Goryeo Society and Culture

Fall Semester 2017

Taught by Prof. Lee Gang-han

Final Paper

Goryeo Cultural Heritages and their Utilization in Introductory Education on the Goryeo Period: Problems and Potential Solutions

Lyndsey Twining

December 14, 2017

Introduction and Background

When studying historical periods of Korea through the lens of cultural heritages, the Goryeo period of Korean history could be considered to be at a disadvantage in comparison to the dynasties which came before and after. Goryeo, a dynasty founded by Wang Geon in 918, united the competing states of the Later Three Kingdoms period before withstanding Khitan invasions, military rule, and Mongol invasion and subjugation. Replaced in 1392 by the Joseon Dynasty, the Goryeo Dynasty lasted 474 years in total. However, sandwiched between the Silla Kingdom, which claims a nearly 1,000-year history, and the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), the last, and therefore most recent, royal dynasty of Korea, Goryeo is often overshadowed in education on Korea.

This situation is further made worse by the nature of extant Goryeo cultural heritages. According to the Cultural Heritage Administration, there are 4,894 cultural heritages from the Joseon period (including the Korean Empire period). This is nearly four and a half times more than the Goryeo period, which has 1,098 heritages. In the case of Silla, when heritages from both Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla are combined, there are 594 heritages relating to Silla – roughly half those of Goryeo. These numbers make sense. Of course there will be more heritages remaining from more recent periods of history.

Yet, though an official public opinion survey would be needed to confirm this, it seems that the Silla Kingdom has garnered greater popular interest and a more memorable image in the minds of Koreans and foreigners alike today when compared to Goryeo. Why might this be?

While people today can visit downtown Seoul to experience historic sites of Joseon’s capital, Hanyang, and visit the old capital of Silla, Geumseong, by travelling to the city of Gyeongju in North Gyeongsang Province, the same cannot be said for the capital of Goryeo, Gaeseong, which is unfortunately situated just a mere 20 kilometers north of the Demarcation Line dividing North and South Korea. As a result, people can visit Gyeongju to have an immersive Silla experience – seeing Silla Buddhist temples, ponds, astronomical observatories, tombs, and more – which gives a materiality to Silla that is not possible with Goryeo. Visitors do not need to know much background on Silla before going – they can learn it all there. Furthermore, field trips to Gyeongju have been heavily marketed to Koreans and foreigners alike, which may have begun with early restoration efforts biased to the southwest region of South Korea during the Park Chung-hee era.

In the case of Goryeo, since one cannot just visit Gaeseong to learn about Goryeo, he or she must know some background information before selecting a site to visit relating to Goryeo. One must know that Ganghwado Island was the temporary capital of Goryeo during the Mongol invasions, or that woodblocks for a Buddhist document called the Tripitaka Koreana were created during the Goryeo period and are today stored in Haeinsa Temple in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province. One must know that the oldest extant metal-type printed document in the world, the Jikji, was printed at Heungseoksa Temple in Cheongju, North Chungcheon Province, or that one of the oldest buildings in Korea which dates back to the Goryeo period – Muryangsujeon Hall – is located in Buseoksa Temple, Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. As you can see, these key Goryeo sites are located in all different provinces – much further apart from one another than even Gaeseong is from Seoul. There is no single representative “Goryeo historic site” on this side of the Demilitarized Zone. When we consider not historic sites, but artifacts, most Goryeo period artifacts are stored in Seoul – in the National Museum of Korea, Samsung’s Leeum Museum, and the Horim Museum. While it is fortunate that these artifacts can be easily accessed by many living in and visiting Korea’s largest metropolitan area, they are curated out of context at times – grouped or presented by heritage type or material – Buddha statue, celadon, painting – rather than by period. Visitors likely do not go to the National Museum of Korea for a “Goryeo experience” but rather for an overall “Korea experience.” Therefore, the impact in the hearts and minds of visitors to these museums is likely different in nature and scale than field trips to Gyeongju or Joseon historic sites in Seoul.

There is also another limitation to current cultural heritages relating to Goryeo. This has to do with a bias toward Buddhist heritages. As will be shown in greater detail in the following section, the majority of heritages from the Goryeo period are related to Buddhism in some way. These include pagodas, statues, documents, paintings, and more. The royal family and aristocratic families of Goryeo became temple patrons, supporting the creation of Buddhist temples, pagodas, statues, and more. Buddhism flourished during Goryeo.

