UNESCO-listed Byeongsanseowon, Hahoe Village in Andong brace for direct hit
Gounsa, a centuries-old temple in Uiseong-gun, North Gyeongsang Province, was burned to the ground as wildfires rage across southeastern Korea and now threaten two UNESCO-listed sites in Andong in the same province.
Forest officials announced the temple was completely destroyed at 4:50 p.m. Tuesday. Gounsa, built in 681 during the Silla Kingdom (57 BC–935 AD), had some of its artifacts moved out, including paintings, books and statues earlier in the day as a precaution.
Officials at the Korea Heritage Service, the agency handling cultural heritage across the country, said late Tuesday that it had sent a team of officials and experts to Byeongsanseowon, a 17th-century Confucian academy on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list now at risk.
“We have fire helicopters ready near the Nakdong River,” a KHS official said of preparations underway should fires approach the old academy compound, referring to firefighters’ plan to draw water from the country’s longest river.
While local governments typically respond to emergencies like this, Byeongsanseowon is a state-designated historic site that warrants KHS intervention, according to the agency.
The agency said similar preparations are underway for Hahoe Village, another UNESCO site in Andong. The village, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is home to descendants of the Ryu clan of Pungsan, seven out of 10 village people now carrying the family name Ryu.
“Fire trucks and firefighters are standing ready,” the official said. About 150 people from the village have been evacuated.
According to the KHS, five counts of damage to cultural heritage maintained by the government have been reported so far.
A scenic site in Jeongseon-gun, Gangwon Province; a natural monument in Hadong-gun, South Gyeongsang Province; two structures at a Goryeo shrine compound in South Gyeongsang Province; a natural monument in Ulju-gun, Ulsan; and a fortress site in Ulju-gun, Ulsan, have been damaged by the wildfires, which show no signs of abating.
The wildfires in the Gyeongsang provinces are a greater threat to natural monuments than other forms of heritage because recovery is harder, a KHS official said.
The Hadong ginkgo trees in South Gyeongsang and the Ulsan evergreen trees — the natural monuments that sustained partial damage — will need some time to grow back, the official added.
The evergreen shrubs in Ulsan, one of a kind along the country’s eastern coast, are significant ecologically as well as historically.
siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com
