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| Damyang, Korea’s Home of Bamboo |
2009-08-04 |
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On a quiet afternoon, a man is trimming bamboo stems near a small flower bed on one side of a yard.
I’m making the ribs of a fan out of the bamboo bark. Our ancestors used to do this job by hand, not by machine. I work in the same way. I don’t use a machine.
Throughout the afternoon, the man cuts the bamboo bark into pieces and glues them together into specific formations. Finally, he flips a fan open. Kim Dae-seok, an intangible cultural asset and master fan-maker, is happy to show off his famous fans.
This is daeryunseon. In old times, this sizable fan was used as a sunshade when kings went for an outing. The fan is hard to find in ordinary markets, but you can see it at the National Folk Museum in Gyeongbok Palace. And this one, called Hallyang Fan, is typically used by shamans when they perform their rites. There’s another one. Look at this. Namsadang, or members of a traveling entertainment troupe, use this fan when they walk tightropes. They come to this town to buy my fans.
The room is filled with a variety of colorful fans. A wind softly whistles from his fingertips when he uses the fans. Kim says only fans made of Damyang bamboo can create this wind
Damyang has the right climate and soil for growing bamboo. Bamboo in other regions breaks easily, but Damyang bamboo splits smoothly and has a soft, shiny surface. That’s why this particular bamboo is used for various arts and crafts.
The master has been absorbed in Damyang bamboo for 46 years. But he still studies the bamboo, because he wishes to learn more about its real beauty and value. His hands are permeated with the scent of the bamboo, which is softly spread into the air by the wind.
Located four hours away from Seoul, Damyang in South Jeolla Province is indisputably a haven of Korean bamboo. The area is lush with tall bamboo groves that shed a sweet scent of bamboo. These bamboo forests alone make the region a popular tourist destination, attracting a number of out-of-towners from across the country. Here’s Park Ju-ho in charge of tourism promotion at the Damyang County Office.
Bamboo trees grow in abundance in Damyang County, which has long been known for its bamboo. A park featuring the theme of bamboo was created on 160-thousand square meters of land in 2003. More than 800-thousand tourists came to the park in 2008. And this year, as of the end of June, about 600-thousand people visited there.
An increasing number of tourists are coming all the way to this small town where the “Damyang Bamboo Festival” takes place in early May every year. Now in its 11th year, the regional festival has developed year after year into the nation’s representative bamboo event with the theme of “beauty of stillness.” Here’s Jeon Hyeong-gi, another official of the Damyang County Office who administers festival affairs.
Bamboo trees are green all year-round. Damyang is famous for Gwanbangjerim, a forest full of old trees, and an avenue lined with metasequoia trees, which was named one of Korea’s 100 most beautiful roads. I imagine those interested in the nation’s much-touted “low-carbon, green growth” initiative will find this area an ideal tourist destination. This year’s bamboo festival drew 1.2 million tourists, featuring walking trails deep inside bamboo forests to highlight the theme of “stillness.”
Tourists can enjoy a variety of experience-based programs, such as making bamboo crafts, riding bamboo boats and making liquor brewed in thick bamboo containers. Bamboo groves are everywhere, awaiting the tourists who want enjoy a cool breeze and a leisurely stroll. And bamboo park Jungnogwon is a perfect place for “bathing in the forest.” Here’s tour guide Song Myeong-suk.
On hot summer days, it feels like the temperature goes down 2-3 degrees Celsius by simply looking at something green. The bamboo forests actually cool the air 2-3 degrees Celsius, so you feel 5-6 degrees Celsius cooler inside the forests.
The natural bamboo forests in Hyanggyo-ri of Damyang were rearranged as a 170-thousand- square-meter bamboo park with beautiful paths lined with various types of bamboo trees. It has eight paths with thematic titles, such as “Good Luck Path” and “Scholar’s Path.” It takes about an hour and a half to walk the whole paths spanning 2.2 kilometers.
