Legend of NoK-Go ‘Suweolbong / Jeju travel

 

*Notice- This article is written by non-native English speak.

 

The place you are seeing on the picture is ‘Suweolbong’. Actually Suweolbong is a kind of hidden beautiful place in Jeju island even though it is UNESCO designated Geo-Park. Many tourists miss this place. There are 9 UNESCO designated Geo-parks in jeju island included Suweolbong.( Sanbangsan Lava dome, Yongmeri coast, Jusangjeli columnar-Jointed lava, Seokwipo formation, Chenjuyeon waterfall, Sungsan ilchulbong, Manjanggul lava Tube, Mt Halla)

 

 

Today I want to introduce a hidden place named “Suwelbong” Tuff Ring. ‘Sewelbong Tuff Ring’ is locate in western side of Jeju island. Around 18,000 years ago in this place hot ascending magma explosively interacted with groundwater, then depositional structures and a tuff ring composed of volcanic ash had been accumulated to build up a magnificent cliff. As time went by the crater has been eroded step by step and only 10% has remained so far. Suweolbong is well -known as a text book of research of process of volcano in world wide. Volcanic ash spread around Suweolbong became rich soil for plants, which provided ground of life for humans in the Neolithic Period. By those reasons many relics of the Neolithic age have been found in this area. So it is very important place for geology and history on Jeju island.

 

 

When you come down to the side of the cliff, there are caves and water is flowing through holes. Each cave contains some water on the bottom. People in this area believe that this is holy water. Some times they come to this water to give a ritual to the god of sea. Even though giving a ritual to the god of sea is regarded a kind of shamanism I think it as a kind of beautiful Jeju custom.

 

 

Some parts of cliff have been eroded a lot and it makes some holy spiritual animal shape. What do you think this rock looks like? May be Dragon? Once you go down on the Suweolbong, there is a tracking course to Chakwi-do islets which were once part of ’Suweolbong’.

 

 

It takes around 20 minutes on food. One thing you can’t miss is that the contrast between the color of cliff and lava rocks on the shore. Lot’s of black pentagon or hexagon shaped lava rocks are found on the way. It will be a nice and cool walking especially on the sun set. When you walk down on the path you will see the excavations by Japanese military. It was probably used as arsrnal during world war 2. Jeju was last defending line of Japan in those times. There are more than 500 Japanese military excavations around jeju island.

 

 

It’s quite interesting to see spring waters coming out through the rocks. We call the water ‘Yong chen su’. 90% of jeju island is covered by lava rocks and soil, so when it rains it just penetrateds into the ground and after time goes by it comes out near shores. That’s why lots of villages are on shores in Jeju island.

 

There is a legend for the water: Once upon a time there a brother and a sister. The brother name was ‘Nokgo’ and the sister name was ‘Suweol’. They climbed the cliff looing for the medicinal herb ‘Ogalpi’ to cure her mother. By mistake, the sister ‘Suweol’ was falling down. When her brother heard her scream, he went up on the cliff but she alreday fell down and died. He started to cry, and cry. Since that this cliff has been called ‘Suweol-bong’ and this water got name of ‘the tears of Nokgo’.