Jo Jul 7, 2024
Among the precious cultural legacies created by the Korean nation is Nine-storey Tower at Anguk Temple. This stone tower of the Koryo age is at Anguk Temple in Ponghak-dong, Phyongsong City.
The tower is built of granite. It is 6.23 meters tall with the square plane.
The tower consists of platforms, body and head. Every side of the lower platform is engraved with two lotus patterns the bottoms of which are decorated with bracken leaf patterns in the middle.
The upper platform is a lot higher than the lower one. All the sides of the platforms have three pillars each to be divided into two parts.
The roofing stones are pretty tall and three layers of eaves supports are overhanging.
The middle parts of the eaves edge are hollow and the both ends are smoothly raised. The vestiges of windbells are found at the end of the angle rafters.
On the top of the tower is a globular stone.
The whole tower feels like shooting up without much ascending reduction of distances between the roofing stones but with fair height of platforms, bodystone and roofing stones.
This stone tower is a precious legacy that demonstrates the skills of the Korean people in building stone towers. It is in good preservation and care thanks to the policy of the Workers’ Party of Korea on protecting the national inheritance.
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Jo Jul 3, 2024
Korean parents have a traditional custom of giving a special party to their children celebrating their first birthday.
Traditionally, rice cakes such as steamed rice cake, sorghum cake coated with red-bean jam and five-colored half-moon-shaped rice cake stuffed with beans and flavored with pine needles and fruits of the season including dates, apples, pears, persimmons, etc. were prepared on the table, and things like rice, thread, brush, book and bow were placed in front. Grown-ups, watching the baby’s cute tricks at the table, wished them normal growth, future happiness, great talents and good fortune.
Dishes prepared for first birthday were the same for both sexes, but objects were different.
For boys, a bow and arrow and a book and brush were prepared to the effect that parents wanted them to be a brave warrior or a scholar.
For girls, a reel of thread, a ruler, a pair of scissors, etc. were prepared. These show the desire of parents for their daughters to be good at needle work.
The custom of giving a first-birthday party reflects the love and desire of our people for their children to be excellent persons who defend the country and promote the happiness of their families.
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Jo Jul 1, 2024
Ryonggok School is located at the southern foot of Mt Ryongak in Pyongyang.
It was a private institution of the feudal Joson dynasty for educating rising generations.
The school was first built in 1656 and rebuilt in 1713, which is still preserved.
In line with the general requirements of private schools, it is divided into two zones ― lecture halls and temple.
If you go through the outer gate into the yard, you will find an eastern lecture hall on the right and a western lecture hall on the left. A flight of steps in the north of the yard leads up to the inner gate. If you walk through the inner gate, you will see a temple. To the northwest of the temple is a pavilion for a monument.
Ryonggok School, one of the typical private schools of the country, is a precious cultural legacy that shows the appearance and architecture of educational institutions in the years of the feudal Joson dynasty.
President
Thanks to the policy of the Workers’ Party of Korea on protecting national heritage, Ryonggok School is in good preservation and maintenance.
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Jo Jun 3, 2024
From ancient times, Korean people have made active use of hot spring water, a natural resource especially good for medical treatment and longevity.
The old books like “Chronicles of the Feudal Joson Dynasty” give a good deal of records that the ancestors learnt about the medicinal effects of hot spring water and used it for treatment. The visual evidence of the records is the Kalsan Hot Spring Relic discovered near the Kalsan Hot Spring Sanatorium in Kudang-ri, Phangyo County, Kangwon Province.
Kalsan Hot Spring is a simple radon spring. It has been widely known as an excellent remedy for several illnesses such as dermatosis, neuralgia, chronic gastritis, arthritis, etc. from long ago.
The Kalsan Hot Spring Relic, the indoor bath house relic, consists of the building site and four water tanks in it.
On the building site are still found some properly-faced granite cornerstones and platforms and there are two water tanks in the east and west each symmetrically.
The tanks are connected to the long granite water channel with a semicircular hollow for a supply of hot spring water.
The whole floor except the parts with the tanks is covered with granite slabs.
The hot spring, which is some distance from the bath house site, is located higher than the relic, so spring water is allowed to flow down to the tanks on its own.
According to “Chronicles of the Feudal Joson Dynasty”, it is estimated that the bath house was built by the order of King Sejong, the fourth king of the feudal Joson dynasty.
Some historical records say that King Sejong saw to it that a hot spring bath house and a temporary palace were built and he personally visited it to have a hot spring cure.
Tens of meters north-east away from this relic is still found the site of the temporary palace.
All those historical records may be regarded as the evidence to prove that the Kalsan Hot Spring Relic has a long history of over 570 years.
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Jo May 11, 2024
Every country and every nation in the world have their own manners of salutation.
However, hardly any of them are like ours, which satisfactorily and clearly expresses politeness to people in different social standings and age ranges.
From olden times, our people have observed the proprieties by either making a deep bow or bowing their heads when they see or part from one another.
According to our greeting etiquette, a deep bow is supposed to be made to the elders and seniors respectfully with some polite words for their health, and a slight bow to the people of the same age. Lowering one’s heads is appropriate for greeting younger ones.
Josonjol, the morally superior, hygienically impeccable and cultured greeting manners of our own style, is the best of all.
How our country could be widely known to the world as a country of courteous people in the East is also attributable, to some extent, to the fact that the people had created and constantly developed such admirable greeting etiquette.
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Jo May 9, 2024
Steamed rice cake (paeksolgi in Korean where paek means ‘white’) is named after its colour which is as white as snow. It was first introduced as paeksolgo in “Kyuhapchongso”, a book of the early nineteenth century.
Snow-white steamed rice cake reflects our people’s honesty and faithfulness. Steamed rice cake has been regarded as indispensable for several occasions like a party given to a hundred-day-old baby, the first birthday of a baby, a wedding, etc.
The custom of preparing steamed rice for hundred-day-old babies is associated with parents’ wish for them to grow up healthily and honestly like snow-white steamed rice cake.
Sharing with neighbors the dishes including steamed rice cake prepared for the day, Korean people have exchanged congratulatory remarks and shared joy with one another for good harmony and unity. Such beautiful characteristics are still being handed down.
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