These bamboo forests produce massive negative ions. Tourists are advised to visit here in the summertime. The combination of bamboo trees and water boosts the effect of negative ions. If you are wondering where to go during the rainy season, these bamboo forests will be a good choice. Visitors can fully enjoy the negative ion, and those who are under a lot of stress will be able to take a good rest here.
We’ve walked a long way, but we don’t feel tired at all. This is probably one of the benefits of “bamboo bathing,” which people say is much more beneficial than a therapeutic walk in ordinary forests. The tall, thick bamboo stems block out the strong sunlight—a fabulous scene that is rarely found in other regions.
Tea leaves grow at the bottom of the bamboo trees. The leaves are wet with early morning dew falling from the bamboo trees. Tea made of these leaves is named jungrocha, which means tea of bamboo dew, because the tea leaves live on bamboo dew. We never use pesticides or chemical fertilizer in these bamboo forests. Bamboo leaves keep falling until autumn, adding nutrients to the soil.
Visitors can relish the tea of bamboo dew at the “Bamboo Scent Culture Village,” which is just next to the bamboo park. Tea ceremony instructor Kim Mi-ae tells us more about this particular tea with a slightly bitter flavor.
The bamboo dew tea is different from ordinary tea grown outdoors, since its leaves grow under the shade. This tea contains theanine, a kind of amino acid, more than ordinary teas do. This substance makes the tea taste softer and more pleasant. It helps ease the bitter and astringent taste of catechin, a component contained in tea.
We carefully hold a cup of tea with both hands and look outside through the window. Traditional Korean houses with pavilions are situated against the background of green bamboo forests, creating a quiet and charming atmosphere. Damyang is renowned as the birthplace of gasa literature, a traditional form of Korean verses that combines poems with music. We enjoy the pleasant illusion that a scholar from the ancient times is singing a song.
In addition to the pleasant sound of bamboo leaves rustling against each other in breezes, there’s another sound for which Damyang is famous.
Rice is soaked in water for some time and then put into the hollow bamboo stalks. 15 or 16 such bamboo canisters are steamed for an hour in one steamer, allowing the aroma of bamboo to permeate into the rice. You can enjoy the unique scent and flavor of rice cooked in bamboo. It’s good for health. When chewing it, you will find this rice tastes different from ordinary varieties.
We hear the rice pressure-cooked in a steamer and smell the aroma of bamboo. It’s as if we can taste this special rice with our ears and noses before actually eating it. White glutinous rice is cooked in a thick, hollowed out bamboo container, with ginseng, jujubes, gingko nuts and chestnuts sprinkled on top. The scent of green bamboo is infused into this variety.
- I can smell the aroma of bamboo. The rice has lots of healthy ingredients, and a mild and savory taste. It’s really delicious!
- I like the sweet scent of bamboo. It’s nice to enjoy the rice served in a bamboo keg. It creates an elegant, refined mood.
The spicy salad of raw bamboo shoots and a piece of ttoek galbi, which is grilled minced beef ribs, add flavor to the rice cooked in bamboo. The beef dish is one of Damyang’s famous delicacies. The sweet fragrance of bamboo soon fills the mouth. This is the real flavor of Damyang. Here’s Lee Su-geum, who manages a restaurant specializing in rice cooked in bamboo.
I strongly recommend tourists eat rice steamed in bamboo, the raw bamboo shoots salad and tteok galbi, which is made from Korean beef. I bet it tastes completely different from similar beef dishes in other regions. And the salad is a mixture of bamboo shoots and fresh-water snails. You will never experience this distinctive flavor elsewhere. Once you eat these three dishes, you will feel more inclined to visit Damyang.
Tourists usually clean the bamboo vessel after eating the rice in it and keep it as a souvenir. The bamboo canisters are reused as various items, such as a vase and a pencil case. If you’re still curious about bamboo, visit the Korea Bamboo Museum where you can learn everything about bamboo. Here’s Choi Un-seon, a researcher at the museum.
