Moral Entertainment – The Buddhist Hell Parks of Thailand

Autor: Roman Husarski
Jazyk: English<br />Polish
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Studia Religiologica, Vol 2021, Iss 3, Pp 195-216 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2084-4077
0137-2432
20844077
DOI: 10.4467/20844077SR.21.013.16550
Popis: Visiting Hell parks is a popular pastime in contemporary Thailand. Situated near Buddhist temples, these gruesome sculpture gardens depict the Buddhist vision of Hell. These grotesque and violent sculptures are usually seen as an oddity and a form of low art. Perhaps for this reason, they are rarely studied by scholars. This article focuses on the parks as modern entertainment. Usually found in rural areas, these spots try to answer the challenges of the commercialisation and globalisation of Thai society. A detailed analysis of four Hell parks, Wang Saen Suk, Wat Pa Lak Roi, Wat Pa Non Sawan and Wat Pa Thewapithak, shows that these religious amusement parks serve not only as means of entertainment but are also places of Buddhist morality. * This work was supported by the Jagiellonian University’s Council of Students’Academic Associations as part of the Badanie nieortodoksyjnych świątyń buddyjskich w północno-wschodniej Tajlandii i Birmie [Study of unorthodox Buddhist temples in Northeast Thailand and Myanmar] Grant.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals