In superstitious Thailand, old empty houses become places to be feared – full of ghosts and demons
- One house, on the outskirts of Bangkok, is thought to be home to child spirits or a female demon and has even affected nearby rental prices
- Empty buildings and ones in which people have died in grisly ways routinely become objects of fear in Thailand, where a dread of malevolent spirits runs deep
Among residents of an old shanty town in an outlying area of Bangkok, Thailand, there is talk of a haunted house.
It isn’t hard to find, beside a small stream blackened with putrid effluents and flanked by a concrete pathway. The weather-beaten wooden dwelling looms behind a corrugated aluminium fence. Even at a glance it looks vaguely sinister.
Made from planks, the small, rectangular two-storey structure has pairs of thin horizontal windows on the front and back of its upper floor. They resemble evil eyes squinting menacingly.
The home is shaded by two large ficus trees, from whose tangled branches cascade thick curtains of aerial roots that cloak it in a gloomy, woody veil. Fig trees like these are believed to be inhabited by arboreal spirits. Standing by one of them is a hand-carved shrine with votive offerings.
It isn’t the spirits of the trees that worry some people in the neighbourhood, though. It’s the suspected presence of ghosts in the house.
“It’s a deserted place and looks scary,” says Suwanna Sukwiboon, 75, an impish Thai-Chinese grandmother who lives nearby with her husband, Tanapon, a retired car salesman. “I’m terrified of ghosts. If I see so much as a shadow, I’ll flee,” she adds with a chuckle.
