I flew into SIN on a plane that has been to HEL and back. I’ve been to HEL myself. Now I am in Hell. A Chinese Hell. It’s a legal hell.
No, no, I am not in trouble with the law. At least I hope not. Not in this FINE city.
But according to the displays in front of me, we will all sit in front of a judge to determine if we will cross the gold bridge to reach Heaven and be united with the Supreme Being, cross the silver bridge to be reincarnated as a successful human to right the one thing holding them back, or be cast into the hells to return as a lesser being.
So I’m not at a literal hell, just a depiction of them at the Haw Par Villa Museum of Hells. And I’m learning a lot.
It takes two MRT rides to get to Haw Par, which now has a MRT station.
The first, to Harbourside, is crowded with visitors to Sentosa Island on this public holiday. Although we don’t join them, we do exit the gates and find breakfast in Vivo City in the historically decorated food court. The food is actually quite good.
From there it’s another MRT ride along the Circle Line to the Haw Par Villa station.
The Haw Par Villa was built by Aw Boon Haw for his beloved younger brother Aw Boon Par. The brothers owned the popular Tiger Balm medication. Boon Haw commissioned the surrounding gardens as grounds for the whole community and decorated it with statues and dioramas to share Chinese history, mythology and values.
Despite the moral values espoused by the dioramas, they were looted in the brother’s absence during World War 2. So another display was built, the Hell’s Museum, to show the consequences of bad actions.
An interesting video discusses the origins of religions, tracing the circular lives (death and rebirth) to Hinduism, developing into Buddhism and the merging with Daoist concepts. Then the linear (one life and death) Zoroastrianism which influences the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
We are then taken on an optional tour by Hemata. She goes through the funerary rituals of local Chinese and the land availability realities of modern Singapore.
It is primarily Muslims and Jews who are buried in the single functional cemetery, with cremation for the rest. Buried bodies are reinterred into smaller graves containing 16 bodies in the same space as a single casket.
There is a traditional 3-8 day mourning period in local Chinese culture, now held in the “void” beneath the housing condominiums, where caskets are left open for viewing with foods, often expensive meals, placed in front of the casket. Effigies of the two spirits who will carry the soul to the afterlife are given small bowls of rice and a single chopsticks to refresh them, but also ensure they take the time to see how the passed was loved.
There’s a lot more. We are then taken into the display of Hells themselves. There are ten levels with multiple punishments. At each level the person is judged. Best to read about it elsewhere, but the displays are designed to scare the young.
Outside of the museum and free to visit are the statues of the Villa grounds. There are a large number of paths to take, each surrounded by garish displays from another age. Stories of Chinese mythological history, including Monkey Goes West (they look nothing like the legendary Japanese series of Monkey Magic), plus a couple of sumo wrestlers and koalas, kangaroos and emus. Don’t know why.
It’s a strange experience, but well worth it and I found the museum very educational and thought provoking.
Our next stop is a trip for rail fans. With one change, we head to Bukit Panjang at the end of the Downtown Line. This has two elevated LRT lines, automated guided transport systems running off from it. We do the loop line, offering some interesting views of local life from the rear windows, the canyon of condos along the track.
We wander around the local malls, looking for food, but not finding much but for a bowl of dessert for B and another of noodles shared by B and Alex. So we run back the Downtown Line back to Bugis.
There’s a station on the Downtown Line called Beauty World. It was once the site of the Beauty World Market and Beauty World Town, both demolished in 1984 according to Wikipedia.
I can just imagine the closing sales…
“Get your beauty here! Closing down sale. All our beauty must go! This beauty can’t last. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Last opportunity for beauty!”
Bugis has shopping centres and is within easy walking distance of the hotel. There are eateries, but all we find are curry puffs from an open outlet of Old Chang Kee. Many are closed due to Chinese New Year.
Worse is Albert Food Centre, in which only about five or six stalls remain open. It’s an eerie feeling, having popiah and char kuey teow in the darkness.
Outside, the New Year stalls are shutting up shop for another year, the Buddhist temple is closed.
I have another swim, my second for the day, in the chilly waters of the hotel pool.
This is our last full night in Singapore. I’m feeling sad that our holiday is coming to an end. It’s this sense that there is still more to do, that we have been rushing so much that we haven’t found the rhythm of life.
I’m not quite ready to go.