Every year, one of these two cities sponsors the Baek-je Cultural Festival. HUGE. The entire town is converted into open markets of traditional foods, dramas, crowd-pleasing dramas, costumes, dances ... THE WORKS!
I had two great personal moments. At the Tomb of King Muryeong, there were open aired tents, with women (mostly) serving up, in traditional dress, traditional teas and foods.
The rest of the afternoon I toured the old fortress area. I should say here that I toured this area with two old English students I had, and had not seen, since 1981, in Daejeon. Here I am with one, on a traditional see-saw.
Second Great Moment: the evening "parade" that had everyone excited. We arrived an hour early at the town's main square/circle, and hundreds of folks had already taken their place.
My first lesson of the evening is that "parade" is nine parts Latin American Carnival and one part parade. Surrounding towns and villages send their "act" to the ancient capital, and they have 15 minutes to strut, dance, sing, and act. Wow! Pictures below will show you this.
My second lesson was that I was, as a foreigner, with an expensive-looking camera, expected to go right into the middle of the actions. The other photographers were. They thought I was foreign press. I must say, after a day of touring, I needed some alone-time, introvert-mode, and the best way I know how to do it is aim a camera.
Here are a bunch of pictures. DO PLEASE see the THREE VIDEOS I have linked for you at the bottom of the pictures. (If you wish to see the complete picture-set, click here.)
Am I making the pictures too big? Let me know.
VIDEOS on Youtube:
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1
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Female Buddhist Monks Drumming (Drool on this, Asheville
Drum Circle!!)
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2
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Rare Korean Performance-Ritual to help the soul to the next
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3
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K-Pop Style synchronized dancing
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Until next time,
Marc
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