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Nine traditional seowon (Korean Neo-Confucian academies) – built throughout South Korea since the 16th century and maintained in their original form through all the turbulence of the late Joseon period and Japanese occupation – have been placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Following a review for the selection of newly registered heritage on the evening of July 6 in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee decided to place nine South Korean seowon sites on its World Heritage List as requested by the South Korean government last year. Explaining its decision to register the seowon sites, the committee described them as evidence of a Neo-Confucian cultural tradition passed down to South Korea today through education and social customs. The committee also recognized their “outstanding universal value” in terms of “illustrat[ing] an historical process in which Neo-Confucianism from China was adapted to Korean conditions.”

With this decision, South Korea gains its 14th World Heritage Site. The first such sites, registered in 1995, were Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province; the Janggyeong Panjeon depositories for the Tripitaka Koreana woodblocks at Haein Temple in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province; and Jongmyo Shrine in Seoul.

The list of South Korean seowon sites includes Sosu Seowon in Yeongju, North Gyeongsang, which has been referred to as the “original” Joseon-era seowon; Dosan and Byeongsan Seowon in Andong; Oksan Seowon in Gyeongju; Dodong Seowon in Daegu’s Dalseong district; Namgye Seowon in Hamyang, South Gyeongsang; Piram Seowon in Jangseong, South Jeolla; Museong Seowon in Jeongeup, North Jeolla; and Donam Seowon in Nonsan, South Chungcheong. All were designated prior to 2000 as national historic sites representing Korea’s traditional of Neo-Confucian academies in the Yeongnam/Honam and Chungcheong regions.

While the seowon are honored as World Heritage Sites now, their history has seen its share of hardship. Following the construction of Sosu Seowon in Yeongju as the first of the Joseon era’s seowon in 1543, more than 600 others were built all around Korea between the 16th and 18th centuries, only to end up as bases for partisan strife and acts negatively impacting the public. In the late 19th century, Regent Heungseon Daewongun finally proclaimed their abolition. A mere 47 were preserved, while the remainder were eliminated; most ended up destroyed during the Japanese occupation and Korean War. Today, over 600 seowon exist in South Korea, having been rebuilt by Confucian scholars and local community figures. Among these, the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) and experts selected just nine of them as examples of architectural and cultural heritage preserving their original form, including them on a list of “Seowon, Korean Neo-Confucian Academies” for registration on the World Heritage List.

Differentiating the 9 seowon from others throughout East Asia

The process of the nine South Korean seowon’s selection as World Heritage was also fraught. They were originally placed on a provisional World Heritage list in 2011, only for the application to be withdrawn and resubmitted. The government submitted its first registration application in January 2015, but had to withdraw the request in April of the following year when the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), which reviews sites for World Heritage List registration, submitted an opinion opposing the designation. In addition to noting the exclusion of scenery surrounding Byeongsan and other seowon from the heritage sites on the application, ICOMOS insisted on clarification as to why only nine academies were being registered and how they differed from traditional Neo-Confucian academies in other East Asian countries such as China or Japan.

The CHA and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) subsequently gathered expert opinions and conducted a comparative study with similar heritage sites in Korea and overseas in order to supplement the previous content. In a new application submitted in January 2018, they stressed that the nine academies marked the starting points for the Korean seowon built during the 16th and 17th centuries, and that they had established themselves as settings with an identity of mental and physical cultivation and rural community edification while maintaining the traditional techniques of wooden architecture within their beautiful natural settings. After a study lasting over a year, ICOMOS gave its recommendation in May, signaling a go-ahead for the sites’ registration prospects. With the World Heritage Committee’s recent follow-up decision, over eight years of attempts to have the sites registered have finally paid off.

The CHA explained that the committee “recommended the formulation of integrated preservation and management plans for the nine seowon following their registration,” adding that ongoing discussions on implementation plans would be held with the relevant local governments.

By Noh Hyung-seok, staff reporter

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