Good Fortune, Welcome

The Five Fortunes or the Five Blessings

Thoughts of good fortune permeate all aspects of Korean society - with symbols and superstitions for exam taking (and passing) to negating jinxes and hexes to food and health to calendrical fortunes. The Korean concepts of seeking good fortune were borrowed from the Chinese in the centuries when China was the "Big Brother" to Korea, the "Little Brother" - a long period of cultural sharing. Many types of fortunes exist, but those fortunes most sought became known as the Five Fortunes or the Five Blessings, and they are: Good Luck, Prosperity, Longevity, Happiness and Wealth. These symbols are subtly evident by symbols in nature or in the more obvious written fortunes hung on bedroom walls and glued to the front door gates of traditional homes.

While walking this past weekend in the downtown area where there remain a small scattering of hanok (traditional tile-roofed, wooden homes with central courtyards) I noticed that on the front door gates of a few of the hanok fortune papers from the lunar New Year, celebrated at the end of January this year, were still glued. The fortune papers were on the doors so that when the doors were opened the good luck would also be swung inside with the visitor or household member as he or she entered into the outer courtyard; from there the fotune would freely flow on toward the house and its multiple compartments. In this particular picture, the left strip of fortune attached to the door is a welcome to fortune; the right strip is for wishing for good fortune as spring comes. Spring, the symbol of renewal and the beginning of a time where food could once again be produced, was much looked forward to. The agricultural society (the society that "we" think of as most traditional to Korea) had many celebrations and expressions for the coming of spring.

This second picture is another beautiful outside door that leads to the household courtyard. Although no paper is on it inviting luck and fortune, the fish hung at the top of the door symbolizes "abundance" which is poured down on the person entering. To get the concept of "abundance", one must have knowledge of the Korean language as this fish and the word for "abundance" share phonological sounds, the linguistic phenomenon known as a "rebus" or in this case can be known as a "visual pun". I have also seen these fish in some of the 식당, tiny mom-and-pop style eateries that are not to be confused with restaurants as Koreans typically think of a restaurant as having some class or some special ambience or food; the menu of a 식당 is limited to Korean food and that seems to be the tell-tale distinction.



In the same vicinity another paper, much larger and more complicated, was taped to a rich brown door (the wood was probably stained as the vast majority of these houses was made with a Korean pine, possibly the Korean red pine, that was grown at a higher altitude and thus grew more slowly and so is more durable as housing material than other trees available). I couldn't get a translation for this scripted fortune but it was likely purchased at a fortune tellers, a shaman's or near a temple. The very large and much celebrated Seon (Zen) temple, the Chogyesa, nearby runs a lucrative market around New Year's providing almanacs for reading fortunes and talisman papers to be hung around the home and elsewhere.

One other symbol, that of the tiger, is frequently placed on front gate doors. The tiger is said to chase away evil spirits - very important in a country fraught with spirits - and so was viewed as a powerful talisman for safety within the home. This year especially, 2010, as year of the very propitious white tiger, would have been a doubly beneficial year for putting the tiger symbol on the front gate doors.

Okcheon Temple, Gyeongsangnam-do

For a more in-depth write-up of what is of interest to see in the elusive Goseong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do, please read Kim Hyungyoon's article in the Koreana. The following is liberally taken from this informative article.

Okcheonsa Temple on Mount Yeonhwasan in Gaecheon-myeon is a large, old temple which has as many as 12 buildings, including the Daeungjeon (main Buddha hall - pictured above) built in 1745 and the 300-year-old Jabangnu Pavilion. These large buildings are arranged in a manner which makes them resemble a lotus flower when seen from above. Okcheonsa is he home to numerous Buddhist treasures. The merits and values of Buddha are clearly on display in the temple's 120 or so relics, which include the pictured iron drum called imjamyeong banja made by Goryeo artisans in 1252 and used in both shamanic and Buddhist rituals, a large bell very similar to the Emile Bell located in Gyungju, the capitol of the Shilla Dynasty, a bronze incense burner, and the pictured wooden blocks of the Buddhist script Geunganggyeong (Sutra to Teach the Principles of Buddhism).