Buddhism has lasted the test of time in Korea, with some temples in Korea today having histories which date back to the Goryeo period or earlier. However, as the saying about Goryeo goes: “Confucianism Outside, Buddhism Inside 外儒內佛;” Buddhism was only one side of the ideological coin that was the Goryeo Dynasty. While Buddhism played a role as the guiding spiritual force of Goryeo, with monks becoming powerful advisors to kings and leading thinkers of the time, the country was governed using Confucian institutional structures and ideology, with officials being trained in Confucian classics and governance methods prior to taking office. In fact, such an emphasis on the value of Confucian education and governance led to a sense of superiority in the minds of civil officials above military officials. Resentment held by military officials over this sense of Confucian superiority culminated in a military coup which lasted a century.

From our perspective today, it makes sense that heritages related to Confucianism, and thus state governance, from the Goryeo period would be more difficult to find today compared to those related to Buddhism. The leaders of the following dynasty, Joseon, had a vested interest in asserting the superiority of their Neo-Confucian ideology and erasing vestiges of Goryeo rule in the process of justifying their authority under the Mandate of Heaven.

However, just because the comparative lack of Confucian-related Goryeo heritages makes sense, it does not mean that such a disparity is not a problem to be addressed. With extant cultural heritages from the Goryeo period being related primarily to Buddhism, and Goryeo’s capital – home of ifs Confucian, central governance – being in North Korea, on-site education on Goryeo cannot but miss a significant and vital segment of Goryeo history.

So, what might be done to circumvent the issue of a lack of access to Goryeo’s capital, Gaeseong, and a bias toward Buddhism-related cultural heritages so that education on Goryeo history, society, and culture can be well-rounded, comprehensive, and impactful?

In order to answer this question, we must first look in more depth at the current status of Goryeo cultural heritages as well as what people, places, events, and concepts comprise the corpus of introductory-level Goryeo history education.

The Current Status of Goryeo Cultural Heritages

Before discussing the current status of Goryeo cultural heritages, it is necessary to briefly explain to what the term “cultural heritages” refers. The term “cultural heritages” is quite contested and has begun to change in recent years. In the past, it had referred to tangible artifacts and sites or intangible art or customs which were created some time in the past and passed down in a culture or society until today. From our contemporary perspective, these heritages are considered to be the property of a nation state (representing its citizens) or an ethnic group. But as these are relatively modern conceptualizations, the people who created and used such heritages in the past may not have – in some cases most certainly would not have – considered them property of a nation or a people as we do today.

Traditionally, such heritages have been designated by “authorities” – namely scholars, politicians, or other leaders of society – who have deemed them to be of importance to preserve. Cultural heritages may be preserved for a variety of reasons and to serve a variety of functions: to serve as symbols of national identity (both defining what it means to be a citizen of said nation and to justify the authority of the current administration), to glorify or memorialize the past, to be aesthetically consumed (as in artwork), to serve as evidence or data points for historical facts (such as historic documents and archeological sites), to serve as a real-world example in history education, and more. However, in recent years, scholars have begun to argue that the designation of cultural heritages should be undertaken not only by leaders of society and academia, but ordinary citizens as well – especially members of those social groups which have been thus far suppressed by society’s leaders, such as ethnic or religious minorities or those of the lower class. There is also a shift in perspective from seeing heritages as objects of the past which have a singular interpretation, to seeing them as objects which are living parts of contemporary people’s lives that are subject to multiple and changing interpretations.

Within this context, we can look at the nature and role of Goryeo cultural heritages in our society today. On an international scale, the primary institution for designation of cultural heritages is UNESCO. UNESCO has four types of heritages: World Cultural Heritage Sites (your typical historic sites and monuments), Memories of the World (documentary heritage), Intangible Cultural Heritages (including music, dance, cuisine, sport, customs, ceremonies, festivals, and more), and Natural Heritage Sites (sites of ecological importance). Currently, South Korea has 47 heritages registered with UNESCO, while North Korea has four. Among these, three are related to Goryeo: Haeinsa Temple (including the Tripitaka Koreana) and the Jikji in South Korea, and Historic Monuments and Sites in Gaeseong in North Korea.

