Photographic Exhibition Korean Mountains of the Baekdu Daegan:Part 1 Images from North and South Korea By Roger Shepherd.
VENUES Gyeongbokgung Station Gallery, Seoul, Feb17-22 Pataka Museum of Art and Culture, New Zealand, Mar04-Apr02 Gwanghwamun, Seoul, May, 2012
Congratulatory Message
KOREA..FOREST....SERVICE
The Korean Peninsula boasts its beautiful landscape composed of dynamic mountains and rivers. The lay of our land is mountainous. Mr. Baekdu stands highest in the North, spreading out its ridges and Mt. Halla, the highest mountain in the South is located in the southernmost island. In the mainland lays the towering mountain called Mr. Jiri which stretches out southward. The mountain system of Korea is angled mainly by Mr. Baekdu and Mt. Jiri. Recently, the Baekdu-daegan trails have become very popular among hikers. Not only admiring the natural allure and mystery of the mountains, but they also seek opportunities for experiencing our national spirit, lifestyles, customs and culture which the Baekdu-daegan still embraces around. In fact, it is impressing and inspiring that a foreigner hiked all the way along the Baekdu-daegan and took marvelous pictures capturing seasonal beauties of the Korean mountains. This foreigner, Roger Shepherd visited the mountains of North Korea which have not been unveiled to the outside world for 60 years after the Korean War. He plans to continue his tireless expedition to the Baekdudaegan which lays across the border. Through this exhibition, as Honorary Ambassador of the Baekdu-daegan gan he shares the moments of his unique expedition to the Baekdu-daegan which is ever-changing and beautiful on a par with world-renowned mountains. The Korea Forest Service is pleased to sponsor this exhibition showing vivid pictures of the Baekdudaegan taken by Roger Shepherd. The first exhibition is arranged at the Gyeongbokgung Station Gallery of Seoul Metropolitan Museum of Art, open to the public with easy access. I invite you to take this great opportunity to view mountains and rivers of our motherland at this exhibition of the Baekdu-daegan which holds a symbolic meaning of the unification.
February 17, 2012 Don Koo Lee, Ph. D. Minister Korea Forest Service
PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPEDITION of MOUNTAINS of the BAEKDU DAEGAN By Roger Shepherd of HIKE KOREA
INTRODUCTION This photographic exhibition is part of a project by New Zealander Roger Shepherd to document the entire Baekdu-daegan range of the Korean Peninsula. The aim of the project is to produce a photographic essay book on the Baekdu-daegan and its meaning to the Korean people. Roger hopes that his work in both North and South Korea will reveal a homogenous identity the Korean people have with mountains and the subsequent culture and history that was once shared commonly prior to their division. He also intends to discover whether those deep rooted traits and understandings of mountain culture still commonly exist today, or if not, then what are the differences, and how can they be understood.
Views east from Baeksan mountain 1449m on the Baekdu Daegan in Pyeongannamdo province, Maengsan-gun, North Korea-taken October 26, 2011
Venues: Gyeongbokgung Station Gallery Line#3, Seoul, February 17-22. Pataka Museum of Culture and Art, Porirua, New Zealand, March 04 - Apr 02. Gwanghwamun, Seoul, May TBA
The Baekdu-daegan Photographic Expedition
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Although access to the Baekdu-daegan ridge in South Korea is unhindered, access to it in North Korea is unheard of. How could one get access to the North. Through numerous inquiries, Roger found a good contact in the Korea-New Zealand Friendship Society, an NGO of the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign countries. He went to Pyongyang to discuss the idea of photographing mountains of the Baekdu Daegan, where the idea was received warmly. In October 2011, Roger returned to North Korea for 18 days of travel, visiting ten different mountains in three different provinces in the southern regions of North Korea. The photos being exhibited today are a selection from that last visit in North Korea, along with images from South Korea. Some of the mountains in North Korea have not been seen by the outside world for over sixty years. With funding, Roger hopes to return to the northern province of Ryanggangdo in North Korea, where for six weeks he will photograph Korea’s holiest mountain Baekdusan, and the rarely visited Gaema-gowon plateau region.
Geumgangsan Mountains in Goseong-gun, North Korea.: Photo taken October 17, 2011.
KOREA..FOREST....SERVICE
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The geo-culture of Korea The Baekdu-daegan mountain system is located on the Korean peninsula, an 1100km jut of land that protrudes in a south easterly direction from mainland China in North East Asia. The 220,847km2 of peninsula is surrounded by three seas and consists of 8,460km of coastline with a mass of some 3,500 isles. Japan lies to its south.
