Hahwe and Andong

Early start on a bright day - walked into the BEXCO Centre (about 40 mins) and joined the coach party for a long drive to Hahwe Village, a UNESCO site visited by The Queen for 3 nights and 4 days on one of her birthdays in 1999. When asked why she had come, she said, "Because it is Korea in Korea". Good enough for us therefore, and I had my picture taken with the Queen - I was the only person from Britain in the group. We started with a fine meal, and were then on our rounds, sadly with it having turned dull with a bit of moisture in the air, because there were some beautiful autumn colours, and the village was very picturesque with a river coiled round it, and a sacred tree on the slightly higher ground in the middle. We were here partly because it's a very popular tourist site, but mainly as our trip was an encounter with traditional Korean religion - in our case shamanism and Confucianism (others were looking at Buddhism). Saw the most birds I didn't recognise of anywhere on the visit so far, and the river was beautiful reminding me on a much smaller scale of the view at the back of the Taj Mahal complete with ferry-boat. We were next whisked off to a traditional paper-making place where they were still working at 3.30 on a Saturday afternoon - it was a good visit, again I think enjoyed by The Queen judging by the pictures - lovely end products too. Then on to Andong Presbyterian Church where we received a reception fit for royalty. Much bowing and greeting by a whole line of people all very smartly dressed for guests who thought they were going on a casual day out! Armed with tea and biscuits we had a tour of the extensive premises including an exhibition (entirely in Korean) of their history going back 104 years in which Christian Endeavour had played an early part. In Andong Christians are only 10 per cent of the population, much smaller than in Korea as a whole on account of the strong traditional religion in the area. We were told how they engaged with and gained the respect of local people by some of their activities like running a children's library. They were also well regarded for their active stance in a march protesting against the Japanese occupiers when 7 church members were arrested - there are still 5 of their descendents in the church. They have sought connections between Korean Confucianism and Christian faith, the former providing a fertile soil for the latter to be sown in, and in fact continuing to shape the courtesy, deference, generous hospitality characteristic of Koreans. There were 2 lectures, greetings from the Mayor, an MP and the Council leader, also musical items by the children including an almost in tune Korean flute, a gagayeum, and a nimble-ish dancer who turned out to be about 70. All followed by a very nice hugely varied meal indeed that actually turned out to be quite easy to eat with chop sticks, unlike at lunchtime. Then we were all given a gift, carved miniature dance masks. Another aspect to the day, was the company on the coach. There was Alexei Bodrov who knew Malcolm my brother from his Keston work, Charles a delightful insightful Korean origin American Methodist minister in New York City, and Iiris who runs the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Press Service as well as shorter conversations with others. A very enjoyable day - but at least I know tomorrow to put my suit on for attending Sunday worship!