Mysterious Mahan: Visiting the Naju National Museum
By Don Baker || When I lived in Gwangju in the early 1970s, people who knew I was interested in Korean history would tell me that from about 2,000 years … Read More
Category: History & Tradition
Dangun: Son of Heaven, Guardian of the Korean Peninsula
By Murdock O’Mooney || One of the first mythological tales I heard when I arrived in Korea in 2009 was the legend of Dangun. The way I remembered it, a … Read More
Korea’s 100-Day Celebration: The Baegil
By Diane Dooley || Introduction We carefully arrange the table decorated with rice cakes, fruit, and delicate flowers. We take a step back. Our three-month-old son, dressed in a hanbok, … Read More
Ponderings & Contemplations: Place Names with Intriguing Revelations
By Park Nahm-Sheik || Place names often come with meanings not always apparent on the surface. Take, for example, a village known as Bae-bau (배바우), located on the outskirts of … Read More
Half the Story: Women, Memory, and the Unfinished History of May 18
By Luis Andrés || May returns to Gwangju each year not as a simple commemoration but as a confrontation. It reminds us of the May 18 Democratic Uprising of 1980, … Read More
The Ancient India–Korea Connection: Two Civilizations Marry
By Siddhant K. || The legend of King Suro and Queen Suriratna is more than a royal romance; it is the earliest chapter in the long, largely untold story of … Read More
Yu Gwan-sun: The March 1st Movement Female Leader
By Luis Andrés || March 1 marks one of the most significant national holidays in South Korea. Known as Samil-jeol, it commemorates the March 1st Movement of 1919: a nationwide, … Read More
Refuge at Yeoseo Island: A Wartime Recollection
By Young B. Choi || Many years have passed. Yet the stories my parents have told me about their wartime flight during the Korean War remain vivid in my mind, … Read More