Hello again! Here is the third installment of my spring travel in Seoul. This article will be all about Hanok houses.
As a background information, a hanok is a traditional Korean house. Hanoks were first designed and built in the 14th century during the Joseon dynasty. Korean architecture considers the positioning of the house in relation to its surroundings, with thought given to the land and seasons.
We visited two hanok villages, the Bukchon Hanok Village and the Namsangol Hanok Village, and I will be discussing the Namsangol Hanok Village first.
Namsangol Hanok Village is a collection of five hanok houses from the Joseon Dynasty, which covers the period 1392-1910. These houses were recovered from all parts of the country and were relocated to the northern foot of Namsan mountain. In the picture above, I am standing at one of the gates and you can see Namsan Tower above the roof.
This village was about 15 minutes walk from our hotel then which was Sutton Hotel. The jars behind me are storage jars for soy sauce, chili paste and all other condiments for a big Korean household.
Inside the village, as per Visit Seoul website, visitors can see the hanok of important figures from the Joseon era.
The raw materials used in hanok such as soil, timber and rock are all natural and recyclable and do not cause pollution. Hanoks have their own tiled roofs which are called giwa, wooden beams and stone-block construction.
Since South Korea has very hot summers and very cold winters, the 'ondol' , which is a floor-based heating system, and 'daecheong', a cool-wooden floor style hall which you see in the picture above were devised long ago to help Koreans survive the frigid winters and to block sunlight during summer.
We were able to see the interiors of the houses, and apparently they reflect the owners of the houses from different walks of life, from the middle class, to high government officials, noblemen and aristocrats. This interior definitely reflects that of an aristocrat, don't you think?
A numaru is a traditional balcony-like raised veranda. It is often distinguished from a larger living room by a plinth, a partial enclosure, and low-to-the-floor furniture as we see in the picture above. That nobleman must be relaxing after a long day. :-)
This picture displays the old weaving utensils, I think, and an old desk. Antiques. :-)
Meanwhile, this picture shows a display of various hanboks, the traditional costume of Koreans, and by the looks of them, those are a woman's hanbok.
More antiques. The pieces of cloth on top of the wooden chest are blankets that they spread on the 'ondol' heated room to sleep on.
The wooden chests look so old. The older it is, the more valuable it gets in the antique world. :-)
Here is another picture of numaru. But what I want to highight this time are the doors and windows. Another unique feature of the hanok is the use of 'hanji', a traditional Korean paper that is made from the pulp of the bark of mulberry trees. The hanji allows natural air to penetrate through doors and windows and natural light to enter the room.
As everyone can deduce, this is a traditional kitchen. If a household has a big family, then it is only natural to have three fire stoves to cook foods, especialy when they are celebrating festivals. If you have been watching period dramas, then you have at least seen one of these kinds of kitchens. :-)
Hanok shapes differ by region. In the cold regions of Korea, hanoks are built in a square with a courtyard in the middle like this one in order to retain heat better. Not sure how that works but it has been tried and true from a long time ago so I wont say anymore. :-)
Oh, and did you know? The wooden structures within the house are assembled together through different kinds of joints without using any nails. Cool eh? :-)
These eathenware crocks are called 'onggi' in Korean. These can be used for making and preserving many things such as soybean paste, soy sauce, hot pepper paste, fermented salty fish, makgeolli or rice wine, and of course, kimchi. Just imagine the ladies of the house grinding all the beans away for soybean paste. Must have been a lot of work!
Many Koreans refer to onggi by their size and these large ones are called 'dok'. Traditionally, pastes, sauces, and vegetables including kimchi are fermented in earthenware dok which are a few feet high in size like the ones above, and kept outside in a corner of the yard set aside for this purpose. So whenever the household runs out of what they have inside, they can just go out and get from their storage.
