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Friday 2006-09-08 - P’yŏngyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
This is hard work!
Already on the first day in P’yŏngyang we learned that the itinerary as published by Koning Aap (Monkey King) is actually two days out of date. Most of the elements are still there albeit rearranged but for instance the two hikes I’d been looking forward to (and counted on to keep in shape for my planned Beijing hikes) have been canceled. There are other program elements in their place, but I’m rather disappointed about the canceled hikes.
All these changes imply though that we’re never more than one night in the same place. Officially we check out each time after one night in the P’yŏngyang Yanggakdo hotel, but in practice we return to the same rooms; still, we can’t leave our things in those rooms, so the room of Yvon (our tour companion) is kept for the period to have a place to store most of our luggage and take only a smaller overnight bag when we go into the country.
Apart from all this to-ing and fro-ing, each day has a full program, leaving us barely any “free” time. On the one hand, that’s a good thing since we’re not allowed to freely roam around on our own anyway but on the other hand we’re all soon suffering from a bit of information overload, with no time to process it all — let alone (for me) to write my travel blog stories. In fact, I only just manage to keep my own diary notes during the day: I must write those during and after each program point or I’ll have forgotten most of it by evening. (Of course, every now and then in the evening we gather in a hotel bar but I’m not skipping on this little social time just to write.) On the positive side, we actually get a lot to see on this rather short 10-day trip.
While it’s actually possible to send an email from the Yanggakdo hotel — and when on the road I update this blog via an email interface — I find I simply have no time to write out my stories. I’ll have to try to catch up once back in Beijing. (There is only email access for us though: no web access, although I know at least some people in the DPRK do have web access.)
I do get into a routine of offloading all (digital) photographs made each day on my image tank and recharging both the image tank’s and the camera’s batteries; with one exception, power is no problem and most hotels actually provide a power strip where I can just plug in my equipment - I don’t even need my international adapter plug.
My first good breakfast
OK, so I’m weird (a little): I never eat a “continental” breakfast in hotels, or whatever the local interpretation of that is. And I never eat white bread. Most of our group actually enjoy the thick slices of lightly toast bread, jam, butter, and omelet. It’s just not for me: mostly I make do with just the egg, and the occasional (very good) kefir.
So this morning at breakfast at the Yanggakdo hotel in P’yŏngyang in the downstairs restaurant (no view from the roof any more) I’m pleasantly surprised: there’s a breakfast buffet with a wealth of both western and Korean dishes! I dish up a lot of (mostly spicy) vegetables, add a few pieces of apple, and take a glass of kefir and as a result I have my first really nice (not to say delicious) breakfast since our arrival in the DPRK. I can get used to this!
King Tongmyong
Our first stop on the way from P’yŏngyang to Wŏnsan today is the (reconstructed) tomb of King Tongmyong who founded the Koguryo kingdom (lasting from 277 BC to 668 AD) and the Tongmyong dynasty. King Tongmyong was the most powerful and most worshiped king of Korea. In this area, only some 22km south of P’yŏngyang, there are actually 15 tombs in all, made for the burial of kings, members of the royal family and the aristocracy, but this tomb is is the largest, and obviously most important one. The site has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004; the listing includes more similar tombs near Namp’o.
We visit a small museum on the grounds where a series of beautifully done murals depict the life story of King Tongmyong and Korean life and culture at the time showing games and contests at celebrations but also scenes of village life. Our (inevitable) local guide tells us these paintings are based on murals found in the tombs — that seems a bit of a stretch to us, the style looking too modern, but we reason it is of course possible that the actual themes of the paintings were indeed depicted in the original murals. However, the UNESCO justification for listing the site specifically mentions the “beautiful wall paintings” and the description states:
“These paintings offer a unique testimony to daily life of this period.”
One rather moving story depicted in one of the paintings is that of the reunification of the king with his son: the king had been married, but divorced; many years later, a young man came to visit the king and presented him with the tip of his broken sword, thus proving he was the king’s son. When the king died at the early age of 40, his son, just 19 then, succeeded him.
Museum monks
Right next to King Tongmyong’s tomb (and part of the World heritage site near P’yŏngyan) is the small Jongrung Temple, where prayers were said for the deceased king; we pay a visit to this as well. In this country, where any religion has been almost totally ruled out, it still feels strange, sterile even — not like a real, “living” monastery, even though six monks still live here: no lamps burn in front of the Buddha statues, and the distinctive aroma of burning incense is completely missing. I wonder, how are they practicing their religion and duties as monks then? The place feels more like a museum with the monks as caretakers.
When I ask the guide (through Miss Uni - the guide doesn’t speak English) how the monastery gets new novices, she tells us these monks can marry, and that their sons can succeed them. They’re also not required to shave their heads, whether to do that is their own choice. Now while I know that in some types of Buddhism monks can indeed marry, the idea of monks’ sons succeeding them sounds very strange to me: is this some strange sect or has this monastery been “reformed” by the government into something not really Buddhist any more?
