Marisa Cranfill

This boutique in Chiang Mai combined Taoist philosophy, a Thai spirit house and modern home décor to create a charming little storefront that immediately caught my attention. The well-known symbol representing yin and yang in this photograph is called taijitu in Chinese meaning ‘diagram of the supreme ultimate’. It is the great yantra of Chinese cosmology. Unlike the ornate geometrical diagrams of Tibet and India the taijitu us

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Marisa Cranfill

Being a collector of spirit house imagery, I can't help but get excited when I find a beautiful composition. Here is a classic pair of spirit houses placed beside a teak wood gate painted in an ombre rainbow of earthy and delightful hues. Each spirit house is made from a different material. The spirit house on the lower left is a saan jao thii. It is constructed from teak wood, the material used to build a traditional Thai house. This is where t

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