“Haenyeo”(해녀). Yes, the female diver working under the sea has been called as this word in Korea. In recent time, we can see them in Jeju Island (제주도) only, far away one hour by airplane from the capital Seoul in Korea.
They gather seaweed, abalone, octopus, clams, sea urchin and other sea products. However this word has been contained in something special meaning beyond just the kinds of job. From the first I didn’t expect big volume of museum for unique female diver. This museum is located neighboring the small cozy village by the sea. When I grew up, there were female divers in the main land of Korea also. However the number of them had decreased little by little because it is very hard working process under sea. For this reason now we are able to see them in this island only within this country. The main reason why it remains in this island only is because of the special condition of island and poor environment for life. I surely wanted to visit this small space.
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The stone statue of Haenyeo
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When I entered this museum, symbolic artifact featuring of female divers were greeted me. After ticketing, they guided me to see the video about female divers story on the right side of the information desk. Although it was just only 10 minutes documentary image, it was enough for me to get strong images about them than I guessed.
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The image of working female divers
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There were some female divers through the whole country of Korea till the 1960s. They couldn’t be found out in main land recent time anymore. Jeju Island(제주도) was the most activated area in this country since long time ago. Since this island has been rich in the marine products and boasted the very best in quality when comparing with other fields’ one, they had to lay specialty to the King and central government during the former dynasty. In this process, many numbers of men ran away into to the land because they couldn’t tolerate the hard working condition and intensity of work. Maybe this might be the main reason that females in here are more large in number rather than men in population composition rate. As the results, ladies had managed to take over the economic duty for family as well as preparing of principal products instead of their husband..
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The typical half-sea half-farm village of old Jeju Island
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Furthermore, land was so infertile (
this island was composed by the several volcanic activities) that they could not cultivate diverse agricultural products and always suffered from food shortage. There was not so much choice except obtaining the food resources from the sea. Their greatness is just not only in the tenacious hold on life and strong pioneer spirit but also in their wonderful working process under the sea. They started to learn how to swim at the age of seven or eight, skilled up their diving abilities with advancing years and became a full-scale woman diver member at the age seventeen to eighteen. They dive in general fifteen to twenty feet (6 meters) in depth, sometimes to seventy feet (21 meters), while over one minute even three minutes working.
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The working female diver without any equipment under the sea and she is wearing old type swim suit just for made by cotton cloth
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When they work, they do without using any underwater diving equipment like oxygen tank in unique. It couldn’t be done without invincible spirit of great courage, long experiences and acumulated knowledge about sea. Imagine the fear of deep blue sea
to this fresh teenage girl
. It was the job beyond job for their life.
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The teenage diving girl catching abalone
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The sound (Sumbisori) like whistling to get their breath back when they came out surface of the sea shows that how amazing their unique and excellent diving technique as well as astonishing scientific discovery as the result of gaining through their body is. It is close to sounds made by whale and able to provide fresh air into the body in short seconds with this way. With the changing years, there has been changed in their tools and clothes.
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The old house where they lived and the hanging round ball-like tube with fishnet (old type) on the stone wall
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Bulteok--haenyeo are resting at a fireplace after finishing their work, dried their clothes, shared some food and chattered about the daily life and diving skills
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The tools for dive
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The Teu--primitive style of boat used for catching fish, collecting seaweed and transporting haenyeo
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However for the reasons of hard working condition, sharp decrease of sea products and the number of women diver, it is true that these ladies might be disappeared in couples of decade and just be left as the old traditional unique culture in this island. The view overlooking the blue sea from the observation rest area on third floor was enough for me to feel deep impression with wild wind and waves. How clean and brilliant sky there was, too!
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The small village neighboring to this museum
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Those ladies who was born as the daughter of sea, learnt the swimming and diving before knowing what the sea shall imply to their coming life, faced harsh reality and managed to duties of life in assertive attitude. Sincerely, this is anything but little honouring place dedicated to their great trace of life. Yet the labor song what embrace their plight life seems like to remain in my ears.
Operation ; 9 AM to 5 PM except on first and third Monday every month and some special holiday. For more details please refer to their official web site.click here,please !!!
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Their return with the sunset
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