Our spirit house moved

Our spirit house moved

It's just over 2 years now that our own spirit house was installed in front of our house.
Due to my wife not feeling too well over a long period of time this year, one of the recent visitors, obviously an expert in those matters, noted that the spirit house was in the wrong location.

The reason given as that because our sleeping room was above them and we slept above the spirits and also because all dirty laundry water went passed them, the spirits weren't happy! Well you can't beat or defy that logic, so the spirit house had to be moved. Above is a picture of it being dismantled before a move to the back of our house, higher than our sleeping room and away from the dirty water.

That gives this new location, nicely in the morning shade in the back garden and now facing the East rather than the North.

In the process of moving we had to clean the complete houses and were also told not to glue any attributes of the spirit house to the actual spirit house. Well, never too old to learn indeed.

Looking forward to happier spirits from now on!

Camille

More Spirit Houses

Some more pictures of Spirit Houses around Samui.

As already mentioned in previous posts about road side Spirit Houses and our very own Spirit House, here are some more pictures of some Spirit Houses around Samui.

This shows the inside of a Spirit House, where the actual protective Spirit lives. This one shows an elderly couple with various gifts for them. The elderly are very well respected in Thailand and an elderly couple also portrays wisdom, in this case.

Here's an interesting link that explains about Spirit Houses and animism in Thailand.

Here's the inside of yet another Spirit House, which shows a female statue. What makes this picture so interesting for me, are all the gifts for the statue, on the left hand side. A comb, lip stick, a mirror and other beauty related articles. Stereotypes anybody?

This set of Spirit Houses, on the Novotel road in Chaweng, are just awesome in my book for their complete break of traditional Spirit House design. They more like a 'Modern Art' version of Spirit Houses and I love the way they blend in with the wooden background of the main house. Fantastic!







Next time you're on Samui and you need to pick a Spirit House or two, here's one of the places near Lamai where you can get them. Various sizes and colours are available!


Camille

Our own spirit house

We've got a spirit house at our own house.

As previously posted in my entry about road side spirit houses, now I'll write about our very own spirit house in front of our very own house.



Last December, we got our own set of Spirit Houses, to guard over house. Here they are, waiting in the shade of our house, before they will be placed at their permanent place.
They can't be placed wherever you like, a special person who has the skills and knowledge to determine where they can be placed has to do this. Well meet this person on one of the pictures soon enough and since than, I've met this old man on various occasions at the Chaweng temple.

With the Spirit Houses comes a whole set of attributes which are necessary to make sure that the Spirits look well after our place. Most of the attributes are on display here, amongst others various statues, vases for flowers, candle holders, banners etc.

During the inauguration ceremony, loads of food are offered to the various deity's, as one can see here on this picture. This includes a broiled chicken, various fruits, assorted sweets and rice.

This picture shows the old man with 'the Gift' to determine where the Spirit Houses need to be placed and he's conducting the ceremony as well. Here he can be seen building a multi layer food tray, made out of coconut trays and banana leaves.

This picture shows the smaller Spirit House in it's complete state. Inside are statues of an elderly couple, a Grandma and Grandpa.

This is the main Spirit House, with a deity statue staying inside. In front are various smaller statues and lion alike statues.

The whole time, the old man is conducting various prayers during the whole ceremony when the Spirit Houses are placed and inaugurated. The umbrella is for sun protection, by the way.

Here they are, in full glory, after the ceremony is completed.

My wife refreshed the flowers and prays in front of them on a regular base, mostly around the full moon period, when there are (important) Buddha days.

Camille

Roadside spirit houses

Roadside spirit houses

They are a common view in Thailand. Along each road in Thailand, at some point of your trip, you'll see a cluster of spirit houses in various sizes cluttered along side the road.

This is a perfect sample, on the ring road between Chaweng and Lamai here on Koh Samui. At one of the view points, there's also a small stretch of spirit houses. It's a strange phenomena if you stop at one of them, since the Thais will honk for the spirits, for good luck, so it's really noisy if you stand next to the road, trying to make a picture for instance.

Here's a closer look at one of them, they're put there because it was a dangerous spot on the road and people got most likely killed there. The spirit house give the wandering ghosts a place to stay and to find a home. They're filled with all kinds of small items, like statues in honour of Grand Pa and Grand Ma.

The spirit houses are also covered in the so called "Puang Ma Lay's", as this picture shows. See my blog entry http://samui-weather.blogspot.com/2007/06/school-party-at-plai-laem.html about the school party in Plai Laem about the "Puang Ma Las's". Again, all for good luck! Trees may be wrapped in colour full clothing as well, a lot of trees are considered to be "holy", although, on Samui, the coconut trees must fall out of this category, looking at how much construction is currently going on and how many coconut trees are felled on a daily base.

This picture shows some of the bigger spirit houses on the road between Chaweng and Lamai.

People bring all kind of things to the spirit houses and the trees next to the spirit houses. Here's a good example with some plastic airplane (the Bangkok Airway pilots?).

This is the backside of the spirit houses, where the broken artifacts are gathering. It seems that in good old Thai style, one can sleep everywhere.

The insides of the spirit houses and immediate surroundings are filled with all kind of artifacts, ranging from plastic planes, car, caterpillars, dolls and clothes. Here's a picture of a small army of sitting people.

Here some older people (older people are in general very well respected in Thailand) in the foreground and a bunch of female dancers in the back.

Around Samui there are various spots where a cluster of these spirit houses can be found, but this is the easiest one to find in Samui.

As mentioned before, they can be found all over Thailand and they're really noisy if you happen to stand next to them!

Hope you enjoyed the pix,

Camille