On a national level, there is the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) in South Korea. The Cultural Heritage Administration, an affiliated institution of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, is responsible for approving designations of national- and city/provincial-level heritages and overseeing preservation efforts. Information and media materials on North Korea’s cultural heritages can be accessed in South Korea via the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage (NRICH)’s North Korean Heritage Materials Exhibit (hereafter NK Exhibit). Both the CHA homepage and the North Korean Heritage Materials Exhibit provide search functions to isolate heritages on the basis of period, location, designation type, designation date, and heritage type.

According to the CHA search function, there are currently (as of December 2017) 13,084 designated or registered cultural heritages in South Korea. The NRICH NK Exhibit lists a total of 2,009 heritages located in North Korea. Among the 13,084 South Korea heritages, 1,089 of them date back to the Goryeo period, and of the 2,009 North Korean heritages, 431 of them date to the Goryeo period. However, for the scope of this paper, only South Korean heritages will be analyzed.

There are three useful types of information on cultural heritages which can be analyzed to better understand the nature of Goryeo period cultural heritages for the purposes of this paper: location (and by extension, managing institution such as museum, archive, or temple), designation, and type.

Location is important in understanding the regional distribution of Goryeo period heritages and therefore which locations have the highest concentration of Goryeo period heritages. Cities with high concentrations of Goryeo related heritages have the potential to become featured Goryeo historic sites, as visitors can see many Goryeo related heritages at once. More specifically that city, we can also look at who manages or owns the most heritages from the Goryeo period in a given region; For example, museums, archives, and Buddhist temples are places likely to have a high concentration of Goryeo heritages.

The second key factor is designation type. Broadly speaking, there are two levels of heritage designations: state-level and city/province-level, with state-level designations being considered to have greater historical or cultural significance than city/province-level designations. Within these two designation levels, heritages are sorted into categories based on whether they are tangible, intangible, historic sites, natural monuments, or related to folk-customs. Thus, designation allows us to judge the relative significance of a heritage, and the broad nature of a heritage.

To understand the nature of a heritage in more detail, we can look to heritage type. From the perspective of considering how to incorporate heritages into introductory education on Goryeo, heritage type hints at the contextual significance of a heritage. This allows us to consider how the extent to which heritages of a particular period are comprehensive and how we might design on-site tours to create a more well-rounded educational experience. For example, we can know that Buddhist pagodas or statues are related to Buddhism, while palaces, tombs, or Confucian academies are more closely associated with Confucianism. Fortresses signify key strategic locations, regional capitals, or sites of battles. These can become jumping-off points for discussions of Goryeo history, society, and culture.

These three factors need to be compared in relation to one another to be truly meaningful, but for now, let’s look at each factor individually.

In the case of South Korean heritages from the Goryeo period, information on location, designation, and type are shown in the charts in the appendix. Regarding location, the vast majority of Goryeo heritages are located in Seoul – in particular at the National Museum of Korea (67), the Samsung Leeum Museum (56), the Horim Museum (40), Jo et al. (16), Idan Books (14), the Gansong Museum (13), and various universities (18) hold over 233 of the 286 Goryeo related heritages located in Seoul. If we look at other cities, the next highest number of heritages in one city is 27 for Chungju and Incheon. This is followed by Busan at 20, Buyeo at 19, Danyang and Yeoju at 18, Suncheon at 16, and Daegu, Namwon, Yesan, and Yongin at 15. There are 15 other cities which have 10 or more Goryeo-period heritages. When looking at region, North and South Chuncheong Provinces each have four cities with 10 or more Goryeo heritages, followed by Gyeonggi, South Gyeongsang, and South Jeolla Provinces which each have three cities with 10 heritages or more. Gangwon and North Jeolla Province each have two cities with over 10 Goryeo heritages, while North Gyeongsang Province has only one, Uiseong. Among special cities, Seoul, Incheon, Busan, Daegu, Jeju, and Gwangju each have over 10 Goryeo heritages. Ganghwa Island, the temporary Goryeo capital located in present-day Incheon, would also fall into this category with 12 Goryeo heritages.

If we look at cities with 15 or more heritages, the North Chungcheong, South Chungcheong, and Gyeonggi each have two, North Jeolla, South Jeolla, and Gangwon each have one. Seoul, Incheon, Busan, and Daegu also all have over 15 Goryeo heritages.

