Fascinating Exhibits in the Museums of Seoul: National Museum of Korea

I have never really thought of myself as a person who enjoys walking around museums.  I usually get bored way faster than whomever I'm with.  Here in Korea though, I have found some totally fascinating exhibits that really have me changing my mind about museums.  Due to the sheer volume of photos I take at each museum, I will have to devote one blog post to each museum, rather than combining them all into one.

Our first museum trip was to the National Museum of Korea.  It is a gigantic building and I think in one day we covered maybe half of it.   It has a beautiful mirror pond out front with a pavilion jutting out over the water.  The weather that day wasn't so nice though, so the colors in the photo seems quite blah.

The open plaza in the center was used as a performance space later that afternoon.  

We started in the section labeled Prehistory and Ancient History.  It covered Paleolithic, Neolithic, the Bronze Age, and then moved forward to the earliest kingdoms known to have reigned in Korea.

Then we went into the main hall and saw the famous 10-tier stone pagoda from the Gyeongcheonsa Temple.  It dates back to 1348 and is 44 feet tall.

We also saw the Stele for Buddhist Preceptor Wollang, dating back to 890.  It's almost 13 feet tall.

After lunch, at a cafe outside, we walked again past the open plaza and this time they were rehearsing for a musical performance.  This video only has singing, despite the presence of instruments.  First the women, and then the men.  It is beautiful to listen to, but also very hard to imagine how they make those sounds.  It is a very calming sound, but also a little eerie.

From there we went back inside and explored the exhibits on Calligraphy and Painting.  We saw many examples of ancient writing, etched in stone and stamped with hand carved stamps.

I love looking at the paintings up close to see how they used individual brush strokes for their beard hair.  They seem to really pay attention to the details of hair more than anything.

We moved into a Special Exhibition area where we saw a large-scale Buddhist hanging scroll from Yeongheungsa Temple which is rarely put on display.  It was painted in 1684, by a total of 90 people, and is called A Gathering of The Three Buddhas.  You can see Charlie in front of it, to get a sense of how massive this was.  It is 33 feet high and 19.5 feet wide.

Gwaebul, a word meaning Large Buddhist Banner Painting, are only displayed during Buddha's birthday.  There are only 110 in existence, but only 5 of those depict all 3 Buddha.

Willow thought the guy in the corner of the painting was very serious, but had a funny nose.

Bhaishajyaguru Preaching in the Eastern Paradise

Included in this special exhibit was an arhat. An arhat is considered the ideal of a disciple of Buddha.

A sculpture of an arhat

Then we wandered around the Wood and Lacquer Crafts area.  This had mostly mother-of-pearl inlaid chests and larger pieces of furniture.

Then we came upon the Buddha sculptures.  They were massive.  I was really shocked at how big they were.  I've only ever seen the little figurines or smaller sculptures at the temples.

And lastly, we walked through the Celadon and White Porcelain exhibits.

I love how much of Korean culture is still alive today.  Their history is still very present in their lives.  Although we were in a museum looking at historical artifacts, many of these same designs and materials in sculptures and paintings are still present all around Korea.
It is a sharp contrast to Americans and how we view our culture and history, since most of us are descendants from immigrants.  It makes America the melting pot of many different cultures all mixed into one.  I think it makes it hard for Americans to really define their unique culture or have a connection to their history.