Not really a blog - just a place to dump all the pictures of hell realted asian stuff I've found or documented over time...So, without further ado, let's start with a few photos from Singapore (NOTE: you can click on photos for a larger image; they are all free to download, distribute and do whatever the hell you want with them; if you make any art out of them, please show it to me!):

SINGAPORE

All the pictures were taken at the Haw Par Villa (Tiger Balm Garden), built in 1937 by the Aw brothers (inventors of the famous ointment), as a venue for teaching traditional Chinese values.They made more than 1,000 statues and life-size dioramas depicting Chinese legends and historic tales and illustrating morality and Confucian beliefs. All the photos are from the Ten Courts of Hell section. In short, they represent a purgatory to which a person is sent to be punished for their sins and misdeeds. The sinner must go through all the courts until the final judgment determines his/hers form of reincarnation.

First Court of Hell
In the First Court of Hell, the sinner is put in front of the Mirror of Retribution where all his past sins are revealed to him. As a result of this past, his reincarnation will be determined. However, he first has to be punished for his sins.
Crime		Punishment
Violating the code of filial piety		- Put under heavy slabs and boulders or squeezed in the middle of the grinder.
Second Court of Hell
Crime		Punishment
• Gossiping		Having your tongue pierced.
• Stealing		Made to kneel on steel granules
• Wickedness		- Boiled in a cauldron, disemboweled, and put in a volcanic chamber.
Third Court of Hell
Crime		Punishment
• Corruption and greed		- Handcuffed and beaten
• Disobedience and disrespect to elders		- Have your ribs pierced, body grilled, your lungs, heart, liver, intestines and eyes torn out
• Violating and state a confucian principles (?)or being an unjust official		- Have your heart removed, knees crushed and face scraped by a metal instrument
Fourth Court of Hell
Crime		Punishment
• General Sins		- Hurled into a torrential river, made to kneel on bamboo spikes, boiled in oil, head struck open
• Cheating or evading income taxes		- Drowned under a heavy stone
• Stealing		- Have your hands sawn off
• Breaking promises		- Have your lips split
Fifth Court of Hell
Crime		Punishment
• Cruelty to animals and friends		- Have your heart torn out with hooks or thrown onto protruding swords
Sixth Court of Hell
In this Court of Hell, those who have already been punished but are still unrepentant, are punished further. This includes all crimes against any deity or Buddha or breaking any Buddhist or Confucian laws.
Crime		Punishment
• Stealing from temples, committing blasphemy		- Made to kneel on iron nails, sawn in two, gnawed by rats.
• Killing animals		- Have your body chopped in half.
Seventh Court of Hell
Crime		Punishment
• Rebelling against authorities		-Torn apart by dogs
• Spreading false rumours		- Have your tongue pulled out
• Using drugs, causing quarrels		- Thrown into a pot of boiling water
Eighth Court of Hell
Crime		Punishment
+Committing crimes against Confucianism and operating houses for immoral purposes		Crushed under carriage wheels, sliced, disemboweled, struck by lightning, and having tongues, arms and legs cut off.
Ninth Court of Hell
Crime		Punishment
Smuggling, committing arson		Attacked by snakes, stung by bees, tortured or trafficking drugs in boiling oil. (?!?)
• Writing or painting erotic literature or scenes		- Flattened between two planks, have your head crushed in an iron ring, skull steamed, bones scraped and tendons pulled out.
Tenth Court of Hell
In the Tenth Court of Hell, the President passes his final judgment and the sinner goes through one of the seven-ways in the Wheel of Reincarnation. Shaped like a wheel, wind and clouds billow out from the circle in the centre and the six other circles surrounding it. Depending on the sinner's past life, he will enter a particular way which will determine how he will be reborn. The sinner will be reincarnated as:
• First Way		- Wealthy and powerful human
• Second Way		- Birds
• Third Way		-Farmers and labourers
• Fourth Way		- Working class folk
• Fifth Way		- Dragons, fish, crabs, insects or sea creatures
• Sixth Way		- Lions, tigers, horses, deer, elephant or other four-legged animals
• Seventh Way		- Poor, lonely and the destitute
When his reincarnation is decided, the sinner is usually shown with his future reincarnation (for example, the kind of animal), on his back. The sinner is then brought to a `Pavilion of Forgetfulness' or `Hell of Oblivion' where an old lady hands him a cup of magic tea that when drunk, make him forget his past life. He is then directed across one of the six bridges leading to 18,000 roads, each of which leads to some part of the world and to his particular form of reincarnation. And now for some fun: can you match these pretty pictures with the appropriate sin? Enjoy!