Gyeongju: a Field Guide to History (cover image)
Over the last couple of months I’ve managed to collect a few really killer guidebooks on the Gyeongju, mostly through tips from friends and browsing through the Gyeongju National Museum book store. If you’re visiting Gyeongju, you’d be doing yourself a big favor by picking up at least one of these books and giving it a read before hand. I guarantee you’ll have a much more rewarding trip. Unfortunately much of the on site information around Gyeongju is poorly translated or lacks coherence.
The first and foremost guidebook I’d recommend is Gyeongju: A Field Guide to History written by the Korean Cultural and Historical Society (available here). Anyone planning on spending any time at all in Gyeongju should needs to pick up this book. Seriously, it’s that good. The photos and maps are excellent plus it gives explanations of pretty much every single historical site here in Gyeongju. Also included are the stories and legends surrounding these places along with the various artifacts dug up there. Heck, it’s even got a guide to the symbolism of ancient pagodas and carved Buddhas in the back. Worth every penny of it’s 27,000 won cover price. Plus it’s light weight and sturdy enough to toss in your back pack.
Smiles of the Baby Buddha (cover image)
Another excellent book on Gyeongju is Smiles of the Baby Buddha: Appreciating the Cultural Heritage of Kyongju by Yu Hong-june (available here or here). Written by a Korean art history professor based on his 20 years of travels around Gyeongju, this book was first published in English about a decade ago. Rather than trying to cover everything about everything, Prof. Yu dives deep into Gyeongju’s history and gives detailed examinations of a select number of important sites, like Bulguksa Temple and Cheomseongdae Observatory (Heck, he’s got three chapters on Soekguram alone!). His discussions are extremely knowledgeable and include a lot of info I’ve not run across anywhere else in English. And to keep things interesting, he’s included many personal musings on Korean history and culture, which are all the more interesting for their (at times) clunky translations. Another “must read” for anyone interested in digging under the surface to understand what Gyeongju really is about.
Now it’s a little bit unfair to mention this next book, Korea’s Golden Age: Cultural Spirit of Shilla in Kyongju by Edward B. Adams (available here), as it’s almost 20 years out of print. And that’s a darn shame too. It covers about the same territory as Gyeongju: A Field Guide to History and in a lot of ways, the second is better than the first (especially with practical information). Yet, if you can get your hands on it, Adam’s book is well worth the read. The author went to great lengths to give a detailed survey of all of the historical relics, tombs and sites scattered around Gyeongju. Mind you this was written in the 1970’s mind you before there were historical markers every where (Heck, he’s even included hand-drawn maps in each chapter) What’s more interesting though is that Adams has included a lot of legends and back stories to these sites that, again, are not readily available in English. But what really tops it all off his the photos. Adams’s pictures of bearded old men smoking pipes and farmers tilling the rice paddies with oxen hearken to an era that’s long gone in Korea, though be it only a few decades.
Namsan (cover image)
Now, this last title’s only really for serious Gyeongju heads or hard core history junkies. As I consider myself a member of that rare breed, Namsan: Discovering the Ancient Wonder of Kyongju’s Mt. Namsan by Yun Kyong-nyol (available here) is right up my alley. Published in English in the mid 90’s, this one’s also be a bit hard to find (even though the Korean edition is still in print and circulated widely). The peaks and valley’s of Gyeongju’s Mt. Namsan are scattered with over a hundred pagodas, hermitages, and stone Buddhas dating back about 1,300 years. Yun does not leave a single one of these unturned in her 400 page, valley-by-valley survey of this magical and historically fascinating mountain. Granted her detailed descriptions get a bit tedious at times (not unlike this blog perhaps), but she includes copious explanations, legends and historical background that, yet again, I’ve not really come across elsewhere in English (Perhaps you’ve noticed this theme.). The detailed, hand drawn maps are a bonus as well.
UPDATE: If you live in Gyeongju or you down doing some sight-seeing, Gyeongju: A Field Guide to History, Smiles of the Baby Buddha and Namsan (which is no longer in print) are all available from the bookstore of the Gyeongju National Museum (open 9am – 6pm, entrance free), which is just in side the front gate on the right.
