you might say i'm obsessed...

this is not the first post i've written about tombs in seoul...and it probably won't be the last...as one korean friend (a classmate from primary school!) noted recently, i've probably seen more tombs than most koreans...when i tell koreans which tombs i've seen, they're usually quite surprised, if they even know what i'm talking about...i love the tomb areas because they're peaceful, and i can learn a bit of history...

there is a map of all the tombs in one of the brochures i got at an earlier tomb, and until i saw that map, i had no idea how many tombs there are in seoul and around...TONS!!...something like 42 different tombs, when each complex is added up...i've had fun crossing them off as i get to each one...(yes, i know, i'm a geek)...some of them are closed to the public, so i'll never get to all of them...

anywho, this sunday i again had the best of intentions in terms of what time i wanted to leave my apartment...buuuuut, again, that didn't happen...what is it that makes it so hard for me to get out before noon? i'm awake long before then, and ready to go long before then, but it still doesn't happen...

this time i picked two tomb areas, both in seoul...at least, that's what i thought...i thought they looked to be relatively close to each other...not surprisingly, i was wrong...oops...i forgot that the subway lines definitely don't go straight, and that buses don't usually come as regularly as subway trains...

my first complex had two tombs...to get there i was supposed to get to a certain exit of a certain subway station, then look for three different buses...but when i got to that exit, none of those buses came to that stop...at all...argh...you'd think the information would be correct, but i have now been to at least three tombs where the bus numbers have been incorrect...is it really that hard? anywho, i started my korean reading again (slow as, but hey, i'm trying) and figured out a bus that would take me where i wanted to go...the bus ride was longer than i expected, and into an area of the city that isn't so commercial...fortunately, the route map and the announcements matched up, as well as the signs on the street, so it was easy to figure out where/when to get off the bus...then all i had to do was follow the street signs to get to the actual complex...thankfully there was a bridge to cross the street, as it was a highway...a few hundred meters down the road i passed the tomb keepers house (not in the actual complex itself, unlike other tomb keepers houses i've seen)...i haven't yet gone into one of these houses, i'm not sure if i'm supposed to...heck, i don't even know if anyone lives in these houses, or just if someone used to...

my first tomb complex of the day was called hoeilleung...two tombs...heolleung and illeung...and i love this area...the ticket guys were nice, to start with...as i walked through the gate to illeung, i noticed a little girl and her grandmother...holding hands, walking around, the grandmother appearing to teach the little girl...(at least, that's what it looked like to me)...it was just cute...on the right  side of the hill i saw a staircase...yahoooo!!! it was obvious that you're supposed to walk up those stairs to get close to the tomb area up at the top of the hill...this was the first time i'd seen such stairs, normally it doesn't seem like you're supposed to go anywhere near the top of the hill, nowhere near the actual tomb itself...at the top of the staircase is a wider, boardwalk sort of area...again, it's obvious you're supposed to stay there and look at the tomb...i was happy to be close enough to the tomb that my camera could zoom and get a good photo of the soldiers and ministers and animals in front of the tomb...the wall around the tomb is obviously in great shape...the trees behind the tomb were actually a bit behind the tomb, not right up on the wall...seeing that made me happy, as i realized i could get a photo from behind the tomb, which is a viewpoint i like just as much as right in front of the tomb...there was no obvious exit from the viewing platform on which i was standing, but i knew i could step over the little ropes...hee hee...

as i turned around to get closer to the ropes and go over them, i heard a little voice...it was the little girl, offering me a cracker!! how cute is that?!?! i knew the grandmother had told her to do so, but the fact that she did was really impressive...she wasn't afraid of me!! kids cry or turn away from me all the time, partly because i'm big, and partly because i look different from anything i know...anywho, i was happy to take a cracker...in my really broken korean, i asked her if she liked crackers, and she said she did...i was pretty excited that she understood me, and didn't just look at me like i was a freak...(come to think of it, kids often understand me, even though i know i'm not using proper grammar, it's the adults who don't have a clue)...the grandmother wanted to take a picture of the two of us together, and i was happy to do so...of course i asked her to take one with my camera as well...obviously, she isn't exactly smiling, but she is making that V symbol so many asians make in pictures...i wonder what that's all about...when the teachers at school tell the kids to make that symbol, they say "vwee"...(the korean language doesn't actually have a V sound, they only have a B sound)...after the photos she offered me another cracker (of her own volition this time i think:) then she and grandma said goodbye and started walking back down the stairs...

