Mourning a Cultural Monument
This past Monday a tragic thing happened in Seoul, South Korea. . . . One of the historical monuments that has been standing for over 600 years in Seoul was destroyed in an arson fire. Now all that remains of this structure is the stone base. This structure, pictured here, is called Namdaemun (or Sungnyemun)- The Great South Gate. While it has gone through renovations in the past years, there were pieces of that structure that dated back to the original construction of it over 600 years ago. For a while it was not open to the public to walk through, but just recently had been opened. And I had an opportunity to walk through the gates and admire the paintings on the ceiling. Many Koreans are in grief over the burning of this piece of our culture, as am I. In fact, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that most Koreans are mourning the loss of this cultural monument. Rebuilding it will take years and cost millions of dollars.... The more terrible thing was that it wasn't an acci