MEANING OF LAND FORMATION IN LOEI PROVINCE: A CASE STUDY OF THE GIANTS JEUNG KEUNG DANG DAENG FOLKTALE

Abstract

This research aims to collect stories about the giant Thao Jing Khing Dang Daeng that appear in the perception of people in Loei Province, as well as to study the meaning of the landscape that is linked to the story of the giant Thao Jing Khing Dang Daeng in the local communities of Loei Province, and to analyze the role of the story about the giant Thao Jing Khing Dang Daeng in the construction of the meaning of local landscapes in Loei Province. The method used to collect data was interviewing key informants in Bu Hom Sub-district and Chiang Khan Sub-district. The results of the study found that from the collection of data, stories about the “giant Thao Jing Khing Dang Daeng” that appear in the perception of people in the local communities of Chiang Khan District, Loei Province, are in the form of explanatory stories, namely stories that explain the origin of the natural landscape and stories that explain the origin of the names of various villages. In addition, the meaning of the landscape that is linked to the story of the giant Thao Jing Khing Dang Daeng is found to be related to the physical environment of various areas, which are the names of the landscapes of those places. In the local landscape meanings that people jointly perceive, such as the meaning of the landscape as the name of the village, the meaning of the landscape as the name of the cliff in front of the cave, and the meaning of the landscape as the name of the island, rapids, and rock source. The role of the story about the giant Thao Jing Khing Dang Daeng in the creation of local landscape meanings is mostly found to be related to the origin of the names of various local places in the local community, which reflects the meaning of the physical characteristics of the natural environment under the social and cultural dimensions of the people in the local community, including the role in the creation of meaning in the way of community establishment, the role in the creation of meaning in the way of local fishing, and the role in the creation of meaning in the way of religious beliefs.