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In many rural areas of Thailand Animism is still practiced together with Buddhism. Here, in Dan Sai,in Loie, on the boarder of Laos, they celebrate the annual fertility rite of Pi Ta Khon. Men wear their special costume and masks and for a day and a night they are inhabited by the spirits and dance through the village. The proceedings are presided over by the head Spirit Medium, the Jao Paw Guan. He has a special house in the village, where he holds court and the people consult him about the spirits. He starts the festival by calling up the spirits in a midnight ceremony on the banks of the river Muan. At the end of the riotous festival he send the spirits back into the fields and forests for another year. During the festival, he sits in in a special hut beside the temple and the villagers serve him with many dishes. Animism is an ancient belief which worships the spirits of nature. Here is the mountains however, it seems quite formal with its spirit mediums acting as a sort of clergy. The strings tied around his wrist are typical for us; the monks tie them for us when we visit the temple as a blessing. These cotton chords , however, are tied to the wrists of the medium by the villagers, as a homage. I went to the spirit house and paid this homage to him. He was very charming to me and gave me a blessing of good luck. He seemed to be a very wise and spiritual man.