Falling Flower Rock

Earlier this week, I ranted about my failure to pick up my camera gear and leave my neighbourhood to capture new images. Instead of taking new pictures, I've been turning to the past and some of the slides and prints that I've taken over the decades.

If not for my return to scanning photos, I may have forgotten all about this particular place, which DW and I visited for an afternoon in 1997. While the photos from this place did not appear in our photo albums of South Korea, where we taught English from March of 1997 to February of 1999, I did find the group of images in a photo envelope (you know, those paper sleeves that photo-processing shops delivered your prints in?) in a box of miscellaneous photos in the basement.

It's a good thing that I'm back to working down there while our daughter is home for the summer.

On most weekends, DW and I were eager to get away from our city, Chŏnju, to explore the countryside. We'd often seek out temples, palaces, and tourist towns that we could get to in a few hours. And on this particular weekend, one of our students recommended the small town of Buyeo (for some reason, I can't say the name of this place without thinking of Al Pacino).

Buyeo, about an hour's drive to the north of Chŏnju but almost three hours, by bus, was the capital city of the Baekje Dynasty, which ruled from about 18 BCE to 660 CE and expanded to cover the western half of the Korean peninsula, from Pyongyang to the southern tip. Over the course of this dynasty, the capital city moved three times; the final capital, being Sabi, which claimed its central status from 538 CE to the fall of the dynasty.

Buyeo is the modern name of Sabi and it is steeped in history. From the remains of its fortress, to the royal palace, to Jeongnimsa, the central temple, to the royal tombs, Buyeo had everything that DW and I looked for in exploring Korea. The Geum River curls around three sides of the old part of the city and it is within these sides that most of the historic sites are located.

The fortress encompasses a wooded hill on the north part of the old city, and DW and I spent the hottest part of the day in this area, taking advantage of the shade. The northern edge of the fortress meets the Geum River at a high clifftop, known as Nakhwa'am. And it's here that we learned of a tragedy that happened at the close of the Baekje Dynasty, as enemy forces were overrunning Sabi.

Rather than being captured by the approaching enemy, some 3,000 royal ladies threw themselves from the rock cliff, killing themselves. Nakhwa'am translates as Rock of Falling Flowers. In 1929, a hexagonal pavilion was erected on the site to commemorate the women.

In 1997, DW posed near the top of the cliff with the pavilion above. I climbed lower on the cliff, above the river, and snapped this photo.

Is it okay that I don't say "Happy Thursday"? While our day in Buyeo was a happy one, there's nothing happy about this grim memory. Instead, I'll just wish that everyone stays safe. Be good to one another.