After three years of great success in educating local people, especially children and youngsters, in academic knowledge, local wisdom and living in harmony, Yala TK Park is now ready to mentor other local governments in setting up their own living library.
Yala is the only official branch of Thailand Knowledge Park in Bangkok.
Yala TK Park combines local wisdom and culture with academic knowledge in different fields. Like the headquarters in the capital, it features a relaxed atmosphere for sitting and reading, interesting activities that all can join and do together and edutainment material to broaden one's knowledge. It's no wonder this local living library draws in lots of people both young and old.
Pongsak Yingchoncharoen, the mayor of Nakhon Yala, who founded the branch, said he was happy to see the warm response from residents. More and more were spending time seeking knowledge there although the insurgency had made it difficult to operate the facility.
The library received over 170,000 visitors last fiscal year, and has welcomed about 160,000 during the first eight months of this year, well on the way to reaching nearly 200,000 in this whole year, he said.
To celebrate the Yala branch's third anniversary, a seminar was organised to show local administration organisations from across the country how it was established and run. The seminar took place at the Prince Palace Hotel in Bangkok last Friday.
Tatsanai Wongpisethkul, directorgeneral of TK Park, said expanding the concept to other provinces would give more residents access to enjoyably learning at a living library.
TK Park presented the pilot branch's operation to encourage them to open their own living library.
Pongsak said Yala TK Park focuses on promoting residents to live together peacefully despite the different cultures and religions so the young generations can grow up in harmony because the militants had tried to make Buddhists and Muslims distrust each other.
"The library provides stories for children that show that people from both religions can live together peacefully and several activities that they can do together, for instance, visiting the historical sites of both religions.
"Parents accompanying their children who join these activities get to know and learn more about those from other religions, so they understand each other better," he said.
"It helps me make them understand each other more easily. Many violent incidents are caused by insurgents intending to make them suspicious of each other. The insurgents killed Buddhist residents then set ablaze a Muslim shop to make people believe the Buddhists took revenge against the Muslims a few years back. However, they easily understood [the situation] after I explained it to them," he said.
Local scholars also play a key role in transferring their local wisdom to the young generation. Rare local music and folk tales are gathered and kept at the library for them to learn about their roots.
Wannapa Khaopa