Asian Group
Related: About this forumOn Mountains
Assistant professor of English, Kyung Hee University in Seoul
Posted: 01/30/2012 6:16 pm
In Gary Pak's diasporic, Korean-Hawaiian novel A Ricepaper Airplane (University of Hawaii, 1998) a woodsman named Uncle Bhak serves a warm bowl of rice porridge, or juk, to Uncle Sung Wha, a revolutionary on the run from the Japanese colonial army. The woodsman lives on Kumgangsan, a sacred mountain located in what is now the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or North Korea, near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
After eating the juk, which was prepared with special mushrooms and other mountain vegetables, Sung Wha begins to have revelatory visions of Kumgangsan:
"Time does not dawn here. It never did. Today is yesterday is tomorrow is today... and there are no such things as villages or towns or societies. There is peace in nature, and nature is everything. There is no anger or sadness or happiness. There is no frustration or loneliness. And all is forgotten but the journey of the moment."
Uncle Bhak is the irregular offspring of a union between a Buddhist monk and a tigress -- he is a "a tiger, a man of the mountains," a symbol of "living in harmony with the natural world."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-r-eperjesi/korean-mountains_b_1242746.html
marasinghe
(1,253 posts)like Moses & Vulture's Peak & Jesus & Wu-Tang Shan & Shambhala & Jeremiah 'Liver-eating' Johnson & Jose Marti & Hemingway with Kilimanjaro & Hillary and Norkay & Uyeshiba and so on .... almost as much as a river
ellisonz
(27,709 posts)I think it's the idea of a commanding view of a gods-eye. There seems to be slightly less, although still substantial worship of the sea
marasinghe
(1,253 posts)whenever i visit the old country, the 2nd thing i do, is hie down to the Indian Ocean - which lies just half an hour's walk from the homestead.
and walking into it, lying down & letting the warm, green water soak into one's core, feels like (or so i imagine) returning to the womb of the mother.
of course, the last time - i ended up festooned with plastic binders from 6-packs, discarded nylons, and odds & ends of floating litter; plus the corpses of a few dead, sea creatures.
but the Ocean feels the same as it always has. which is why i have no doubt - we evolved from out of the 'big sea waters'.
ellisonz
(27,709 posts)...when I get to Hawaii. Off the plane and as soon as possible, hit the beach roll in the sand a few times and plunge into the ocean.
The state to which we have trashed the ocean and destroyed its environments is utterly depressing. I think the death of our oceans is going to be a crisis issue even before global warming. I wish more people would talk about it; the issue is so important to our survival as a species. Many depend on it for their health and livelihood. It's an issue I would like to be seen brought to the forefront of the green movement. We aren't doing enough to manage fisheries and advance our ability to clear pollution.
for humanity.
marasinghe
(1,253 posts)i'd like to believe in the Native American myth,
embraced by Greenpeace -
of the Rainbow Warriors ~
who will answer the call of the Earth,
when the need is greatest.
probably wishful thinking on my part.
but there've been times in the past,
".... when the World cried out for a champion ...."
or maybe that only happens on "Xena: Warrior Princess" in TV-land.
we'll see
ellisonz
(27,709 posts)It is a lovely belief...
Aloha.