Religion / Animistic Believes Part 2
Spirit Houses
While fortune-tellers and astrologers offer their services around Wats and on sidewalks throughout the country, the most striking evidence of the importance, the belief in spirits plays in Thai everyday life are spirit houses. In every compound throughout Bangkok and the whole of Thailand - outside or in Thai homes, hotels, hospitals or office buildings - there is a miniature gaily-painted house, placed at a level with or slightly higher than the eyes of a standing person of average height, the abode of Phra Phum, the Lord of the Land or the Lord of the Place.
When a new home is to be built, the first thing to do is to find a suitable place in the garden for the spirit house. Selection of the location and placing of the little house can only properly be done by someone well versed in the lore - usually a Brahmin priest. It must face either north or south - preferably north; it must not be in a spot where the owner’s house overshadows it, else the spirit will not come to live in it. A post is set up at the chosen site and the little house is perched atop the post.
The small house contains a single room with an outer terrace (slightly lower than the room) where daily offerings to the guardian spirit are placed. A symbolic picture of the spirit is carved on a small piece of wood which is placed inside the little house with its back toward the far wall. The picture is in a standing position with a leaf-like halo around the head. In the right hand is usually a double-edged sword and sometimes in the left hand, a book. It is believed that deaths of the people under the spirit’s protection are registered in the book.
There is, incidentally, a similarity between the Thai spirit house guardian and the Chinese guardian spirit of the village. The Chinese shrine also has a wooden carved picture of the spirit, usually with a fly whisk in his one hand and a book in the other.
At the time of installation of the spirit house, food, fruit, candles, incense and flowers are placed on a table before the shrine while the spirit is invited to come and make his home in the shrine and protect the property and the residents of the new home.
Each evening, fresh flowers, incense sticks and candles are placed on the small gallery of the little house. Extra special food offerings are made on important days such as the anniversary of the installation of Phra Phum in his house, on New Year’s Day and other special occasions. It is a rule that such food will be offered only in the morning and not later than 11:00.
When a stranger arrives as a guest in the house, he or she should, according to Thai customs, first ask the spirit for permission to stay for the night and for protection before going to sleep. This is because Thais believe that if they do not follow this tradition, their sleep will be disturbed with awful nightmares, while the evil spirit or "Phee" would sit on his/her chest and cause him/her to have great difficulty breathing. Moreover before the guest’s departure the next morning, he or she should pay a farewell visit to the spirit house, and request a safe journey. The same respect and courtesy is shown the spirit by the guest as given to his host.
If any of the family members have a premonition of misfortune, want to overcome some difficulty or have a great need for something which seems impossible to obtain, they will light a candle and incense and, in a sincere, respectful manner, ask the spirit for his help. At the same time, the family member will promise a reward for the spirit in return, such as a duck, chicken or a huge coconut; sometimes the reward may be a number of servants, elephants or horses. If the prayer is granted and the reward not given, it is believed that nightmares will haunt the guilty one or unpleasant things will happen to him. Hence, the miniature servants or animals which are made of clay or paper, usually appear in the little house, to symbolize living servants and animals.
The home owner who starts out with a small home and a small spirit house, when and if he is blessed with good fortune and able to afford it, will improve or enlarge the spirit house before his own.
While spirit houses of Thai homes typically are just about the size of bird houses, they can be of substantial size in front of office buildings or hotels. A number of particularly large spirit houses can be seen in Bangkok at and near to the intersection of Rajadamri Road and Ploenchit Road. Located there is the most famous spirit house, or rather spirit shrine of Bangkok, Erawan Shrine.
The shrine was built in 1956 when the original Erawan Hotel nearby was under construction. However, misfortune accompanied the work at the hotel; a number of accidents happened, and when word got round the workers that spirits were against the project, an astrologer and spirit doctor was called. He concluded that, indeed, the spirits of the place have been offended as some trees in which they used to live were chopped down.
After this ‘cause?of the accidents had been singled out, the shrine was built rather hastily. It has to be noted that the shrine has nothing to do with Buddhism. The statue housed there is of Brahma, one of the gods of the Hindu Trinity. Nevertheless, most of the worshippers at the shrine are nominally Buddhist.
Since 1956, Erawan Shrine has become something like a Thai Lourdes Grotto where people go to have wishes miraculously fulfilled.
Other very large spirit shrines are nearby at the World Trade Center and at the Amarin Plaza. However, both are by far not as popular as Erawan Shrine.
Along New Petchburi Road in Bangkok are several factories for spirit shrines of all sizes, and Chatuckak Weekend Market also has a section for spirit houses.
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