand. When I was a kid everything was fun and easy. But when TV came and many things came into village and people started saying you are poor. You have to succeed in life, you have to go to Bangok, to pursue success in life. When I went to Bankok, it was not very fun. You have to study a lot and work very hard, then you can succeed. I worked very hard, 8 hours per day at least, but I could eat one bowl of noodles or fried rice. Where I stayed was very bad, a small place where many people lived, it was very hot. I started to question a lot, why my life is very hard. It must be some thing wrong. I tried to study in university, it was very hard since it was very boring. I looked at various subjects, most of them was destructive knowledge, not productive knowledge. If you learn architecture or engineering you ruin more. The more people work, mountain will be destroyed more, more land will be covered with concrete. If we learn agriculture in university you learn more to poison the land and water. I feel, everything we do is so complicated and hard. I felt disappointed and started thinking, why I have to be there in Bankok. When I was kid, nobody worked 8 hours per day, everybody worked two months a year, planting rice one month and harvesting it another month, rest is free time, 10 months of free time. That is why people have lot of festivals, every month they have festivals. In day time, everybody will take a nap,even now in the village after lunch they take a nap. Once they wakeup they will be chatting, how is your son-in-law? How is your daugther-in-law? People have lot of time, since they have lot time, they have time to be with themselves and understand themselves. Once they understand themselves, they can see what they want in their life. People see that they want happiness and love.They want to enjoy their life. People see lot of beauty in their life, they express their beauty in many ways, some carving knife very beatifully,weave baskets ..now nobody uses that and nobody does some thing like that, people use plastics every where. I decided to quit university and went back home. When I went home, I started living like the way during my childhood. I started working two months a year, I got 4 tons of rice, in my family of 6 people, we need less than 0.5ton, so we have some thing to sell. I myself dug two ponds, and I have fish for complete year. Started a small garden of around 0.5 acre, spends 15 minutes per day in garden and grow around 30 types of vegetables. 6 people can not eat all of it, we have surplus to sell in the market. We can make some income from there too. I thought this life is easy, compared to the one in Bankok, I spent 7 years there.

Earlier I thought, people like me who didn't get good grade in school, can not have a house. But people who are very clever than me has to work for 30 years to have a house. But when I started doing earthen building,it was so easy. I spent 2 hours per day (5AM to 7AM), in 3 months I got a house. Another friend who was more clever in the class,he also spent 3 months to build a house, but he has to be in debt for 30 years. Compared to him, I have 29 years and 10 months of free time. I felt life is so easy. I never thought, I can build a house easy like that. After that I keep building house every year, at least one house a year, now I have no money, but have many houses, my problem is tonight, which house I will select for sleeping. Anybody can build a house, kids can make a house. Old lady's can build a house. If you don't believe me, try it.In another video he says, birds can make a nest in couple of days and rats can make a hole overnight, we should be better than that.

Next thing is clothing. I feel like I am poor and not handsome. I try to dress like somebody else like a movie star, to make myself look better. I spent 1 month to save money to buy a jeans, after wearing it, I turn left and right and look in the mirror. Every time I look, I am the same person. The most expensive pant can not change my  life. Why we need to follow fashion, when we follow fashion, we never catch up because we are following, so don't follow, just stay where you are. Use what we have, after that for 20 years, I never buy clothes. All the clothes I use, are given by people who visit me. I have tons of clothes now. When people see me wearing old clothes, they give me more clothes. So I give clothes to other people now very often.

To be continued.....