Spirited Away to Thailand!

One of the fabulous things about Thailand is the lively, colourful, ever present belief in the spirits! Thailand is officially Buddhist but the belief in the old spirits plays a a great role in every day life. Take a peek at my sketchbook ........ in the middle is a sketch of a so-called “spirit house”! 

The Thais believe that everything has a spirit and when you build a house the spirit of your piece of land is made homeless! Spurned spirits are no laughing matter, so you need to provide the spirit with a comfy home, so that the spirit protects you and your family and sees that you prosper and keeps enemies from your door. The solution is a spirit house! This is the spirit house in our hotel! 

Spirit houses come if different colours according to the day of the birth of the house owner, mine for example would be green, the one in my sketch was on a local street and was gold. 

Putting up a spirit house is not a case of plopping it somewhere, you need to get in an expert who comes and tells you exactly the perfect position. The house/spirit house should not throw shadows on each other and the house spirit wants to be able to see enemies approaching. House spirits like to receive treats once a week and love sparkling red liquids in bottles with a straw. Entertaining a spirit is important, sometimes you see a model of a TV, or statues of dancers, or little figures of pets. One lovely story I heard was that the granddad of the house always put the TV on extremely loud so that the house spirit could listen too! 

If your family is going through hard times maybe your house spirit has moved out so you need a special ceremony to entice the spirit back, and when you improve your house you have to improve your spirit's home too! 

I love learning about other cultures and Scottish people have a long history of folk beliefs; in fairies, in shape shifters and fabulous Celtic legends, so finding another land that has such a lively spirit world was amazing!