Boontham Khuenkaew places an offering of cucumbers, red pork, bamboo shoot stew, shrimp-paste, and rice before the spirit house in his yard. Spirit houses are the abodes of the many spirits that Thais regard as integral parts of the land. Because the spirits have the power to cause trouble, Boontham periodically placates them by lighting candles and placing a good meal there. He puts a little rice on the ground, and adorns the house with flowers. Published in Material World page 85. The Khuenkaew family lives in a wooden 728-square-foot house on stilts, surrounded by rice fields in the Ban Muang Wa village, outside the northern town of Chiang Mai, in Thailand.