One of Korea’s most significant cultural monuments, namdaemun, burned to the ground earlier this week. The tragedy has been all what my students will talk about. Namdaemun is supposedly the number one monument in Korea and a source of great pride. Namdaemun was a 610 year old national treasure. A suspect has come forward and explained that he torched the monument due to insufficient compensation for his land from an urban development deal. Great move, now not only are you insufficiently compensated, but you’re also the scorn of millions.
And to be filed under the wacky and weird an article in the Korea Times reported that “fire torching energy from a southern mountain in Seoul” may have helped burn the monument down.
“As Namdaemun, having served as a guardian restraining the `hot-temper’ and
`easy-fighting’ energies from Mount Gwanak disappears, we will see the number of
crimes in the capital escalating until its restoration,” predicted head of the
topography research center. “The restoration of Cheonggye stream has largely
contributed to mixing the hostile energy with peaceful one from the manmade
waterway, resulting in weakening the violent energy.”