Just imagine someone is not very tall or a child is trying to get some paste from one of the jars, but the jar is almost empty. That person can accidentally fall into one of the jars, especially the ones in the back! Naughty of me to have thought of that, isn't it?
This bed-like furniture is often found in the entrance of the hanok as well. They usually use it to receive guests, and they can sit, eat or drink alcohol on this thing. In some dramas, when they so drunk, they even sleep on it. Talk about multi-purpose furniture.
The colorful things hanging are lanterns. In the old days, it was flame that lighted these, but of course these days it is light bulbs they put.
We can see modern buildings in the background, and I like that Korea is able to have the past and the present existing side by side harmoniously.
We were also very fortunate to have a glimpse of a Korean traditional wedding going on during the time that we were there, so we were craning our necks to see what was going on at the time. And of course this area was closed to the public during that time so we satisfied ourselves just by standing on tiptoe and taking whatever pictures we could take.
The roof on the houses are made of tiles called 'giwa'. There are different types of giwa, some are made of clay, some are made of cement and sand mixed together. I believe these ones are made of clay giwa.
Ornaments inside a hanok are very minimal, and usually they are calligraphy paintings or other things that blend in with the structure.
Outside of the hanok village is a cultural center wherein they show how the things like straw shoes and other everyday necessities were made. These ones are for children because of the lively colors and small size.
This picture shows the different kinds of baskets and things that are used to carry loads.
This is the pavilion/theater outside of the village. It is quite big, and I think it can hold at least a hundred people sitting down if there is an event.I took a picture of the beams above to show that indeed there are no nails used.
Time to leave the Namsangol Hanok Village and on to Bukchon Hanok Village. On our way there, we passed the Bukchon Cultural Center and there was a wine tasting event. Since it was open to the public, of course we had to check it out to experience the culture of the people.
The wines were displayed like this, and I think it was according to the age and kind. Since I am not an alcohol drinker, my sister and some of our companions took a sip to try it. According to them, some were strong, some were fruity, and some tasted just right.
As for me, I just had to content myself by taking pictures of the display and pretending to get some wine for myself, ha ha!
There were quite a lot of people enjoying the free wine tasting. There were also of course products for sale but we did not buy as we were still gonna walk around so much.
Bukchon Hanok village reflects 600 years of Seoul's history. The village is situated between Gyeonbokgung Palace and Changdeokgung Palace. Its streets are lined with traditional hanok.
Unlike Namsangol Hanok village that was created for tourists, Bukchon Hanok village is a residential village inhabited by Seoulites. There are signs that remind visitors to maintain peace and quiet so as not to disrupt the lives of the villagers.
Some hanoks are modernized, but much more are still very traditional and we just took lots and lots of pictures.
This is an example of a quite modern hanok. As you can see the wooden structures are quite new.
This is also a modernized hanok. You see that it even has a garage, and this gives us an idea just how wealthy the owner of this hanok is.
Not all hanoks in Bukchon are residential houses. Some have been converted into business establishments like restaurants, some as guest houses, and some into stores that sell trinkets, and so on.
Since we did not have a guide, we just walked around to see the hanoks, and I am sure that we did not get to see all of it, as I did not see these structures when we went in autumn.
It was nice walking around in such a neighborhood seeing nothing but traditional houses. It was like being transported back in time.
We just had to make sure we were quiet so as not to disturb the residents and we pretty much were able to do what we wanted to do.
See what I mean? I was able to stand right outside the gate, ha ha ha. The life of a tourist.
I was standing at a certain vantage point where all I could see was roof upon roof of the houses. Alas, my hands were not steady enough to take a panoramic picture from my iPhone so I just had to satisfy myself with this.
Anyhow, the charms of traditional hanok have been receiving lot of attention lately, what with all the tourists that go. With this increased interest, young Koreans are re-discovering their pride for hanok through visits to Bukchon.
I hope this article was informative for you and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. An article about the palaces will follow, so stay tuned!
You can read more travel blogs here.
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