[The Wonders of Korea] Ep4. Pine Tree: The Tree of LifeMar 29, 2016
A thousand meters above sea level...
A tree stands tall with its roots deeply
penetrating the rock created millennia ago.
It's a pine tree.
A thousand meters above sea level...
A tree stands tall with its roots deeply
penetrating the rock created millennia ago.
It's a pine tree.
Pine trees have sheltered, fed,
and cured Koreans for ages.
This is the story of the pine tree,
the tree of life for the Korean people.
The Silla Kingdom existed on the Korean Peninsula
from 57 BC to 935 AD.
In the Samneung Forest in Gyeongju,
the ancient capital of Silla,
we find the tombs of long-dead kings.
These kings would have seen the glory
and the decline of their kingdom.
The trees that stand guard over
their last resting grounds are pine trees.
To Koreans, the pines are more than just trees.
To the living they're mystical entities
that bridged the earth and the skies,
and to the dead they're guardians
that protect the tombs.
Pine trees have played an important role
in Koreans' lives, from birth to death.
So Korean's favorite tree is the pine.
Deeply intertwined in the lives of Koreans,
pine trees are called many different names,
varying by their features.
Jeoksong, or red pine,
is so named for its reddish lumber.
Geumgangsong, or diamond pine,
derived from the wood's hardness.
Those that grow on land or in the mountains
are called "yuksong" or land pines,
while those found near the sea
are called "haesong" or sea pines.
They may be called by different names,
but Korea's pine trees share a common trait,
a pair of leaves sprouting facing each other.
There is a place that shows us
the well-preserved origin of Korean pine trees.
It's a Geumgangsong Forest in Uljin,
North Gyeongsang Province.
Roughly 1,300 pine trees stand in a forest
measuring over 1,600 hectares.
The average age of these trees
is more than 150 years,
including some protected individuals
older than 500 years.
Human access to the Geumgangsong Pine Forest
in Sogwang-ni was long banned
to protect the trees.
But the forest has been open to the public
since 2006 to become a beloved destination
for many people.
The Geumgang pines in Sogwang-ni in Uljin
were considered special even 400 years ago,
because these trees were straight
and beared growth rings three times denser
than the ordinary variety,
indicating higher strength.
Also, the Geumgang pine is
not easily susceptible to rot
because of its high levels of resin,
making its lumber among the best.
The inside of the Geumgang pine is dark yellow,
giving it another name, "hwangjangmok."
It was largely used to make royal coffins.
But after the land was devastated by war,
Koreans began using a stone marker
to help put a stop to reckless lumbering.
Its remains can still be seen today.
Korea's pine trees were
an essential building material
for royal palaces and homes.
Compared with other types of wood,
pine resisted twisting and humidity better,
so the royals and powerful families
built their homes exclusively with pine.
Pine wood is still the most preferred
building material to this day,
especially when building hanok,
the Korean traditional house.
It's resistant to rot and supple,
easily shaped to produce beautiful lines.
Pine wood also breathes
and adjusts temperature and humidity
according to the season and weather
to keep the interior always pleasant.
Architecture is not the only area
in which pine trees have proven to be useful.
The town of Mungyeong
in North Gyeongsang Province is
where Korea's oldest kiln is located.
Here lives a ceramic master, whose ancestors
have been making pottery for 240 years.
An eighth generation potter, he makes baekja,
the white porcelain of Joseon.
An essential ingredient is needed to
bake the pure, subtly glossy white porcelain,
a glaze made with pine tree ashes.
Pine trees are used as an ingredient for a glaze,
but the trees also play an even more important role.
Pine wood is used for baking pottery.
The pine wood for the kiln is prepared
between the fall and early winter.
The wood should be dried
for more than a year or two.
Glaze firing is the most important step
in the ceramic making process.
The pine wood used in this stage
fires up the kiln hot enough to melt the glaze,
while leaving almost no ashes,
making it the best fuel for the kiln.
The fire burns for about 12 hours
in order to turn a soft clay dish
into a hard ceramic piece.
It varies by kiln, but it takes about
3 tons of pine wood to produce a batch of pottery.
That's a staggering amount of wood,
but pine wood is the only fuel capable of
reaching the desired temperature.
Also, when other kinds of wood are used,
the sparks from unburned amber
may damage the ceramic pieces.
In that case all the hard work
preparing the ceramics could go to naught,
so pine wood is a necessity
to bake unblemished works.
Ceramic pieces are born only after
enduring the heat of over 1,300 degrees Celsius.
It's a work of art crafted with the master's sweat
and pine wood.