This shows that the majority of Goryeo period heritages, apart from those in Seoul, are mostly located in the Chungcheong Provinces, but are also scattered around the peninsula quite broadly. However, this counts only the number of heritages in a given city, not their significance.

If we look at designation type, we can understand more about the significance of heritages. The distribution of Goryeo period heritages in South Korea is shown in the chart below. National Treasures, the most valuable heritages, comprise 8.6 percent of the total, while the second most important, Treasures, comprise a whopping 48 percent. The next highest percentage of heritages fall in the category Tangible Cultural Heritages, which are designated at the city/province level, at 23 percent. Following this are Cultural Heritage Materials at 10.7 percent. Cultural Heritage Materials are actually technically not designated heritages, but have been deemed of importance in the region and are therefore important to preserve. In total, these four designation categories comprise 90 percent of the total cultural heritages. What we can tell from this is that roughly 60 percent of Goryeo heritages are considered important on a national level (of which 8.6 percent are exceptionally important), 30 percent are important on a city/provincial level, and 10 percent are considered worthy of preservation but not designation in the traditional sense. This is not particularly useful in and of itself, but will be useful in comparison with the other factors.

Finally, there is heritage type. Heritage type is organized into four levels of main and sub categories. As shown in the chart at the end of the paper, Goryeo period heritages in South Korea fall into a total of 99 categories. Among these are six top level categories and 22 second-level categories. The six top level categories are: artifact (37 percent), historic site/structure (36 percent), documentary heritage (26 percent), natural heritage (0.6 percent), intangible heritage (0.3 percent), and registered cultural heritage (0.2 percent). Therefore, we can see that there are roughly equal numbers of artifacts and historic sites/structures, both just over one-third of the total, and documentary heritage is slightly less with just over one-fourth of the total.

Based on second-level heritage types, Historical Site/Structure-Spirituality Religion has the most heritages making up 26 percent. These are all related to Buddhism. Artifact-Buddhist Sculpture comes in next with 21 percent, and Documentary Heritage-Books at 20 percent. Following this, there is a significant drop to 9 percent for Artifact-Everyday Handicraft, followed by just under 5 percent for Artifact-Buddhist Handicraft and Documentary Heritage-Collection. The other categories all have less than 3 percent of the total.

If we look at the 99 sub-categories, four types of heritages comprise over 50 percent of total heritages: pagodas (21 percent), stone Buddha statues (14 percent), temple copies of woodblock prints (8 percent), and celadon (7 percent). The next six most common heritages are steles (4 percent), Tripitaka Koreana Directorate copies (4 percent), sagyeong, fortresses (2 percent), Buddhist ritual implements (2 percent), and stone Bodhisattva statues (2 percent). As can be seen, all of these top heritage types are related to Buddhism in some way, apart from celadon and fortresses.

In summary, a basic analysis of South Korean cultural heritages from the Goryeo period shows the following: Most heritages are located in Seoul, primarily the National Museum of Korea, Leeum Museum, and Horim Museum, as well as in Incheon, Chungju and other cities in the Chungcheong and Gyeonggi regions. However, it is also clear that there are pockets of Goryeo heritages in all regions of South Korea. In addition, half of heritages are considered to be state-designated Treasures, one-fourth state-city designated Tangible Cultural Heritages, and roughly one-tenth non-designated Cultural Heritage Materials and state-designated National Treasures. The most representative Goryeo cultural heritages are, apart from celadon and some fortresses, almost entirely related to Buddhism, including pagodas, Buddhist statues, various Buddhist documents.

While it would be best to analyze the Goryeo heritages by looking at the factors mentioned above simultaneously, for the scope of this paper, that will be difficult. Furthermore, a key limitation of government-designated cultural heritages is that the lists provided are surely missing certain key sites or artifacts dating to that period, and also does not include key sites in other countries relating to Goryeo figures – such as in China. However, this analysis nonetheless can serve as a snapshot of the nature and status of extant heritages from the Goryeo period, which is useful in understanding the role heritages may play in introductory education on Goryeo.

Introductory Knowledge on Goryeo

In addition to understanding Korean heritages from the Goryeo period for the purpose of using them toward introductory education on Goryeo history, society, and culture, it is also necessary to understand the topics introduced in basic history books on the Goryeo period. This information is necessary to understand where extant heritages can be used as educational tools, and where there is a lack of extant heritages to demonstrate a particular concept, event, or historical figure.

