Thailand Travel Guide

Over ninety percent of Thais practise Theravada Buddhism , one of the two main schools of Buddhism in Asia. The other ten percent are Mahayana Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Christians .

While regular Buddhist merit-making insures a Thai for the next life, there are certain Hindu gods and animist spirits that most Thais also cultivate for help with more immediate problems, such as passing an exam, becoming pregnant or winning the lottery. Even the Buddhist King Bhumibol employs Brahmin priests to officiate at certain royal ceremonies, and, like his royal predecessors of the Chakri dynasty, he also associates himself with the Hindu god Vishnu by assuming the title Rama IX - Rama, hero of the Hindu epic the Ramayana, having been Vishnu's seventh manifestation.

Whereas Hindu deities tend to be benevolent, animist spirits ( or phi) are not nearly as reliable and need to be mollified more frequently. So that these phi don't pester human inhabitants, each building has a special spirit house in its vicinity, as a dwelling for spirits ousted by the building's construction. Usually raised on a short column and designed to look like a temple or a traditional Thai house, these spirit houses are generally about the size of a dolls' house, but their ornamentation is supposed to reflect the status of the humans' building - thus if that building is enlarged or refurbished, then the spirit house should be improved accordingly.