Former Mannyeongdang Charnel House of Sorokdo Rehabilitation Center, Goheung

Built in 1937, Mannyeongdang is a charnel house where the remains of Hansen's disease patients were kept in wooden boxes. Modelled on Japanese pagodas, it has a cylindrical concrete body with a hat-shaped roof, its upper section built like the finial of a pagoda. A niche set into the front allowed visitors to pay their respects to the deceased, and through a door at the rear lies the chamber where the urns of ashes are enshrined, together with a small altar for burning incense. The building carries historical significance as the charnel house of patients who, forcibly confined on Sorokdo Island by the Japanese colonial authorities simply for having Hansen's disease, lived lives of great sorrow before ending their days there.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Goheung, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Registered Cultural Heritage · 국가등록문화유산