Songhakdong, Ancient Tombs in Goseong

As the bus approached the Goseong bus terminal, seven carefully manicured Gaya tombs erupted from the land. The careful trimming of the grasses is a sign of veneration to the deceased as respect must be maintained by traditional standards up to the fourth generation. However, these tombs are from an ancient era, the Gaya confederacy (42-532 CE). The language of the time was Old Korean and the religions were the indigenous shamanism as well as the not-so-long previously introduced Buddhism. The people buried were interred under religous practices of respecting the dead (a combination of both religions?) and the deceased were the royal polities. Actually, it is believed that these massive earthen tomb sites were built in the latter couple of centuries of the confederacy, or loose grouping of city-states, and thus the reason for carefully maintaining some of the founding "fathers" graves.

Of all the ancient kingdoms, the Gaya confederacy seems to have had the most international relations and trade with Japan, and this relationship seems to be reflected in tomb no. 1. Both Korean and Japanese historians debate the shape of tomb no. 1 because of its shape, which is similar to the Japanese front-square-rear-circle style tombs. (Korea, due to its 35 years of forced colonization by Japan from 1910-1945, still have much residual resentment about having "things Japanese" discoloring their history. Both cultures make claims for passing their culture on to each other; both cultures claim to be the first one to have a cultural attribute as neither one wants to admit that they "learned" or "acquired" knowledge from the "competitor".)

Archaeology of the Tombs

Donga University Museum examined the tombs from November 1999 to February 2000. Here are some of their findings:

(1) All tombs mounds were set and hardened artificially by the Panchuk technique: flatten the hill and each subsequent layer is hardened before proceeding.
(2) Tomb No. 1 is a group of three overlapping mounds containing 17 stone coffins and stone chambers, thereby proving to be different from the Japanese front-square-rear-circle tomb style.
(3) No. 1B-1 northernmost stone-chamber tomb has a style different from other Gaya tombs. It is confirmed to be a colored tomb with its entrance, stone walls, and ceiling painted red.
(4) 1,000 artifacts were unearthed: pottery, gilt-bronze earrings, horse gear, big silver thread-decorated daggers, high bronze cups, and glass beads.
(5) From the unearthed artifacts, the tumuli are believed to date back to the Small Gaya Dynasty in the latter 5th C and first half of 6th C. They are presumed to be the tombs of rulers and kings of the dynasty, and this Goseong tomb site is known to be the location of the Small Gaya.

The South Side of the Tombs

The Chosun Dynasty (1392-1910) was a period in Korean history when Confucianism flourished. Either in that time or since, a dense bamboo thicket was planted on the southern side, the typical side for planting bamboo based on reasoning steeped in pungsujiri and the symbol of bamboo for "straight" "correct" "scholarly" and probably a host of other traditionally held beliefs about bamboo. Walking around the lumpy royal graveyard, I passed some elderly Koreans harvesting some bamboo - for food? pencil containers and other household items? They waved their machetes friendly and happy that I was interested in their labor.

The Goindol Before

In front of the seven tombs sits a lone dolmen, a prehistoric tomb representative of the Bronze age. This goindol or jiseongmyo (dolmen) was not originally located here but was brought in to represent an even more ancient Korean people-group, one even more mysterious than the Gaya. This style of stone tomb is found widely in the Korean peninsula, through northeastern regions of China, and extends into the Kyushu region in Japan. This is a particularly rare goindol for it has 30 holes like cupolas 2.5cm in diameter. Seven of the holes are presumed to symbolize the Big Dipper, of spiritual significance in Korean society.

Sangjokam, the Elephant Rock

Sangjokam, due to its peculiar appearance, has been mystified through myth. Many of the peculiar rocks in the area have some kind of myth woven around them, but the legend of Sangjokam is commonly known to locals and was shared to me by a couple of elderly museum workers sitting on sheets of igneous rock imprinted with dinosaur tracks beside the cave. (I have to admit that the 사투리 "provincial dialect" of the deep south really prevented me from understanding the whole story, but I nodded my head dutifully and then tried to find a more complete story on the internet; there isn't much.) Anyway, the workers were waiting for the water to recede so they wouldn't have to climb the steep stairs and go over the cliff but could walk through the mysterious caves in the rockface where the fairies of heaven are said to have visited.


Sangjokam literally means "sang" (elephant), "jok" (foot) and "am" (rock). From a distance it does indeed look like the heavy legs and feet of an elephant. From the seaward angle the four leg-pillars seem to be holding up a rock table, and it is this rock-table that the myth is mostly concentrated around.

Okhwangsangje is the Korean emperor of heaven. The name is a derivation from the Koreanized Sangje or the Chinese Shangti, the supreme ruler of the universe based on Taoism. Myths around the the Korean emperor of heaven frequently employ some musical instrument like a flute or other heavenly tool that is made of jade, and so the Korean emperor's name has been expanded to Okhwangsangje, or Great Jade Emperor (of heaven). According to legend, the great Okhwangsangje would look down on earth and see the beauty of Sangjokam, and liking to wear new, beautious and golden clothes, sent some fairies down from heaven to weave golden brocades for him on the rock. While the fairies were in such a temptingly picturesque spot, they bathed in the Seonnyoetang. Once finished with their weaving, they presented the glorious clothing to their emperor. What is left of their presence on earth is the rock loom and the 50cm mineral-green, perfectly round pool of water where they bathed inside of the caves.

Goseong Dinosaur Museum

After seeing the dinosaur museum at Uhangri in Jeollanam-do (Goseong is the next province over, Gyeongsangnam-do), I was not so interested in this museum. This is an impressive museum but since this is the forerunner of dinosaur museums in Korea, it lacks the volume, layout, visual creativity and interactiveness that Uhangri has. That said, it does have some interesting artifacts. Included among these are 7 real dinosaur fossils, 37 dinosaur fossil reproductions, 108 fossils of other species ("other species" was never clarified to me), and 17 very impressive model dinosaurs. The museum was opened in 2004, held its first dinosaur festival in 2006 and its second in 2009, and now is drawing a lot of national and international attention. Rather impressive numbers, 1.7 million tourists, visited the museum during the 2009 festival months! The day when I visited was delightfully peaceful. On a weekday at 10am the opening hour, I probably shared the museum with one other person.

Built in Sangjogam County Park on the abrupt mountainside over-looking the former paleolake where dinos once trod, it has front road access and access from the back gate, below which one of the world's most impressive concentrated collections of dinosaur tracks are located. (Ironically, the dinosaur tracks are free 24/7 for the viewing but the museum has a charge - the natural vs. the manmade, and the natural is so much more impressive ... so go figure! However, the view from the low mountain top within the museum gates and the dino play area for kids should be appreciated by all as it is very cute and well-planned.


In the museum, I found the model dinosaurs particularly fascinating as I was interested to see how the leg bones were put together at the joints and curious to see if "caps" were reproduced on the bones. "Caps" are supposed to be bones that fuse to the ends of human and other mammal bones and once fused further growth of that mammal is impossible. Dinosaurs, classified as reptiles and not as mammals, are not to have caps ... but I was just poking my nose in everything because learning is free and for the alert. I didn't see any caps but rather doubt I would be able to recognize them anyway, but have to say, because I was looking for something specific, I was more aware of the detail put into the modelling of the bones, and so now I'm curious about WHY some dinosaurs are modelled with darker materials and others with lighter - there must be a prescribed system to it. Am puzzling on that right now ... must take a class in "bone reconstruction" to get some solid answers.

Walking along Goseong Dinosaur Tracks

From Oddity to Fame

In 1982 a specialist explained the odd rock imprints that had been a veritble puzzle to the locals in the Goseong area. Despite puzzlement when asked, locals principally ignored the peculiar rock impressions (although some regarded them as traces of cow excrement), but no one interpretted their presence as a mysterious link to a prehistoric past. Once, however, a specialist proclaimed the tracks as indeed a "gold mine" for dinosaur tracks, the area developed into a tourist attraction, hosting national and international visitors in the thousands every year, especially considering that due to the concentration of tracks, Goseong is considered one of the top dinosaur sites in the world - the top three being: Goseong, a site in Colorado, and Argentina's tracks.


The Goseong tracks in the Sangjogam Country Park can be seen around the clock as they are on a beautifully landscaped raised boardwalk for tourists to casually stroll along at low or high tide and view the huge diversity of tracks. The best viewing time is at low-tide, particularly when the moon is pulling the tide out, as few tracks can be seen when the gentle lap of water washes around the feet of the boardwalk that circles around two rocky promontories and curls along a wide beachy area.

The black layers of sediment rock lie slightly tilted toward the sea, and on these tilted sheets are the footprints of the ancient giants, whose tell-tale passing is certified in the igneous rocks. Goseong and the whole of Korea has very few fragments of the giants of yesteryear, but the footprints in the sedement are virtually the only physical traces of their passing.

What Are Dinosaurs?

Dinosaurs supposedly dominated the world in the Mesozoic Era until the Cretaceous Period (about 65 million years ago). The name "dinosaur" itself is a creation from two Greek words - "deinos" meaning "terrible" and "saurous" meaning lizard. As evolutionists believe dinosaurs walked the earth in domination and autonomy only during the Mesozoic Era. The various "terrible lizards" strolled the earth while slicing through the air above were the flying pterosaurs and swarming through the seas were icthyosaurs and plesiosaurs.

Korea has a rich dinosaur track population, and in fact, is the world's most dense concentration of dinosaurs and birds along its southern coast. Along the 6 km-long shoreline of Sangjogam County Park where this particular grouping of tracks are located are more than 1900 sets of footprints. Footprints here are from the quadruped, herbivorous dinos with long necks (sauropods - the most numerous here), the bipedal and quadripedal herbivores (ornithopods), and the bipedial carnivor dinosaurs (theropods - relatively rare when compared with the representation of sauropods present).

What is very unique about this site is that 70% of the dinosaur tracks in Goseong are parallel trails of ornithopods classified into nine different species, suggesting that these track-makers were moving in a herd. In various places dyke (cooling magma) and columnar joints (the rapid cooling and contraction of cooling lava) disrupt the dinosaur tracks in some spots.


Ripple marks in the sedement give geologists clues for interpretation of wave action, direction of the flow of water and lake turmoil/passivity based on the size and shape of the ripple marks left behind on the paleoshore.


This site has been designated as Natural Monument site #411, and Korea is trying to have these sites be inscribed on the UNESCO World Natural Heritage list under the title of Korean Cretaceous Dinosaur Coast.

March 14, White Day

White Day is a holiday started in Japan as a marketing strategy and was quickly borrowed by Korean marketing. Since both countries had and still have some strong ideas on male and female characteristics, both countries have two separated days for the two genders to demonstate or 'confess' their love. Valentine's Day is the day for women to 'confess' their love to their men, and only giving something chocolate is appropriate. On White Day, exactly one month later, men 'confess' their love to their women, but giving chocolate is deemed inappropriate; men must give candy. And for those unfortunate people who do not receive their respective chocolate or candy on Valentine's or White Day, they must gather with friends one month later - April 14 - and eat 자장면, noodles with a thick black salty soypaste sauce - and commiserate on their loneliness together.

This year I am saved from the horrendous 자장면 since I just happened to be in a downtown office when an office worker came in and offered me a roll of lifesavers. I was mildly surprised but as soon as he said "White Day" I happily took the candy roll and stuffed it in my pocket! Saved by a stranger!

These three days are nearly universally celebrated now in Korea, although Black Day is regarded a bit as a joke and yet for those who "suffer" the shame of not having a boy- or girlfriend on that day, it loses a bit of its jesting qualities. According to Marteen Meijer in his book "What's So Good about Korea, Marteen?" other days exist, but I have to say, they don't get the attention by the youth or the marketers as do the first three:

Valentine's Day (Feb 14) - girls give chocolates to boys to show their devotion
White Day (Mar 14) - boys give candy to girls
Black Day (Apr 14) - boys or girls who didn't receive chocolates or candy eat 자장면 to show their disappointment
Rose Day (May 14)
Kiss Day (June 14)
Silver Day (July 14) - boy-/girlfriends are introduced to parents, and may exchange silver rings
Green Day (Aug 14)
Music Day (Sept 14)
Wine Day (Oct 14)
Movie Day (Nov 14)
Hug Day (Dec 14)
Diary Day (Jan 14)

"The Girl-Son"

A True Story of Tradition Turned on Its Tail

Park Im-duk was born at about the turn of the 20th century (1896) to a Confucian scholar and his wife. Unfortunately, Im-duk was a girl-child and not the much-desired male offspring that would be the inheritor of both property and ritual rites. Even more unfortunately her 사주 - birth year, month, day and hour - were particularly strong. Strength was valued in men but a woman was to be meek and mild and subservient. Women were not to "wear the pants" as evident in the proverb "a hen must not crow". Imduk was born in the hour of the tiger, the day of the dragon, the month of the rooster, and the year of the monkey. In addition, she was born near mountains known as the tiger's lair in a village location believed as a home of a dragon, and so being born in such a place on the day of the dragon was a powerful sign. To combat the power of her 사주 for she was destined to be clever like the monkey, loud as the rooster, powerful as the dragon and raging like the tiger, her father carefully selected her name, Im-duk, which translated means "virtuous woman".

