Helluva Visit

Jul 1959

Before Haw Par Villa became the place to take your wayward children to frighten them into submission (at the risk of scarring them for life), it was known as the Tiger Balm Gardens. It was named after the brothers Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par - the founders of the topical ointment Tiger Balm. The brothers lived in Myanmar (then Burma), with older sibling Boon Haw having the most involvement in the theme park. He literally designed it himself, eschewing blueprints in favour of personally inspecting the sculptors' work every few months when he visited Singapore. The garden passed to their nephew Aw Cheng Chye, but was acquired by the Singapore government, and revitalised as a commercial theme park in 1990. The S$80-million revamp included an amphitheatre, three indoor theatres and a boat ride through the Courts of Hell exhibit situated in the gut of a 60-metre-long dragon structure.