Dongdaemun & Jongmyo Shrine

Thus begins a series of posts to get me all caught up with DoReMiFa.

I have to apologize ahead of time for the low quality pictures of this post. I stupidly didn't know my camera was low on battery when I set out this day, thus everything is cameraphone quality.

About two weeks ago I ventured out to see Dongdaemun Gate, also known as the Great East Gate, also known as Heunginjimun, also known as the Gate of Rising Benevolence, also known as 흥인지문, also known as 동대문.

phew.

To be brief, Seoul, as the capital city of the Joseon dynasty, is surrounded by mountains, was fortified by walls, and had four main gates to the city: north, south, east, and west. In the present day, only 3 of the great gates remain (there were also 4 smaller gates). Dongdaemun being one of them, with Namdaemun in the South and Seokjeongmun in the North.

Dongdaemun, or rather, Heunginjimun as it was called in historical records & what it's called on all the street signs, is the Great East Gate that it located in the Dongdaemun shopping district.

You can't get a decent picture up close because the gate doesn't fit into the frame when you stand on the sidewalk. To get the whole gate, you have to cross the street, but then there's that street in the way. To get a decent picture, take a photo in the middle of the street...like when you are mid-way through the crosswalk. It's unfortunate that theres a busy street so close to the gate.

Sorry for my suuper bad photos. I only now realized that the pictures I actually took with my camera, I think I deleted without downloading them, so I only have these super crappy pictures I took with my phone. This is taken on the sidewalk edge--what I was talking about when I said you couldn't get a proper picture in a single frame.

And now onto Jongmyo Shrine.

The shrine itself is located a stone’s throw away from the main palace: Gyeongbokgung, and the shrine houses the spirit tablets of Korea’s past kings and queens. It was created in the late 14th century during the Joseon Dynasty.

It was at Jongmyo that the King himself would perform in the Confucian Jerye--ceremony to honor deceased ancestors. It was held 5 times a year, but since the 1970s is only held once a year, on May 1st. Jongmyo and it's Jerye have, respectively, been named to UNESCO's World Heritage as well as Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity lists.

The entrance to the shrine is set in Jongmyo park, which is currently undergoing a dig, so the main walkway has up a walking exhibition. Also in the park you can find a bunch of families, as well as ahjummas and ahjussi’s exercising. If you have the ticket booklet, no need to go to the ticket window, you can just walk right up to the main entrance and hand the guard your ticket book and he will take out the appropriate ticket. There is an English tour but not on the day I went, so you are free to wander the grounds and see the shrine’s different buildings.

The first thing you that greets you once you pass the main entrance is this interesting stone walkway that criss-crosses the grounds. It is one walkway, divided into three parts, the center aisle slightly raised.

This was this stone walkway that only the King, Crown Prince, and those carrying the sacred tablets (symbolic also of the walkway for the Kings of the past) could walk upon. The center, raised aisle was for those carrying in the tablets/ the Kings of the past, the right was for the King, the left was for the Crown Prince. If you follow the walkway, you will follow the path the tablets and the King and Prince took when performing the ancestral rights.

The main building and the highlight of Jongmyo is Jeongeon--the hall housing the spirit tablets.

I am planning on attending the May 1st Jerye ceremony, so hopefully I can update with better pictures :)

Directions:

-Subway: Jongro 3(sam)-ga station, exit 8 (from line 5)

-When you exit the subway station, go straight about 5 minutes until you reach Jongmyo park. Go through at one of the entrances and approach the main gate.