Korean Earth Mysteries

[skinny]

1.Shifting / vanished river; Gyeongju City outskirts

On my first trip to Korea last century, I literally stumbled upon an archeological site over 500 years old called Poseokjeong. It features a carved stone trough which originally decanted water from a neighbouring river just next to it.

During banquets in the last days of the Silla kingdom, the king's official and noble guests would sit along the watercourse, chatting and reciting poetry, engaged in drinking games. One of the guests would start by enunciating a line of poetry, challenge one of the other guests to compose an appropriate second line while floating of cup wine in the water. Due to the variety of curves in the channel, the speed the wine cups transversed the course was influenced by the shape of the cup, rate of the water flow and the level of the wine in the cup.[2] Should the cup of wine reach the guest before he could submit a suitable subsequent line he must consume that entire cup of wine and try again, and again, until the task was accomplished.[3]
Source: Wikipedia: Poseokjeong

Interestingly, the river is now nowhere to be seen. Obviously shifts in riverbeds can occur due to engineering and natural erosion, but this seems a rather short period for such a large shift in distance. I assume it was engineered out of existence, but the locals seemed mystified by the question - not an uncommon occurence when interrogating Koreans.

2. Tapsa Temple at Maisan (Horse Ears Mountain); South Cheolla Province
This was a place I really started to question my own sanity. I had had food poisoning overnight and was slightly giddy to begin with, but this place blew me away. At the turn of the 19th century, a single monk constructed over 120 stone towers, some rising as high as 10 metres, without mortar or mechanical devices of any kind. The task apparently took 30 years.
Again, to quote the wiki:

Yi Gap Yong constructed the stone pagodas here incorporating the eight progressive positions of Zhuge Liang. Using this method, stones are first laid in a circular configuration before placing additional stones inside this circle. More stones are then placed in position to form a conical pyramid.

This structure is next topped off with a flat-shaped stone. To complete the pagoda another flat stone, in a yin and yang order, is added over and over until the desired shape and height of the tower is achieved.

Small pebbles are placed in the gaps between the larger stones to make the tower more stable.

Yi Gap Yong piled all of the stones, one by one, without the aid of mechanical devices or assistance. The stones for the smaller pagodas were all obtained locally but many for the larger pagodas, which can reach as high as 9m/30 ft, were gathered from the streams, rivers and mountains throughout Korea to assure their harmony with their spiritual energy.[2]

There's some brief video of the place here at Youtube too. Gives a little better impression of scale.

Local legend has it that he was able to move the large capstones into place by the power of his mind, and that he was able to place structures in the caves in the sheer cliff walls 40 metres above the ground using his ability to fly. Scaffolding was the first thing that occured to me there and then, but my host's sincerity in explaining Yi's abilities was most convincing - and he was a trusted friend with a very credulous attitude towards most things. He was very matter of fact about it and I felt my mind start to widen a little. It has since safely locked out subsequent entertainment of any explanation beyond the physically provable, of course.

An associated local legend concerns the phenomenon of the anti-gravity icicles in the nearby Buddhist temple. Apparently when monks pray over bowls of water an icicle will grow diagonally up from the surface overnight. I've seen photographs of the icicles in the bowls (before the digital enhancement was available) and it looked quite intriguing. There's no accounting of the process in the pictures of course, so I tend to remain sceptical of the formation - they could simply have been formed deliberately by human manipulation before the photo was taken. The place certainly has an 'air' about it though and is highly recommended on a trip to the far east... as is Korea itself. A wonderful country to visit.


Will add to this as I have time.

 

[Yithian]

Maisan is indeed atmospheric. Of the few times I've visited, the insanely hot days have been the most enjoyable, for reasons I've yet to fathom. Anyway, visitors should pick up a bargain bag of bondegi (HERE) and go for a wander around. Friends of mine sometimes refer to it as the pixie place, for the towers and the setting make it so distinctive from other temples in the country. You can almost picture Dokkaebi (sprites/goblins: HERE) scuttling around by night.

It's a shame, however, that the mountain(s) itself has become a glorified stairwell: it just goes up and down again with man-made steps all the way to accommodate the armies of ajummas (middle aged women) on coach trips who descend each spring.

As a some-time resident of Korea (and indeed Jeollabuk-Do, at one time), I may contribute some more Forteana to this thread now that Skinny has taken the trouble to start it off so well.

 

[Zilch5]

Looks very nice - I am hoping to visit Korea soon, it is high on my list.

(But I might give the bondegi a miss...)

 

[skinny]

Looks very nice - I am hoping to visit Korea soon, it is high on my list.

(But I might give the bondegi a miss...)

A wise move, Zilch. Not too many of us foreigners can handle the smell, let alone the taste and sensation of having boiled silkworm larvae in one's mouth. Most distasteful.

Please post up some more Forteana Koreana, theyithian. There's a bunch of examples from this most superstitious of societies. I couldn't track down any pics of the inverted icicles on the web, but I may have a sample photo in a brochure stashed away from my own years in-country.

Another I meant to investigate today was the apparently frigid chamber in a cave somewhere off the coast. Apparently it features sub-zero temperatures regardless of the season and an ajuma could keep her kimchi fresh and cold all month in July - heard of it? Some have supposed that there's a natural transept linking the place to Siberia - like piped air-conditioning over 2000 miles long. Whatever will they think of next?

