18 days of intensive certified permaculture course
course fee
29,500 THB for the 18 days intensive program, delicious vegetarian/vegan food & comfortable accommodation are included!
Early bird tickets! : Booking before 20th August will get 10% off!
You are invited to join us at our beautiful Gaia ashram community and eco learning center
Join us at Gaia Ashram for a 18 days Permaculture Design Certificate Course (PDC) from the 3rd of October until the 20th of October, 2022.
Gaia Ashram is an Permaculture Education center established in 2012 on 6 hectares of land in the North East of Thailand.
We strongly believe that there never was a bigger need for spreading knowledge of Permaculture and related sustainable living practices. Especially now after the COVID-19 pandemic and increased climatic changes. In these times people’s empowerment and community experience is the right response to change.
We will use the PDC as a celebration and starting point for entering a new normal.
Join us & Lets Regenerate Earth together!
Interest in joining email us: gaiaschoolasia@gmail.com
What is Permaculture?
Permaculture was created in the 70s by the Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren as a response to the myriad of environmental crises. Permaculture is a holistic design system that reconciles human communities with the ecological imperatives of a living planet.
Permaculture, the word coined by the Australian Bill Mollison, aims to create permanent culture that can go indefinately and is in harmony with mother earth. Permaculture seeks to consciously design and maintenain agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems.
Permaculture is not restricted to land management though as it is a way of organizing knowledge, a connecting system that integrates science, art, politics, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and the diverse experiences and resources available in any community. In essence it is also a tool to transform culture and consciousness to align ourselves with Mother Earth.
WHAT Is a permaculture Design Course (PDC)?
A Permaculture Design Certificate Course, short PDC, is an internationally known and accepted 72-hour theory course resulting in a Permaculture Design Certificate. The PDC provides an introduction to permaculture design according to the movement’s founder Bill Mollison and it is designed on his international course curriculum.
The Permaculture Design Course equips you with the knowledge and an understanding on how to design sustainable living systems for a wide variety of landscapes and climates.
To date, thousands of permaculture designers worldwide have been certified through this course, and now comprise a global network of educators, ecological activists, consultants and practitioners who are influencing the decisions of major corporations, small businesses, and people from all walks of life to change the way we view and design our landscapes, our surroundings, our relationships, and our daily lives so we can grow the revolution that our planet needs.
The PDC serves as a foundation for further permaculture work and studies.
What will be covered during the 18-days PDC?
The PDC course at Gaia Ashram will provide you with the knowledge, practical skills, and experience. The PDC has a team of experienced facilitators that will cover the PDC 72 hours curriculum. Usually a PDC takes 12-14 days to complete but at Gaia Ashram we belief in the importance of experiencing the knowledge. This is why we made the course 18 days to allow for time to incorporate hands-on activities to make sure you experience the knowledge through the hands.
Here are just a few things you’ll learn:
• Philosophies, ethics, and principles of permaculture
• Patterns in nature
• Methods of design; how to apply permaculture design tools and methodology
• Climatic factors and strategies for all major climates and how to work with them
• Trees, forests, and forest gardening
• Agroforestry and propagation
• Gardening techniques for self-sufficiency, plant guilds
• Water management
• Properties of soil
• Natural building techniques
• Urban permaculture strategies and approaches
• Community living and alternative lifestyles that harmonize people and the planet
Why taking a PDC with Gaia Ashram?
Taking a PDC at Gaia Ashram, A part from learning about PDC you will also learn ; –
- Ecovillage Lifestyle and Ecovillage Design. We will provide introductory sessions on Ecovillage Design Principles with experienced teachers in Ecovillage Design Education. Gaia Ashram has also been consciously living together as a community. You will also be experiencing and learning about Ecovillage living while taking PDC course here with us.
- Deep Ecology and The Work That Reconnects : Gaia Ashram was inspired by Deep Ecology philosophy, Ecovillage Movement and Permaculture. These threes have been our strong points. This PDC will also offer sessions on Deep Ecology and The Work That Reconnects. Deep Ecology and The Work That Reconnects will help participants to gain deeper connection with the earth and life as the whole. Deep Ecology, Ecovillage Design Principles and Permaculture greatly complement each others.
- Permaculture Internship after the PDC : If you take a Permaculture Design Certificate Course with us. You will gain a privilege to join our three month – Permaculture Internship with greatly discount. Usually taking three months internship with us cost 29,650 THB of living and mentorship fee. If you take a PDC with us you can join our Permaculture Internship Program for only 7,500 THB for your three months Internship. After the three months internship. This will also include you joining our Ecovillage Lifestyle Experience Week program. Please Note; If you wish to join the Permaculture Internship Program with us please make a booking before. We only take 6 Interns at a time.
- Becoming longterm volunteers or permanent resident at Gaia Ashram : After you have done the three months internship program with us, you can become a resident at Gaia Ashram if you want to. A minimum of 1 year commitment required after doing the internship.
- Working with local community: Gaia Ashram has been consciously aware of the importance of local communities and we are working with the our local community. Building connections with local communities is important for any Permaculture or Ecovillage project. Good connection with local communities will lead to great collaboration and vise versa the miss communication and misunderstanding with local communities could lead to some challenges. Gaia Ashram has got knowledge, skills and experience to share with you in this area.
