(EDITORIAL from the Korea Times on May 15)- Fabulous Royal Tombs

It's good to hear the world has finally come to recognize the unique and universal values of Korea's royal tombs.

The de facto designation of 40 tombs of Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) kings and
queens as a UNESCO World Heritage is good news both for Koreans and foreigners,
including those who have yet to be awakened to the hitherto hidden gems scattered
in and around Seoul.
Experts, both local and foreign, rightly evaluate these old mausoleums as the
``cultural crystallization,'' in which not only the old kingdom's architecture
and aesthetics but also its thoughts and religions _ Confucianism, Buddhism and
Taoism ??? merge together. Others call them the ``garden of gods,'' adding
artificiality to nature in ways to best preserve the original state of the
latter, an element that sets them apart from bigger and more exquisite but mostly
artificial Japanese and Chinese gardens.
China's ancient tombs may also appear more grandiose and domineering in scale
than Joseon tombs tracing back to Silla and Goryo Kingdoms, but the former are
literally dead facilities, while Joseon's royal tombs are still alive, in which
people hold ancestral rites to deceased monarchs every year. In Joseon royal
tombs, nature harmonizes with humans and the past coexists with the present.
As World Heritage Committee exclaimed, it is unheard of elsewhere in the world
that 27 generations of kings and queens spanning over five centuries are
preserved intact. This reflects Korean people's traditional pillars of thoughts,
which consists of filial piety to parents (Confucianism), belief in life after
death (Buddhism) and theory of geomancy (Taoism).
So much so that even the sitting kings wouldn't dare to step on the mounds of the
graves of their ancestors. People who grew up in the Seoul-Gyeonggi Province area
would blush to hear that, remembering their experiences of playing around the
mounds during school picnics to one of these royal tombs with names ending with
suffixes of ``neung.'' This should call for renewed attention to the need to
preserve and restore the tombs with utmost care.
There are two biggest enemies to conservation of these cultural heritages:
developmentalism and tourism. It is particularly worrisome that the government's
reckless development policy in the capital area would tighten its circles to
these tombs. The nomination of World Heritage should be an occasion to keep
developers, public or private, from encroaching upon not just the tombs
themselves but also areas surrounding them, because a heritage's beauty can be
complete only when it can be seen in its entirety, including the skyline around
it.
Both central and local governments also ought to rack their brains on how to keep
possible damage on the heritages from the hands of visitors and tourists, who are
expected in great numbers after the committee formally designate it as a World
Heritage site next month. The U.N. agency may pay some attention but it is solely
the responsibility of each country to keep its own source of cultural pride in
perfect shape.
Being an advanced country not just means the construction of skyscraping
apartments but also paying due respect to priceless natural and cultural
properties. Joseon kings reportedly visited these tombs quite frequently as also
a means of communicating with the people, another lesson for modern rulers.
(END)