i let them get halfway down before stepping over the ropes...hee hee...i could tell i wasn't the first to do so, the grass was matted down, and i could see a few footprints...i stayed in the trees, and walked behind the tomb...some of the trees had even been cut down, it didn't feel nearly as foresty...the place i ended up standing to take my photo was actually the remaining stump:)...the view from the stump was perfect...i could see everything, and it was high enough up that the different parts of the tomb didn't block each other out in the photo...(i can't believe i thought about that, and actually wrote it!)...i couldn't figure out if it was "forbidden" to be back there, but i didn't want to push it...by the time i got back down to the viewing platform area there were a bunch of young guys (i'm thinking upper high school age?) there, who all gave me a funny look...which i pretended to ignore...i don't know if the funny look was because i was clearly not inside the 'boundaries' or because i am a foreigner and i was at a place you don't see a lot of foreigners...i should mention that i've never seen another foreigner - white person, that is - at any of the tombs i've visited, except for when i was with cory)...i calmly walked back over the rope, and down the stairs...

illeung is the tomb of two people...i think it's the first time i've seen two people buried in the same mound...king sunjo and queen sunwon...sunjo ascended to the throne when he was only 11, his grandmother ruled "behind the veil"...he took over direct rule when he was 14...i wouldn't think that old enough to rule a country, but who am i to say...he died in 1834 at the ripe old age of 44 or so...(i could be totally wrong on this)...this tomb was originally in the town of paju, northwest of seoul...it was moved in 1856, and the queen was buried in 1857...
a side note: the soldiers and ministers in front of illeung all look different because they were created by different artists...
while going from illeung to hoelleung, i walked through a wooded area, full of alder trees...apparently the city thinks they're so beautiful that the area was designated an ecological reserve by the city...
hoellung is a double mounded tomb...buried there are king taejong, and queen wongyeong...he was the 5th son of king taejo...he got to be king because he fought with his brothers...while king, he made royal authority stronger by getting rid of privately organized militias, and making ministers report directly to him...(to whom were they reporting before?)...he also moved the capital of the country from gaegyong (i don't know where this is) to hanyang (which is now called seoul)...
there was another set of stairs, this time on the left side...at the top, there was a gate, which was open!! AND, there was a guide sort of guy in the tomb area, talking to three people...i was thrilled to see this, it was obvious i could go in the area and look around...i could get really close to the animals, the people, the tombs themselves...woo hoo!!! i was actually able to walk down the hill back to the red pointed gate, i didn't have to go down the stairs!! i didn't do that, but i saw a korean family doing so...the building that normally has the stele of the person in the tomb had turtle thingies...the door was open, i could walk in there as well...yahoooooo!!

