Despite the political turmoil of the last couple of years in Thailand and the lingering effects of the GFC, Bangkok’s skyline is in a constant state of flux with new condos and shopping malls under construction everywhere, especially at sites close to public transport.
So it is with this row of shophouses at Phra Khanong Skytrain station, being demolished for yet another mall or condo. In the west they would probably just bring in the bulldozers and a wrecking ball but here labour is so cheap that developers can hire cheap migrant workers to strip old buildings of anything recyclable and resalable and then use sledgehammers and jackhammers to knock down the rest. Here all that is left is the spirit house, home of the animist spirits that lived here before the shophouses were built. Their home has to be either relocated to an out of the way corner of the site, or retired under a sacred tree, all with due ceremony and reverence. Woe betide anybody who just throws a spirithouse into the junk pile !