The Peace Culture Foundation’s peace advocacy activities are led by Dr. Sombat Tapanya.

Sombat Tapanya is a clinical psychologist, specializing in prevention and treatment of psychological trauma. Throughout his academic career, he focused on anti-bullying efforts, violence prevention, and helping people who were abused as children to improve their parenting skills. Now retired from Chiang Mai University, where he taught behavioral science to medical students, he promotes peace in the community through the Peace Culture Foundation. Having established aikido in Chiang Mai thirty years ago, he now teaches children the principles of peace through the martial art.

He also continues his work with local government agencies and global organizations, most recently with UNICEF Thailand and the University of Oxford as a local principle investigator on a project to teach better parenting skills. He has also worked on the Mekong Project, which trains therapists throughout Southeast Asia in how to effectively treat the lifelong effects of trauma.

Text based on an article by Anne Stein and illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa in The Rotarian.

Peace Culture Projects

The Peace Culture Foundation collaborates with organizations and communities to foster a culture of peace, where people treat one another with respect, kindness and non-violence.