Normally I blaze past the events of the day, but my morning activity today was one that I specifically chose to do independently. From the roof of the hotel, we get a pretty good view of the Myeong-Dong area, which is mostly high-rise hotels, shopping centers, and office buildings, and low-rise apartment buildings. However, in the midst of this is the Myeong-Dong Cathedral, the seat of the Archbishop of Seoul, and likely the oldest building in this part of the city, built in 1898. I left immediately after breakfast for a short walk to the cathedral, with the intention of doing a bit of sketching. The two sketches I did follow:
It was a very peaceful place, empty save for a few silent observers. It was extremely quiet compared to the city, so that was very much appreciated. Outside, the grounds were nice, with a plaza, benches, and some minimal landscaping.
My first impression of the cathedral is that it’s not very Korean for a few reasons. First is the Gothic Revival style, a traditionally European style characterized by pointed arches, spires, and intricate stone detailing, none of which are present in traditional Korean buildings. Second is the size; Gothic cathedrals have cavernous interiors, meant to create a sense of grandeur. The Buddhist temples of this region though, at least the ones we have been to, are modestly sized, meant to complement the natural environment rather than stand prominently above it. Also, my photos don’t show it, but there are a few flights of wide stone stairs that lead up to the cathedral, which is situated maybe fifteen feet above the road. This structure too, is meant to provoke awe, and is a stark contrast to even the palaces we have seen. In fact, a quick look at the Wikipedia page for the cathedral informs us that when it was built, this cathedral was the largest in the city.
Looking back, it was a bit strange that it didn’t have more Korean influence. For religions which have spread prolifically, the religion is affected by the local culture of the regions it spreads to. This is well documented, by explaining it any more I’m insulting your intelligence. Instead, here are some cool examples:
– The church forests of Ethiopia; walled green sanctuaries in a deforested land.
– Wildly different Mosque styles around the world. A few “deviant” ones are the Great Mosque of Djenné, the Bingkudu Mosque, and the more contemporary Faisal Mosque.
– The Stave Churches of Norway, built entirely out of wood, and decorated with Nordic pagan iconography including vines, dragons, and lions.
– Ethic portrayals of Jesus around the world; black, brown, white, and asian.
(the ethnic portrayals, you already know about, but the architecture ones are cool, google those)
Back to the Myeong-Dong cathedral. I wish I had gone up to the altar to see how He was racially portrayed, but I was too focused on the design of the building (and my sketching activity). My point though, is that it’s surprising to find a very European style church in South Korea. In my research on this subject, I first looked at who brought Christianity to Korea, usually that can give a clue; in Latin America, Spanish missionaries influenced the spread of Christianity, in South India it was the Portuguese, and in America it was primarily the English. However, in Korea, Christianity was brought by Koreans who learned about it in China. In my research here however, I found that there are many historical churches that combine elements of Western and Korean architecture. (Chapter 7 of the The Palgrave Handbook of the Catholic Church in East Asia) A nice example is the Doejae Catholic Church (Google it, the photos are really pretty). It’s possible then, that since Myeong-Dong cathedral was built as a cathedral, not a church, and since it was funded in part by a French missionary group. Therefore, maybe these Korean style was common for earlier and smaller churches in towns and villages, while later-built, or regionally significant churches, the Western style was used, since A) they had more foreign funding/influence, and B) there’s no precendent for a large and imposing buildings in the Korean architecture style.
All speculation.
Anyways, after breakfast, we went by bus to the DMZ. This was the most hyped-up part of the trip, and it certainly delivered. Looking from the Dora Observatory into North Korea was a very moving experience. Looking through the binoculars, I saw apartment buildings, farms, a power station, houses, office buildings, cars; everything that I saw on the bus ride to the border. The landscape was the same, the same lush mountains towered over the valley on both sides of the border. At some point, a river crossed the border, and I’m sure the fish didn’t know the difference. In fact, if not for the solitary blue tower from which the North Korean flag flew and the barbed wire-topped border fence, you wouldn’t know that there were two separate countries, much less that there is a staggering difference in economies, political freedom, and technology.
And it was here that I finally understood why reunification matters. Anarchists of the world will proclaim that borders are meaningless and the imaginary markings on the map only divide people and land, and in a sense they’re right, but in a sense they’re wrong. A border is meaningless until its existence effects a cultural separation. Take the Mexico-USA border for example, where aside from the obvious things like economics and politics, even language and culture differ (and sure, it’s not a discrete separation, it’s a gradient, but the gradient isn’t that wide). India and Pakistan is another example, where in addition to the gradient of language and culture, there’s also a stark religious divide. In the former example, the border created the division, in the latter it was the opposite, but in both cases, there is a border and a division.
Here in Korea, however, there is no division. Thousands of years of a unified culture and history was separated only seventy years ago, and there are still people who remember a unified Korea. As Dr. Yun said, “they are our families”. I believe it would be difficult to find another hostile border where people say that so openly. Although I know almost nothing about international relations, I can say with certainty that reunification will not be soon nor easy. I only hope that it happens before the cultures diverge, before the people of the north and south no longer see each other as a temporarily separated family.
Finally, in the evening, we went to a Korean baseball game, and it was a real culture shock; lots of energy, crowd participation, crowd chants, etc… My main takeaway here is that if American baseball games were like Korean ones, I still wouldn’t go because I don’t care much for baseball, but I would hesitate for a lot longer than I do now before politely declining.
Anyways, that’s all for today.
– Rohit