Korea – Part 2 – LIONINTHETREES

Here is Part 2 of my Adventures in Korea wherein we took a bus tour, went to a Natural History Museum on Jeju Island, and visited 제주민속촌 (Jeju Folk Village).

A stylised red art sculpture of a dol hareubang

One thing that I learned about Jeju Island is that they have these iconic Red and White Horse Lighthouses! I only managed to snap a pic from the bus of the white one. But I really liked their shape and thought it might be fun to try making horse totems mimicking their structure!

Photo of the white horse lighthouse found on Jeju Island

Visiting the Natural History Museum was a wonderful experience. I'm so used to visiting Natural History Museums in the Western United States, so it was a great experience learning about an entirely different country's/areas environmental and cultural history!

Jeju was created because of a volcano and so the island has A TON of volcanic rocks everywhere. The ancient people of Jeju actually used these rocks to create walls, roads, steps, structures, homes, etc that are still standing all over the island.

Photo of me in front of some very large volcanic rocks

These little sculptures here reminded me of the little spirits in Princess Mononoke—

Photo of a group of small human shaped rock statues displayed on a hill.

Upon entering the museum, you're greeted by a giant whale skeleton and this beautiful mural—

Photo of a beautiful mural that features a variety of whales swimming against a pink, orange background.

The people of Jeju were a semi-matriarchal culture because many families depended on the Haenyeo—female divers—and the income they brought home and so many times you'd have families consisting of women being the breadwinners and stay-at-home fathers.

Here are a couple of good sources to read more about the Haenyeo—

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haenyeo

https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/culture-of-jeju-haenyeo-women-divers-01068

https://www.kyotojournal.org/uncategorized/haenyeo-the-sea-women-of-south-korea

Photo of a variety of rocks and sea shells found on Jeju Island — So many rocks!

And so many animals! This portion was my favourite in the whole museum—

Photo of faux/stuffed birds found on Jeju Island within an exhibit.

Photo of skeletons of a turtle and some birds in an exhibit.

Photo of a deer skeleton along with various skulls

Of course I had to get some shots of their pottery—

And this incredible sculpture made out of driftwood!

After, we visited the 제주민속촌. We ended going an hour or so before they closed so it was nice being one of the few folks wandering around.

One thing I noticed about Korea is their love for 7-Eleven. I thought it was really cute that they had such a modern establishment integrated into a historical building—

Photo of a 7-Eleven but the architecture is that of the village huts found in the folk village.

This place was so beautiful 💖💖

Photo of a pond with a sign that says "Jeju Island Folk Village" in hangul

A special thing about 제주민속촌 is that practically everything here is the authentic, original structures built forever ago and preserved/maintained all these years ago. Which is different compared to the 한국민속촌 that we visited later on in our trip that is mostly replica with a few original structures.