Saturday, August 22, 2009

Haw Par Villa

Another one..

Supposed to go this with LG but had to ffk her and went with my labmates on a last minute decision (nvm, we'll go second round!). It's always that last minute plans work out faster.. paiseh*
In fact, it's because of my junior who wanted to go and we were dead bored in the office..
Everyone wasn't in the mood of working on a beautiful Saturday and since that place is soooo near..we made the abrupt decision to go.

And it was very hot!

Since our boss went to Sungei Buloh Water Reserve this early morning.. and we all couldn't wake up that early (6am!!) to go there because we were all working very late yesterday night..
We compensated and went to another place =P

I brought my camera along but halfway through no battery as I did not charge.. *aiks
But it's okayla, I have some in my phone here..

These are from my phone's since I left my camera in the school.

Haw Par Villa, Pasir panjang was built by two brothers- Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par. This park was originally called "Tiger Balm Gardens". It was constructed in 1937 by the brothers, whom were the developers of Tiger Balm, as a venue for teaching traditional Chinese values. The Aw family eventually sold the Gardens to the Singapore Tourism Board in 1979.

They believed in contributing back to the society from their earnings and thus, they built this to educate people. It was also stated that they actually sold the tiger balms at a very low price so that the lower-income groups can afford to buy those too.

Visiting this park made me think about how respectful the younger ones to the elder ones, from the memorial altar that they've built. The highest were of their parents', followed by the elder brother (Aw Haw) and then the younger brother (Aw Par). No pictures on altar =(

Their parents were involved in using herbs as medicinal medicine and what their father earned a month in China was what the brothers earned in a day here! Their Tiger Balm was sold in over 70 countries that time!

The mansion on this park that Aw Par designed. However, it was demolished because it was not properly maintained after his demise in 1944 by his elder brother, Aw Haw.
The God of Earth

In the courts of hell

Tadaa... the entrance into the dark exhibition..

First court of hell: King Qinguang
Each prisoner is judged here at a preliminary stage where good ones are distinguished from the evil ones. Those with good deeds that outweigh evil deeds will be sent to Silver Bridge to be sent to the paradise.

We went through all the 10 courts of hell where they showed various punishments in hell due to misdoings during the lifetime.. These were some of the captured pictures. My camera was already battery dead this time =(

This one was left stranded outside..

What I'm very inspired is the very close relationship between the Aw Haw and Aw Par siblings=)
And how they tried to contribute back to the society..

We should never forget our past!

So long~

4 comments:

玉=Jade said...

How about the present? Learn anything about the Dos and Don'ts?

SN said...

Ya got lotsa moral stories there.. like filial piety la, friendship la..lol. All those were sort of moral stories crafted on stones..

玉=Jade said...

Good le, I wanna go haha but have to find other kakis liao.

SN said...

i can go again =D no need find other kakis and crack brains..btw if u r finding other kakis as well, make sure they're not afraid to see those ler..