The second in the series
This is the second part of the series on Spirit Houses, for this visit. Mind you, it’s still possible to cover more Spirit Houses if I happen to come by a good one on my various forays out of the office.
The ones shown in the slide deck above caught my attention just the other day for a whole bunch of reasons that I’ll try to explain. The first slide shows something that is a not strictly a Spirit House. It’s more of a grand gesture that protects a gigantic office building. It seems to provide security services. After all, who would want to take on such a large Spirit.
Slides 2-4 show a Spirit House with an unusual architectural design. This one is made up of small mirrored tiles and a very curvy form. This design is clearly more modern. However there are still traditional little guys inhabiting the inner sanctum. No mirrors for them
Slides 5-8 show a Spirit House sporting a traditional design but being guarded by a zeal of zebras. Yes, a zeal or if don’t like this term, you could say a dazzle of zebras. The only reason I included this Spirit House is because I thought that a zeal or dazzle of zebras sounded silly and would likely send you to your dictionaries or websites to see if I was correct. Also, what are the owners of this alley so worried about that they need a zeal or dazzle of zebras to protect them? There are a lot of zebras in this zeal or dazzle.
Slides 9 & 10 show two Spirit Houses in front of a hotel. Clearly one wasn’t enough, so they put two in. And there are two styles which makes me wonder how the Spirits decide who stays where. One is clearly a bit more lavish than the other. Maybe these two houses are supposed to mirror the room styles in the hotel. You know, a suite versus a typical bedroom.
Slide 11 shows a Spirit House in front of an investment bank building. It’s big and it’s covered in gold leaf. Enough said.
The Spirit House in slide 11 is a small one near our geriatric hospital campus. It’s not so unusual except to suggest that maybe the Spirits in this house are in need of some extra energy. On the ledge, there is a small bottle of M-150, the massively caffeinated power drink so popular in Thailand. (It’s the Red Bull competitor.) There’s some bottled water available as well, for the chaser. Clearly these Spirits are looking for a bit of a caffeine and sugar rush.
When I was inspecting one of our buildings that is currently under construction, but almost completed, I noticed the Spirit House in slide 13 from a second floor window. It sits in someone’s garden area across the soi and looked to be pretty ornate. Even modest homes can have pretty cool looking Spirit Houses.
I have discussed the Spirit House shown in slides 14 and 15 before. It’s located in front of our soon to be opened nursing home building. This Spirit House was built by the workers to keep them safe during the construction process. It’s simple but does the job. Those guys could have purchased a simple and inexpensive Spirit House, but they didn’t. They actually took the time to build one. A DIY house seems more sincere.
Finally, the last slide has me taking a picture of me looking at the Spirit Houses in front of our retirement home. I can’t seem to get away from myself around here.
I remember the first Spirit House (picture 1) quite well, although I cant rememeber exactly where it is… I think it’s near a BTS stop. Its a Hindu Spirit House and the deity is a fusion of Shiva and Shakti
It’s near the Asoke BTS stop. And yes it’s a Hindu version. I think the owners of the office tower to which it belongs are a well known Indian family.