On our one free day near the end of the festival, filmmaker Jasmine Dellal, Atlyazi Monthly Editor Firat Yucel and I visited Hanok Village, where eight hundred traditional Korean houses have been preserved.
Arriving at the village, we found some kind of Korean dance being performed in front of Jeondong Abbey, a church built with Byzantine and Romanesque influences, and considered to be the most beautiful church in Korea.
This is what I assume to be the main gate (it's the biggest, anyway) into Gyeonggijeon, a six-hundred-year-old shrine built to house the portrait of King Taejo, founder of the Jeoson dynasty (the photo before this showed a portrait of a later king--not sure who he was).
This is a palanquin for royalty. No, I didn't climb in--it'd probably fall apart if I did.
Near the shrine were some recreations (I suspect they were recreations--they looked as if they were in too good condition) of traditional Korean houses, complete with wood-frame doors held together by Jeonju's famous paper (extremely fragile--I almost put my finger through the door (Almost. Honest.), and centrally heated floors. The floors makes sense when you remember that heat rises from the floors to warm the rest of the house, that Koreans sit cross-legged on the floor to eat, and that they eventually sleep on it (I'd hate to think what the homeowners paid by way of fire insurance, though).
This is a typical Korean kitchen, circa I suppose 1400s. It's tough, putting food on a table, innit?
"No smoking." No--really.
Note the roof--well, what little of the roof is included in the picture. Japanese roofs tend to have straightforward lines, while Chinese roofs have ostentatious curves. The curve of the roof of a Korean house or building is so much subtler, a sort of swoop between a Japanese and Chinese roof. As many a Korean has put it, it's like "the sweep of a bird's wings, about to take flight."
Some friends I made, visiting the shrine. That 'V" sign seems to be a gesture many Koreans make when having their pictures taken (unless it's some formal, occasion like a red-carpet affair)--I was just following their cue.
"Victory, Joe!"
