A Big Heart

A small Spirit House punching above it’s weight

I am planning to have two entries on Spirit Houses during this visit. Many of you are probably bored with me going on about Spirit Houses, as there have been dozens of posts on these diminutive little houses for the Spirits that guard homes, sites and families in the material world. However, you’ll have to put up with more of these entries, as Spirit Houses are so important in everyday Thai life.  Along with food, they are up there in the top five most important aspects of Thai culture.  (When I think of the other three, I’ll let you know.)

This first Spirit House entry is about one that I have discussed before. I can’t actually remember precisely when or in which edition of the Bangkok Blog this Spirit House turned up, but I do remember writing about it. I didn’t have time to search for all the entries, except for one that was done in November of 2009.  (I think here was a movie that was included in that entry, but I have no idea where it is.)

The Spirit House in question is very unusual, because it guards a small neighbourhood community not far from the hospital. It’s really a small street or sub-soi that it’s guarding. This small street is called Sukhumvit 42/1 Alley. This little street is a community unto itself. It has food shops and restaurants, places to live, a student hostel, a car repair shop and a host of other businesses. One could almost stay on this street and never leave. It’s pretty self sustaining. A little map of the area, with the street marked in purple, is shown in the second slide. The red star is where the Spirit House is located and our hospital is shown at the bottom of the map.

It’s typical to have a fairly large Spirit House for a street or neighbourhood. This is a way for the entire street to be safeguarded. Each house might have a small Buddhist alter or Spirit House but the big one, usually located at the end of a street, takes care of the entire neighbourhood.

In this street, things are different. There is no large Spirit House. There is only a small one that is perfectly maintained, located just outside of the neighbourhood laundromat. This modest little house has been in the same spot for as long as I can remember – at least 30 years – and it still looks good and is still tended to everyday.

I don’t know what it is about this street or the people living on it that has allowed this small Sprit House to do such an admirable protection job. There is nothing flashy or opulent here. It seems like there might be some small Spirits with very big hearts living in this house.  In Thailand, there is great significance in the phrase “Having a Big Heart.” It refers to Thailand’s national sport of Muay Thai, where small fighters can be successful against larger and perhaps more skilled opponents, as long as they have big hearts. This is a phase that is constantly used here.

So it seems that this community, along with its tiny Spirit House occupants, are punching above their collective weights. They clearly have a communal big heart that allows for the smaller Spirits in the very old and tiny, but lovely, Spirit House to do the job normally undertaken by Spirits many times their size.