Haw Par Villa, Singapore’s longest-running cultural theme park relaunched on Thursday, 28 October 2021, with the opening of Hell’s Museum, the only attraction in the world dedicated to death and the afterlife. Hell’s Museum is standalone attraction within the Haw Par complex.
“Every time you spoke about Haw Par Villa, people just wanted to talk about the 10 Courts of Hell,” Jeya Ayadurai, Chairman of Journeys and the historian behind the museum’s recent re-imagining, told CNN. Journeys is a Singapore-based heritage specialist focused on reshaping historical sites, such as Changi Museum and Battlebox, and is the current management team at Haw Par Villa.
Hell’s Museum provides unique comparative insights on how death and the afterlife are viewed and interpreted across religions, cultures, and the ages. The immersive exhibition features specially commissioned videos and multi-media elements that will offer visitors a better understanding of the commonalities across the world’s major belief systems.
We’ve developed Hell’s Museum as a celebration of life and heritage, focusing on what we share as a community rather than what differentiates us.
Jeya Ayadurai, Chairman of Journeys
The museum has a section that depicts how different communities around the world, as well as in Singapore, draw meaning from death and dying. Stretching over 3,800 sqm Hell’s Museum also serves as a prelude to Haw Par Villa’s world-renowned Ten Courts of Hell, based on Taoist and Buddhist teachings of punishments in the afterlife.
According to CNN, Haw Par Villa was built in the 1930s by Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par, Burma-born brothers who created Tiger Balm, the camphor-scented waxy pain analgesic that is ubiquitous in pharmacies across Asia. Aw Boon Haw built the park as a tribute to his brother, Aw Boon Par.
After Boon Par’s sudden passing in 1944, Boon Haw wanted to commemorate his brother’s life and developed some of the best-known dioramas during the post-war years – including the famed Ten Courts of Hell. Boon Haw wanted visitors to contemplate how they should live their lives meaningfully. “We’ve developed Hell’s Museum to commemorate the brotherly love, and as a continuation of this celebration of life and heritage,” said Ayadurai.
Their goal is to revitalize this 84-year-old attraction in a three phased program, starting with the introduction of the world’s first Hell’s Museum. “We want Haw Par Villa to be reinvigorated as the heritage gem it truly is, by incorporating new, compelling content to complement the folklore and philosophy behind the Park’s array of over 1,000 statues and 150 dioramas. In doing so, we hope to spark in local and international visitors a keener sense of curiosity and an exploration of Asian art, culture, literature, and religion. The result is a richer appreciation of what our communities share in common,” Ayadurai concluded.
