Docheonsup Forest in Docheon-ri, Yeongdeok

Basic information

Designation

Natural Monument No.514

Category

동식물

Designated year

2009

Location

영덕군, 경상북도— 경북 영덕군 남정면 도천리 75번지

Coordinates

36.306844, 129.352585

The Docheonsup Forest was developed some four hundred years ago when a village was formed nearby. The name of the village, “Docheon,” is the Sino-Korean equivalent of a vernacular name “Gilnae (Jilnae),” deriving from the Three Kingdoms period, which means a village with a creek running along the postal road. The forest once extended south along the stream, all the way to the village shrine, in a manner to fence in the village. This setting attracting well-off households from the environs, the village is said to have been one of the richest in Yeongdeok, once upon a time. Today, the forest has a significantly reduced expanse, due to fire and reclamation as farmland. The forest was originally developed to improve the feng-shui position of the village; concretely, to shield the village from the snake head-shaped summit of the mountain facing it which was believed to threaten the well-being of its inhabitants. This forest with a well-documented origin and known intent of development, is also notable for the only surviving samgut, a pit where hemp stems were boiled to obtain fiber to produce yarns, in Korea. The Docheonsup Forest, in other words, casts light on the ways village woodlands were used in traditional times. At the shrine inside the forest, a rite is held every year on the fifteenth of the lunar month of January, still today, to pray for the safety of village households and abundant harvest. This annual rite is said to be attended by all young men of the village. Villagers pay a visit to the shrine when leaving the village for an extended period of time and closely observe rules such as not disturbing any of its surrounding settings (not taking even a small twig away from the site, for example). As a vestige of a rural lifestyle in which emphasis was laid on harmony with nature, this forest retains great significance for the understanding of folk customs in Korea.

Location