Im-duk's mother, Onyu, meant "meek" and Im-duk's name-meaning was also of a meek nature reflecting her gender. However, Im-duk's Confucian father died in a cholera outbreak when she was six, and Onyu, though an illiterate woman, was determined to give her daughter the education that Confucian society had denied herself and would also deny Im-duk. So mother and daughter moved to another village where Onyu disguised Im-duk as a boy, changed her daughter's name to In-duk meaning "benevolence" to reflect a new image and character to be tapped into, and sent her girl-son to school for a whole year as a boy.

In-duk never returned to her feminine name. She ended up attending Samsung Methodist Mission School for Girls, Ewha High School and Ewha College. She was one of the first women to graduate from college, during the Japanese colonial period too, which was shocking behavior for women to do at the time. She showed strength of mind throughout her life - from imprisonment after the March 1 Movement, 1919, to further education in the US to starting her own self-supporting school in 1964, Induk Vocational School for Boys which in 1980 divided into two institutions - the Induk Technical High School with over 2,000 male and female students and Induk Institute of Design with over 3,000 male and female students. If her father feared strength in his daughter due to beliefs in her birth hour, Park Im-duk a.k.a. In-duk certainly showed that strength during her extraordinary 84 years of unconventional life as the girl-son to her equally undaunted mother.

"Mud" Paintings in a Restaurant

옛날농장, Long Ago Playground, is a meat restaurant in the Hyehwa culture area. The menu specializes in grilled meat with multiple side dishes and a variety of traditional soju, Korean liquors, to complement the traditional meal with.


The heavy split log tables and benches lined the walls and each wall contained a different spark of sentiment from "long long ago", exemplifying the name of restaurant. The false mud walls were painted a smoky yellow with browns and ucher dry-brush paintings of traditional tomb iconography, for example, mythical stylized birds, hunters on horseback as portrayed in a famous tomb mural, and lowing cows in the mud and stone stable walls.

On another wall was a monk sitting astride a tiger (in perfect contentment as if he were going to the next world) and the famous storybook tiger smoking a long pipe.

The 농장버섯탕, mushroom stew, was spicy and loaded with a variety of mountain mushrooms. Side dishes included the ubiquitous kimchi, processed fish cakes, sweetened black beans, garlic stems with shrimp, a mountain vegetable, tiny anchovies, a sour white kimchi soup for cooling the mouth, a dipping sauce and then mixed grain rice. A very quality meal with great surroundings!

March 1, Independence Day

Korean Independence Day is referred to as Sam-il-nal, translated "3.1 Day". Three-one day refers to March as "three", the third month of the year, and One as the first day of the month. Obviously this day follows the solar calendar, which Korean officially borrowed in the Kapo Reforms of 1894-5 but didn't officially follow until later. Specific days in the war are commonly referred to by the solar month and day when that event occurred, for example, the Korean War began on June 25, 1950, and so it's referred to as the 6.25 War.

March 1 commemorated the March 1st Movement in 1919 when Koreans nationwide demonstrated peacefully for independence from the Japanese who had occupied their country and colonialized it since 1910. The Koreans were able through word-of-mouth to spread the time, date and place of peaceful gathering to voice their collective sentiments against being colonized. The Japanese were taken by surprise but not for long. They struck out to slaughter the peaceful demonstrators and then began arrests of all known people who had participated in the demonstrations. What began as an independence statement for their country initiated more Japanese reforms and suppression which lasted until 1945 when the the Japanese were finally thrown out of the peninsula.

Now, like U.S. citizens on the 4th of July, few citizens reflect on the blood price their national forebears gave so that Korean could be a free nation today. Now March 1 is a national holiday for rest and relaxation. For high school and university students, the March 1 holiday simply gives students one more day of holiday before the school year officially begins.