Cheondogyojangheunggyodang Hall

The Jangheung Cheondogyo hall was originally built in April 1906 through a fundraising campaign among Cheondogyo followers, led by district head Gang Bong-su, a descendant of the Donghak tradition. The Jangheung Cheondogyo District History and the Record of the District Hall (1920), hanging inside the hall, show that the later reconstruction was led by Sin Myeong-hui, a Jeonnam assemblyman, together with Jangheung district head Kim Jae-gye, chief Gang Bong-su and Yun Se-hyeon; that over about a month from November 1917 (the 56th year of Podeok, a Jeongsa year) 2,300 won was raised; that construction began on 15 February 1918 and was completed six months later, on 26 August; and that the actual building cost was 1,600 won. The names of those involved have been confirmed: 169 donors, 104 carpentry workers and 34 earthworks labourers, the latter working mainly on building the dormitory. The fact that the founders, donors, carpenters and labourers involved in both the 1906 and 1918 construction are documented, along with the cost and duration of the work, makes this an important record. Donghak (renamed Cheondogyo in 1905) was first propagated in the Jangheung region around 1891, when Yi In-hwan, Yi Bang-eon, Mun Nam-taek and others joined the faith. As a rare surviving Cheondogyo hall building, it occupies an important place as a space linked to figures who took part in anti-Japanese independence movements such as the March First Movement. In its structural style, too, it shows how a traditional hanok was transformed by the various currents of the enlightenment period to represent a process of public modernisation, allowing the changes undergone by public-institution buildings in the modern transitional period to be traced; for these reasons it holds historical, academic and local cultural-historical value.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jangheung, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물