Seoul: National Palace Museum of Korea & Michael visits a Shaman

It has been a while since I was in Seoul, but I never posted the blog entry about my brief trip there. I gave a couple papers and on the day between them I was to be escorted on a tour of Seoul, but the guide and I never connected. So ... being generally lost in a foreign city, I wandered about and found a few interesting things. Including this intriguing building ...

And this building front, which reminded me of a Chuck Close portrait.

If you look closely it has both photographs pasted next to each other and the kind of blobby hot dog style Close spots. Sorry for the arcane reference.

Near this building front I found a museum dedicated to the Royal family during the Josean Dynasty. The palace museum was small but had some interesting items, like this book made out of jade. Nothing says Royal family like having your books printed on jade!

Below is a diagram for servants so that they know where everybody is supposed to be during a Royal parade.

A great facade about six feet high ...

and for Thomas, a couple of mace [I think] to show who's boss around the palace I suppose.

Some of the clothing was especially gorgeous with rich colors and fine detail. It doesn't show up as well in photographs. I took about a dozen pictures of different robes, but only a few indicate how good they were.

This was the flag of a ship that was attacked by the US in the 19th century. It was basic American gunboat diplomacy and they took this flag back to the US. It was recently returned and there was an exhibit dedicated to the flag and detailing the attack.

Off that recurrent topic of US invasions [glad we don't do that anymore!], below is a "scholar's stone" in which a scholar puts his ink when he writes with required brushes.

The only difference is that this stone is for the Prince so it was about 2 feet wide.

Also for the Prince's study are these Confucian sticks. You keep the sticks in the jar and take them out to meditate on one the maxims of the old sage. Korea is still a very Confucian culture.

Below is a shot the Royal work room.


Above is a photograph, of, I think, either the last Royal family or the Prince's family. It is a little silly to take a photo of a photo, but who said I wasn't silly? The picture was really rich and the woman especially is just decked out. It is hard to imagine her actually moving. She must have required attendants just to stand up. Also, if she moved her head quickly she surely would have stabbed herself to death.

Here are shots of a reconstructed palace. The original(s) were destroyed in wars, by a certain nearby country. It was closed the day I was there so I took a shot from the front.

And one from the side.

My trip to Seoul was very good overall. At the very end of the trip, after the last banquet, my host took me in a van and we drove out for about an hour to a more remote area outside of Seoul. We then visited a Korean shaman priestess that he knew. We spent about an hour and a half asking her questions about her life, her work as a shaman, and her beliefs about the spirits. No photos allowed. After the end of the session we went to another big room were the other shamans were performing a ceremony. A man had died who was 58 years old and a bachelor. His family was upset so they held a ceremony in which the shamans performed a marriage ceremony in the next life so that he could know what it was like to be married. [No jokes, people; yes, we could tell him what it is like!] This was all going on at about 2 am when we finally left. They would go on all night and into the morning. Probably one of the most intriguing events of my whole year.