Korea has a multi-tiered system of designating cultural properties — some are designated by the central government, while others are designated by provincial and city authorities.
The Cultural Heritage Administration explain the system — in English — here.
What needs to be pointed out here, given recent news, is that the numbering of the properties does NOT reflect the “value” of said properties. They reflect is the sequence in which they were listed. The Sungnyemun Gate was the first property named a National Treasure (here’s a list of ‘em), so it was designated National Treasure No. 1.
Discussing the comparative “worth” of National Treasures is tricky business; everyone has their favorites, after all. Personally, I think the Muryangsujeon of Buseok-sa (National Treasure No. 18) is the single-most important piece of architecture on the Korean Peninsula, but then again, that’s just me.
That being said, insurance numbers might give something of an idea of relative worth. The most expensive cultural property in Korea is the Gyeongbokgung Palace, which is insured at 15.2 billion won. Bulguk-sa Temple in Gyeongju is insured for 15 billion won. The Changdeokgung Palace comes in at a cool 9,1 billion won, followed by the Deoksugung Palace (6.2 billion won), Seokgul-am Grotto (5.89 billion won) and Jongmyo (2.8 billion). I read somewhere else that Suwon Hwaseong Fortress, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is also insured for something like 15 billion won. The Sungnyemun (Namdaemun) Gate was insured for 950.8 million won, not much higher than the Heunginjimun (Dongdaemun) Gate, which is insured for 868.1 million won.The insurance system for cultural properties is complicated, however, and at any rate, palace and temple complexes often contain many designated treasures — how the insurance numbers of individual structures like, for instance, the Gyeongbokgung’s main throne hall (National Treasure No. 223) or Gyeonghoe-ru Pavilion (National Treasure No. 224) would compare against the Sungnyemun Gate, I can’t say.
Another interesting thing to look at — especially for wooden buildings — is the Cultural Heritage Administration’s fire prevention priority rankings. The agency computes the rankings determined by two indexes — one for “cultural value” and the other based on relative threat of fire. Haein-sa Temple, Songgwang-sa Temple and Ssanggye-sa Temple — all located in remote mountain areas far from any fire department — top the list. Bulguk-sa, meanwhile, is not even in the top 16, because (I presume) it’s got fire prevention systems out the ying-yang.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, if I’m not mistaken, Gyeongbokgung is only worth 15.2 million dollars, give or take? Or perhaps my judgment is skewed. If Dongdaemun is around 868.1 thousand dollars, it’s as expensive as an average one-family house here in America.
Or perhaps because most of the wooden structures in Bulguksa are of much more recent vintage than the rest of the top-16 list, whereas the rest of the top-16 seem to contain some of the oldest and most valuable wooden properties in Korea (Haeinsa tops the list, not surprisingly…)
You must log in to post a comment.