 

[Fluttermoth]

An associated local legend concerns the phenomenon of the anti-gravity icicles in the nearby Buddhist temple. Apparently when monks pray over bowls of water an icicle will grow diagonally up from the surface overnight. I've seen photographs of the icicles in the bowls (before the digital enhancement was available) and it looked quite intriguing. There's no accounting of the process in the pictures of course, so I tend to remain sceptical of the formation - they could simply have been formed deliberately by human manipulation before the photo was taken.

I found this very interesting; there have been a few photos of these in FT that have formed in people's freezers; though I can't seem to find any on this site there's one here;
http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/3694 ... -ice-tray/
I seem to remember that one explanation was that standing waves were formed because of the vibration from the motor; I wonder if the monk's praying could have the same effect?

 

[Dr_Baltar]

http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn16404-ice-spikes/1

 

[Fluttermoth]

http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn16404-ice-spikes/1

Oh...
Nah, thanks for that; I'd missed that mystery being solved somehow! Great pics there

Back to Korea...

 

[Mythopoeika]

Thanks for posting that, Skinny. Great photos!

 

[Yithian]

Another I meant to investigate today was the apparently frigid chamber in a cave somewhere off the coast. Apparently it features sub-zero temperatures regardless of the season and an ajuma could keep her kimchi fresh and cold all month in July - heard of it?

I've never come across that one. Although, of course, burying kimchi in giant ceramic jars was the traditional approach before the advent of the Kimchi-refrigerator (don't laugh, I've got one a few metres away!)

Back to Maisan, in case anyone is pondering the 'horse-ears mountain' part, I found this nice little snapshot (not mine):

 

[ginoide]

Q: Is there anything on this planet that is better than kimchi?
A: No


korea is really one of the trips i'm planning (dreamking) to make over the next few years

 

[Zilch5]

Q: Is there anything on this planet that is better than kimchi?
A: No
korea is really one of the trips i'm planning (dreamking) to make over the next few years

Aaaah - kimchi - and Korean BBQ! Anyone in Sydney - the BEST Korean BBQ around here is above an Aldi Supermarket just off Canterbury Road. It's so good, you need a shower after the meal! :lol:

Should have gone there this weekend, really.

 

[skinny]

Agreed. Best Korean nosh in Sydney is west of the water fer sure. So many to choose from. Why anybody there doesn't wanna live on Parramatta Rd is beyond me.

 

[Vardoger]

More info about Poseokjeong:

When still in use, the watercourse is thought to have used water from the nearby stream in the Namsan valley. The water of the Namsan valley was appreciated by the Silla people for its purity and cleanliness. A stone turtle once spewed the water, but this feature does not remain today.

Poseokjeong

 

[Yithian]

I last visited the Gochang Site(s) fifteen years ago and have been intending to visit the much closer Ganghwa-island site(s) for so long it's absurd that it hasn't happened until now. A belated birthday trip this weekend presented the chance and I was quite impressed, especially by the main 'table-type' structure, the largest megalithic structure in Korea. The Ganghwa-do history and natural history museums are located right across the path from this cluster of five, and the grounds are exceptionally well kept and equipped with parking and facilities for visitors. The third and fourth stones pictured below were a short distance away from the main field and only my daughter and I plus a young Russian family made the trek to see them.

Although the dolmens tend to be of the smaller variety, I think very few people realise quite how many of them survive in Korea (see below).

=======================================

The Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites are the location of hundreds of stone dolmens which were used as grave markers, and for ritual purposes during the first millennium BCE when the Megalithic Culture was prominent on the Korean Peninsula. The sites were designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. The Korean Peninsula is home to over 35,000 dolmens, accounting for approximately 40% of the world's total; the Gochang, Hwasun, and Ganghwa sites are themselves home to over 1,000 dolmens.

[...]

These dolmens are located on Ganghwa Island, Ganghwa County, Incheon. They are situated on the slopes of mountains and are thus higher in elevation than their counterparts. These dolmens are believed to be the earliest ones made because the dolmen groups in Bugeun-ri (부근리, in Hajeom-myeon) and Gocheon-ri (고천리, in Naega-myeon) resemble the early dolmens. However, this has not been conclusively proved.

Ganghwa Island is a place rich in mountains and water and early ruling groups were formed to make dolmen. Also, there are about 150 dolmens in abundance, which is good for making dolmen. The distribution map of the dolmen shows that the dolmens were closely related to fishing in the Bronze Age, although they are now separated from the sea.

A notable dolmen at Ganghwa is a northern/table-type dolmen, where it was believed that ancestral rites were performed. It is the biggest stone in South Korea with measures of 2.6 × 7.1 × 5.5 meters, but it only has two supporting stones. Combined, the supporting stones and the capstone weigh between 150 and 225 tons.

It was designated as Historic Site No. 137 as one of the representative tombs of the Bronze Age. A large stone measuring 710 cm long, 260 cm high, and 550 cm wide was used, and the shape of the stone is a northern type of dolmen, making it a good source of research on ancient history. The Ganghwa Dolmen site was registered as a World Heritage Site along with Gochang and Hwasun at the 24th UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Cairns, Australia on November 29, 2000.

Much More On Detail & Theory Here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gochang,_Hwasun_and_Ganghwa_Dolmen_Sites

My photos from the main site:




Bonus: The Buddhist take on Instagram from the nearby Jeokseoksa (temple).