A homeless man seen eating offerings left at a Bang Saray shrine scared superstitious neighbors who believed he was a ghost looking to be reborn.
The unidentified man, around 60, was found squatting on the side of Sukhumvit Road near Samakhee Hill July 18. Very much a denizen of the physical world, the man nonetheless cast a ghostly visage, dressed shabbily with narrow-set eyes. In his hand was a bottle of the cheap wine and whiskey left at the nearby spirit house by locals.
He’s not a ghost, just a man whose down on his luck.
The spirit house has been popular with neighbors as a place to pray for lottery numbers. But they’d been scared off lately, thinking the homeless man was a “samphawesi,” or spirit who consumes offerings to gather strength to come back from the dead.
When informed the interloper was indeed a man, the embarrassed residents offered him some real food.
