Auraji
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Located 19.4km away from Jeongseon, Auraji (아우라지) is the name of a conflux where two rivers meet situated in the village of Yeoryang in the Province of Gangwon. The streams are located near Mt. Goyang, where people believe the folk song “Jeongseon Arirang” (Arari) comes from. This area is well-known for its beautiful landscapes, surrounded by magnificent mountains and characterized by clean and pure waters. The lake is quite shallow and calm on the outside, but in the middle of it is clearly deeper. The river is not very wide, but the stone fields along it are. Today, Auraji Lake is one of the eight scenic views of Yeoryang.
The Name[edit]
The name “Auraji” comes from the Korean verb “eoureojida” (어우러지다) which means “to be in harmony”, “to meet”. In fact, near Mt. Goyang, two streams come together: one is the female stream, Goljicheon (골지천), that originates from Mt. Taebaek and flows with its slow and gentle waters through Imgye to Yeoryang; the other one is the male stream, Songcheon (송천), whose waters are faster and wilder due to the presence of many stones and obstacles, which originates from Mt. Balwang and flows through Mt. Nochu and Gujeol-ri to Yeoryang. According to the concept of Yin and Yang, people in Yeoryang regard Songcheon as a positive stream (Yin) and Goljicheon as a negative stream (Yang), because during the summer rainy season, when there is a lot of positive water, a great flood occurs, and when there is a lot of negative water, the rainy season ends.
The Legend of Auraji[edit]
This conflux is where men and women, two bodies of water come together and maybe that is the reason why it’s against this beautiful and fairy-like backdrop that takes place the Legend of Auraji, which narrates the love story of a maiden and a bachelor.
According to the legend, a long time ago, there were a maiden who lived in the village of Yangji in Yucheon, and a bachelor who lived in Yeoryang, divided by the flowing waters of Auraji. They met while picking camellia blossoms in Sarigol in Yucheon, where there was a forest rich in camellia trees, and they started to fall in love with each other. The couple promised to meet again the following morning, but the day after, when the bachelor arrived at the wharf, he found that the heavy rain that fell overnight caused the river to overflow and the ferry could not sail, so it was impossible for him to cross the river. At that moment, the bachelor started to sing a song to express his sorrow:
“Dear Boatman of Auraji, oh would you bring me a boat, the camellias that bloomed early are all falling.”
And from the other side of the river, the maiden responds:
“Fallen camellias will be wrapped up in fallen leaves, But all year long I miss my love so, too much for me to bear.”
It is believed that from this legend and these two lines has its source the folk song “Jeongseon Arirang”, considered the original version of the Korean folk song “Arirang”, unofficial anthem of the country, symbol of unity between North and South Korea and part of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
There is also a second version of this tale, in which the bachelor, after seeing that the river overflowed due to the heavy rain, attempts to cross the river with a raft but unfortunately ends up dying and his spirit starts to sing the grieving song.
This tale was developed probably due to the many drowning incidents that used to happen at the conflux. In fact, there was an incident of a young lady who threw herself in the river, lost in despair after losing her drowned fiancé. Another one happened during the day of the first wedding ceremony of a young woman, when the guests and relatives, who were crossing the river to get to the wedding with lots of luggage on the ferry, lost their center of gravity and overturned, causing the death of many people. Due to these unfortunate events, a statue of a maiden was erected to console and appease the haunted spirits of the drowned women. It is believed that after the establishment of the sculpture, the drowning accidents stopped. The statue, situated in the middle of the pine forest on the hillside where the two rivers meet, represents a virgin maiden dressed in a hanbok, Korean traditional clothes, with a daenggi, a long ribbon used at the end of a braid worn by unmarried girls. Standing behind her, there is a plate where the lyrics of the song sung by the couple is engraved.
Today[edit]
Nowadays, Auraji Lake is a great tourist attraction and lots of people go visit this magical place surrounded by mountains to admire the clean waters and listen to the related legend while gazing at the statue of the woman. Here, every year in the middle of summer, local people enjoy celebrating the “Auraji Raft Festival” to remember their ancestors who used to transport high-quality pine wood to Seoul in rafts. Even though the Jeongseon Line Railway, the National Road 42 and the road connecting Gujeol-ri and Yeoryang were opened, still a lot of people like to travel between the two villages riding the ferry, like in the old days.
Sources[edit]
- Jeon Sin-jae, "Auraji(阿乌拉吉)", Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture
- Park, Jong-bun, Kim, Hyo-hyung, 아우라지 (Auraji) , 네이버 지식백과 (Naver Knowledge Encyclopedia)
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