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Wednesday 2006-09-06 - P’yŏngyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Greeting the great leader
In Korea, people believe everything starts again after 60 years so at your 60th birthday there is normally a big party. When president Kim Il Sung turned 60 in 1972, obviously there was an extra-big party: for the occasion the Mansudae Grand Monument was erected in P'yŏngyang; it consists of a big copper-colored statue of the president, flanked on on either side by two 50-meter long memorials celebrating the liberation from the nearly 40-year long Japanese occupation. The sculpture is remarkable - not just the stark realism most of us associate with art from communist countries but with an inspired simplicity added to it, especially in the statue of president Kim Il Sung. I'm impressed.
As all tourists here (including North Korean tourists) do, we visit the monument to deposit a bunch of flowers as a tribute from our “delegation” at the Great leader’s feet, stand in a row, and bow. We’re “required” to do this of course, but when in Rome…
Korean culture
Next on our program for today is a visit to the Folklore Museum in P'yŏngyang which turns out to be very interesting. As at every tourist site in North Korea, we get a local guide - a good thing since all the explanatory texts with the well-presented exhibits are in Korean. Many murals, paintings and schematics explain the use of containers, agricultural instruments and fishing gear -- from prehistoric times to the present.
The section on clothing is also very interesting, showing how the traditional style we see now evolved from simple tunics worn over trousers or a long skirt. When a child turns one, it's dressed up in new clothes with rainbow colors, and presented with a table with various toys and implements; what the child chooses to play with (say, a brush) is supposed to predict what the child will grow up to be (a brush would represent an intellectual). This custom is still alive -- the rainbow colors worn on every birthday, not just the first -- and later on we actually see a little boy proudly skipping around dressed up in rainbow colors.
Crossing the bridge
From Folklore Museum we continue our P’yŏngyang city tour by walking to the Taedong river, across the bridge, and then along the other side to the Tower of the Juche Idea (“Ju che” means something like self reliance, the philosophy introduced by the Great Leader Kim Il Sung). The tower, designed by the president himself, forms a remarkable landmark in P’yŏngyang with its 170m height, 20m of which is formed by a flame that at night is lighted and flickers like a candle. Along the river, more people are gathered to practice for the Arirang games — these are playing the People’s Army and fitted out in fake (but realistic) uniforms. When a few of us (me included) go to the top of the tower (by elevator, of course) we have mot only an excellent view of the huge city around us but also of the people exercising below.
Before the tower, on the river side, is a statue that symbolizes the three pillars of North Korean society: three people carrying the symbolic implements, the hammer for the workers, the sickle for the farmers, and the brush for the intellectuals. (The latter indicating how different North Korean culture actually is from the Chinese where intellectuals were abhorred during the cultural revolution.)
Later, we hear from Mr. Pak that we are actually the first tour group ever in North Korea to be allowed to walk across the bridge to the Juche Tower like we did today. Mostly, he tells us, this is because we are disciplined, and don’t run off all over the place — like Russians tend to do. With us, he can “manage” it so that we have a little freedom without causing problems. We’re to experience many more examples of the way in which Mr. Pak tries to build a little flexibility into our schedule, and not just show us what is required to be shown, but also try to accommodate our wishes.
To the hospital
After a delicious lunch and a short visit to the monument to the Founding of the Worker’s Party (more good sculpture but otherwise uninteresting) we’re treated to a tour in the Hospital of Korean Medicine in P’yŏngyang; this small hospital, concentrating on traditional Korean medicine serves several important functions: science, treatment (free), training of doctors, and exchange between the DPRK and the UN security council.
Rather surprisingly, we are shown various treatment and diagnostic techniques. (Some of us wonder whether we’re seeing real patients or actors but it would be a really elaborate setup for a small group of foreign visitors — we see no other tour groups; I just can’t believe this theory.) For diagnosis, the patient is assigned to one of four “body types” (at least that’s how I understand it); one of the intake techniques used is taking the patient’s fingerprints — directly into a computer system, using a touch-sensitive pad and a program that graphically prompts for each of the fingers. Echography is also being used for diagnosis.
Some treatments are surprising for us westerners but we could learn something here - they don’t poison the body with chemicals when not needed; for instance one lady with a gall bladder problem is being treated purely with a course of acupressure and massage; she’s getting 40 massages of 30 minutes, and no medicines at all. The massage seems to be targeted to stimulate the body to “heal itself” and looks very relaxing, too. Treatment of broken legs with acupuncture is somewhat less surprising to me given that in the West bones are often helped to heal with electrical stimulation — but there is no cast. We are shown many more things and treatments, all in all a very interesting visit (and not something you’d expect to see on a visit to a foreign country; they ‘re obviously proud of their medical techniques).
