Silla Dynasty- South Korea

July 5, 2012

It poured rain as we drove three hours to Cheonmachong area. The fog that just sits right in between the rolling tree hills-- seriously breathtaking. This was the capital of Silla Dynasty. This dynasty was one of the most prominent in Korean history. It lasted for 1000 years. It had active relationship with China's Tang dynasty and the silk road. To help put in better context if you're not familiar with East Asian history, this is the time period of the Classical era of Rome and Greece. Today was a very busy day, so I below please ready the chronology of some of the highlights of the Silla Dynasty!




Today we began our stop with the birthplace of the Silla Dynasty- Gyeonju Najeong. (Early Silla Dynasty)

One day in 69 BCE according to legend, Sobeol, chieftain of the village called Goheo, saw a white horse on its knees by a well. When he went out to the well for a closer look, the horse suddenly disappeared but he found a large egg on the spot where the white horse had been. A baby boy came out of the egg. When he reached the age of 13, 6 chieftains in the area elected him to be the first king. They called their country Seorabeol, the ancient name of Silla.

Some interpretations to this legend is that this was a small village town and some historians believe that perhaps invaders were coming from the north and of course bringing horses (not native to this land). The egg represents birth and re-birth and the horse represents wealth, movement and cultural diffusion.

O Reung
It's 5 tomb complex. These five tomb is a mound burial ground dedicated to members of the royal Silla dynasty. To enter each complex, you have to pass through a typical Confucian Gate that was most likely made later during the Joeson dynasty as a way to honor former ancestors. The gates are always the same and have three doors. Spirits enter the the center, humans enter through the right and exit to the left. The Mounds have not be excavated. The usual rule of thumb is that if you know which ancestors that are buried, you do not excavate out of respect, but when they do not know who is buried, it's okay to excavate. Also inside this complex is the birth place of the first king's wife. Al- Young-Jung. The well marks the birth place of the first Silla queen. There is a another historically inaccurate building style. The Pagoda, which was created during the Joeson period and again probably created an a way to honor her. This place is about one kilometer away from the birth place of the king and was most likely another village. It implies that a political alliance was made by the two kingdoms and created a two center power base for the early Silla dynasty.

Cheon-Ma-Chong- (Middle Silla Dynasty)
This is another temple mound burial site that had been excavated. At the time of excavations they did not know who was in the tomb, which made it okay to dig. What they found in the first mound was that it was a most likely an important figure in middle Silla kingdom and based on an image they found they name this burial ground Heavenly Horse Temple. They found 11,500 artifacts in that one tomb and stopped there since they were able to date the mound. An interesting fact was that up until 1970s many people's homes were built in between the mounds, but now it the area is a national park.

Gyeong Ju National Museum
This museum is a treasure house of the Slla Kingdom. Some of the amazing things here were the the artifacts found in the Heavenly Horse Temple. The greatest artifacts to me were the burial clothing worn by the rulers. Elaborate uses of Gold and precious stones. You can see that the Silla kingdom was influenced by the silk road because they had glass in the burial sites. I also like the shamanistic (pre- buddhist) influence of burying rulers with important objects that would be needed for the after life. You will see a picture that shows some of the artifacts found that are meant to accompany the person in the after life.

Hwanghyongsa
This was a palace during the middle Silla dynasty and had at its height 170,000 inhabitants. It was destroyed in a fire and conquered by the Mongols. Now, many Korean scholars have been studying it and there is talk about one day rebuilding.