Been to a more bizarre museum? Let us know on the comment form below
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It made no sense. So far, Thailand had been almost everything we’d dreamt it
would be. Back in Britain, we’d talked excitedly about the Grand Palace, the
big Buddha at Wat Pho, the holy temples. Yet, as we walked under the muzzy
Bangkok sun, a feeling of ennui descended. What were we doing wrong? We had
it all. Palaces! Buddhas! Temples! It was all so ...
“Boring,” my girlfriend muttered as we entered temple number three.
And she was right. Reading the guidebook in the chilly gloom of our flat at
home had imbued these sights with an almost supernaturally exciting quality.
When you’re nursing a tea and the sniffles in the damp depths of an English
winter, a picture of the sun trickling like molten gold off an exotic temple
roof has that sort of power. But it hadn’t taken long for reality to make
its wearisome presence felt. We needed a break from temples.
So we decided to find an internet cafe and rummage online for something to
jolt the life back into us. An hour later, we were staring at a testicle
even bigger than the Wat Pho Buddha’s. And this one was real.
The Museum of Forensic Medicine, where this elephantiasis-swollen body part is
to be found, is hidden in a back block of the Siriraj Hospital. Built
principally for the education of medical students, it’s actually six museums
that were united in August 2004 into a low-budget palace of the macabre. But
it’s the exhibits to be found in the parasitology, pathology and forensic
departments that will revisit you in your dreams. Here you’ll find chain
saws, guns and kitchen knives used in murders, along with the bloodstained
clothing of the victims; diseased livers and legs; lungs with stab wounds;
and heads that have been dissected and suspended in formaldehyde so you can
see where the bullet went through.
Because these exhibits are housed in a converted office block, it feels less
like a museum and more like a repository for the private collection of an
insane millionaire. And, for what is ostensibly supposed to be a place of
education, there’s a surprising lack of actual information. Mostly, it’s
display cabinets marked by a simple label.
Of course, the joy of a great museum come not from the dry learning of facts,
but from the electric thrill of being near something that has had a role in
history – something that was present at some mad, ghastly scene, such as the
instruments and surgical gowns used in the 1946 autopsy of Thailand’s
murdered king, Ananda Mahidol. It’s as if the objects get soaked in some
indelible magic. And there’s little here that hasn’t been to a place, in the
personal history of one poor soul or another, that is so staggeringly grim,
it’d make your jaw drop right off your face. Which, come to think of it,
would make you fit right in.
Perhaps the most moving of the exhibits is the collection of dozens of babies
– some conjoined, some stillborn, others with various tragic deformities.
Local visitors have left touching little gifts for many of them. The Cyclops
baby, for example, has some pink plastic soldiers, a half-eaten packet of
Clorets and a single Pringle.
The rickety infrastructure adds to the museum’s sinister atmosphere. As you
squeak around the polished floor and peer tentatively into the thin,
homemade cabinets, you feel almost too close to the weirdness. Similarly,
the potted plants dotted here and there – presumably to cheer the place up a
bit – have a perverse effect. It’s as if this is almost normal. And it’s
then you realise, with a profound shudder, that this is normal. Things like
this happen every day.
The single exhibit that trumps all the others is so unbelievable, I feel like
I’m lying just writing it down. But I’m not. They actually have the hanged
corpse of the Chinese serial child-killer and cannibal Si-Oui. Preserved in
paraffin, his naked, teak-brown, waxy body leans forward at a horrible angle
in his telephone box-like cabinet. With his feet at the back and his head
resting on the glass of the door, it’s as if he’s trying to get to you.
Which, as his label suggests, he may well have done had he lived.
Apparently, Si-Oui fed on people “because he loves to eat human’s organ, not
because of starving”. Even more grotesquely, he’s leaking slightly.
If voyeurism is a universal secret vice, the Bangkok Museum of Forensic
Medicine will one day become the popular attraction it deserves to be. It’s
already unforgettable.
