Bukcheonsu Grove in Buksong-ri, Pohang

Bukcheonsu Grove in Buksong-ri, Pohang, is a pine forest formed in a long, linear strip along 2.5 km of the Bukcheon Stream in Buksong-ri, Heunghae-eup, Pohang. Records of Bukcheonsu appear in the "Map of Heunghae County" held at the Kyujanggak, an account of the grove's origins is recorded in the "Comprehensive List of Korean Place Names," and a 1938 survey record of it survives in "Forests of Joseon." It has long been a very famous forest and is known today as the third-longest forest remaining in Korea. According to the Ilseongnok entry for the ninth day of the first month of 1802, the second year of King Sunjo, Bukcheonsu is believed to have been created by Yi Deuk-gang, who was appointed magistrate of Heunghae County that year. During his term of office (1802–1804), observing that flood damage occurred every rainy season because there was no embankment along the Bukcheon Stream, he mobilised the county's people to build a levee along the stream and planted the forest, which extended for four ri, a traditional unit of distance. The grove thus has a deep historical origin. At Bukcheonsu Grove, villagers hold a dongje, a village guardian-spirit rite, at the shrine in the grove on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, followed at 3 p.m. the same day by a sanje, a mountain rite, on the hill in front of the village. They also have a custom of divining the fortune of the coming year from the condition of brine kept in a bottle buried the previous year. Long an object of folk worship for the village community, the grove is a village forest of very great cultural and historical value, and is accordingly designated and protected as a natural monument.

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Where it is

Region

Pohang, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Natural Monument · 천연기념물