| Insa-dong traditional-culture shopping neighborhood South of Seoul's Bugak-san Part of the Bukhan-san Sub-range |
| The much-photographed Stone Jangseung spirit-guardian statues that stood at the northern entrance of Insa-dong since its first refurbishment in 1988 in advance of the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympic Games -- they were repeatedly attacked by Korean Christians (painting red crosses on them, or etc), and then finally removed in early 2015, and reportedly destroyed. |
| original position, 1988-2001 |
| They were modeled after three-century-old treasured jangseung in far-southern Korea. The male one is a copy of the male one at the entrance of Naju City's Deokyong-san Bulhoe-sa Temple, and the female one is a copy of that at Jiri-san Ssanggye-sa in Hadong County. |
| new position, next to the Information Kiosk, from 2002 (when Korea hosted the World Cup Finals) until 2015. |
Korean Heritage Scholar Suk Ji-hoon noted in a message to me that "Another factor that contributed
to the demise of these Jangseungs was the fact the inscriptions on them identified these figures as
"Tang General 唐將軍" (right) and "Zhou General 周將軍" (left), which are exactly copied from the
originals but did not go well with the people who cared. Jangseungs were supposed to scare the evil
spirits, and to the minds of the medieval Joseonites, a "Chinese general" would be the scariest/most
terrifying thing in the world, hence these inscriptions. However, many thought that these were "too
Chinese" for modern taste, and there were complaints made by the business organizations of the
Insa-dong arguing that these pair reminded them too much with "those awful Chinese tourists".
to the demise of these Jangseungs was the fact the inscriptions on them identified these figures as
"Tang General 唐將軍" (right) and "Zhou General 周將軍" (left), which are exactly copied from the
originals but did not go well with the people who cared. Jangseungs were supposed to scare the evil
spirits, and to the minds of the medieval Joseonites, a "Chinese general" would be the scariest/most
terrifying thing in the world, hence these inscriptions. However, many thought that these were "too
Chinese" for modern taste, and there were complaints made by the business organizations of the
Insa-dong arguing that these pair reminded them too much with "those awful Chinese tourists".