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I have been to many Korean traditional palaces and never thought about going to a village. Today I went to a Korean traditional village called Namsan Hanok Village, and noticed that it is very different from a palace. In Namsan Hanok Village there are 3 types of Hanoks. There is a palace where the royal family lived. Only a king can live in a palace with more than 99kan (1kan is the distance between 2 pillars). Then there is the tiled roof house where noble men lived. Slaves or people with a low rank lived in thatched houses. The reason is because straw is easy to find and is simple to take down and rebuild. When you look at Namsan Hanok Village you will be able to divide the village into two parts. On the outside there is a quarter made for men and is called 사랑채. Here there is a library and places to study. Then there’s the 안채 made for women which is located inside surrounded by the 사랑채. In the 안채 there is a kitchen and a storage room. The reason the 안채 is in the center of the village is because back then women were not allowed to go outside and show their faces. Also men wanted to protect their wives from other men. Behind the 사랑채 and 안채 there is a shrine. In this shrine there are 4 tables to serve ancestors of 4 generations.
In the winter it probably gets very cold. I think that Koreans had a pretty good idea inventing the ondol. The ondol is a system that heats up the floor. First they make a fire under the house and heats up the floor, but one problem was the smoke. The smoke caused fires and ruined the idea of ondol so they made a chimney so that the smoke can go out. Also summer was extremely hot, so Koreans created 대청마루. This a room where the floor is just made out of wood so it would stay cool even in the boiling heat. These systems and features at a village are really good and useful. I think that this village is very organized and has lots of tools and systems that make their life easier. |