In order to gather a basic understanding on which key people, places, and concepts form the basis of current educational materials on the Goryeo period, especially in English, seven introductory-level books on Korean history in English and one Korean history examination prep book in Korean were reviewed and key people, places, and concepts which appeared in many or all of the texts were compiled. Events were excluded because it was presumed they would appear in the search results via other terms (such as “Mongol” would return results on the Mongol invasions). In total, 134 terms under the categories of places, people, states, concepts, and documents were compiled, and detailed lists of the selected items can be seen in the appendix.

• Introductory Goryeo Education Terms Table

Regarding historical figures, there are many kings, Buddhist monks, civil officials, military officials, famous slaves, and otherwise powerful individuals. Unexpectedly, kings from the Mongol period were rarely mentioned by name in the texts. However, just out of curiosity, Chungnyeol, the first king to begin his reign during the Mongol period, was added to the list. Military leaders were also all added to the list, even though not all of them appeared in the introductory texts by name. In addition to historical figures, states/peoples that Goryeo interacted with, or which preceded or succeeded Goryeo, were also included – such as the Jurchens, Khitans, Mongols, Song, Silla, Joseon, etc.

Among key places, most were Buddhist temples which appeared in the texts. In addition to this, a few key cities – such as Gaesong and Pyeongyang – were included in the list, along with islands Ganghwado, Jindo, and Jejudo, rivers Hangang, Daedonggang, and Amnokgang, and Byeoknannaru Port were included. Certain buildings including Seonggyungwan Academy, Myeongwoldae Palace, and others were added to the list.

Concepts included those relating to Buddhism and Confucianism, the government, social structure, and art. Key documents, such as the History of the Three Kingdoms and the Jikji, were also included on the list as well.

In addition, the texts referenced or featured images of certain cultural heritages, namely various kinds of celadon, the Tripitaka Koreana, the Jikji, History of the Three Kingdoms, Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, Seonggyungwan, the tomb of King Gongmin, portraits of scholars such as An Hyang, Yi Je-hyeon, and Mun Ik-jeom, a statue of Wang Geon, buildings in Yeongtongsa, Geumsansa, Songgwangsa, Buseoksa, and Haeinsa temples, Buddhist bells, various important pagodas, Buddhist statues, some paintings and others. The Korean text features more Buddhist statues. These can be understood to represent the cultural heritages that Korean history educators deem as must-know items or particularly demonstrative examples of various concepts or phenomena relating to Goryeo society and culture.

Comparison of Cultural Heritages and Introductory Knowledge on Goryeo

In order to get a general idea of the extent to which the key people, places, and concepts are reflected in extant cultural heritages, these terms were searched in Korean on the CHA advanced search in order to gather a list of heritages which mention the terms in either the title or the interpretive text provided online. This is by no means the most effective way of identifying relationships between heritages and certain historical figures, places, or concepts. For one, it does not clearly state what kind of relationship the heritage has with the search term; In order to find that out, each heritage link would need to be opened and read to discover the context in which the term was mentioned. Therefore, there may be times a heritage appears in the search result when it in actuality does not have a direct connection to the term. The results are also limited in that, due to the brief nature of interpretive texts, information which would provide a link between a term and a heritage is left out. For example, the History of Goryeo (Goryeosa) tells us that leader of Later Baekje, Gungye, slashed a painting of Silla kings in Buseoksa Temple during the turbulent Later Three Kingdoms period leading up to the foundation of Goryeo. However, when one searches “Gungye,” no search results relating to Buseoksa appear. Despite such limitations, the CHA advanced search function and interpretive texts can, nevertheless, provide a rudimentary approximation of which terms have the most related heritages, and which have fewer.

Some terms were removed from the search due to being homonyms with common words (for example, the word for “state examination,” gwageo, also means “the past”) for the sake of time. Apart from these excluded terms, the top 25 terms with the most related cultural heritages are: Silla (184), Joseon (160), Tripitaka Koreana (76), Song China (55), Haeinsa Temple (52), King Gongmin (47) sanggam (45), King Hyeonjong (42), Mongol/Yuan (42), Maitreya Buddha (mireuk) (42), Khitan/Liao (38/31), Yi Saek (31), mungwa (29), civil officials (munsin) (24), “Seonjong” (could refer to Meditation School or King Seonjong) (21), King Gwangjong (18), Monk Uicheon (17), King Sinjong (16), King Seongjong (13), King Gongyang (11), King Munjong (11), King Uijong (11), Yi Seonggye (11), Gaegteong/Gaesong (11), and Songgwangsa Temple (11). The charts in the appendix below show the results in detail.

