Hahoe Folk Village

Interesting facts

Hahoe's carved masks, the Hahoetal, are a National Treasure of Korea, and unlike most Korean masks, which were made of gourd or paper, they are cut from solid alder wood.

Twelve masks were originally needed for the Hahoe drama; three have been lost, and the nine that survive, including the bride, the monk and the aristocrat, are protected as treasures.

Several Hahoe masks have a separate jaw tied on with cord, so a performer can make the face seem to grin or scowl simply by tilting his head.

According to legend, the carver Hur died when a curious girl spied on his secret work, which is why the last mask, the fool Imae, has no chin.

Many Korean masks were traditionally burned after a performance, but the Hahoe masks are treated as sacred objects and returned to their shrine.

Ryu Seong-ryong's Jingbirok, a self-critical first-hand account of the Imjin War of 1592–98, is National Treasure No. 132 and is kept at Hahoe's Yeongmogak.

Chunghyodang, one of the clan's head houses, preserves 231 royal letters of appointment issued to members of the family.

In the Seonyu Julbul Nori, yangban scholars drifted on the river under the full moon composing poems while bags of burning charcoal powder strung along ropes sent fire racing overhead.

When Queen Elizabeth II visited Hahoe in 1999, the villagers held a party to celebrate her 73rd birthday.

Visitors write wishes on slips of paper and hang them around the old zelkova at the heart of the village, the tree believed to house the goddess Samsin.

Why it is worth it

Hahoe sits inside a loop of the Nakdong River, which bends around it in a wide S-curve; the name itself joins the words for "river" and "to turn back". Seen from Buyongdae Cliff on the opposite bank, the tiled roofs of yangban mansions and the thatched roofs of commoners' houses spread across a low peninsula of fields and pines, with Mount Namsan closing the view to the south. Village tradition compares the plan to a lotus flower floating on water, and the placement of houses follows the principles of pungsu, the Korean form of geomancy.

The Pungsan Ryu clan settled here in the fifteenth century, early in the Joseon dynasty, and Hahoe has remained a single-clan village ever since. Its best-known son is Ryu Seong-ryong (1542–1607), the scholar-official of the Hahoe Ryu clan who became chief state councillor in 1592 and directed the kingdom's defence during the Japanese invasions; Okyeonjeongsa, the study he built for a quiet life of reflection, still stands in the village, and Byeongsan Seowon, the Confucian academy where he is enshrined, lies about four kilometres away. The village divides into a northern and a southern quarter, each with its head houses: Yangjindang and Chunghyodang are both designated Treasures of Korea, while Pikchondaek and Namchondaek are listed as important folklore material. At the centre grows Samsindang, a zelkova tree said to be about 650 years old and believed to shelter Samsin, a goddess of Korean shamanism.

Hahoe also kept alive one of Korea's oldest masked dramas. The Hahoe Byeolsingut Talnori, part of the village's communal rite and a blend of ritual, folk opera and pantomime performed in carved masks, is a National Intangible Cultural Heritage, and the Jeulbul Nori still sends strings of fireworks blazing at the foot of Buyongdae Cliff. In 2010 Hahoe and its sister village Yangdong were inscribed together on the UNESCO World Heritage List as Historic Villages of Korea, as two outstanding Joseon-era clan villages. Queen Elizabeth II visited in 1999.

Getting there

Hahoe lies within the city boundaries of Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, about 24 km by road west of central Andong; the town of Yecheon is about 15 km away. The nearest airport is Daegu International Airport (TAE), roughly 73 km to the south.

Hahoe Folk Village

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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