Gaia Ashram
Udon Thani
Features At This Location
An ecovillage learning center for permaculture, deep ecology and natural building in Udon Thani.
Gaia Ashram (อาศรมธรรมชาติ) is an ecovillage and eco-learning center on around six hectares of regenerating land in Ban That, Phen District, Udon Thani, in the northeast of Thailand. Founded in 2012 by Om Sunisa Jamwiset Deiters and her partner Tom Deiters, it grew out of the ecovillage movement, deep ecology, and permaculture, and has become an established center for hands-on sustainable living in the region.
The land is a living classroom. The community regenerates it through agroforestry, organic and natural farming, and permaculture design, growing much of its own food while restoring soil and forest. Natural building is everywhere you look, from the sculptural cob-and-timber Gaia Sala that anchors the site to the handmade Fairy House farm-stay and the Gaia Cafe. Alongside the gardens, a deep-ecology and nature-connection practice gives the place its reflective, unhurried character.
Gaia Ashram is also a small international community living project. At any time it is home to roughly ten to twenty-five people, with volunteers and guests staying from a few days to several months and sharing fully in the daily rhythm of growing, cooking, building and learning. Through its Gaia School Asia education arm and a partnership with the local village school, the founders extend that learning to children in the surrounding community.
Across the year the center hosts Permaculture Design Courses, Ecovillage Design Education programs, natural-building workshops, and deep-ecology retreats. Courses, volunteering and farm-stays are arranged in advance through the Gaia School Asia website.
How to Get There:
Gaia Ashram is in Ban That, Phen District, Udon Thani. Contact the team in advance for travel directions and the best way to reach the land.
Visiting Policy:
Volunteers and guests are welcomed to live alongside the community for periods from a few days up to several months, joining its daily routines; the ashram typically hosts 10 to 25 people at a time. Courses, volunteering and farm-stays are arranged in advance through gaiaschoolasia.com.