Korea celebrates Chuseok, or Korean Thanksgiving,
on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month each year
to celebrate the season's rich harvest
and share the joy.
An indispensable treat at this traditional holiday
is songpyeon.
These half-moon rice cakes
are made with rice flour dough
filled with sesame seed or black bean stuffing.
An old saying goes that
anyone who can make beautiful songpyeon
will get a beautiful daughter.
The songpyeon pieces are steamed.
Pine needles are a requirement in this process.
There's a reason why pine needles are
steamed together with the rice cakes
on Chuseok of all holidays.
The antibacterial substance in pine needles
is infused into songpyeon
to allow long storage even on Chuseok
when the summer heat still lingers.
This is why songpyeon is a Korean favorite.
The versatile pine tree also provides a rare treat.
Songi or pine mushrooms become available
only in the fall.
The pine mushrooms can grow only when
mushroom spores attach to pine tree roots,
which is why they cannot be farmed.
Though few in number,
the pine mushrooms are highly valued
for their flavor and fragrance.
Pine trees give themselves to pine mushrooms
when alive, but feed something else
even after they die.
Yu Hyeon-guk has been picking medicinal herbs
for 30 years now.
What he's looking for in the pine forest
is boknyeong.
Boknyeong is a kind of mushroom
that lives off of the rotten roots of pine trees
that have died naturally,
not from lumbering.
These coconut-shaped mushrooms
are usually found at the foot of a pine tree
growing at an altitude higher than
700 meters above sea level.
Buried deep in the ground,
they're not easy to find.
So one has to poke the ground with a long skewer
to find where they are.
Only experts know what a boknyeong feels like.
Resembling a large potato, boknyeong was
once used to sate people's hunger
when food was scarce.
Boknyeong is discovered only at
the foot of a rotten pine tree,
but not all rotten pine trees harbor boknyeong.
So, this job more often than not
leaves your arm aching and empty-handed.
After another long search,
he finds another boknyeong.
It's quite big
as if it has been growing in the ground for years.
Belying its dark exterior,
its flesh is white as snow.
Boknyeong is divided into white and red,
depending on the color of its inside.
The mushroom is eaten raw
mashed or added to food in powdered form.
Boknyeong is also a crucial medicinal ingredient
in Korean traditional medicine.
It boasts of its own health benefits
and boosts the efficacy of other medicinal herbs.
Pine trees have always been beneficial to men,
but here is a couple who couldn't live
without the pine trees' healing qualities.
Lee Byeong-gi succumbed to
hereditary hyperlipidemia
and hypertension some 20 years ago.
He had to give up everything due to his ailment,
but it was the pine trees
that nursed him back to health.
Pine trees are hardly edible raw,
so they chose to ferment them.
Fermented pine needle sauce is made by
alternating a layer of pine needles and branches
with a layer of sugar in a clay urn.
It's easier to ferment the mixture
if pre-made fermentation solution is added.
The fermented liquid is completed
after it is kept in the shade for over six months.
It keeps for a long time if stored
under even temperature and humidity.
The oldest solution here is 17 years old.
It is covered by a thick membrane created by
lactic acid bacteria produced during fermentation.
The fermented pine needle sauce
has a strong sour taste in the beginning,
but with time the sourness dissipates
to leave a potable solution taken like medicine.
The aged fermentation liquid
is also used in cooking.
It helps rid any unpleasant smell
from meat dishes.
And whets the appetite by enhancing
the refreshing tanginess of fresh salads.
Adding pine needles to rice
helps prevent the rice from spoiling easily.
And adding pine needles and branches
to ox knee soup helps remove any bad smell
and lends it a clean aftertaste.
This couple prepares all three meals
with pine substances.
It's evident that pine trees are the tree of life
for these two.
Another healthful practice using pine trees
is steam massaging with pine branches.
A room is heated with firewood
and pine branches are spread on the floor
to absorb the energy of the pine.
Pine trees provide their leaves and roots
to feed and heal humankind.
The pine is the most giving tree on earth.
The fragrance of ancient pine trees
and the sound of wind-rustled leaves
are found in this forest.
In recent years an organic compound called
phytoncide emitted from pine trees
has been proven to lower stress
and strengthen the immune system,
prompting many people to visit
pine forests for themselves.
Resting in the pine forest and connecting to nature
is part of Korea's ancient heritage.
It's called “pungnyu.”
Pine trees grow everywhere in Korea.
The resilient life force sustaining the evergreen
has healed and provided for the people of this land.
Koreans' identity is found in the pine trees.
Pine trees are the tree of life for Koreans.
