A Drama Weekend

My 8D Korea+Jeju Trip Photos

~ Interesting Toilet with warm seat and buttons ~

After a view of the toilet, lets look at some authentic korean food~ Ta Da~~~~~

~ Guess the bearies at the Jeju Teddy Bear Museum ~

Scenery at the Highest Mountain in Jeju

~ Tis the season to see flowers ~

Korean Folktale Stories

Story 1 - Decendents from the Bear

We usually hear that we chinese are the decendents of the dragon. And for the koreans, they claimed to be the decendents from the Bear.

Once upon a time, there was this god called Tan-Jun. Tan-Jun would descend from heaven and visit the earth several times. During that time, there was this bear and lion who sincerely wants to be human, therefore they begged Tan-Jun to teach them a way to become one, but the god refused. So year after year, the bear and lion keep begging without failure until the god gave in.

The method to become one was: To go without meat for 100 days and also to mediate.

Both the lion and bear were excited, so they went together and start they 100 days' journey. But as we all knew, the lion cannot go without meat as meat was the source of his survival. After 7 days of fruits and berries, the lion ran away and left the bear alone. And the bear continued to perserve for 100 days, and after 1oo days, the bear transforms to a woman.

And guess what!? Tan-Jun married this woman, and together with their children, they formed the Koreans.

Story 2 - Red Flowers

The story of the korean red flowers 'Tie2 Zhu3 Hua1'.
It was quite a sad story but no harm reading if you have nothing to do,

This legend has been passed down from many generations.

There was once a woman who had 500 sons (don't tell me why so many as this is puzzling to me too).
The woman's husband was believed to have been passed away, and the woman had to struggle to keep herself and the 500 sons alive. But all the woman could afford was only porridge and with tree bark as the ingredients. Even the woman had starved herself to just give her sons more to eat, but of course, the sons were still under-nourished.
One fine day, as the woman was cooking for dinner (again porridge with tree-bark), one of her legs accidentially fell into the big pot, and she was burnt badly. (FYI, the pot is so big in order to feed 500 children that she might need to climb up and do the cooking)
And for the sudden moment, she lost her balance and one of her leg fell into the pot and was scalded. Just as she was scalded, she had this thought: "her greatest wish to just give her sons a hearty and fulfilling meal just once". Without any thoughts, she threw herself into the pot.

And towards the dinner time, all the 500 sons came back for dinner, and they were looking for their mother, and no matter how they looked, they couldn't find her. So when they stepped into the kitchen, the first thing they smelled was the porridge. It was the smell of porridge cooked with meat, and instantly, the sons were all crazy and flew to grab the porridge to fill their empty stomachs.
Among the 500 sons, the youngest son had a habit - he would make sure he sees his mother before his meals. He started loooking around, and strangely that no matter how he looked, he couldn't his mother. He had a very strange feeling, and when he stepped into the kitchen, he saw all his brothers lying on the floor around - sleeping and had all had a very satisifed look on them. He couldn't understand why, and he started to look into the pot and as he digged to the bottom, he saw a set of bones, and he suddenly realised that it was nobody but his very own mother's bones. He went sooooooo mad that he ran to his brothers and scolded them for being heartless!!
But the 499 brothers were all in a very daze mood after a satisfied meal, and so they all didn't bother with what the youngest brother said.
The youngest son was so upset that he ran away.
Until the next morning, when all the sons had waken, they started to look for their mother again. Finally, they found the bones at the bottom of the pot, and the sons were all horrified that they had eaten the meat of their own mother and were crying bitterly. At the same time, they also realized the missing brother and start to search for him.
Finally they found their youngest brother and saw him kneeling at the edge of the mountain and had became a stone. All the brothers were so upset with the death of their dearest mother and brother, they all fall to their knees and cried. The tears were red and stained the flowers on the mountains. And eventually, the brothers become stones as well.

~That's all folks ~