Our names

The lady Bosses

We are the nature explorers. We are in a group of 4. Namely, Charlotte, Germaine, Justina and Lydia. Nanyang Polytechnic Year 2, NE Project. See the Mini Menu on the right when you scroll past the posts? Click on it to view the rest of our posts!

Time Travel

find a link and travel backwards in time

The Stories behind Chinatown and Little India Punggol Waterway Our trip to Chinatown! Our first trip exploring the greenery of singapore HI GIRLS May 2013 July 2013

Our contacts

affliates

my friends and associates

i'll add them all

HawPar Villa Sunday 21 July 2013 @ 08:09

Hello readers! Back again for updates!
As the title says, I will be doing a post on Haw Par Villa.

Basically, Haw Par Villa used to be a theme park in Singapore showing the different moral stories or folklore in Chinese Culture. The most famous part being the 10 courts of Hell.
Chinese believe, that when one die, the sins we did during our lifetime will bring us to the 18 levels of hell.
The first level being the most mild punishment and the 18th being the worst punishment.

I will be introducing the 10 courts of hell now.
As there will be gruesome and
disturbing images, VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

This is the entrance to the 10 courts of hell.

In the first court of hell, the 'prisoner' is being judged if he/she has done any good deeds or were an evil doer. People who did good deeds were sent to the paradises and those who did evil deeds were sent to the different courts of hell based on the evil deeds they did before.

In the second court of hell, the prisoners sentenced here did evil doings such as inflicting pain, conmen, robbers were thrown into volcanic pit. Those who corrupt, steal and gamble were being frozen into blocks of ice. Those who were a prostitute, they were drowned in the pool of blood.

In the third court, those who were ungrateful, disrespectful, and those who escape from prison had to have their heart cut out. Those who were drug addicts and traffickers and even tomb robbers will be tied to red hot copper pillar and grilled.

In the forth court of hell, those who were caught cheating, evading income taxes, steal, or even breaking promises were made to kneel on bamboo spikes, boiled in oil or have your lips split.

In the fifth court of hell, those plotted another's death for his property or even those loansharks were thrown onto a hill of knives.

In the sixth court of hell, those who curse and abduct others were thrown onto trrees of knives. Those who misuse books, have pornographic materials, break rules and waste food had their body sawn into 2.

In the seventh court of hell, rumors mongers had their tongue pulled out. Rapists were thrown into a wok of boiling oil.

In the eighth court of hell, those lack of filial obedience, cheat during exams, and those who cause trouble for their family were to have their organs pulled out. Those who harm others for their benefits will get dismembered.

In the ninth court of hell, those robbed, murder, rape or had any unlawful conduct will get their head and arm chopped off.

In the last court of hell, there is a wheel of reincarnation and the pavilion of forgetfulness. The prisoners will go to this court and there will be an old lady who will pass them a drink to drink. This drink is to make the prisoners forget their past lives and the wheel is to determine if they will be a human or an animal in their next life.

That aside, Haw Par Villa was originally named as the Tiger Balm Gardens and was built in 1937. It was built by a pair of Burmese brothers, Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par respectively. It was originally meant to be a venue for teaching traditional Chinese Values.

Some of the major attractions are some of the scenes from Journey to the West, Fengshen Bang, The 24 Filial Exemplars, Legend of the White Snake and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. There were also statues of The Laughing Buddha, Guanyin, Jiang Ziya and the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac.

The Statue of Guanyin

The statue of Laughing Buddha

This is one of the scene from Journey from the West. In the story, the monk is a holy figure, and all demons would love to eat his flesh and drink his blood as it will bring them endless power and will never die.

After researching on Haw Par Villa, I myself would love to visit if I am given a chance! I've heard from many sources that Haw Par Villa is closed and that is why I am unable to visit. Even though I'm a Chinese myself, I did not know that much about the 10 courts of hell until this research. Thus, I would love to learn more about Chinese folklore and their traditional values and make sure to understand them before losing these morals and values, so as to pass them down and share it with the future generations.

Cheers,
Lydia Low.

References:
http://travelblogasia.wordpress.com/2008/10/01/haw-par-villa-tiger-blam-gardens/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haw_Par_Villa
http://henrytjm.blogspot.sg/2012/11/roaming-haw-par-villa-10-courts-of-hell.html
http://henrytjm.blogspot.sg/2012/11/roaming-haw-par-villa-10-courts-of-hell_5.html
http://henrytjm.blogspot.sg/2012/11/roaming-haw-par-villa-10-courts-of-hell_8.html
http://shijieisunstoppable.blogspot.sg/2011/08/chinese-10-courts-of-hell.html

Unknown ‧ Permalink ‧ Edit ‧ 0 notes so far.