Thai Spirit House
I saw an interesting conversation the other day where two people were talking about the Thai spirit houses, and they got it completely wrong. Their understanding is that it was some sort of shrine to Buddha and people were making an offering to him to bless the house. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. I don’t mean to sound like a snob, but if you are going to live in a foreign country or spend a large amount of time there, it is reasonable to understand the culture and what things really mean.
What is a Thai Spirit House
Long before Buddhism made it’s way to old Siam, the Tai (yes it was Tai not Thai at this time) people followed more of an animistic religion. This was actually quite popular throughout Asia and other parts of the world before the major religions took over. Shinto in Japan is another example. Even though Thailand is now mainly a Buddhist culture, Thai’s still believe that spirits inhabit a lot of natural things, houses and gardens are two big examples.
The spirit house is place never a building for these spirits to inhabit. It is believed that if they are not taken care of or appease that they will do bad things. As part of housing the spirits in the house they also make offerings to them. Flower bands, incense, rice, among other offerings. Spirit houses are not just for homes, businesses, hotels, any major structure will have one of these somewhere outside. These are not to be confused with the spirit houses that Thai’s have in their gardens. That is a completely different set of spirits that are watching and living there.
That is just a brief explanation, and probably oversimplified, but I though it good to mention. It has nothing to do with Buddhism, in fact it is essentially remnants of an earlier religion that took over.
