Go to Hell (in) Haw Par Villa

The only reason I even knew about this place was because Michelle heard it was closing down. Not once in any guide books or tourist attraction brochures have I even heard of Haw Par Villa, and... well, I guess that's why it's shutting down: due to the lack of advertising and its respective revenue. Still, even though mid-way through the process of getting shut down, Haw Par Villa is still a highly-enchanting, though rather bizarre, site for anyone looking to experience Chinese mythology in full-color sculptured glory.

The official entrance is located on an uphill slope that takes you all the way to the very top of the site; other paths leading to sub-routes split from the main path.

Originally known as Tiger Balm Gardens, Haw Par Villa (which translates to "(the) Villa of the Tiger and Leopard" in English) was constructed in 1973 by brothers Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par, the developers of the heat rub Tiger Balm. The villa is open daily from 9.00am to 7.00pm, and true to its namesake, you'll come across many statues of tigers and leopards scattered about the site, one of each often flanking either side of a path or an entrance. Admissions to Haw Par Villa is completely free (although there is a small and fairly new section inside, The Jade House, that requires an entrance fee: the House exhibits the vast collection of jades that the Aw family has collected over the years).

There are more than 1,000 statues depicted in the villa, all of which are vibrantly colored and still look rather well-maintained. Many of them are very detailed dioramas depicting scenes in Chinese folklore.

The sculptures in the park are "centered around Chinese folklore, legends, history, and Confucian ideology", and the attractions include but are not limited to the Laughing Buddha, the Goddess of Mercy, as well as painstakingly crafted scenes from Journey to the West. However, the most popular and well-known attraction is unarguably The Ten Courts of Hell:

The imposing entrance to The Ten Courts of Hell, flanked by horse and ox guards. Apparently, this used to take place inside a 60-metre long dragon trail; the pictures here show the entrance in its original glory.

This section of the site is particularly disturbing and definitely not for the faint of heart (I still have nightmares). The Ten Courts of Hell are exactly what it sounds like: "purgatory where a person is sent to be punished for the sins and misdeeds of their past life. A sinner must go through all Ten Courts and in the tenth, final judgment will determine his form of reincarnation." A judge or Yama precedes over each Court, and with each progressive court things get a lot more gruesome and bloodier. Sinners are depicted being thrown in a pool full of filthy blood:

Getting sawn in half:

 Dismembered:

...the list of horrors go on. (I actually felt a little sick to my stomach just walking through the cavern.) You can go here to read a more extensive and detailed list on the Courts of Hell, but really, nothing beats walking through that hellhole and looking at the hundreds of mutilated plastic bodies laid out before you first hand.

The rest of the villa really isn't so bad though!

There are just way, way too many statues in Haw Par Villa to feature in a single post. You'll see a lot of weird stuff in Haw Par, like a woman-headed crab and chicken-people eloping, medical rats and giant gorillas, and even the Statue of Liberty (don't ask what it's doing there), but overall, it's more than what words can describe. I hate to be cliché and say you'll have to see it for yourself! but I really feel sad that such a decoratively elaborate and beautifully cultural place has to be shut down. It's definitely worth a trip if you're looking for an eye-opener, and trust me when I say there'll be more pictures than you'd like to take here.

Pictures like this, for example. Now we're definitely going to have a lot of good luck coming our way, thanks a lot Mich

If you're like me and can't get enough to reading up about Haw Par Villa, here's a site with tons of pictures of almost every statue in the villa, and detailed information on... well, almost everything (I realize I've referenced it a lot in this blog post, they're seriously hardcore on this).

Don't forget to purchase your heat rub!