The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

blackgang

Just whats happening,

Formal education should keep you from believing in superstition to heavily.
Like never sleep with the head of the bed to the west, can't cremate on the weekday you were born, more bullshit to clutter up your life.

Marmite the Dog

It should preclude you from believing in a religion too, but for many they still manage to get brainwashed.

dirtydog

Here are a couple of pictures of a communal spirit house on Soi Theprassit, up until about 8 years ago this was surrounded by fields and was at the entrance of a soi leading to about 10 houses, of course at that time it didn't have security grills on it and had a wooden tiled roof.

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El Gibbon

Finally remembered to take a shot of our spirit house here in the "orchard".



Happened to be around sunset so it turns out pretty decent.

E. G.

Anonymous Coward

Nice photo EG.

El Gibbon

Thks, should have done it earlier and entered in contest

dirtydog

This one is on the road near Silver Lake on the way to Ban Chang, this is obviously a village spirit house, but for some reason they are dumping the old ones here aswell, not sure why that is happening, they have another dumping place of old spirit houses about 1km down the road going towards Pattaya.



Ok we can see the tree is revered here, but what made the Thais decide this would be a good place to dump unlucky spirit houses?

ChiangMai noon

We had one delivered this morning.

tomorrow my wife is having a thing for a spirit house that Thais do.
I will take some pictures.

ADare

^ and then never post them?

stroller

You still got 4 votes in the semi-final, even without submitting an entry.

El Gibbon

Actually had an entry posted... Post 30.... got lost in the Macha and Nooner stuff lol

E. G.

jizzybloke

Very informative TW thank you

buad hai

I guess not....

BKKmango

"Thanks" to all who took the time to post here. This is an interesting thread full of useful information.

I noticed that only a handful of families on our soi would continuously maintain the spirit house that was placed at the end of it. Are there traditions about who maintains the spirit houses in these situations? (hope I did not miss this in the threads, apologies if I did).

dirtydog

Are we suprised?

I think anybody can look after the spirit houses BKKmango.

BKKmango

Thanks. The spirit houses are quite interesting. Despite being located everywhere in the country, I am constantly amazed at how they can be customized and localized to particular houses or communities.

I was surprised to learn that the houses are not necessarily for Buddhist use, but over time, Thais came to use them through interactions between Indian religious practices (not sure which one) and Buddhism. I also did not know that the statues are of non-Buddhist entities. Quite an interesting intersection of religious practices and day-to-day beliefs (e.g., protect house, etc).

wedge

Is it appropiate to purchase a small wooden thai spirit house as a gift for a loved one? I worry that it is not meant to simply be ordered on-line and given that way. Was considering getting it for a thai person living outside of Thailand.

a. boozer

DrAndy

I am sure they would be very pleased that you are so thoughtful (make sure there is a bottle of whisky inside)

we have just bought a wooden spirit house for our house, and have just made another for the land

should be fun getting the local white witch, or Rohan, as my wife calls him, to come and do a bit of chanting for them

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keep 'em coming

chickens

Fascinating post .My buddhas are in the garden and the loungeroom.When the dalai llama visits oz i can feel the love and wisdom emanating .A few spirits have visited our home but from a number of different religious origins.I find the message is sometimes very clear but sometimes i fail to grasp the meaning of the visit only guessing that it is a warning to take care and remember the afterlife.