It may look like a rather poorly presented plaster zoo animal shop by the side of the road, but closer inspection will reveal shrine-like components.
And if you hang around taking a few photos, you will find that every passing driver slows a little and sounds their horn. What’s going on here?
Of course I turn to my adviser in all things cultural, she who must be obeyed. And she has the answer.
Those who kill themselves in road accidents are, statistically speaking, young people. People believe that if you die young, your spirit will hang around on earth until the time you would have been old. So relatives erect a shrine so that the spirit will have somewhere to live until the time comes to go wherever you go next (be reincarnated as a street cleaner perhaps). It is considered respectful, and lucky, to slow down and sound your horn when you pass these shrines.
She went on to explain that accident blackspots soon feature one or more of these shrines, after which the number of accidents would reduce. People believed that the spirits in the shrines were making the place safer.
I nodded sympathetically, thinking what a load of rubbish that was, and then she continued. “Of course that is nonsense. If you have a dangerous corner where people are now slowing down and sounding their horns, then naturally the accident rate will reduce; nothing to do with spirits”. I nodded enthusiastically, there is hope.
She then went on to tell me of a whole range of beliefs which were rooted in superstition which had some real-world beneficial side effects. I was tempted to ask her about the benefits of dreaming about numbers and then wasting a thousand baht on lottery tickets which never win; but I don’t like to push my luck.