Photos of Eastern Jeju island, Jeju Province, Korea

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Eastern Jeju island, Jeju Province

Jeju-do, Jeju island, is the largest island of Korea and its southernmost point; since the 1st of July 2006, it has been a Special Self-Governing Province of South Korea. It has always been a special place with its own culture and language. Because it is mutually unintelligible with the Korean dialects on the mainland, it has been recognised as a distinct language, locally and by UNESCO.

Sangumburi crater
 
Sangumburi crater
 
Harubang, Seongeup
 
Traditional houses
 
Harubang statue
 
Gate poles down
 
Pond at Jeju Folk Village
 
Houses, Jeju Folk Village
 
“Chomhang” jar
 
Jeju black pigs
 
Single Pillar House
 
Farm house yard
 
Wood carving shop
 
At work
 
Village toilet
 
Goindol and Harubang
 
Display of students
 
Students display
 
Fisherman's house
 
Shamans at work
 
Joseon era court house
 
Manjanggul lava tube
 
Manjanggul lava tube
 
Farmer's fields
 

Culturally too, Jeju is different from mainland Korea. It can be observed in several sites, like Seongeup Folk Village at the foot of Mount Halla and nearby Jeju Folk Village Museum, just outside Pyoseon on the island’s southeast coast. These “Folk villages” are open-air museums where traditional rock-walled and thatched village houses from the 1890s have been meticulously restored. One of the typical features of the old Jeju villages is the Harubang (stone grandfather) statues, placed outside gates for protection against evil spirits. Traditionally, the phallic-shaped Tol-Harubang, also once called “Beoksumeori”, are gods offering both protection and fertility.

Jeju is a volcanic island; although dormant, 360 “parasitic cones” (secondary volcanoes) have been found. The Sangumburi crater, the second-largest, about 650 metres wide, 100 metres deep, and 2,070 metres in circumference, can be easily visited in the centre of eastern Jeju. Manjanggul, the world’s most comprehensive system of lava tubes, is situated in northeastern Jeju. These were formed by flowing lava which once moved beneath its hardened surface; when the volcanic eruption had ceased, and the lava flow drained away, it left a long, cave-like channel, 13.4 kilometres long, with a height from 2 to 30 metres and a width of 2 to 23 metres. Part of it is illuminated and can be walked for a considerable distance.