In what distant deep or skies

The air shifts, taking on an otherworldly quality, as you plunge into the depths of hell.

Image Credit: Ariana Haghighi

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

– The Tyger, William Blake

The air shifts, taking on an otherworldly quality, as you plunge into the depths of hell — also known as Haw Par Villa, a museum entombed in the heart of Singapore.

The Western conception of Buddhism — one of a meditative Buddha adorned by milky lotus petals — could not be more distant at Haw Par Villa, where Buddhist stories and cultural myths lunge at you. They singe into your eyes' top layer; they crawl up flaring nostrils, and dive down your throat like a chasing spectre. A moment for peaceful reflection would be better found in a neighbouring park, where the foliage flirts with the sunshine. That place is not here.

Haw Par Villa is a free, outdoor spectacle boasting a mountain-range of giant dioramas and statues. Each diorama is gargantuan but painfully detailed — you can feel the ghosts of its craftsmen on your back as you bear witness to their work, and hear their tears as they chipped away at the blocks, enlivening waterfalls and deities. The scenes engulf you as they regale a cultural tale. Accompanied by little written explanations, for the uninitiated eye, the tableaus' tales are eerie, off-putting, and downright disturbing.

The park grants us glimpses into the bloody Ten Courts of Hell, where parents spook their children with looming folklore threats. Chinese literature also comes alive: it travels towards the unsuspecting tourist in Journey to the West; it hisses the story of Madame White Snake.

With graphic displays of debauchery and violence, one wonders how such a concept ever found its home on law-abiding Singapore's shores. The park's origin story may be as sinister as the institution itself; it was built by the multi-millionaire inventor of Tiger Balm, Aw Boon Haw, for his brother, and opened to the public in 1937. Haw and his brother Par lived onsite for some time and could be spotted creeping around the park in a dilapidated 'tiger' car. The two brothers are now immortalised in the park... as phallic effigies.

Haw Par Villa reminds us that eternal damnation is colourful and caricatured. Perhaps, it is even didactic. The statued tigers roaming the park are a forever reminder that hell is near, and no tourist may frame its fearful symmetry. The night's forests are here for the taking.