Haw Par Villa is a theme park located along Pasir Panjang Road, Singapore. The park contains over 1,000 statues and 150 giant dioramas depicting scenes from Chinese mythology, folklore, legends, history, and illustrations of various aspects of Confucianism.
The park, originally called "Tiger Balm Gardens", was built in 1937 by the Burmese
brothers Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par, the developers of Tiger Balm, as a venue for teaching traditional Chinese
values.
They moved their business from Burma (Myanmar) to Singapore in 1926 and purchased the site in 1935.
In 1988, the Singapore Tourism Board took charge of the Tiger Balm Gardens and renamed it "Haw Par
Villa Dragon World". The "Haw Par" in the park's name are based on the Aw brothers' personal
names - "Haw" and "Par", which literally mean "tiger"
and "leopard".
The dioramas and statues were restored, while plays, acrobatic displays,
and puppet shows were organized and held there. The management imposed entrance fees but the high fees discouraged
visitors, so the management incurred a loss of S$31.5 million after 10 years.
The park management made profit during
its first year of operations after renovations in 1994, broke even in 1995, but started making losses over the next
three years and was forced to provide free entry in 1998.
In March 2001, the Singapore Tourism Board
renamed it "Tiger Balm Gardens" and entrance fees dropped. The park is now open every day from 9am to 7pm and
admission is free.
The best known attraction in Haw Par Villa is the Ten Courtsof Hell, which features gruesome depictions of Hell in Chinese mythology and Buddhism. This attraction used to be set inside a 60-metre long trail of a Chinese dragon but the dragon has been demolished, so the attraction is now covered by grey stone walls.
Other major attractions include dioramas of scenes from Journey to the West, Fengshen Bang, The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars, Legend of the White Snake, Romance of the Three Kingdoms; statues of mythological figures such as the Laughing Buddha and Guanyin, and historical personages such as Jiang Ziya, Su Wu and Lin Zexu; the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac, and others. There are also monuments dedicated to the Aw brothers and their parents.
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