If you live in a suburb of a major city in Thailand (or even some minor ones) there is a good chance you live in something that is called a "moo baan" or a neighborhood. Often these moo baans have walls around them and I can only speculate that this is either a gated community or simply some sort of property divider. The larger neighborhoods have a shrine of some sort, normally in some sort of central park-like area. While I have always shown the necessarily civility and respect due to something like this, I only recently found out what it is all about.
I asked a friend what this was all about and she informed me that this is a shrine to Phra Phrom, which is a Thai depiction of Brahma (Hindu god.) In Thailand Phra Phrom is regarded as a deity that brings good fortune and also protection. Therefore, in this case paying respect to the shrine in your neighborhood is meant to bring protection and good fortune too not just your own household, but all households in the area.
I don't know who keeps this area clean but someone does and the entire community shows a great deal of respect to this area. The sign is only in Thai but you are meant to take your shoes off if you approach the statue. I just keep a safe distance in order to avoid offending anyone who is devoted to this religion that I am not a part of.
There are various tables set up around the shrine where people routinely put offerings of nice smelling flowers, fruit, and also offerings of burning incense and candles.
I would imagine that these things are taken away after a while but again, I have never been there when this is occurring. Thais tend to be very-early-morning people and I am not part of this club so I have to imagine that this is when it happens.
Phra Phrom has 4 faces and I was informed that these faces are supposed to be looking North, South, East, and West. I used my compass app and determined that this is exactly what is happening here. I looked it up and the four faces are meant to be all watching in all directions... Perhaps to watch over the community in all directions regardless of where your house happens to be.
Outside of Thailand Phra Phrom is known as Four-Faced Awakened One. I recall seeing a few of these statues in the bedrooms of some of my hippie friends when I was in high school.
While I am not a Buddhist (or part of any religion for that matter) I can appreciate something like this being in my neighborhood especially since it is in the only park that we have and it is well looked after by members of the community. It is always clean there and there is a small playground for the kids as well. It is also home to the very few trees that survived the massive construction of our concrete jungle, so it is a wonderful respite to the otherwise quite boring landscape.
I'm happy the developers did this because they could have quite easily built 4 or 5 more houses on this land and made a substantial amount of money instead of having the shrine. I suppose there is some good left in the world after all.