• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.101-109
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• 2012

Traditional village forests in Jeju Island represent unique cultural landscape with a history of more than several hundred years as a national cultural asset in Korea. In this paper, the characteristics and meaning of traditional village forests in Jeju Island was compared with the Dangsan and Bibo forests at inland. There are 368 Oreums, parasitic volcano, and 391 shrines of Dang(Divine place) in Jeju. Life, culture and tradition of rural villages are all connected with the Dang and Oreum in Jeju. It has been found from this study that the village in Jeju were established as a cultural landscape on the surface of natural landscape. The features of traditional villages focused on the Dang and Oreum in Jeju Island were similar to the Dangsan and Bibo forestsat inland villages. The Oreum represents mountain and the Pojedan forest is newly found in Sangmyung-ri. The seashore areas are covered by vaocanic rocks in Jeju and large scale windbreaks are hardly found. The stone tower at Sinheung-ri built for blocking sand movement represents Bibo forest. The special attribute of the Dang in Jeju is that it is close to real life and believers are still remain. In 2009, the Jeju Chilmeoridang Yeongdeunggut ritual was nominated as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. The shrine of Dang, however, has been degraded fast by construction of seashore road and Jeju Olle trail path. As for the world cultural heritage discussed at international conferences, it is important that there is sustainability on the right to enjoy cultural heritage. Integrated efforts from local residents, local governments and national government are needed to set up a management scheme for the Dang culture. Rural villages in Jeju with the Dang and Oreum are expected to get an international attention as to have traditional cultural landscapes of Korea.