Heo Hwang-ok

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Heo Hwang-ok
Hangul:
허황옥
Hanja:
許黃玉
Revised Romanization: Heo Hwang-ok
McCune-Reischauer: Hŏ Hwangok

Heo Hwang-ok was a princess who travelled from the ancient kingdom of Ayodhya[1] to Korea. Information about her comes almost entirely from a few short passages in the Samguk Yusa, an 11th-century Korean chronicle. According to that chronicle, she arrived on a boat and married King Suro of Gaya in the year 48 CE. She was the first queen of Geumgwan Gaya, and is considered an ancestor by several Korean lineages.

Contents

[edit] Legend

According to the Samguk Yusa[2], Heo had a dream of King Suro while in her native country. The dream showed her that the king had not yet found a queen. She then told her parents about the dream. They agreed to let her go. She arrived on a boat with gold, silver, and a tea plant. Before marrying the king, she took off her silk trousers and prayed to the mountain spirit.

[edit] Remains

A tomb believed to be Heo's lies near that believed to be her husband's, in Gimhae, South Korea. A pagoda traditionally held to have been brought to Korea on her ship is located near her grave. The Samguk Yusa reports that the pagoda was erected on her ship in order to calm the god of the ocean and allow the ship to pass. The unusual and rough form of this pagoda, unlike any other in Korea, may lend some credence to the account. [3]

The Samguk Yusa also records that a temple was built in honor of Heo and her husband by King Jilji in 452. The temple was called Wanghusa, or "the Queen's temple." Since there is no other record of Buddhism having been adopted in 5th-century Gaya, modern scholars have interpreted this as an ancestral shrine rather than a Buddhist temple.[4]

[edit] Descendants

Members of both the Heo lineages (including the clans of Gimhae, Gongam, Yangcheon, Taein, and Hayang) and the Gimhae Kim lineage consider themselves descendants of Heo Hwang-ok and King Suro. Two of the couple's ten sons chose the mother's name. The Heo clans trace their origins to them, and regard Heo as the founder of their lines. The Gimhae Kims trace their origin to the other eight sons.

In 2004, two Korean researchers analyzed samples of DNA taken on the site of the two royal tombs, which enabled them to establish the existence of a genetic bond between the Korean ethnic group and certain ethnic groups of India, Malaysia and Thailand. [5] Research continues.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The extant records do not identify Ayuta except as a distant country. It is commonly identified with Ayodhya in India; however, Ha & Mintz suggest Ayuthia in Thailand.
  2. ^ The main story is in the Garakgukgi, and is found in Iryeon (1972), pp. 161-164.
  3. ^ Kwon (2003), pp. 212-213.
  4. ^ Kwon (2003), pp. 213-214.
  5. ^ South Koreans may have Indian genes, The Economic Times, Times News Network, Gurgaon, Haryana (Inde), 21 August 2004. Edition électronique accessed October 17, 2005.

[edit] References

  • Kwon Ju-hyeon (권주현) (2003). 가야인의 삶과 문화 (Gayain-ui salm-gwa munhwa, The culture and life of the Gaya people). Seoul: Hyean. ISBN 89-8494-221-9. 
  • Iryeon (tr. by Ha Tae-Hung & Grafton K. Mintz) (1972). Samguk Yusa. Seoul: Yonsei University Press. ISBN 89-7141-017-5. 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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