Thai Shrine

PICT0059, originally uploaded by The Stranger.

This was the biggest shrine on the island. It was built around a massive four metre wide tree. These shrines are everywhere. Every block that you go theres this little miniature brightly colored castle on stilts with a bhuda dude inside. But sometimes the bhuda is bhuda, sometimes ganesh the elephant man and somtimes its Krisjna. I asked Chai, the Thai Boxing master what they were all about and he said they were for the little gods and made a gesture to indicate that the gods were about the hieght of his knee. He said that it gave the neighborhood goodluck. I reckoned that he was talking about appeasing the multi-dimensional spirits that inhabit every natural place but are primarily ignored by our culture (but certainly not ignored by the native peoples of our country).