Although I have a hard time with most religious tenets, the concept of karma has always made sense to me. Maybe not in an afterlife sense, but in the idea that the energy you put out into the world helps to define your world, so positive begets positive and negative begets negative. The Buddhists take it a step further, believing that hell, or Naraka, is a place where one’s life deeds are weighed, and then brutal punishment is handed out for all misdeeds. Naraka is laid out similarly to Dante’s Inferno and Islam’s Jahannam, where there are different levels and sections dedicated to different vices and sins. Naraka has eight levels and 136 pits of punishment, where people are turned into animal spirits – like the corrupt who become pigs; boiling oil is poured down the throats of alcoholics; rapists have their dicks sliced down the middle; and bad people of all kinds are tortured in all possible ways. Wonder what this might look like? Need a preview before you descend into Naraka? Well then pay a visit to one of Thailand’s Hell Gardens, such as the Wang Saen Suk Monastery and Garden, where you can see life-sized graphic reenactments of all these tortures and more. Seeing photos of this place makes me wonder about the depraved humans who designed and sculpted this hellish scene, which also brings to mind the evangelical Christian Hell Houses in the States. Who says religion cleanses the mind? They should take a peek at this monastery’s garden below…