The results show that heritages are explained within a context of Korean history – with many references to Silla and Joseon. Goryeo’s international relations are also demonstrated in this list, with Song China, the Mongols, the Khitans holding the fourth, ninth, and eleventh spots on the list. The Tripitaka Koreana, placing third, also has a strong presence on the list, with a high number of related heritages not only itself, but also contributing to the high number of references to Haeinsa Temple and King Hyeonjong, which are at spots five and eight respectively. The results show, as expected, that the kings of Goryeo – nine of whom made the top 25 – were key figures who influenced the creation of heritages or who are somehow documented in relation to heritages. Apart from kings, Yi Saek, Monk Uicheon, and Yi Seonggye are also on the list. While it makes sense Yi Seonggye, who toppled Goryeo, would be high on the list, it is interesting that Yi Saek and Uicheon appeared significantly higher than other Confucian scholars and Buddhist monks when there were so many important figures during Goryeo. Key terms such as sanggam, Maitreya Buddha, mungwa, civil officials, and military officials, show the importance of the technique of sanggam and the use of Maitreya as a subject of Buddhist art, as well as the importance of explaining whether one was a military or civil official and showing that they passed the civil exam. There is only one other temple on the list apart form Haeinsa, which is Songgwangsa.

Among the terms which were expected to have at least some or greater results are individuals such as Monk Myocheon, Choi Museon, Choi Seungno, Gyeonghwon, Yi Jagyeom, Empress Gi, and slaves Mangi and Manjeok, and Buddhist events such as Yeondeunghoe and Palgwanhoe. These are people and concepts which are included in many introductory texts, yet they all have seemingly no related heritages or heritage sites.

Conclusion

So, given this understanding of cultural heritages from the Goryeo period, along with key people, places, and concepts from introductions to Goryeo history, and their relation to one another, what solutions could be proposed to better utilize cultural heritages in education on Goryeo?

First, to summarize the current situation, due to the division of the Korean peninsula, the vast majority of people do not have access to visit Goryeo’s capital, Gaeseong. Furthermore, the majority of extant cultural heritages from the Goryeo period relate to Buddhism, with relatively few relating to Confucianism, which was the governing ideology of Goryeo. Meanwhile, introductory educational materials on Goryeo available today focus a great deal on key historical figures as well as broader concepts, most of which have few to no directly related cultural heritages. Educational materials do indeed introduce select Goryeo cultural heritages, but as demonstrated in the analysis of Goryeo heritage regional distribution, many key artifacts are either located in a museum in Seoul, or at historic sites spread all across the country, which may make it difficult for people to select site which to visit to learn about Goryeo. In other words, there is not a one-to-one matching between introductory educational materials on Goryeo and Goryeo period cultural heritages, partly because of the historical circumstances of extant cultural heritages which were out of our control, but also because the perspectives of history educators and heritage scholars (art historians, archeologists, etc.) today are slightly different.

Furthermore, historic texts such as the History of Goryeo contain information on many connections between historic figures, places, events, concepts, and documents – yet this knowledge is not connected to other historic documents, extant heritages, or modern-day sites. This means that potential connections between history and cultural heritages are not made available to ordinary people, or that due to the natural interests and biases of historians and their publications thus far, we may be missing out on interesting stories which could be utilized to bring together the history of Goryeo and the real world today.

