%0 Journal Article
%T Moral Entertainment – The Buddhist Hell Parks of Thailand
%A Husarski, Roman
%J Studia Religiologica
%V 2021
%R 10.4467/20844077SR.21.013.16550
%N Volume 54 Issue 3
%P 195-216
%K Hell parks, Buddhist hell, Buddhist art, Thai Buddhism, political science of religion, morality and religion
%@ 0137-2432
%D 2021
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/studia-religiologica/article/moral-entertainment-the-buddhist-hell-parks-of-thailand
%X 
	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.