Surrounded by the beautiful and culturally entrusted mountains of Sodoksan and Namsan, Seoakseowon Confucian academy at the foot of Mt. Sodoksan in Gyeongju was our first stop. Typical of many historical sites I have experienced in Korea it appeared to have been built yesterday, however this complex dates back to the Shilla era. As a general trend in Korea many historical buildings were burned down or destroyed in invasions and occupations, never the less the original sites still remain the same at least in a spiritual and architectural sense. Being from England I am very used to experiencing the original thing, but in this case I was soon in love with the place.
The day of the visit felt like the first day of winter and one of the best things about Korean construction is under floor heating, not only is it extremely efficient, it produces a warmth unlike no other to the extent that one of the floors in the building appeared to have been scorched! Maybe this was the reason many old buildings in Korea burnt down. The winters in Korea are very cold and its plausible ‘frigophobic’ individuals may have gone overboard with the desire to keep warm…but we can only guess.
 |
| (Seoakseowon Confucian academy in Gyeongju, Korea) |
Myself and my fellow class mates who study Korean language once a week at Gyeongju’s Shilla culture centre were invited to experience a new program aimed at foreigners, giving them a ‘culture experience’ this program also aims to help the elderly unemployed people earn a living by working at Hanok’s (traditional Korean houses) and other historic buildings included in the program. The experience includes a tour, traditional green tea and rice cake making.
During the tour I learned that the roof design on traditional Korean buildings symbolizes the yin and yang philosophy of universal balance. The number of rooms in a building depended on status for example an Emperors place may have had up to 1000 rooms. If you were caught with too many rooms you had to remove them!
After the tour we moved into the building as seen above. Here we made green tea which I realized was not just a case of boiling a kettle, it is in fact a meditation and relaxation technique. The tea set resembled that of sexually deprived grandmother and a ceramics enthusiast! (See Korean tea set below) If you’re a flexible individual I guess this experience is just for you but in my and my friends case we begged to differ. The last time a sat cross legged for that long was during my primary school days. The team was now physically disabled albeit enjoying delicious green tea, well worth the sacrifice.
 |
| Traditional korean tea set with the distinctive patruding handle. |
After recovering from temporary disabilities we were then armed with large wooden hammers and rice, this is one way the monks at Seoakseowon Confucian academy relieved their stresses from long study periods, actually it probably wasn’t never the less it was a good way to get active after sitting around sipping nok cha (green tea). We hammered the rice hard until the grains disappeared and a thick white splodge came to bear. The cameraman regularly had to dodge stray rice cake residues in between answering his mobile phone as the team got into the swing of things. This method of course is the traditional way in which rice cakes were made and I have to say they were the best rice cakes I have tasted in Korea, not only because of the hard work we put it.
The cultural experience was certainly good fun and a great way to learn about ancient Korean culture, with a good group of friends it’s certainly an experience I would pay for.
