Up In the Hills

Mark and I hiked up the hill that our dong (district) is nestled up against.  It was a perfect morning.  All the fresh green leaves are out and the sky was blue. 

This picture was taken on the hill above Pungam Dong.  You can’t see our apartment, but it is roughly below the middle of the hill that is located in the center of the picture. 

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Tucked away, everywhere, in the numerous hills are burial sites.  As far as I have learned from my Korean friends, there are no officially zoned cemeteries.  Every family has their own cemetery.

I’m not kidding when I say you see them EVERYWHERE.

This is a family plot.  The round mounds (A tumulus - plural tumuli) [info from Wikipedia] mark the placement of the body or bodies.  The pillars are decorated with floral or organic designs.  There are often Chinese characters written on the pillars.  The area around is very well maintained. 

 Another Marker located below the grave site, about 30 feet away.

Other grave sites are not nearly as fancy as the first pictures show. The mounds are not built up by stone walls. There are no ornate pillars, just simple markers, and no fence surrounds the site. 

Here is a third site.