They now live here and are treated with respect and offerings. Over the years, they bear witness to what happens in the houses. The spirit house can thus become an occasion for exchange about the past of places. It always begins with an offering—e.g., lighting an incense stick out of respect for the land spirits and the people who have shaped this place.

In the wake of reunification, many houses in Leipzig were bought up by West Germans, stripped of their past and their inscriptions, and turned into speculative properties, which in turn led to gentrification and the displacement of long-time residents. Here, too, there was little pause for reflection, little attention or recognition of what had been. Only the land spirits in San Phra Phum guard these past stories and invite us to become part of them through memory and experience.