What was the scenery of Jeju like 300 years ago? In Jeju Mokgwana, I encountered the traces of original Jeju.    In spite of living in Jeju for a long time, we don뭪 know about our history, because we didn뭪 study it in school. In addition, Jeju is far from the capital so there are a few records from ancient times. From those facts, the Tamna-sullyeokdo is a great asset for the old Jeju. It shows the military, topography, buildings, festivals, etc on the map.

Jeju as a military function
      The Korean words of 몊ullyeok?means 밿tinerancy?in English, so the local government officer inspected Jeju citizens?cultures and defense places. Tamna-sullyeokdo was created in 1702 by Lee Hyung-sang. He was the governor of Tamna in the 28th year of King Sukjong. He ordered Kim Nam-gil, the region artist, to draw the pictures of old Jeju. It was composed of 40 pages of drawings and 3 pages of written documents. This map shows that military discipline was the most important thing in old Jeju. It is a surprising fact becasuse Jeju is not known as a strategic point. These place are Chocheon, Daejung, Hwabuk, Aewol, Susan-jinsung and so on. 
 

      There is a preface on the first and second pages. The birth myth of Tamna and the legend of the King of Jin and King of Han visited Tamna on the way to seeking a hermit are on these pages. According to the preface, Tamna and Won Empire were leagued together against the common enemy at the battle of Sambyeolcho. Since then Tamna pastured the horses and cattle under the supervision of the Won Empire. Thus, these domestic animals were the nation뭩 possession. At that time the name was changed to Jeju from Tamna.
     
The first map of Jeju 밐alla-Jangchok?
      A great value of Halla-Jangchok, drawn on the third page, has been known as the first map for Jeju. But recently some people claim that the 밫amna Map?was drawn earlier than Tamna-sullyeokdo a century ago. It has not been verified yet.

      The three major locations in Jeju are represented on the map- Chejumok, Dae-jung hyeon, Jung-ui hyeon. Moreover, there are not only roads, mountains, farms, streams but also 80 ports. Because of the fact that Jeju is an island, the location on the map had to indicate in detail. So there are as many as 24 locations for safe navigation.

      Let뭩 look at Tamna-sullyeokdo in a pictorial way. It is composed of three parts; the title, painting, and writing.   The upper part of a page includes subjects such as Halla-jangchok, Aewol-chojeom, Gongma-bongjin. The central part of the page is painting, it shows Jeju뭩 environment and buildings. The script is written at the bottom of the page. Although this layout had disappeared since the17 century, it was still being used in this map. From this, we can see conservatism in this map. They draw in a parallel perspective way, which was new layout in painting, and wrote the names of buildings on each.

      There are some records about 밿tinerancy?in ancient documents, but nothing is as detailed as Tamna-sullyeokdo. Therefore, it has a great historic value.

      Tamna-sullyeokdo had been kept by descendants of Lee Huyng-sang. Jeju province bought it from them a few years ago. Now this is being exhibited in The Jeju National Museum. As mentioned before, Tamna-sullyeokdo in Jeju Mokgwana is a replica.

      Without the past, there is no future. Those who know the past can enjoy now and design the future. If you think that it is not important to learn our region뭩 history, then that is definitely a wrong idea. Recently our history distorted because we didn뭪 care about our history.        

      According to a Jeju Newspaper article, Jeju city is planning to build a mini theme park which is based on Tamna-sullyeokdo. Before considering this, the first thing we should do is to learn about Tamna-sullyeokdo and make it more appreciated and valued.

  
Jeju National Museum    Jeju National Museum exhibiting Tamna-sullyeokdo opened on June 15, 2001. It is an archaeology and history museum located on the beautiful island of Jeju, which aims to be a free international city in the 21st century. Jeju is Korea's largest southernmost island. It boasts a long history and unique traditional culture from the prehistoric age to the present day.

By Kim Soo-jung
Culture Reporter
ehtorl88@cheju.ac.kr