Dhamma Wheel Buddhist Forum

Hello all,

I have a quick question mainly about Thai tradition.
When lay people are about to move into a new house normally monks are invited to do house blessing ceremony. While some other people say it is some kind like a norm in the society, blessing is when lay people follow Buddha's teaching and practice them.

There are normally more than one room in a house such as living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, etc. My question is, why sometimes the blessing is set and conducted in a particular room such as bedroom for example and not other room? Is anyone familiar with this, please share some of your thoughts. Thanks.

Blessing new houses is very common in Sri Lanka.
We believe there are some spirits occupy empty lands. So we need to pass some merits for them.
There are some Buddhist stories in line of this thought.
It also an opportunity to invite your friends and local monks to offer (Dana) some foods.

My new house was blessed by Christian Nuns.

It is just a calibration as far as I see.

Maybe they like to see what type of bedroom furniture set one has? The ones from IKEA are gorgeous...
Maybe the bedroom represents the most interesting and vital part of the married couple's / family life?

plwk wrote:Maybe they like to see what type of bedroom furniture set one has? The ones from IKEA are gorgeous...
Maybe the bedroom represents the most interesting and vital part of the married couple's / family life?

No furniture, the room is empty and the room is for single person. The monk asked confirmation if the room is bedroom and then established the portable small buddha shrine and start the ceremony in the bedroom. AFAIK, if the house has more space like other room than bedroom then it's more respectful and appropriate in terms of Buddhist ceremony to be conducted in other room such as bedrooom or bathroom? There must be a reason why bedroom is better compare to other room. He just said it's a good spot but didn't mention why.

Lay people although not married are not living a celibate life, just relate this to the matter above and the reason or logic behind this why it's a good spot?

Anyone?

steve19800 wrote:The monk asked confirmation if the room is bedroom and then established the portable small buddha shrine and start the ceremony in the bedroom.

This would be normal for an exorcism, since the commonest reason for requesting one is recurrent bad dreams and the assumption that these are caused by spirits who've taken up residence there. But as for house-blessings, in all the dozens that I've attended I can't recall ever being deployed in anyone's bedroom.

Whereabouts in Thailand do you live?

Dhammanando wrote:

steve19800 wrote:The monk asked confirmation if the room is bedroom and then established the portable small buddha shrine and start the ceremony in the bedroom.

This would be normal for an exorcism, since the commonest reason for requesting one is recurrent bad dreams and the assumption that these are caused by spirits who've taken up residence there. But as for house-blessings, in all the dozens that I've attended I can't recall ever being deployed in anyone's bedroom.

Whereabouts in Thailand do you live?

Hello Bhante,

Thanks for the reply. I am in Australia and the blessing conducted by Thai monk.
The house was empty including the bedroom. where would be the normal spot for the house-blessing ritual? Thanks again.

steve19800 wrote:where would be the normal spot for the house-blessing ritual?

Normally the largest room available: the living room of an urban home or the entrance room of a rural shack.

Dhammanando wrote:

steve19800 wrote:where would be the normal spot for the house-blessing ritual?

Normally the largest room available: the living room of an urban home or the entrance room of a rural shack.

Since it is different, how do I supposed to view this? Does it mean that we can't use the bedroom as a bedroom? Any thoughts would be appreciated, thank you.

steve19800 wrote:Since it is different, how do I supposed to view this?

I can't say for sure why it's different, but since there's considerable regional variation in Thai customs, it may simply mean that the monks come from some place with whose customs I'm unacquainted. I only really know how things are done in Bangkok and in the North.

Does it mean that we can't use the bedroom as a bedroom?

I wouldn't have thought so. I mean house-blessings aren't normally carried out with the aim of turning any part of one's home into an exclusion zone.

Dhammanando wrote:

steve19800 wrote:Since it is different, how do I supposed to view this?

I can't say for sure why it's different, but since there's considerable regional variation in Thai customs, it may simply mean that the monks come from some place with whose customs I'm unacquainted. I only really know how things are done in Bangkok and in the North.

Does it mean that we can't use the bedroom as a bedroom?

I wouldn't have thought so. I mean house-blessings aren't normally carried out with the aim of turning any part of one's home into an exclusion zone.

Oh I see. So we can say it's only customs matter but they serve the same purpose? I see it from a lay person perspective but monks may have different opinion and maybe did a brief observation prior house-blessing with 'protection' as the purpose.