Spirit Houses

A spirit house is a shrine to animist spirits found in the Southeast Asian countries of Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Most houses and businesses have a spirit house placed in an auspicious spot, most often in a corner of the property. The location is often chosen after consultation with a priest. The spirit house is normally in the form of a miniature temple and is mounted on a pillar.

The house is intended to provide a shelter for spirits which could cause problems for the people if not appeased. Offerings are left at the house to propitiate the spirits. Offerings are also left when spirits are consulted regarding various matters and an answer is granted. One example of this is if someone were to pray to the spirits and ask to win the lottery, the person would leave lots of gifts at the particular spirit house if they won.

Items you might see would include wooden carvings (especially elephants), food and drinks (especially strawberry Marinda soda).

Many times a large number of spirit houses can be seen in a group; this is called a spirit village.

Here are a couple of spirit houses which are part of a spirit village. You can see some flowers and food as offerings.


Here is a picture of a spirit house with a Heineken, perhaps the spirits like the "spirits".


This is a creepy picture...look inside the door. I was taking pictures of the spirit house and noticed that there was a black cat inside staring at me.

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For those of you who are looking at this for pictures of Josiah and do not care about the cultural lesson, the pictures below are for you.