- As part of our current outreach Gaia Ashram is collaborating with the village and the local Khonkaen University to building a natural school building at the local school.
Facilitators:
Ben Murray is an Ecological designer, consultant, and teacher with a background in organic and biodynamic gardening/agriculture, natural building, horticulture & andscape architecture.
Ben is the founder of Holistic Regeneration, has 25 years of experience in the realm of Horticulture and has been consulting, practicing and teaching permaculture, organic gardening and natural building for almost 10 years in England, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Kenya and India and is currently working as an itinerant trainer of transformational and empowering workshops and courses.
Sunisa Jamwiset Deiters (Om) lived and worked as a facilitator at Wongsanit Ashram, a socially engaged spiritual community for about 9 years, and later at Panya Permaculture project in Thailand. She helped create the Next Generation of Global Ecovillage Network of Asia & Oceania (NextGENOA) and is currently mentoring the young leaders of the network. She has facilitated courses in many countries for NGO workers, young Buddhist activists, international students, and children. She founded Gaia Ashram with her partner in 2012. Now she divides her time Teaching, managing Gaia Ashram project, and taking care of her kids.
Gaia Ashram Team : Gaia Ashram Team will also be your program facilitators.
What are the fees?
The fee for this course is 29,500 THB. The fee includes 3 vegetarian/vegan meals, accommodation in our recently renovated dormitory or your own tent, course materials, and teacher fees.
We also have separate single rooms or a double rooms for an extra cost. See below for more information.
We ask all participants to fill in the registration form, make a deposit of 5,000 THB to secure your spot through Eventbrite and pay the remaining amount in THB in cash on arrival at Gaia Ashram. There are ATMs available locally.
Booking before 20th August gets early bird tickets with 10% off!
CANCELLATION POLICY
Please be aware that in case you have to cancel the course due to personal reasons the deposit cannot be refunded.
The organizers reserve the right to cancel the course, even at short notice, if there is a danger to the well-being of the visitors and organizers, such as viral infections (COVID-19 pandemic), storms, or natural disasters (fire, hurricanes, floods). In this case, the organizer cannot be held liable for personal losses. In these cases deposits will be refunded at 100%. To prevent further personal loss, we recommend taking travel cancellation insurance.
Facilities
• Accommodation: Our recently renovated and upgraded Dormitory, shared rooms, and single rooms available. Mosquito nets, cushions, bedding, and blankets are provided.
Private rooms are available in the Fairy House for an extra fee. Please choose your preferred accommodation during the registration process.
Extra fee for private Room Rates:
Single Rooms: 3,600 Thai Baht (17 nights)
Double Rooms: 8,500 Thai Baht (17 nights)
• Common space for sessions: Classroom sessions will be held in our natural built sala, in our pool sala, our recently build nursery and outdoors. Practical sessions will be happening on different locations on the land.
• Toilets and showers: We provide compost toilets and showers for men and women. We have dry composting toilets at Gaia Ashram and water based vermicomposting toilets (like a regular flush toilet).
Gaia Cafe
As part of our mission to regenerate the land and our bioregion we created Gaia Ashram Cafe and our natural products called Gaia Essence. Here we sell drinks coffee & natural products from the land. This is a nice space to take a break and hang out. At the Cafe we have good wifi connection.
General
• Internet: We have Wifi available at Gaia Ashram library and Gaia Cafe that participants can use.
We would recommend getting a simcard upon arrival in Thailand. You could get one from the airport. We would recommend AIS as a provider. Good reception and have English call center representatives. There is also an internet shop in a near village that is usually open every day.
https://www.ais.th/travellersim/
- Visa for most nationalities you can get a Tourist visa on arrival of 30 days which is extendable for another 30 days at local immigration office (for us in Udonthani) for a fee. If you want to stay longer we recommend getting a 60 days visa for detailed information make sure you contact your local Thai embassy or consulate.
- Food: Healthy local vegetarian food will be served by local cooks. Participants will team up to cook breakfast in turns.
Who are we?
Gaia Ashram is a community-based education center on Permaculture, Deep Ecology, Ecovillage Design Education and other sustainable living practices. We are a learning center that provides workshops and courses for both international and Thai participants. Feeling the urge to regenerate Mother Earth, Gaia Ashram was founded in 2013 by Tom and Om.
Learn more about us!
Where to find us?
We are located in the Northeast of Thailand, in between Nong Khai and Udon Thani. Where exactly we are and how you can get to us can be found here:
How to apply?
Step 1: Send us an email to gaiaschoolasia@gmail.com
Step 2: Fill in the registration form
Step 3: Make the downpayment of 5000 baht through the eventbrite link below. (There is a 299 Thai baht fee that goes to Eventbrite).
After we received registration form and the eventbrite downpayment we will sent you logistic information.
***Please be aware of our policy on drugs & alcohol***
We don’t allow alcohol or drugs on our property. We ask people to smoke at the smoking corner only to provide a healthy environment for learning and living together. We encourage people to take this course as an opportunity to have a break from smoking or drinking.
We strongly believe that there never was a bigger need for spreading knowledge on how to interact in harmony with nature than now after the COVID-19 pandemic and the current Climate Change crisis. In these times people’s empowerment and community experience is the right response to change.
Let us use the magical tools of permaculture to creatively respond to change in unity!