On the bus from Nakhon Pathom to Bangkok, the driver has hung thick coils of flowers, amulets, and other magical items from his mirror. A statue of Buddha sits on the dashboard. Ancient symbols are scrawled on the roof above the driver's head. At a major traffic crossing is a small spirit house, resembling those that most Thai place at the corner of their property. Yet it holds fresh flowers and two plastic bottles of drinking water.
Someone tends that shrine.
Someone has paid ten baht for fresh flowers and clean water. Floating away In Thailand, Buddhism has been virtually a state religion for centuries, with the king playing a ritual role. Public schools are still located in temple compounds. There is a Muslim minority in the south and animist hill tribes in the north, both accorded full freedom, but 95 percent of Thai are Buddhist. An educated Thai woman I met in Khorat several years ago told me that after she married a U.S. Air Force officer and moved to America, she stopped believing in the phi.