Journey to Korea’s Ancient Silla Kingdom

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What can we learn by visiting the sites of ancient civilisations? Is it possible to recreate the architecture of the past today? Reflect on these questions as you travel to Korea in this online program inspired by the current exhibition Once Upon a Roof: Vanished Korean Architecture. The journey takes you from the galleries of the National Museum of Asian Art to the ancient city of Gyeongju in southeastern Korea. Once the capital of the ancient Silla kingdom, which lasted for one thousand years (57 BCE–935 CE), the city is a well-known tourist destination rich in history and culture. Yoon Sangdeok, an expert in art and archaeology, leads this tour through temples and royal tombs that have endured to this day and through treasures discovered in and around the city in order to understand the surviving legacy of the ancient kingdom. Visit the royal garden built for the crown princes of the Silla kingdom, where more than thirty-three thousand artefacts were unearthed in 1975, including the ornamented roof tiles featured in the exhibition Once Upon a Roof, currently on view at the museum. This tour will give you a chance to imagine the ancient city as it was more than one thousand years ago.

Yoon Sangdeok is a senior curator and the head of the Exhibition Division at the National Museum of Korea. A specialist in Silla archaeology, Yoon conducted excavations of Silla remains and organised exhibitions on related subjects while he worked at the Gyeongju National Museum for five years beginning in 2007. He also served as a Korean co-organiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition Silla: Korea’s Golden Kingdom in 2013.

Keith Wilson is curator of ancient Chinese art at the National Museum of Asian Art. Also interested in Korean art, Wilson organised Sacred Dedication: A Korean Buddhist Masterpiece in 2019 and the digital catalogue Goryeo Buddhist Paintings: A Closer Look, dedicated to the sixteen examples of such paintings in US museum collections.(https://publications.asia.si.e....du/publications/gory

Sunwoo Hwang joined the National Museum of Asian Art in 2018 as Korean program associate and is responsible for coordinating Korean programs, including exhibitions, public programs, and scholarly events.

Image: ⓒ 2019. Gyeongju Tourguide. All rights reserved