Ginkgo Tree of Yogwang-ri, Geumsan

The ginkgo tree of Yogwang-ri, Geumsan, is estimated to be about 1,000 years old (as of the date of designation), with a height of 24.3 m and a girth at breast height of 13.2 m. Its trunk has rotted and become hollow like a cave, and among the branches spreading in all directions, the southern and eastern ones once broke off; it is said that villagers used that wood to make dining tables for three years and to fashion 37 coffins, which the residents then shared among themselves. 500 years ago, an ancestor of the O clan (吳氏) who then lived in this village built a pavilion beneath the tree while serving as Governor of Jeolla Province (present-day Governor of Jeolla-do), and named it Haengjeong, meaning 'ginkgo pavilion'; for a time the tree was accordingly known as 'the ginkgo tree of Haengjeong, Geumsan'. Today a hexagonal pavilion called Haengjeongheon (杏亭軒) stands on the site. According to legend, if a slow-witted child is made to stand beneath the tree for about an hour at night, the child becomes clever; boiling and eating the leaves is said to cure an elderly person's chronic cough, and praying devotedly to the tree is said to bring the birth of a son. It is also said that the tree cries out to give warning whenever something is about to happen to the nation or the village. Those who believed these legends are said to have gathered beneath the tree at midnight on the third day of the first lunar month to pray for good fortune in the new year. The ginkgo tree of Yogwang-ri, Geumsan, has lived alongside the life and culture of our ancestors for a great many years, giving it high value as cultural material, and as an old and large tree it also has great biological value; for these reasons it has been designated and protected as a natural monument.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Geumsan, Chungnam

Designation

Natural Monument · 천연기념물