`Traditional Hanok Villages'

"The Spirit of Korean Cultural Roots 25: Traditional Hanok Villages"
by Oh Hong-seok
Ewha Womans University Press: 172 pp., 15,000 won

This comprehensive book presents different types of housings and buildings and their functions and characteristics within the context of the community. While detailed and full of colorful photographs, and covering a wide timeline across different Korean dynasties, the book is very compact.

The book begins by examining the development and decline of old capitals and goes on to introduce specialized villages such as the detached palace or regional fortress villages, those around shrines, mountains and seaside, and villages inhabited by scholars and grave keepers. The function and role of each are described.

The author shows that the tradition of a village is sustained in harmony with historical development but in other cases it changes and disappears. With the introduction of Western culture and belief in its superiority, rapid modernization took place, accelerating the decline of the traditional Korean village.