To be honest, I’ve always wondered why an item listed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World register was only rated a “Treasure” (no 1085) rather than a “National Treasure”. The three sets of the encyclopaedia’s first edition are currently held by the National Library of Korea, the Kyujanggak Institute For Korean Studies and the Academy … [Read More]
Heritage Category: Memory of the World
Seduced by Yi Seong-gye: the first volumes in the Sillok are translated
The Annals of King T’aejo, Founder of Korea’s Choson Dynasty Translated and annotated by Choi Byonghyon Harvard University Press, 2014, 1,028 pp I wandered into the University bookshop last night for a browse. I’d just been to see Andrew Killick talk about Hwang Byungki at SOAS, and thought I might try to pick up his … [Read More]
What is the Donguibogam and what is in it?
Koreans usually have two choices when they have to visit a clinic: one is a medical clinic, employing western medicine for treatment; and the other is a traditional clinic, employing traditional medicine. There are many obvious differences between the two types, mainly concerning methods of diagnosis and treatment. Most importantly, the traditional medical clinic has … [Read More]
Donguibogam: Prevention before Treatment
The Donguibogam is a medical encyclopedia written by Heo Jun (1539-1615), a royal physician and renowned doctor, in the 16th to 17th century. People often say there has been no traditional Korean medicine (TKM) doctor greater than him since. The encyclopedia was registered at UNESCO as part of the ‘Memory of the World’ register in … [Read More]
Haeinsa celebrates 1,000 years of the Tripitaka Koreana
Haeinsa Temple is hosting its first contemporary art exhibition, involving 34 artists from 10 countries, to commemorate the millennial anniversary of the Tripitaka Koreana, which UNESCO has designated one of the “most important and most complete corpus of Buddhist doctrinal texts in the world.” The exhibition’s title — 通 | 통 | Tong — uses … [Read More]
Is there a doctor in the peninsula? – Heo Jun and the Donguibogam medical textbook
Known as one of the greatest books in the history of Eastern medicine, the Donguibogam was composed by Heo Jun, a court physician in the early 17th century, and is today included as part of UNESCO’s World Heritage list. Despite the huge advances in medicine since that time, it is still referred to by doctors … [Read More]
New Korean heritage listings at UNESCO
The Archives of the Gwangju uprising, plus the Ilseongnok (account of Joseon kings’ daily lives) have just been listed in UNESCO Memory of the World http://bit.ly/lJNKdY # The Ilseongnok is designated as National Treasure No.153 [Read More]
Tripitaka Koreana is a copy, but an improvement on the original
Interesting article on the Tripitaka Koreana – an early example of Korean improvement on foreign intellectual property. http://bit.ly/fjShBC # [Read More]
2010 Travel Diary #25: Heo Jun and Sancheong’s herbal heritage
Thursday 6 May 2010. The mayor hurries off for an appointment: not only is the Sancheong Medicinal Herb Festival in full swing, but elections are approaching in a month’s time. In fact I’m amazed he has found time to meet with this foreign blogger at all. He leaves the rest of us to finish the … [Read More]
Korean heritage at UNESCO
Korea is rightly proud of some of its heritage, much of which has been given official recognition by UNESCO. For those of you who like lists, here are the various items of Korea’s tangible and intangible heritage which have been so listed. Also included below are links to any LKL articles on these treasures. (1) … [Read More]
The LKL Korea Trip 2009 pt 6: Haeinsa
Monday 20 July 2009 The trip to Haeinsa is via Daegu. A quick tube journey to the inappropriately named Busan Central Bus Terminal – at the northernmost extremity of the Busan public transport system (Nopodong), and then the express bus to East Daegu station takes nearly two hours. Another tube to the Seobu bus terminal … [Read More]
Making History Part 3 – Uigwe
By Matthew Jackson It occasioned the UNESCO inspectors no little surprise when they came to inspect the restoration of the Hwaseong fortress, in order to verify its resemblance to the original complex. They were shown an exhaustive eight volume report documenting its original construction, prepared at the time it was built around two hundred years … [Read More]
Making History Part 2 – Diaries of the Royal Secretariat
By Matthew Jackson After the invasion of Kanghwa Island in 1886, a French navy officer remarked that he was surprised to find that even the poorest Koreans he met lived in companionship with books. There was a strong culture of writing as well as reading in Korea, particularly following the adoption of Hangul. It was … [Read More]
Making History: Part 1 – The Sillok
In the first of three articles, Matthew Jackson looks at the ways that the official history of the Joseon dynasty was written. At most Korean events I have been to, there has generally been a Korean studiously taking photographs throughout, for reasons that were not immediately obvious to me. I once asked, and was told … [Read More]
An introduction to Hangeul – part 2
By Matthew Jackson. Despite the technical merits of Hangeul, it is hard to get beyond the fact that it is, after all, just a phonetic alphabet, albeit a unique one. As with other treasures of Korea, the real value of Hangeul lies in the story behind it. Its creator, King Sejong the Great, worked very … [Read More]
The Tripitaka Koreana – part 1
Matthew Jackson continues his series of articles on the important treasures from Korea’s past One crowning achievement of Korea’s Buddhist heritage that is not included in the Bozar ‘Smile of Buddha’ exhibition is the Tripitaka Koreana. There is a practical reason for this, as it consists of 81,258 woodblocks, weighs 280 tons in total, and … [Read More]