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¡ã The work of Seo Jae-cheol specializes in the oreum, volcanic cones, which accompany Jeju people from birth to death. Photo by Seo Jae-cheol |
“India has the Taj Mahal, Egypt has the Sphinx, and Jeju has the sandam on its oreum,” said Seo Jae-cheol (68), a photographer of four decades.
Although many photographers have captured Jeju’s oreum, volcanic cones, only a few have captured the culture of life and death across 9o of them.
There are many volcanic islands around the world, but Jeju oreum are unique in having graves and “sandam” stone walls on their slopes.
The rectangular shape of Jeju’s sandam is fairly common, but only on Jeju can oval shaped sandam be found.
The sandam is a kind of fence that protects graves from being burnt during seasonal field burning and keeps out horses. They can thus be seen as a product of Jeju’s grazing culture.
However, it would be wrong to say that the sandam is only a form of fencing. If you look closely, there is an open gate for spirits to pass through as Jeju locals traditionally believed that the sandam is a house for dead spirits.
Despite the deceased being buried underground, their spirits entered through the sandam to look after the ancestors. These beliefs were expressed through the unique grave culture and sandam.
Although they were materially poor, the Jeju people faithfully constructed the sandam that symbolize the syncrasy between life and death in their traditional belief system.
This connection with the oreum since time immemorial is reflected in the saying “Jeju people are born at an oreum, and they return to an oreum.”
In their childhood they grazed horses on the oreum, they used them for shelter throughout their lives, and then they were buried there when they passed away.
There are other unique aspects of Jeju graves such as the dongjaseok, young male statues, and the inseok, statues in adult form, at the front of the graves.
The role of the dongjaseok depended on the deceased as, in the form of a small boy, they were their servant or companion.
Despite being hewn from rough natural stone with a simple expression, the dongjaseok has a stark beauty about it.
The oreum pictured is Jwabomi in Seongeup, Pyoseon-myeon, Seogwipo City. Seo captured it from the air, showing how the old graves and overlapping curves reflect the comfort of a mother’s arms.
Seo was born in 1947 in Jeju and was formerly the head of the photography department at Jeju Press and chief editor at the Jemin Daily. He is now the curator at the Love of Nature Photo Gallery which is located in an abandoned school building in Gasi-ri, Seogwipo City.
His work focuses on many themes including oreum and he recently published “The Ttarabi that I met” which shows the four seasons on Ttarabi Oreum.
“If you ask me where the beauty of Jeju is, I would say an oreum. And if you ask me where the beauty of an oreum is, I would say the curves. And if you again ask me what shows the beauty of the oreum curves, I would say the craters.”
Seo laments the many craters and curves that are now obscured by uniform forestation atop Jeju’s oreum, and he has long spoken out to preserve them.
His words are as graceful as the oreum themselves.
“There goes the wind past an oreum. The curves of the oreum and the wind look just like one another.”
Love of Nature Photo Gallery
1920-1 Gasi-ri, Pyoseon-Myeon, Seogwipo City
Tel. 064-787-3110 |