Detail

Hahoe Village in Andong and Yangdong in Gyeongju where hundreds of historical and cultural artifacts are kept alive. Being Korea’s representative aristocratic clan villages that descended from the Joseon Dynasty, these two villages were designated in 2010 as UNESCO’s world heritage sites. These location of the two villages fits into “Baesanimsu” (Korea’s representative location for a village, literally meaning that the ideal house is built with a mountain in the back and a river in the front). Furthermore, the buildings can adapt to the climate of high temperatures and humidity in the summer and low temperatures and dryness of the winter, with the houses structured on the basis of Confucian precepts. Hahoe Village is where the Ryu clan has lived for more than 600 years. In the center of the village are tile-roofed houses of the aristocratic class such as Yangjindang and Chunghyodang, facing a river in front. Around these tile-roofed houses are thatch-roofed houses called garapjip where the commoners and servants used to live. Yangdong Village is where the two clans (the Sohn clan and the Yi clan) have collectively lived together for more than 500 years. In this village, high up on the base of a mountain were private homes of the aristocratic class, with the commoners and servants residing more downward. What remains almost intact is: the representative elements of an aristocratic clan village such as the residence of the head family of the clan (jongga), private houses, study halls (jeongsa), outdoor pavilions (jeongja), private academies of advanced Confucian studies (seowon), public elementary schools (seodang); surrounding farmlands and natural landscape. Also well preserved are numerous, associated cultural heritages such as ceremonies, games, writings, and artistic works.