— Museum of Forensic Medicine, 2nd floor, Adulaydejvigrom Building, behind
Siriraj Hospital, Phrannok Road; 00 66 2 419 7000; admission 60p
The Mutter museum in Philli is a great place to go too. I went last year and loved the drawers full of things taken from human bodies, like bed springs, pen tips, feathers and bottle caps. There is a woman who turned to soap, and I learned so much about conjoined twins. It is a museum of medical oddities... and if you are into this sort of thing it is a MUST SEE if you visit the city of brotherly love.
michelle, Danvers, MA
that is so freakin kewl... i would so go to see that... one day im going to go there and the Mudder Museum in philadelphia (?).. ever since i went to the local medical schools cadaver lab (3 times actually) i have been so interested in gruesome medical phenomena..woo hoo... thailand just got really kewl with me.. snaps times 2
mandy, bossier city, USA
Philadelphia, PA. U.S.A Boasts one of the first medical museums. The Mutter Museum is a teaching facility in center city. It also provides a wide range of medical abnormalities as well as cross sections and a variety of old and ancient medical devices. I visited there once while in nursing school and was amazed at the collection and presentation of the specimens. It is definetly not for people with weak stomachs, but for any medical people, it will provide a wealth of information and views of very rare medical conditions. I recommend contacting them for visiting hours and get there if you can.
Ken, Media, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA has the Mutter Museum. It is owned by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, founded in 1787, is the oldest professional medical organization in the country. The Mütter Museum was originally founded to educate future doctors about anatomy and human medical anomalies; some common, some extremely rare. Today, it serves as a valuable resource for educating and enlightening the public about our medical past and telling important stories about what it means to be human. If you ever visit the Philly area, make sure you visit the museum, its well worth the trip!
Web site http://www.collphyphil.org/mutter.asp
Mike, Coal Township, PA / U.S.
The Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. It houses strange medical conditions since the 1800's. Heres some of what the have
* The plaster cast of the torso of world-famous Siamese Twins, Chang & Eng, and their conjoined livers
* Joseph Hyrtl's collection of skulls
* Preserved body of the "Soap Lady"
* Collection of 2,000 objects extracted from people's throats
* Cancerous growth removed from President Grover Cleveland
* Tallest skeleton on display in North America
they also have a Giant Colon...
Adam, Charlotte,
There's a very similar museum in Washington, D.C., the National Museum of Health and Medicine on the campus of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. There are several deformed babies on display--cyclopia (cyclops), achondroplastic dwarfism, anencephaly (parts of the brain are missing), conjoined twins, sirenomelia (mermaid deformity). There are displays of elephantitus (a leg and testicles), a giant hairball taken from the tomach of a 12 year old girl who'd been eating her hair for about 8 years, cross sections of a human body, and a skull still attached to the spinal cord to name just a few. Another display worth mentioning is the one of the actual bullet that killed President Lincoln and the tools used to remove it. I took my 9 and 11 year old boys to the museum. While macabre at times, it really was a fascinating museum that we'll not soon forget. Plus, as a bonus, if you stop in the gift shop, you can buy suckers with actual bugs and scorpions encased in them. Too cool!
Carol, Topeka, Kansas/USA
London has its own museums to equal, or even surpass Thailand's Museum of Forensic Medicine. The Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln's Inn Fields boasts the Hunterian Museum, a truly wonderful collection for the medically or scientifically inclined, and is free to visit. King's College London University has its own anatomy collection, the Gordon Museum, with over 8,000 specimens - however this is open only to King's medical students (though perhaps if you have a friend studying at King's you may be able to sneak a visit as a guest!). Just around the corner from Guy's hospital is the Old Operating Theatre, on St Thomas' Street, and charges only a small fee for entry.
Judah Eastwell, London, UK
There is an equally bizarre museum in Guanajuato, Mexico. Called 'the Museum of Mummies', it houses mummified bodies of people buried in Guanajuato's cemetery, and subsequently dug up because their families failed to pay for the plot. There are such delectable horrors as a woman buried alive, a pregnant woman, and tiny babies.
mira Gupta, Delhi, india
For some, this museum may be disturbing and disgusting.. this kind of museum isn't for everyone.. i went to the 'body world' museum where human bodies were displayed as art.. it's known all over the world.. and there are many of these forensic educational settings like this in many countries, to say that this is the world's most bizarre museum (even in the body parts catagory) makes me laugh a litttle... i went to this museum a few years back and i knew how this would effect some shakey yet curious tourists... this kind of setting is typical in many countries as i mentioned, but it isn't really for tourists, i dont think, they use the admission fees to better their researches.. this artical entertained me and my fellow forensic friends. thank you.. and hope you recovered your jaw before u took off...:p
Jt, california, usa
Also included in this museum is a large section about treating wounds caused by the tsunami. Siriraj sent a large group of doctors to aid the victims, and learned many new things in dealing with the horrific wounds caused by things stabbed through legs and infected by dirty water. It is both horrible and uplifting to see the heroism of these doctors and students under the circumstances.
Peridot, Bangkok, Thailand