Lanna Local Wisdom in Promoting the Elderly Well-being: A Pilot Study

Authors

  • Chawapornpan Chanprasit Associate Professor, Faculty of Nursing, Chiang Mai University
  • Sumalee Lirtmunlikaporn Assistant Professor, Faculty of Nursing, Chiang Mai University
  • Thanee Kaewthummanukul Assistant Professor, Faculty of Nursing, Chiang Mai University
  • Waruntorn Jongrungrotsakul Assistant Professor, Faculty of Nursing, Chiang Mai University
  • Piyawan Sawasdisingha Assistant Professor, Faculty of Nursing, Chiang Mai University

Keywords:

Lanna local wisdom, Caring for elderly health, Health promotion

Abstract

Lanna local wisdom related to health is knowledge through accumulated experiences focusing on health stability and placing value on holistic health. The main purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore Lanna local wisdom in promoting, protecting, and caring for elderly health. Key informants, a total of 68, were tradition scholar, traditional healer, and the elderly, residing in Chiang Mai and Lumphun Province. Data were obtained through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews.  Content analysis was utilized for data analysis.

            The main results illustrated that Lanna elderly care including health promotion and protection were an integral part of daily life.  The spirit beliefs and all kinds of rituals were incorporated to elderly care for their physical and emotional well-being.  The main principle of caring was five notions to live longer, starting with food: natural and nontoxic, exercise and activities based on their lifeway, emotion: morale to spiritual joyfulness, fresh air, and caring each other.  Regarding specific rituals, these included Seub Chata, and Songkaeu-buchatean.  Concerning therapeutic therapy, while the elderly got sick, folk remedies including herbal remedies and therapeutic rites were adopted.  These remedies were caring for both physical and mind as the holistic health concept.  These results are useful for elderly care plan including health promotion and remedies integrating local and universal wisdom and gaining ‘contemporary health care suitable to social and cultural context in the globalization era.

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Published

2020-03-25

How to Cite

Chanprasit , C., Lirtmunlikaporn , S. ., Kaewthummanukul , T., Jongrungrotsakul , W., & Sawasdisingha , P. (2020). Lanna Local Wisdom in Promoting the Elderly Well-being: A Pilot Study. Nursing Journal CMU, 47(1), 185–197. Retrieved from https://he02.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/cmunursing/article/view/240744

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Section

Research Article