i took a different bus back to the subway station, rode the trains to a different stop, and took another bus...when i started the day i thought the two areas i wanted to visit were somewhat close to each other, this is when i found out they weren't at all close...the bus ride was a LOT longer than i thought...and the announcement for the stop i was expecting wasn't the name that i expected...again, thank goodness for reading street signs...
my second tomb area is called donggureung...as far as tomb complexes go, it's one of the biggest, if not the biggest...9 tombs total...
as i walked toward the entrance, i passed the kids played by the ginormous ice tower...i thought the kids were cute and all, but i was more fascinated by the huge block of ice...i couldn't figure out how it got there, in that particular shape...maybe there is something under the ice that i can't see?
the entry price for donggureung is the same as every other tomb complex, even though this complex is so much bigger...in total there are 17 kings and queens of the joseon dynasty buried here...the tomb complex was built after king taejo died, and was originally called dongoreung, then dongchilleung...when i walked in, i took a picture of the map of the area because there are so many tombs and i wanted to make sure i saw all of them, even though i knew they'd all look generally the same...i am SUCH the geek...i also wanted to make sure i didn't get lost...(i'm always terrified of being lost, even though it doesn't happen easily in the city)...i decided to start on one side, and make my way to the other, which ended up being a really convenient route...
i went first to sungneung, the tomb of king hyeongjong...and his wife, queen myeongseong...according to the brochure, he's the only joseon dynasty ruler not born in korea...he was born while his dad was being held hostage by the manchus in china, as they were invading korea...he made the military stronger, and cleaned up the financial system of korea, which had been screwed up by fighting wars with both china and japan...

the next tomb was hyereung, the burial place of queen danui...she wasn't a queen when she died, she was only crown princess...her husband, king gyeongjong (the 20th monarch of the joseon dynasty) didn't sit on the throne until 1720, she died in 1718...i couldn't tell when she "received" her posthumous title...was it while he was king?
my third tomb in this visit is called gyeongneung...the only triple mounded tomb in all of the joseon dynasty...i was keen to see this one, just cause it's a little different from the others...but as it turned out, i wasn't actually able to see all three mounds from any one vantage point...gutted...i could see each of the side mounds, but not the one in the middle...and there was a very clear set of fences along the bottom of the hill, so it was obvious i couldn't walk up anywhere to get a better view...i tried to see the hill behind, to see if there was a vantage point for a photo, but i saw nothing...argh...anywho...king heongjong succeeded his grandfather to the throne at the wise old age of 8...his grandmother ruled from 'behind the veil' until he was 15...in one of the mounds is his first queen, queen hyohyeon, who died after only 6 years of being queen...the next year he married queen hyojeong, who lived 50 years past her husband...she's the other mound...the tomb was actually created as a tomb for queen hyohyeon in 1843, and her husband was added in 1849...then queen hyojeong was buried there 50 years later...i wonder who decided to bury her there? as a ruler, king heonjong built damns in each province, and published a few books...believe me when i say none of the titles sound very interesting...

the next tomb in the complex was called wolleung...the tomb of king yeongjo (21st monarch of the dynasty) and his second wife, queen jeongsun...he lived a looooong time, and was the longest ruling joseon king...according to the literature, he was fair, and treated all of his subjects well...(i'm pretty sure that even if the truth were the opposite, that's what would be written...in any case, negative things would never be written)...he wasn't the direct heir to the throne, at least that's what i understand...he was the 4th son of his father, and only came to the throne after the death of his half brother, king gyeongjong...considering how many kings died young, it's a good thing there were multiple wives and kids!!

his second wife (queen jeongsun) on the other hand, i would call a modern day gold digger...she was only 15 when she married the king after his first wife died...taking a second wife wasn't at all unusual, in fact i'm sure it was expected...but she was 15 and he was 66!! she only lived to be 60 years old!!...a 50 year age difference is ridiculous, in any society...(maybe that's just me, but i thought i'd put it out there)...not only did she marry the "old" king when she was so young, she was a majour influence in having his heir, crown prince sado killed...(crown prince sado was killed by being locked in a chest full of rice, how awful is that? the chest - or a likeness - is on display at changyeonggung, one of the palaces in seoul)...the next king was king sungjo, who ascended the throne at a young age, so she got to be dowager queen...apparently, she had "excessive" influence...it sounds like modern day historians (well, at least the people who write these brochures) didn't like her much either!

