The kingdom of Kaya was an important part in the history of Korea, although the kingdom itself was smaller than the other kingdoms that surrounded it. There has been some debate to whether Kaya was actually a kingdom or a confederation of city-states; for the purposes of this article I will refer it as a kingdom.
The Kaya kingdom was founded in around 42 CE in the southern Korean peninsula. According to literary texts, the foundation of the Kaya kingdom was very much steeped in mythology, as were other neighbouring kingdoms such as Silla.
The legend states that the land was ruled over by 9 chieftains, over a population of about 75,000. One day a group were washing themselves in a stream, preparing for a ritual. They heard a strange roaring voice calling them from the turtle-shaped mountains of Kooji-bong north of the stream. Only the sound like a voice of a human being was heard. The voice told them that he had been sent down from Heaven to rule over them. He told them to dig into the ground of Kooji-bong Mountain, dancing and chanting the incantation, "Turtle, turtle, stick out your head. If you don't, we'll roast and eat you.'
The people did as he asked, chanting the words given to them. Then they looked up toward the sky and saw a purple rope descending to the earth from Heaven. They went to it and found on the end of the rope a golden chest wrapped in a scarlet cloth. They opened the chest to find six golden eggs round as the sun. They were struck with delightful wonder and made a respectful bow to the eggs. They wrapped the chest again and took it to the house of one of the chieftains, Ahdokan, and placed it on a wooden bench (Song, p.84)
The next day, the people opened the chest to find that the eggs had turned into 6 golden boys who, after 10 days, had grown as tall as giants. One of these boys, Sooro, took the throne within a month, whose name means ‘First King of the Country’ and gave his name to the kingdom.
The archaeological remains of the Kaya kingdom represent the epitome of Korean Kobun culture - that is, burial mounds full of gold jewellery and artefacts imported from China and Central Asia (Pai, p.315).
Archaeological evidence has shown that the kingdom of Kaya had a thriving iron industry; a mass of armour, helmets and horse masks have been unearthed. It has been suggested that these finds could indicate that due to the small size of the Kaya kingdom, and the might of its neighbouring kingdoms, it underlies its need for self-defence.
The kingdom of Kaya was finally absorbed into the Silla kingdom in the 6th century CE, a conquest which marked the first step toward the uniting of the peninsula under Silla in 668 CE.
Bibliography:
Higham, Charles (2005) The Human Past – Complex Societies of east and Southeast Asia, Thames & Hudson, London.
Pai, Hyung II (1992) Culture Contact and Culture Change: The Korean Peninsula and Its Relations with the Han Dynasty Commandery of Lelang, World Archaeology, Taylor & Francis Ltd.
Song, Sun-hee (1974) The Koguryo Foundation Myth: An Integrated Analysis, Asian Folklore Studies, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture.
No comments:
Post a Comment