Grand

Symbol of Jeju Island: Dolhareubang

by sunnywong

Dolhareubang¡¦ means ¡¥stone grandfather¡¦ Today, the word, ¡§Dolhareubang¡¨, is so famous that it is used greatly on the inside and outside of the country as a logo of stores or companies. It also appears as the trademark of televisions and the name of columns in books. Even the word, Dolhareubang, is interpreted as a guardian god in Mongol because of its popularity.

Three Plenties and Three Lacks.......

by jaam

Cheju (Chejudo) is a volcanic island and the largest in Korea. It is located in the southwest sea of the Korean peninsula. The size of Cheju is 73km from east to west, 41Km from north to south in the shape of an oval.

Cheju island, Chejudo, is a place of myths and legends. All over the island stand that have become its symbol : the stone statues of dwarf-like Tolharubang, today a curiosity, in days gone by a powerful fertility god. Cheju is also rich in caves, from one of which, according to legend, sprang the three god-men, Ko, Pu, and Yang who founded the island´s first settlement and made it flourish. Three times each year a festival is held to commemorate these forebears and the blessings they left behind them.

Cheju is said to be an island of ´three plenties and three lacks.´ The three plenties are stones, wind and women. Houses and fields have stone walls around them to protect them from the strong sea winds.
Along the shoreline women dive for shellfish. One in five of the population earn their living from the sea and in many families the women have been divers for generations.
The three lacks are beggars, thieves and locks. The sea has made the islanders rich enough for there to be no thieves or beggars. And because there are no thieves people rarely lock their doors. Three bars are placed across an entrance, and when one is missing it means the owners are out.
Cheju city is thriving and modern. But once you are out of it and into the country, you´ll meet old people and children in the little straw-thatched hamlets who smile in a way that city-dwellers rarely do.