Skip to main content

Spirit House

As a Buddhist country, Thailand has plenty of beliefs and practices arising from Animism or Spirit Worship. A major feature of animistic practice is the spirit house. Its purpose is to provide dwelling for spirits or celestial beings on land. Thais believe that spirits are either good or evil and most expect respect from humans, like being informed if humans would want to start a business in a certain spot. If these spirits aren't, they can cause disastrous interference to any venture. (Reference: Chiangmai and Chiangrai)

A Thai spirit house can be seen in front of homes, hospitals, company buildings, everywhere. You can see it "on a pedestal in front of every hotel. It dresses the corner garden area of a restaurant ... at outdoor food markets. They are built on the grounds of Buddhist temples, outside caves in the mountains, near fishing ponds in the valleys, and occasionally in the middle of an otherwise uninhabited forest." (Source: Uniquely Thai)

This is a spirit house in front of a university on a rainy day. Everyday employees pass by it as they scan their finger in computers beside the gate to report for work. Buddhist/Thai employees wai at it. The international staff, some after having been around for many years, tend to duck their heads as they make their way in and out the campus.

The same spirit house at night.


My World Tuesday is brought to you by Klaus and the My World Team Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy, Sylvia

Comments

  1. thank you for such an informative post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very interesting post and photographs.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had seen them, never knew so much about them. Thank you so much for explaining. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wonderful shots. Seeing for the first time, anything like this.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you Carver, Indrani and Rajesh

    ReplyDelete
  6. That is fascinating. There's something like this in my local Thai restaurant on the counter, and I think you just explained what it is. I never asked them, because I didn't want to seem like an ignorant American!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've never heard of these. Maybe I should live in one. LOL. Seriously the are cool looking. It would seem to me that you would have to have a big piece of property to own one. They look huge. Thanks for sharing. Wai Here means water.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Al, I guess I wouldn't ask either if it was the other way around for me, lol!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Not necessarily, Thom. Small property, small spirit house, something like that :) Thanks for sharing your 'wai.'

    ReplyDelete
  10. Such a very interesting and informative post! One of the things I love most about blogging is how much I have learned about other countries, communities, religions and I think that kind of knowledge is what we all need to make all of our worlds better places in which to live! Thank you! And thank you for your visit and comment, always appreciated! Hope you have a wonderful week, Hazel!

    Sylvia

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sylvia, indeed! I am enjoying the learning from many different places, and with all the beautiful photos to boot in many blogs. Thank you for stopping by.

    ReplyDelete
  12. wow, that's one interesting post. learned a lot. i guess there's one form or another of animism in all religions.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Besides the great information you shared about the Spirit House, I am so intrigued with this high tech finger scan. Its like the movies!

    One thing I have learned about Thai people (I worked with 3), they are so religious.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Marites, thanks.

    Darly, glad you learned something :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Ate Eb, the bosses seem to reckon card-swiping was getting outdated. they made us all do finger scan for awhile now :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts!

Tacloban . It's where I spent two months of great adventure with college buddies at about the same age as the young adult artists in this video  We Are The World for Philippines ( Cover by Filipino Artsts ) This is the church where I served as piano accompanist for the 1990 summer student choir, and some of the services. According to reports it was filled with dead bodies when this shot was taken. Photo Courtesy: AUP Network on FB On Saturday, November 24th, Central World management (the former WTC Bangkok) lent space for a Haiyan fundraiser without charge. I'd like to commemorate the highlights:   One Voice: Help Haiyan Victims was a serendipity. Organizing events is something I had to pay money to study in grad school. But it was live learning right there that night and observing the process was free. Skywatch : Mission Tacloban The Bangkok Charity Orchestra   reflected tranquility in their music. Poor typhoon victims would benef

Dyslexics and Developmental Pediatricians

Let me begin with an observation on the latter.  Developmental pediatricians in the Philippines are a rare breed. Or that's what I noticed. From society and organization websites, to forums, to word-of-mouth, to my own experience, they seem to be outnumbered by people who need their expertise. A parent of a child with developmental delays has to wait weeks or months to see one developmental pediatrician. Only thirty are listed on the Philippine Society of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Twenty-five in one Filipino autism blog, and that is not purely DevPeds. A child psychologist, child psychiatrist, and pediatric neurologist are mixed in the list, although they certainly are a big help too. At my son's speech therapy and psychology center I hear the same account from other parents - securing a time slot with a DevPed is hard. They are all fully booked throughout what could turn into a year. You may be lucky if someone withdraws but that rarely happens. I'm playing

Honor, Awards and a Game

Tuesday Couch Potatoes: Made of Honor Awards and a Game/Meme follow. Please scroll down a bit. My pick for this week's TCP theme (wedding movie) is Made of Honor. I like the humor in it. We've all been to several weddings but how many of us can say I've been to one in which the maid of honor was a he? The scene which particularly cracked me up is when the priest mistook the maid of honor for a gay man =) If you're familiar with some of my likes, you'd know why I also love the Scotland location of the wedding. For more of the synopsis click here ; and here's the trailer: Head over to Just About Anything for more wedding movies. ************ My super duper bloggy friend Thom of Thom's Place for Well Whatever and fellow Mom Tetcha of Pensive Thoughts awarded me this Beautiful Blogger award. I have to list seven things about me so here they are: 1. I love wearing jeans more than skirts. 2. One of my favorite colors is purple. 3. I don't mind spending su