북방의 경험과 온돌문화의 의미

Experience in the northern region and the meaning of the ondol culture

This study analyzes the meaning of the ondol culture, rooted in Manchuria and Primorsky Kray, the region north of the Korean peninsula, and of the northern Korean literature. In 2004, the remains of ondol structures dating to the ancient Korean kingdom of Balhae were first discovered in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and the Primorsky Kray in Russia. Ondol, also called gudeul in traditional Korean architecture, is an under-floor heating system which uses direct heat transfer from wood smoke to the underside of a thick masonry floor. It is a unique system that has been used by the Korean people since the Goguryeo and Balhae era. That means most of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and the Primorsky Kray in Russia come under the old territory of the kingdom of Balhae, which succeeded Goguryeo. In the period of Japanese colonial rule, some Koreans moved to that area and cultivated the land with a frontier spirit. They suffered many trials and conflicts with the native Chinese and the Japanese officers, and their experiences are realistically portrayed in the northern Korean literature. In spite of the hardships, they took the ondol culture with them to Central Asia when they were forced to move there in 1937 by Stalin. Now Koreans, South and North, have common memories rooted in the struggles of their ancestors in the northern region above the Korean peninsula and the ondol culture. The ondol heating system has many advantages such as cleanliness effectiveness and energy efficiency. Most of all, it retains warmth for a longer time than any other heating system. Many companies are exporting their boilers abroad and Korean construction companies are building apartments and hospitals adopting the ondol system in foreign countries, including Central Asia. An ondol room symbolizes a broad and warm space where immigrants or foreigners who came to Korea to work or to marry can be embraced. When Koreans can accept people from other countries as fellow citizens they will also be able to practice generosity toward the North Koreans when unification comes. That will enable barriers of color, race, religion, or ideology to be broken, opening up the possibility of a world citizens' society, as Habermas once advocated.