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Pun Pun Philosophy

We run our farm, community, and programs based on an experimental and experiential learning approach. We have worked with various groups for the past several years, and find this approach to be the most effective.

We believe in learning by doing and that there is not only one way of doing things. We don't believe in experts, but in learning together. We have seen that through opening the door for further exploration, new developments can occur. "Mistakes" are simply opportunities for more learning. This means that we spend more time working and experimenting with techniques, rather than discussing them in a classroom. We also keep time open for discussion and questions as needed. Since we are in Thailand we teach based on a tropical climate that can be adapted to be used elsewhere.

We also strive to break-down the structure of experts and students. We feel we are all learning continually everyday. True development comes from taking wisdom and knowledge from others and experimenting ourselves to create improvement. This is all we do. We will share with you what our experience and knowledge we have gained has taught us and we will also experiment together to develop new knowledge together. Our teaching style is strongly focused on hands-on learning. We feel with the skills we are learning it is essential for us to do it ourselves with our own hands in order to gain the confidence to leave the place and take the skills with us. We will also try to balance this with discussion and principles. We invite you to be open in accepting a teaching technique which may differ from what you are used to. And to also try as much as possible to come into the experience with little to no expectations, open to what happens through the process.

Pun Pun Community We are 6 Thais and international peoples, speaking both English and Thai, and spanning in age from three-years old to 46. We moved onto the Pun Pun land in July 2003. We live, eat, work, and teach together in community. We organically grow the food we eat. We build our natural indigenous dwellings with our own hands. We maintain a seed-saving operation where we collect, propagate, and network rare, heirloom, and local seeds. On a regular basis, we have many visitors from within Thailand, surrounding countries, and other parts of the world. We host hands-on educational events to share our knowledge with others. Several of us travel extensively, working with villagers, NGO's, and others. We are located 50+km North of Chiang Mai, Thailand's second largest city. 


Pun Pun's Residents

Jon Jandai (Jo) is foremost a farmer, secondly the most widely known earthen builder in Thailand. He is from Yasothorn Province Thailand and has been farming all of his life. He also began building earthen homes on his family farm in 1997. He began doing workshops on earthen building in 2002, initially traveling the country and voluntarily teaching farmers'/villager groups ,NGOs, etc creating what is now a widespread earthen building movement in Thailand. He co-founded Pun Pun in July 2003 and is most interested in preserving our heritage in seeds.

Peggy Reents is initially worked with NGOs in Northeastern Thailand on earthen building, alternative agriculture, and grassroots development projects before together co-founding Pun Pun with Jo in 2003. She from Colorado, USA and has been living in Thailand since 2001.

Tahn Jandai became an addition to Peggy and Jo's life as well as the rest of Pun Pun on 9 July 2004. He is presently most interested in hammock naps and playing in the dirt.

Rachabodin Boonchaiyo is an architect who left his private company to devote himself to working on the earthen building movement in Thailand. Initially traveling with Jo and now traveling himself to assist with workshops and building projects. He is from Khon Kaen Province of Thailand. He has been at Pun Pun since its beginning in 2003

Michel Spann is a seed collector and has come to Pun Pun from the Court of Eden seed center in Holland. He also has extensive experience in building both with mud and bamboo and has lived in various parts of Thailand for many years. He has been living at Pun Pun since 2003.

Jeni is a farmer and builder and can pretty much do anything in no time flat. He has extensive use working with wood and bamboo and has also done earthen building in China and now at Pun Pun. He is full of local wisdom and is from the Lahu hill tribe village several kilometers from Pun Pun in the national forest. He has been at Pun Pun since Spring 2006.

Nagah is also from a nearby Lahu hilltribe and is also full of local wisdom. Nagah is presently helping to take all of the food produced at the farm and making it into delicious meals for all of the people who come to the farm and also helping in making other products from the farm such as dried bananas and sprouts. Nagah has been with Pun Pun since 2007.

Visitor FAQs

Q - I'd like to visit Pun Pun.  What is your guidelines for visiting?

A - Day visitors are pretty much welcome anytime.  We ask you call us in advance at 081.470.1461 to make sure it is convenient but if you are coming on your own transportation and just want to look around, it is usually fine.  If you will be wanting a tour and more visitng time we ask you schedule in advance as we may have a program running and be busy.  We take overnight visitors depending on the season.  To give proper attention to participants, we do not accept overnight visitors during periods where we are hosting other programs.  If you do not have your own transportation and are taking local transport, you will need to stay overnight as the local truck arrives at our village around 2 or 3 o'clock p.m. and does not leave to go back to Chiang Mai until 7 a.m. in the morning.  We ask overnight visitors to contribute 200 baht/person/night to help support the community.  It is best to email to pareents@yahoo.com to ask if it is a good time to visit. 

More FAQs coming soon

 - Copyright - Pun Pun Thailand Group - 2008 -