20 sept-27 sept

Funny penises

The campsite in the middle of the vast Deogyusan National Park is completely deserted, except for two little tents: Che Ho’s and ours. Che Ho trades in cell phone accessories. He decided to tramp throughthe country for a month, as business is slow at the moment. He travels from park to park, camps everywhere and goes hiking twice a day. Like most Koreans he is completely obsessed by food and with his tiny gas stove he prepares one delicious meal after the other, and we are forced by him to test and check almost all of those.

Next to the campsite a charming stream flows between big rocks and boulders, finding its way to the valley via waterfalls and natural ponds. Since the camping shower is just as cold as the river water, Peter prefers the natural water for his baths.

This heavenly place amidst the extensive forests is our home for almost a week. During the weekend the campsite is busy with campers who think we are particularly interesting, since we do what they all would love to do: long term travelling. One after the other drops by for some small talk. Often the conversation ends with an invitation for a Korean meal, or we are presented with fruits, seaweed, salads and local sweets. The weekends are cosy and cheap.

A walk through the clouds takes us to a very silent monastery high in the mountains. A perfect place for a retreat, though not for us. We have been retreating in our own special way for the past six years already.

The weather suddenly changes, and for three days we sit and hang in our small fabric house, while the rain beats down and the wind pulls at the guy-ropes of our tent.
When the sun starts shining day number four, we head for the next national park: Jirisan. We go straight south, and the wind heads point blank to the north, which makes cycling hard work. A long climb leads to a windy pass; the mercury has dropped to seven degrees centigrade, so we put on our sweaters. In the downhill we sight the majestic Jirisan, at 1,917 metres South Korea ‘s second highest mountain. The verges are coloured by cosmos, pyracantha, sun flowers and cannas. The village dwellings in this area haven’t lost their ancient beauty, since most people still adhere to the traditional way of building. Pumpkins mature hanging down from pergolas; the fields are filled with apple trees which branches sag under the heavy load.

We spend the night in the next valley, crammed with chestnut trees. The sweet chestnuts frequently drop out of the trees and the ground around our tent is littered with the biggest and most beautiful chestnuts we ever saw. We add about two kilos to the weight of our panniers.

From road number 23 we see the Jirisan mountains to our left. A small road, the 1023, snakes up one of the steep slopes. According to a brown road sign this is a scenic route, which suits us well. The climb gets steeper and steeper; the inclination starts with 13%, goes to 15% and then even more. Four friends from the Korea Army Aviation record us onto the sensitive cards of their professional cameras and applaud when we pass.
Not only the road zigzags, we also have to use the entire width of the asphalt to prevent us from coming to a standstill. We're sweating while the temperature is low.
A car stops next to me, the driver gives me a chocolate bar, then he sticks his fist in the air and yells: “Fighting!"

Some of the most remarkable objects we regularly encounter in Korea are ‘jangseung’. A jangseung can be compared with the totem poles of the North-America’s Indians. People cut and carve them out of dead trees, they are usually located at the entrance of a village or residence.
The Korean totem poles are surprisingly funny, and for outsiders like us a perfect source of drollery. The carved out faces often have bulging eyes, a huge booze nose and enormous teeth. The mouth is usually enlarged to anomalous dimensions, with a large set of teeth of which half is missing and a tongue three times bigger than usual.

Not much is known about the origin of the jangseung, but the hilarious statues, full of self-mockery, are at least some centuries old. The function of the poles is clear and diverse though: they indicate the village border, were once used as distance markers, and protect villages against bad spirits, fire and other calamities. They are the guardian angels of the villagers. Pregnant women used to pray to the jangseung in order to get a male child.
Jangseung are mostly placed in couples: a male and a female totem pole; the generals of the upper respectively under world.

Comparable to the jangseung are the ‘sotdae’: pillars carved out of wood or stone with a bird on top, most of the times a duck. The duck is considered to be a holy bird with exceptional abilities, since it’s able to live under and on the surface of water, and also on land.
Just like jangseung, sotdae are situated at the entrance of villages to protect them against bad spirits and to bring the villagers prosperity and success.
Sotdae and jangseung resemble trees, for a reason: a tree is rooted deeply into the ground, its trunk and branches reach into the sky; the symbol of the worlds’ axis. Using a tree, sotdae or jangseung, good spirits from higher levels are able to travel to earth to let people profit from their positive powers.

The most special jangseung have the shape of a penis. The next tale is connected to those:

Once, a long time ago, there was a small fishing village at sea where a young virgin. She had not yet reached nubile age, but she did have a suitable partner in mind to share the rest of her life with. One day she went to sea to dive for shells and catch fish for the evening meal. But a sudden storm caught her and the girl drowned in the violent waves.
That same year all harvests in the village failed, the villagers didn’t catch any fish and they nearly starved to death. The next year, too, the village seemed doomed: harvests failed again and everything that could go wrong went wrong indeed. There was big concern and misery.
One day, one of the men of the village went to the coast, where he lowered his pants and satisfied himself on a quiet spot. From that moment on everything changed: the harvests were rich again and the village was saved from more disasters.
The people then understood that the young virgin, disillusioned that she had never had the pleasure of being with a man, had become an angry ghost.
To satisfy her, the people started carving totem poles in the shape of penises, and placed them close to the village, facing the ocean.
And the villagers lived long and happy ever after…

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At the end of the eight kilometres long and steep climb towards Jirisan, we stand on a field littered with dozens of jangseung. We walk between stretched out ludicrous long mouths, lopsided grins from ear to ear, eyes that seem to jump out of their orbits, huge gnarled noses and two metres long penises. Crooked cocks, straight, small, colossal, fat and thin. One of the totem poles is covered in boobies; another has two carved vaginas. Most of the heads are shaped like dickheads. There is a see-saw in the form of a willy, and two jangseungs are ‘doing’ it.
The spirits are having a ball here. Every day, every minute.
For ever.
A hilarious place.