from there i walked to the tomb of queen jangnyeol... i think the pronunciation would be jang-nyeol...she was the second wife of king injo, the 16th king in the dynasty...of the jo family, she married the king in 1638, and became queen immediately...the brochure said she was "chosen" to be queen...who did the choosing, and how did they do so? i'm sure there were a number of families from which "acceptable" daughters could be chosen, i'm curious about the selection process...presumably, that sort of information isn't easily found for foreigners like me, who aren't real historians...i wouldn't know where to look, or who to ask, even if i did read/speak korean at an acceptable level...anywho...the brochure also says she was installed as queen...i wonder what the queen installation ceremony was like? obviously there wasn't nearly as much pomp and circumstance as there would be for a new king, but was there any? were there special costumes to be worn? were there a lot of people involved? she didn't have any kids with the king, which must have been rough...in those days, a measure of a woman's success in life (particularly a queen's success) would've been in producing an heir to the throne...even now, when the korean birth rate is one of the lowest in the whole world (barely over 1) it's still important to have a child...she became dowager queen at age 26 (can you imagine me having already been queen for 6 years?!?!) and lived through four more kings...it must've been a somewhat lonely life, as not many people lived that long back then...it doesn't mention whether she attempted to have any influence in the politics of the dynasty after her husband died...

the next tomb on the course was that of king taejo...he's pretty important...REALLY IMPORTANT...he founded the joseon dynasty...he was a general in the previous dynasty, the goryeo dynasty...he founded the new state in what is now kaesong, north korea in 1392...two years later, he relocated to what is now seoul...when he first founded the new dynasty, i don't know what the name was, he didn't give it the joseon name until 1394...he tried to get along with china, and encouraged agriculture...apparently the golden rule lessons didn't click with his sons, as they fought quite a bit...they fought so much he stepped down from the throne in 1398...he returned to his hometown, devoted himself to buddhism, and died in 1408...the grass on top of his tomb is said to come from his hometown, which apparently he missed very much when he wasn't there...pampas grass...it's the only joseon tomb to have such a covering...there are fences at the bottom of the hill to his tomb, so i couldn't get up close for a good photo...my zoom worked well enough, i suppose...when i first walked to this tomb i thought it hadn't been well taken care of, and just looked sloppy...at first i didn't know it was a special type of grass on top of the mound!

since i was being rushed out of donggureung by that point, i rushed through the last couple tomb areas...the first was hyeolleung, the tombs of king munjong and queen hyeondeok...two tombs, on two separate hills, with only one gate and one shrine...i liked the way it is set up...king munjong was crown prince for 29 years before sitting on the throne...during those years he focused on his academics (i guess the korean tradition of education started a looooooooong time ago:) and learned about politics...go figure, after all that studying, he only got to be king for a couple years, before dying of poor health...his queen definitely didn't start out that way...she entered the court as a court lady, then became a royal concubine...she married the crown prince, gave birth to an heir, and died a couple days later...she was posthumously given the title of queen when her husband was crowned...
from there i skimmed by sureung...the tomb of king munjo and queen sinjeong...they're buried in the same mound...i still wonder who decides this stuff...according to the brochure, he was never actually king, though he acted as regent? i don't think i understand what that means...the brochure says he surrounded himself with men of talent and sought to exercise politics for the good of the people...he died at only 22...he received his king title when his son was crowned, and later promoted to emperor...i guess there is life after death...queen sinjeong received the title of queen dowager at the same time as her dead husband got his king title...only she was still alive...she was involved in the politics of the dynasty until her death at age 83...

the only tombs i didn't see were in a set of three...not a triple mounder, as i tried to see earlier, but three hills with one gate, one shrine...called mongguneung...i think...as i was taking pictures of king taejo's tomb, i could tell that it was getting close to closing time, and the employee who came out of the woods at that point told me so as well...he wanted to chat too, which was fun...we talked about where i'm from, how old i am (he said 28!!:) and where he's been in the states...he said i should come back to donggureung in the future, and bring a friend...i laughed...as the conversation was ending, he asked when i was coming back...i guess he meant it...hee hee...even though i missed one set of tombs, i'm not likely to go back...there are enough other tombs and other stuff in seoul i still haven't seen...