Gwangneung Royal Tomb, Namyangju

Gwangneung is the tomb of Sejo, who in 1455 took the throne from his fifteen-year-old nephew, had him exiled and then killed, and reigned for thirteen effective, ruthless years. He and his queen lie on two spurs of the same hill, each with its own mound, sharing one shrine below — the first time a royal tomb was laid out that way. Sejo also changed how kings were buried. He ordered that his tomb have no stone burial chamber, only lime and earth, and no carved screen stones round the mound, on the grounds that both wasted labour. Every tomb after his followed the instruction, which is why the later ones look plainer than the early ones. Because a royal tomb's hills were sealed against cutting, hunting and farming, the forest around Gwangneung has been left largely alone for more than five hundred years. It is now the National Arboretum and a UNESCO biosphere reserve, one of the oldest continuously protected woodlands in the country, and it holds species — a woodpecker, a beetle — that survive almost nowhere else in Korea.

Original Text

Where it is

Region

Namyangju, Gyeonggi

Designation

Historic Site · 사적