The Korea Bamboo Museum is dedicated to inheriting the tradition of bamboo craftwork. Artistic bamboo crafts are preserved, exhibited and sold in the museum, which also serve as a cultural venue and a resting place for tourists.
The museum, with two stories above ground and one below, has a total of six exhibition rooms that display 2,500 pieces of bamboo products from around the world. The “Bamboo Species” section exhibits as many as 64 bamboo varieties. Every year, 300-thousand tourists visit the place, the only bamboo museum in the world. The museum offers diverse experience programs where visitors can make their own bamboo crafts.
Visitors can attend 20 different hands-on workshops. Five bamboo craft masters named intangible cultural assets and other masters in the county serve as instructors for the experience programs.
Tourists have now explored the region’s popular spots and local delicacies as well. But some of them still feel something is missing. They drop by souvenir shops to check out various bamboo items.
- There’s something mysterious about Damyang’s bamboo, which can’t be found in other regions. My children love it.
- I came here to buy a “bamboo wife,” a bamboo mat and bamboo pillows. These bamboo products are very nice. They make me feel cooler.
A “bamboo wife” is a long pillow made from loosely woven tubes of bamboo that Koreans used to hold onto as they slept. It was supposed to keep them cool at night in the hot summertime. The shop is full of visitors, including a woman who came all the way from Busan to buy a bamboo wife. They’re surprised to find that there are so many different kinds of bamboo products.
Bamboo baskets are more practical than plastic ones. There are various kinds of handicrafts, and traditional Korean sweets here are less sugary but more delicious than those found in other shops. Also, it’s good to brush your teeth with bamboo salt. Here, I drank tea of bamboo dew for the first time. It makes me feel refreshed. I moved to Damyang only recently, but I find the town very attractive.
Bamboo stems are trimmed into thin strips, which are colored with natural dyes. The craft of working with bamboo strips to create colorful products is called chaesang. Important cultural asset Seo Han-gyu and his successor Seo Shin-jeong jointly work on these chaesang products, which are immensely popular. Visitors get excited just looking at the masters interweaving the warp and woof elaborately.
It’s just amazing. At first, I thought the bamboo crafts were a little bit expensive. But after watching the production process, I think they deserve the value. Still, I’m hesitating to buy things because they’re expensive. I like this bag, though. It’s really pretty.
In the past, bamboo crafts were the only local specialty in the region. But Damyang has developed various bamboo products that appeal to consumers, such as bamboo salt and tea made of bamboo leaves. And it has even stepped into the bio industry with bamboo distillates. Damyang’s new challenge continues, with the globalization of bamboo in mind. Here again is Jeon Hyeong-gi, official of the Damyang County Office.
Research shows that bamboo has many medicinal properties, such as alleviating fever and easing anemia, and skin whitening. Damyang County has been developing new products, including tea from bamboo leaves and environmentally-friendly farming materials. We plan to hold bamboo fairs and international seminars in order to promote the benefits of bamboo the world over.
It’s time again to find peace of mind in the bamboo forests. The bamboo leaves are dancing, rustling in the breeze, and the sunshine falling through the tall bamboo stems creates a perfect harmony with their shadows.
Damyang’s bamboo groves are beautiful all the year round, but they impress the visitors in different ways according to the seasons. When looking at tender, green bamboo shoots break through the grounds in the springtime, tourists realize the wonder of a new life. In the summertime, the lush leaves provide the visitors with a cool shade. It’s nice to see tinged autumn leaves in the nation’s famous mountains, but it’s also wonderful to visit the ever-green bamboo groves. And it’s just breathtaking to see the bamboo trees covered with white snow in the wintertime.
Surrounded by the cool, green freshness of bamboo, we realize our fatigue and sweat are gone. During Korea’s sultry summer months, Damyang is a must-visit attraction. |
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