Namdaemun Burns

A shocking and terrible thing befell Korea last night. The nation's #1 National Treasure, Namdaemun (The Great South Gate) was burned to it's base stone structure, supposedly by arsonists, as two cigarette lighters were found at the site.

Located near the center of Seoul, the 610 year-old gate (built between 1395-1398) marked the Southern extension of the Joseon-era Seoul defenses. At this point, Seoul did not extend south of the Han River, and the gate and wall in which it was a part (the wall no longer existing in connection with the gate) was used to protect Seoul's citizens from prowling tigers.

5 or 6 months ago, I visited the gate, and the neighboring Namdaemun Market (an outdoor market named after the gate, which is the defining point of reference in that section of the city) along with two of my old coworkers, Colin and Jeff. I deeply regret that I did not have a camera, or even a handphone camera, at that early date in my stay in Korea, for I would have taken many pictures of the structure that day if I had. As it is, I can only remember walking under the gate, watching the colorfully-dressed traditional Korean guards posing in front of the gate with their pikestaffs and unusually pronounced (and probably fake) goatees, which are uncommon and generally hard for young Korean men to grow, it seems. At some places in the stone part of the gate, there appeared to be small chunks missing as if from bullets hitting in more modern times. I'm still unsure if these were from the Japanese occupation or the 6/25 (Korean) War a few years later. Now that the monument has been partially razed, I wish even more strongly that I had been able to take pictures when I visited it, or that I had returned since getting the camera to document it before this. Maybe this past Friday, when I visted Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon, I was actually missing my very last chance to take pictures of Namdaemun before it burned on Sunday night/Monday morning.

People all over Korea are sure to be outraged, if the kids in my M-EL1 class today were any indication. When I asked them what should happen if the arsonist is caught, one of them blurted out some variation of "chugalay," that the person would be killed. Other people said, "he will be put in jail for all his life." An English daily online, the Korea Herald, more modestly suggested that the perpetrator could face, "a jail sentence exceeding three years." (http://www.koreaherald.com/) Three years is also how long it is suggested that the reconstruction could take.

Here are some images, before and after the blaze, of Namdaemun (which is also called "Sungnyemun," or "Gate of Respecting Propriety." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namdaemun)

Before:


After:


Okay, so on Friday I went up to Namdaemun and took a few pictures, myself. The site was closed off, but there were a lot of people there taking pictures, shooting video, and leaving flowers in front of this makeshift shrine. Apparently, they caught the guy who did it. He had some dispute with the government over how much he was being paid for the use of his land, or something. I didn't get the whole story, but we'll see what happens next.















I also shot this video of the site: Sorry the sound keeps cutting out, I don't know why my camera does that. Hopefully, it gives a better idea of the look and sound of the place and you can at least here the chanting that came from the loudspeakers on a van.