The Photography of Dr. Jeff Harper

The ubiquitous Buddhist spirit house is seen everywhere in Thailand.  I spotted this one while walking along a sandy road near the beach just north of Hua Hin in January of 2016.

Spirit houses are tended . . . by someone or many someones.  This particular spirit house was in a vacant field, not too far from several beach houses.

On certain Buddha days, people will adorn a spirit house with flower (or plastic flower) garlands.  The real flower garlands dry up and become, to my eye, even more beautiful.

The untended of the tending garlands . . . . magnificent!

Spirit houses are also places for performing Buddhist spiritual practices and rituals.

Various votive items are placed in these spiritual structures.  Some as help or accouterments of need to the inhabitors of the spirit house, and some as Buddhist veneration.

The color and textures of these dried votive garlands are captivating to me.

Even the plastic garlands, when covered with the age of layers of dust, are beautiful in time.

Time, weather, and craft.

I walked on down the sandy road in the heat.  I was happy that I had stopped to really see what was within this spirit house.