Spirit Houses

Most Thais believe in a fourth dimension of nonliving souls - or ghosts - existing alongside the living. While many deceased spirits are regarded as being benevolent, Thais, much like westerners, are still pretty spooked by the thought of having to share a kitchen with a long-dead white-haired granny.

To appease the spirt (or spirits) who reside within its walls, every Thai structure -from office tower to teak shack - has a spirit house. The spirit house is a shrine of sorts that generally sits somewhere in front of the building's main entrance or off to the side. While some of these shrines are mere platforms which rest like tiny treeforts between a nearby tree's branches, most are independent structures, usually looking like a miniature temple sitting atop a one-legged table. Occasionally, such as in the case of the Erawan Shrine at the Erawan Hotel, a small spirit house proves to be an ineffective ghost-pleaser and a much more extravagant, sometimes gazebo-esque spirit house is built. Many of Bangkok's larger structures and shopping malls have particularly large spirit houses to commemorate the large number of workers who died during the buildings' construction.

Each morning, a building's residents or employees stop at the spirit house to pray and offer incense, street vendor curries, coffee, and soda to the dead. These items are left open on the shrine's main platform. When I walk to the nearby skytrain station in the early morning, the streets are filled with incense smoke and each sidewalk spirit house looks like the foggy scene of an abandoned party. Many Thais repeat this ritual each evening.

While most Thais regard the importance accorded to spirit houses as a Buddhist practice, I've read and been told that it's actually animist in origin, predating both Buddhism and Hinduism.