18 Blast from the Past
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
September 2021
blast from the past
▲ Mt. Halla crater. (Hallasan National Park)
The Secrets of Jeju Everyone on the peninsula is familiar with Jeju-do – Korea’s largest island but smallest province. We are all familiar with Jeju’s dol haleubang (stone statues) and its juicy hallabong (oranges). It is known for its wind and rocks and women. For numerous couples, it was their honeymoon destination. In the minds of many, Jeju is to Korea as Hawaii is to the U.S. But what far fewer people are aware of is the story of its founding or how great a place Jeju is to visit in the wintertime. For this reason, the Gwangju News brings you two articles from its archives: “The Three Founders of Jeju” by Bradley Weiss and Shim Kyu (October 2014) and “An Island in Winter – Jeju in the Cold Season” by Seth Pevey (March 2011). — Ed.
JEJU’S THREE PROGENITORS On Jeju Island, one can visit a shrine and complex in the heart of Jeju City centered around three holes in the ground, known as Samseonghyeol (삼성혈). According to legend, this is the site where three demigods emerged in the era before the island was inhabited. The three, referred to with the honorific title eulla (을라, “head of clan,”) are known as Go (고/高), Yang (양/梁), and Bu (부/夫), and are also seen as the progenitors of those three family lines, which bear those same three family surnames and remain prominent on the island today. The legend continues that the three lived by hunting and gathering until the arrival one day of a ship to Jeju’s shore. On board were three princesses from the kingdom of Byeongak, who were to be brides for the three demigods. The princesses brought with them cattle and horses as well as five different seeds to help establish agriculture on the island. From that time onward, the three families established Jeju’s Tamna Kingdom and an agrarian way of life. No solid evidence establishes the time of these legendary events, but they have been conjectured to have coincided with the Three Kingdoms Period on the mainland (57
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BC – 668 AD). Other legendary history lends support to the idea, as three brothers – including a certain GoHu, also known as Go Deuk-jong – were purported to have been received by the Silla court. They are said to be 15th-generation direct descendants from Go Eulla, and it was at this time that the name “Tamna” was officially recognized for the island. The title used for the three demigods, eulla, might provide another indication as to the antiquity of the legend. The word comes from the language of the small Buyeo Kingdom, which existed from the 2nd century BC up until 494 AD, pre-dating the beginning of the Three Kingdoms Period. However, maybe we can draw more significance from the story’s symbolism. The tale seems to be a fairly straightforward allegory, a microcosm of the transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to that of sedentary agriculture, which the vast majority of humanity has undergone since the Neolithic. Note also how the emergence of the three eulla from the earth to marry seaborne women clearly reflects the maritime geography of the island, diverging from the mainland’s more typical
2021-08-26 �� 10:36:44
