1. Interview on Animist Beliefs in Thaiiland
Name of person interviewed: Benjamas Somboon_Nickname Bena
Occupation: CEO Age: 52
Relationship to the interviewer: Mother
Language in which interview was conducted:Thai
Date of interview: March 27, 2010 Place of interview: Home
Are you a Buddhist? What are some things you do to practice your religion?
Buddhist? Yes….I;m Buddhist. Umm…. I always take a walk on Sunday morning…and I go to
the temple every Sunday …err.. to donate some food to the monk and I also… donate sum of
money to the temple …where?... in Chiang Mai. err...I also meditate.... to become more self-
conscious and to calm myself down from work.
Is there a spirit house at your home? Why? (Why not?)
Spirit house? Yes, here [pointing at the spirit house behind her], and also upstair…
well…our ancestors believe that having a spirit house will grant us safe lives..and Iisten to
this saying …err.. they also think the spirit house is for the good spirit..its will help drive the
bad spirit out..and protect us from the bad spirits.
How often do you visit it? What do you do there? (Does someone else visit it?)
Often I guess, well,.. I pray there….Usually, every morning..err.. the maid always put some
water and fruit in front of the spirit house…oh…[laughing], one the them prayed to ask for
the lottery number.I pray for the sake of family and especially for the children.When times go
bad, I pray to the spirit house.. because praying to the spirit house makes me feel safe and
gives me hope.
Is there a spirit house at your place of work? Why? (Why not?)
Yes, there is….because again… like I said before.. it drive out the evil spirit. It also is a belief
that keeping a spirit house will give us fortune., uh… lots of workers visit the spirit house and
they pray and every morning they will bring fruits and drinks and in the evening they will
take away the food and the drinks, cleaning up the spirit house. It is also...like a.. tradition to
keep the spirit house in the workplace - I think a lot of the shops and business keep one.
How often do you visit it? What do you do there? (What do others do there?)
Well….i have lots of spirit house around the company…and I got one in my office..so yea… I
visit them a lot…well…I just pray and give them fruit and water ….er..and sometime… I
bought flower. I think..other people did the same thing as well..they pray and give them fruit.
Water and flower.
Do you wear an amulet? Why? (Why not?)
Amulet? Yes I wear it [ holding her amulet out to me] … well because I believe it will protect
me..how?.....well…because I think … there spirit inide the amulet which will drive out….bad

2. furtune..and bad spirit
Have you ever had an experience with a ghost? What happened?
Well…err..i never experienced with ghost before…because I don’t believe I ghost
Do you know anyone else who has had an experience with a ghost? What happened?
Yea, err… I heard from my sister in law…you remembered?. My brother died and my sister
in law saw him sitting in fromt fo the soi
Have you ever been to an astrologer? What advice did you ask for? What did he tell
you?
Yes… I did….well I aslsed about. My life… house..soul lover…husband/ boyfriend, should I
have children…or not,. is he the one..becoming rich?....well, I don’t..realy remembered what
he told me… but he look at some number and predict my life….and when he say something
bad will happen, he told me to go baht in holy water
Have you ever been to a ceremony to rid a house of bad spirits? If so, pleasedescribe
the ceremony.
Yea..I have been to a ceremony to get rid a house of bad spirits…well.. in the
ceremony..err… there were monk to chant and they …use sai sin [white rope] and also thety
paint or put “yun” in the house
Have you ever been to a “bai sri” (bai see) ceremony? If so, please describe it. What is
the purpose of the ceremony?
Yes.. I have been to a bai sri ceremony..er.. in the ceremony, … they made contaer
called khrueng bai sri ton in thai...i dont know the name in english... well...they made it from
banana leave...and they decorated it with flowers and banana leaves.. well...err...its for
wedding...a blessing ceremony…….
Do you have a tattoo? Do you know anyone who has a tattoo? Why did you (or the
person you know) get one?
No…I don’t have any tattoo…
Reflection
I interviewed my mother and she is a Buddhist. She demonstrated her involvement in
her religion by going to temple and donate money to temple and built a temple in Chaing
Mai. She have spirit house in her home and her work place because she believed that it will
drive out evil spirit. She believed that spirit house and amulet house good spirit which will
protect her against evil spirit and bad fortune. Her purpose in praying to the spirit house is to
ask for security in the family house hold. She does not believed in ghost and she have been to
a astrologer and there she asked about her life and her love life to conform her decision
making, when she have a bad fortune, the astrologer suggest her to baht in holy water.
The interview conform what I have learned about animism form the reading and in the
class discussion. It did not change my idea about Thai religious belief and practice because

3. I’m also Thai Buddhist and I have the same belief and did the same practice as my mother.
The interview increase my understand about life in Thailand by sharing her thought about the
practice, different ceremony, Although I never have any experience with ghost, I’m care of it
due to the . However, I do belie in evil ad good spirit which is why we have spirit house and
amulet. I also learned about several Buddhist ceremony that i never heard of before such a
Bai Sri ceremony, and to rid a house of bad spirit ceremony. I’ve also learned a deeper
understanding of the Buddhist philosophy through my mother’s interview, which was to
never to treat life without caution. Uncertainty is the most certain thing that you could believe
in, meaning that one day I might happen to not wear my seat belt in a car and the car might
happen to crash into another car that particular day. We should all be conscious of all our
doings and never to underestimate any situation as it still has its probability of causing a bad
event. The last thing I learnt from my mother was that consciousness is everything. My
mother meditates for the sake of being conscious. Sometimes, especially being a teenager,
you drift off into doing things that might harm your life without being conscientious; such
events are drinking, doing reckless things with your friends or even saying bad things to other
people. All these events has its probability of causing chaos into one’s life mainly because we
underestimate them, however, being conscious of what you’re doing would prevent you from
being reckless and thus bring fortune to life.
The challenge I faced in conducing the interview with my mom is that and she can not
speak English, so I conduct the interview in Thai and I have some trouble translating the text
from Thai to English because the specific word she used to explain her belief does not match
any English word. Furthermore my mom can’t really organize her sentence and her thought
and she has lots of pauses so I have to record her voice to help me with the translation. My
strength for the interview is I tried to get an s much information as she have and we could be
able to have a good communication. However, I could be more pratice with the answer and
tried to ask more following up question to get the information on specific topic as much as
possible.