Korea’s history stretches back some 5000 years to its earliest known civilization, consisting of a race of homogenous Koreans ruled by a leader known as Tangun. Korea’s present day geopolitical boundary begins at its highest and holiest peak Baekdusan Heaven Worship Ceremony on 2744m on its river border with China. It is this feature South Korea’s Taebaeksan Mountain on the Baekdu Daegan. that defines the origins of its unique topography. From its mysterious and revered summit a continuous ridge, known as the Baekdu-daegan traverses and twists down the peninsula for some 1700km, never crossing water, forming Korea’s backbone. From the Baekdu-daegan ridge some 14 subsidiary ridges known as Jeongmaek, disperse throughout the peninsula channeling Korea’s major river ways from there sources at the foothills of the Baekdu-daegan to the seas. From that thousands of lesser ridges splay out all over the peninsula channeling the streams into the rivers.
Early History of the Baekdu-daegan and Mountain Culture
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As the Korean peninsula is mainly mountainous, then it is easy to understand that early Stone, Bronze, and Iron Age Korean tribes were raised in the backdrop of a dramatic mountain-scape that they believed contained spirits. Local village leaders or shamans would pay homage to the mountain spirit (San-Shin) by way of customary ceremonies. In the mid 9 th century, a famous Korean monk named Doseon Guksa, theorized that the Baekdu-daegan mountain system transmitted an energetic vitality. Similar to China’s Feng Shui study of natural sciences, he formed Korea’s own version calling it Pungsu-jiri. He localized its source back to Baekdusan Mountain, implying that the subsequent Baekdu-daegan ridge was therefore the line of which this mountain energy was dispersed. Therefore, its subsidiary ridges, lesser ridges, and waterways were also channels of this energy. The fact that it is also the watershed of the peninsula only added more prominence to his theory, which is still widely accepted today.
KOREA..FOREST....SERVICE
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Recent History of the Baekdu-daegan
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Over the last two millennia the Baekdu-daegan has been seen as a symbol of many varying factors. Religious and cultural artifacts from both the past and present exist on its breathtaking landscape. In places, ancient walls of stone from old mountain fortresses remain crumbling in forest fringed ridges. During the early 20th century, the Baekdu-daegan was a haven for Korea’s patriotic fighters against the occupying Japanese forces. Later on during Korea’s tragic 1950-53 civil war, its ridge and subsidiary ridges were used as routes for commando groups. These days the Baekdu-daegan ridge is enjoyed by long distance hikers in South Korea as a 730km continuous ridge that acts as an outdoor museum of natural history. In North Korea it is still seen as a magnificent symbol of Korean pride and homage. The Baekdu-daegan has always been a ridge that forms the very backbone of the Korean people’s history, culture, religions, and way of thinking. For both Koreas it is still an icon of traditional identity. On a divided peninsula it remains a symbol of unity.
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About Roger Shepherd Roger began a serious interest in Korea and its mountains after a chance introduction to the Baekdu-daegan in 2006 where he walked half (350km) of its length in South Korea, before deciding to return in 2007 and walk it again in the hope of documenting the journey for an English Guide Book. With fellow New Zealander Andrew Douch, they both completed the 2007, 735km journey in 70 days, becoming the first foreigners to do so. The 450 page English Guide Book from that expedition was published in 2010. Roger returned to Korea in 2009 where he long distance hiked a series of other mountain ridges for six months, before deciding to leave his vocation as a Police Officer and return to Korea to set up a business (Hike Korea) that would specialize in the promotion of Korean Mountain Culture through photography and writing.
Prior to the above, Roger was a traveler, where he spent eight years of his life in various parts of Africa working as a Wildlife Ranger, Game Handler, Safari and Fishing Guide. He has an MA in Strategic Studies through Victoria University. KOREA..FOREST....SERVICE
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송진산
자유령
백두산(2,750) 북포대산 (2,289)
관모봉(2,541) 궤상봉(2,333)
백사봉 두류산(2,399) 백모봉
후치령 대암산
비래봉 천마산
화사봉(2,117) 부전령 황초령
낭림산
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차일봉 용문산
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백산 문필봉
소가래봉 철옹산 민봉산
청남정맥
정흥리고원지대
백산
북대봉 우라발산
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백암산 오석산
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오봉산
추애산
철령
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해서정맥 향로봉
멸악산
불타산
진부령
대성산
수룡산 운봉산
백운산 임진북예성남정맥 진봉산 한북정맥
구룡령
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한남정맥
매봉산 선달산
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월악산 대미산 국사봉
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대야산 속리산
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추풍령
대둔산 주화산
삼도봉
낙동정맥
덕유산 육십령
영취산 여원재
내장산
지리산 무등산
호남정맥 사자산
범 례 백두대간 정 맥
한라산
백운산 조계산
낙남정맥 무학산
백사봉
장백정간
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금정산
Roger can be contacted at roger@hikekorea.com or his website at www.hikekorea.com Tel: (ROK) 82 010 29667612 or (NZ) 64 027 8401969 Discovering Korean Identity through Mountain. This exhibition has been kindly sponsored by Korea Forest Service