The Institute for Traditional Korean Cultural Studies

Today I was fortunate to have a tour of the displays at the Institute for Traditional Korean Cultural Studies.

The building was completed in 2002, although the Institute has been doing work as a not-for-profit research and educational organization for many years.

The Institute was created to help the Korean people recover over one thousand years of traditional history, culture, and philosophy that were literally removed from Korean history when Japan occupied Korea. Similar to Poland during the Russian occupation, the Korean history was distorted and changed by the Japanese and taught in schools and universities so even today, many Koreans do not know the extent of their rich history.

The institute does training here as well as in schools, companies, and organizations. Currently, there is a group of employees from the National Tax Agency who are staying here and participating in training.

This is a picture of Korean pilots having a tour of the displays at the Institute. They are looking at the Chun Bu Kyung, a traditional spiritual text; a picture of a three-legged blackbird, a traditional symbol whose three legs represent heaven, earth, and humanity; and a cute statue of Dan-gun, known as the "founding father" of Korea and the first king of the Gojoseon Kingdom (2333 B.C. - 108 B.C.). Under Japanese occupation, the existence of this nation was considered to be a myth.

This kingdom was said to be one where people lived to help each other and where the physical health, emotional well-being, peacefulness and spirituality of all people was nurtured.

This article describes how Korea is changing its textbooks to reflect its history more accurately: http://www.korea.net/News/News/NewsView.asp?serial_no=20070223009