There are three potential solutions to this problem. The first is to make a museum dedicated to Goryeo, located in a site such as Ganghwado Island. This could serve as a solution to three different problems. First, by designating the temporary Goryeo capital as the main Goryeo historic site, Koreans and non-Koreans alike could have a place they could visit that provides a comprehensive learning experience for Goryeo alone, just like is available for other periods of Korean history. Second, by creating a museum, visitors could not only explore the real-life ruins of the former Goryeo capital, but also be taken to Gaeseong as well – via virtual reality. Such virtual reality installations could utilize existing photographic materials of Gaeseong’s historic sites, as well as 3-D renderings. It could also discuss problems with North Korean preservation techniques. Such an installation could teach young people about the impact the division of Korea has on history education and research, and spark a conversation about what should be preserved, various academic views on preservation versus reconstruction, and what impact preservation has on us today and future generations. It could also suggest the possibilities of relocating the museum to Gaeseong should reunification occur. Third, a Goryeo museum on Ganghwado could also spark a conversation on the history of Ganghwado as a site of foreign invasion. Not only could it open up a discussion of the Mongol invasions and the relationship between Goryeo and Yuan, but it could be extended to include talks about how Ganghwado became the site of French and Japanese ship appearances and the opening of Korea’s ports, as well as the site of the Incheon Landing during the Korean War. In this context, an installation on how Korea has responded to foreign invasion over time could be included as well. In these ways, such a Goryeo-specific museum could serve as an educational tool to raise the status of Goryeo in the minds of Koreans and non-Koreans alike while also opening up a variety of discourses which connect Goryeo to our contemporary lives in Korea today.

However, Ganghwado lacks one key element of the history of Goryeo: Buddhism. As mentioned before, most extant Goryeo heritages relate to Buddhism, however, these are generally spread around the country. This brings us to the second solution – a complement to the first one – which is a Goryeo Buddhist heritage zone in the south of South Korea which includes Haeinsa, Songgwangsa, and Tongdosa temples. Visitors can learn about general Goryeo history – including politics, governance, battles, historical figures, and more – at a Goryeo-specific museum, then travel to the beautiful southern regions of Korea to learn about the role Buddhism played in Goryeo. This region does exclude key Buddhist sites, Chungju, which has many Goryeo heritages, or Cheongju, which is the site of Heungdeoksa, where the Jikji was first published, as well as other important Buddhist national treasures from the Goryeo period. Therefore, a Chungcheong region Goryeo Buddhism historic area could also be designated for those who cannot travel all the way to the southern coast.

The third is a more general solution which could be useful not only to the Goryeo period, but cultural heritages and history education in general. One of the problems with cultural heritages is that they are organized by heritage type, broad dynastic period, location, and designation – which may be useful for administrators in charge of cultural heritage preservation, but is not useful for students, academics, or the general public who are searching for key historic figures, key concepts, a particular decade, etc. Furthermore, in the case of historic document or steles with epitaphs, etc., information on the heritage itself and information on the content the heritage contains are stored separately on a wide variety of websites managed by a wide variety of institutions. By organizing and explaining cultural heritages in a disjointed, isolated, and heritage-oriented perspective, people who have diverse interests in Goryeo are discouraged from using cultural heritages as a point of study. Therefore, cultural heritages and history education need to be approached not from a government management perspective or discipline-bound academic perspective, but from a holistic perspective which actually considers the diverse needs and interests of a variety of stakeholders – most importantly students, who have been thus far disincentivized from engaging further in the study of Korean history due to such institutional structures of knowledge management and dissemination.

While there is no perfect solution to improve the recognition and understanding of Goryeo by the general public and students both in Korea and abroad, by analyzing the current status of educational and heritage resources in the ways introduced in this paper, we can gain a better grasp of what steps need to be taken in the future. While more thorough research on cultural heritages, educational materials, academic coursework, popular media, historical site tourism, and human-centered design is still needed, there is great potential to improve education on Goryeo for future generations.

Appendix

South Korea Cultural Heritage Information

Number of Heritages by City/Province - Sorted by Percent of Total

Number of Heritage by City - Sorted by Province

Institutions/People which Manage or Own Three of More Heritages – Sorted by Number of Heritages

Heritages by Designation Type

Locale	Designation	Number	Percent Total
State	National Treasure	94	8.6%
State	Treasure	527	48.0%
State	Historic Site	39	3.6%
State	Registered Cultural Heritage	3	0.3%
City-Province	Tangible Cultural Heritage	252	23.0%
City-Province	Inangible Cultural Heritage	2	0.2%
City-Province	Folklore Heritage	1	0.1%
City-Province	Monument	63	5.7%
City-Province	Cultural Heritage Material	117	10.7%

Heritage Type 1 & 2 – Sorted by Percent of Total

All Heritage Sub-Types – Sorted by Category

Introductory Information List and Search Information

Introductory Places – CHA Homepage Search Results

Introductory People – CHA Homepage Search Results

Introductory States – CHA Homepage Search Results

Introductory Concepts – CHA Homepage Search Results

Introductory Documents – CHA Homepage Search Results