Thanks. I just took their word that they were Buddha houses and
assumed I did not know very much about Buddhism.
They were very clear that the raised threshold in homes and temples
common in that area of the world were designed to keep the spirits out.
Winsor
Long Beach, California, USA
On Oct 25, 2005, at 9:24 AM, Andrew Dacey wrote:
>
> This story about fairies/faeries (assuming you're talking about
> diminutive magical creatures and not boats which transports people
> and/or vehicles across bodies of water) reminds me of a similar
> practice seen in parts of SE Asia (I saw it in Laos, Thailand and
> Cambodia, I didn't see it in Vietnam). There you have to keep your
> house spirits happy and also encourage them not to live inside your
> house where they would cause all kinds of trouble. So every house has
> a "spirit house" in the yard for the house spirits to live. The idea
> is to offer the spirits a more comfortable place for them to live than
> inside your house.
>
> There's a whole host of requirements for where the spirit house should
> be placed, the only one I remember is that it needs to be positioned
> so that your house doesn't cast a shadow on it. Any time you improve
> your own house you need to make improvements to the spirit house as
> well. You also have to leave out food offerings for the spirits.
> Usually this is items of fruit but in a strange modern twist I did see
> some spirit houses with bottles of Pepsi left as offerings.
>
> As an indicator of how Buddhism and Animism are both intertwined in
> the culture, anyone who I spoke to about the houses referred to them
> as "Buddhist houses" even though there's not connection to Buddhism in
> this practice; it's 100% Animism.
>
> On 10/25/05, Willie Wonka <alienspecimen@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
>> When we arrived, I was told that there are good little ferries
>> that live in the forest. People build for them little houses they
>> like to live in. It was in the middle of the day and we did not
>> see any ferries, but enjoyed looking at the little houses
>> scattered over the churhyard.
>>
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