The Bangkok Podcast | Expat Life In Thailand Via Expats From Canada & America

This is Part 2 of Greg’s interview with Andrew Johnson, cultural anthropologist extraordinaire and investigator of the extremely niche topic of the relationship between Thai supernatural beliefs and local architecture.  Greg and Andrew begin where they left off last week, discussing what it’s like as ‘rationalists’ to interact with relatively superstitious Thai people. Andrew relates a classic story of a Thai woman who encounters a ghost in a nearby field and who simply calls the police who end up shoo-ing the ghost away, an outcome completely unexpected in a western framework. He insists that the Thai word for ghost (‘phee’), encompasses a much broader range of unexplained phenomena than just the western idea of a disembodied ‘spirit.’ Next, the guys discuss Andrew’s book, “Ghosts of the New City,” a study of the interaction between urbanization, progress, and supernatural beliefs in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Andrew notes that Thais do not only believe older buildings contain spirits, but also that new construct