This weekends trip was to the Daegaya Festival, held in Goryeong, about a 25 min bus ride southwest of Daegu.

Daegaya (AD 42~562) was a nation that inhabited the Gyeongsangnam-do province of Korea around the 4th Century. Daegaya was a sophisticated nation that even at this early age possessed extremely high standards of culture. They created the gayageum (a twelve-stringed traditional Korean harp) and played a large role in establishing the culture of music. They had dealings with China and Japan and excavated relics indicate they had a significant influence on the wider world.

I'd passed thru this area before when I took the bus to Haeinsa Temple back in October and saw lots of tombs, a larged domed building, other road signs, and wondered what this was all for. Now during the festival I'd have a chance to explore all of this. I remembered the Haeinsa bus ran thru the site and thought we could stay on the Haeinsa bus and get to the event. Traffic was diverted but eventually we got there.

Typical for korean festivals there was a line of tents on each side with various vendors, information, or restaurants set up inside. At the centre of events were two giant balloons as markers for people heading to the main events. This week there were sixteen people in our group so we all formed our smaller groups, and decided to start with the domed Mausoleum Museum.

Entrance fee was 2000 won ($1.80) but will get you into the adjacent Daegaya Museum and Ureuk Museum further in town. I didnt think there would be much inside the big dome but we were all surprised. The interior of the dome is an excavated pit with walkways above, where you can look down into the skeletal and ceremonial burials of ancient peoples. Around the wall of the dome were glass exhibits with details of the Daegaya people and burial customs.

These were royal tombs and they had placed lifesize mannequins in royal dress inside one tomb to illustrate how they would have looked. The other tombs had skeletal remains. This excavated pit immediately reminded me of the Terra Cotta Soldiers burial tombs I had seen in Xian China.

The museum was built in a black dome structure to resemble the structure of the burial tombs. These are the same type of burial tombs that litter the landscape of Gyeongju, the Silla Capital City. However, the Daegaya artefacts seemed to be of a different style than those we had seen of the Silla in the Gyeongju Museum.

Outside the Mausoleum was a large grass covered tomb to walk around. The hill beside had many mump like tombs around the top and there was a trail up the larger mountain beside which winds thru many more tombs. Instead we went to the Daegaya Museum beside.

Inside the Daegaya Museum were more artefacts from daily life such as clay pots, armaments, old manuscripts, and best of all, the royal crowns. This museum was two stories and we were quite amazed by the amount of things we got to see for barely $2 admission.

The Mausoleum Museum alone was the highlight with the excavated pits but this second museum was an added bonus. The ticket will let you into a third museum, if you can believe, but we would have to take a bus to the other side of town away from the main festival site so we decided to skip it.

Now we wanted to get something to eat. A line of tents on one side of the main event area was all food vendors. Most were making Pajan, a kind of seafood vegetable pancake, but others had roasted duck, potatoe pancakes, and one had a garlic snail dish. To get served first you had to find seating in one of the tents, then try to get a waiter, then try to order. After a ten minute wait for a table to open, we tried to ask for the pancakes but were told it could be a half hour or more wait, so instead we just had the bibimbab (mixed rice).

Video : Food Vendors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEJa8jEZ eNY

Then we explored more of the event area. They had traditional straw huts and craftmaking booths where you could try to make straw shoes and other items. They had a fishing area where you could try to throw the net into a pool of water and catch a live fish. There was also a place where you could dress in traditional soldier costumes and have your photo taken.

At the end of the booths and main event areas was a lake with a rotating fountain, and a pagoda on a walkway. Some children wanted to take their photo with us. I'm always amazed how friendly and bold children here can be when back home they are told 'not to talk to strangers'.

Behind the fountain and lake was the Daegaya History Theme Park. This is designed to give a more lifelike representation of Daegaya life. There were various buildings built to represent various aspects of Daegaya life such as huts, a giant helmet, a boat, and a clay pot. Inside each of these buildings were exhibits and short movies to illustrate the respective aspect of their lifestyle.

There was another domed building like the mausoleum museum, but this time it was a 4D theatre. Some of our group went but we decided not to. There were a couple more stages but no events going on. Towards the end of the park were timber alpine style homes where people can stay overnight.

At the end of the park where some tombs, but inside people can experience the buriul ritual by being closed in a coffin. For 1000 won ($1), you wear a white robe and are led by a rope around your neck by a man dressed in black to one of the coffins. After you lie inside, they will lower the lid on you. The man in black will take a hammer and tap the four corners and two centre points to imitate hammering nails. They will leave you in the coffin for a few minutes after taking you out.

Coming back down the park there were lots of cherry blossom trees and a maze. We went into the maze, which we thought would be easy, but it took about 10 minutes to work our way out. There were supposed to be strawberry fields nearby to go picking, as now is strawberry season with several such festivals, but you had to take a bus there so we didnt go, although some from our group did.

As we left the theme park back to the festival area there was a sword fighting show which we caught the tail end of. Once the show ended some boys came out doing synchronized boy band pop dance moves, with lots of cartwheels, and somersaults in the air. While the crowd was all distracted we ran over to the costume area and got our pictures taken in soldiers outfits.

Video : Sword Show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4vJcrMx gg8

Of our group of sixteen we were now down to just two of us because everyone kept going different ways. We decided to try to head home. There was a free shuttle bus back to the bus station. We got on the wrong one which does a loop back to the different parking lots and comes back to the festival. When we took the right bus at the other side of the festival we were able to meet back with four of our group for the bus back to Daegu.

For a 25 min bus ride there was surprisingly a lot to do. The Mausoleum Museum, Daegaya Museum, and Daegaya Experience Theme Park are there year round for people to visit. This is also on the bus route to Haeinsa, which runs every 40 mins from Seobu Bus Terminal (not Dongdaegu). If you only want to go as far as Goryeong the buses from Daegu Seobu Terminal run every fifteen minutes for only 2800 won ($2.50). If you have time you can even do Haeinsa on the same day.

As mentioned, there were sixteen in the group. I've been creating facebook event pages to co-ordinate directions and invites. Lots of people who I dont know signed up on the page and said they were coming, They never showed up. A whole bunch of people who I dont know, who never signed up, showed up at the bus station, saying they heard about this and wanted to go. Its nice to make new friends but I'm not responsible if all these people start showing up and then there's no room on the bus for everyone! I only actually knew six people today but made some new friends.

Next weekend is the Bullfighting Festival... I've been waiting forever for this one!!!!!