Bones of AIDS patients have been turned into eerie sculptures at a Buddhist temple in Thailand.

The morbid exhibit, entitled 'Art of Bone Resin from AIDS Patients', was a way to dispose of unclaimed bodies at the Wat Phrabat Nam Phu - a temple turned hospice for those afflicted with HIV - in Lopburi province.

Chalermpol Polmook, chairman of the temple committee, said: 'When Thailand first discovered AIDS patients in 1984, medical personnel in hospitals lacked knowledge in taking care of patients.

'Ordinary people also lacked knowledge, and AIDS patients in hospitals were often found repulsive, with chronic lesions that wouldn't heal.

'The hospitals then were overburdened, so Wat Phrabat Nam Phu accepted its first AIDS patient in 1992.'

The temple began taking on more patients for palliative care, though dead bodies quickly piled up as there was still no treatment for AIDS at the time.

With space to store the bodies quickly running out despite frequent cremations, several patients who had studied sculpture volunteered to repurpose the bones and turn them into art.

Chalermpol said: 'The bones you see here are actually from infected patients. Since then, the volunteers started turning the bones into various artistic shapes with philosophical and religious meanings.

'They select the bones to be mixed with the resin. Then they decorate and polish them so they're durable in the sun or rain.'

Footage shows the resin statues laid out in a yard next to the temple. Fragments of white bone from the deceased can be seen embedded within the moulded resin figures.

Chalermpol assured tourists that the bones were heated to up to 1,000 degrees Celsius to ensure no trace of HIV was left on them.

However, many of the sculptures were left unfinished as the original group of volunteers had already passed away.

Chalermpol said: 'We are looking for somebody who can come and fix these statues, so we can make a memorial garden with them.'