Jo Jul 1, 2024
Ryonggok School is located at the southern foot of Mt Ryongak in Pyongyang.
It was a private institution of the feudal Joson dynasty for educating rising generations.
The school was first built in 1656 and rebuilt in 1713, which is still preserved.
In line with the general requirements of private schools, it is divided into two zones ― lecture halls and temple.
If you go through the outer gate into the yard, you will find an eastern lecture hall on the right and a western lecture hall on the left. A flight of steps in the north of the yard leads up to the inner gate. If you walk through the inner gate, you will see a temple. To the northwest of the temple is a pavilion for a monument.
Ryonggok School, one of the typical private schools of the country, is a precious cultural legacy that shows the appearance and architecture of educational institutions in the years of the feudal Joson dynasty.
President
Thanks to the policy of the Workers’ Party of Korea on protecting national heritage, Ryonggok School is in good preservation and maintenance.
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Jo Jun 3, 2024
From ancient times, Korean people have made active use of hot spring water, a natural resource especially good for medical treatment and longevity.
The old books like “Chronicles of the Feudal Joson Dynasty” give a good deal of records that the ancestors learnt about the medicinal effects of hot spring water and used it for treatment. The visual evidence of the records is the Kalsan Hot Spring Relic discovered near the Kalsan Hot Spring Sanatorium in Kudang-ri, Phangyo County, Kangwon Province.
Kalsan Hot Spring is a simple radon spring. It has been widely known as an excellent remedy for several illnesses such as dermatosis, neuralgia, chronic gastritis, arthritis, etc. from long ago.
The Kalsan Hot Spring Relic, the indoor bath house relic, consists of the building site and four water tanks in it.
On the building site are still found some properly-faced granite cornerstones and platforms and there are two water tanks in the east and west each symmetrically.
The tanks are connected to the long granite water channel with a semicircular hollow for a supply of hot spring water.
The whole floor except the parts with the tanks is covered with granite slabs.
The hot spring, which is some distance from the bath house site, is located higher than the relic, so spring water is allowed to flow down to the tanks on its own.
According to “Chronicles of the Feudal Joson Dynasty”, it is estimated that the bath house was built by the order of King Sejong, the fourth king of the feudal Joson dynasty.
Some historical records say that King Sejong saw to it that a hot spring bath house and a temporary palace were built and he personally visited it to have a hot spring cure.
Tens of meters north-east away from this relic is still found the site of the temporary palace.
All those historical records may be regarded as the evidence to prove that the Kalsan Hot Spring Relic has a long history of over 570 years.
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Jo May 11, 2024
Every country and every nation in the world have their own manners of salutation.
However, hardly any of them are like ours, which satisfactorily and clearly expresses politeness to people in different social standings and age ranges.
From olden times, our people have observed the proprieties by either making a deep bow or bowing their heads when they see or part from one another.
According to our greeting etiquette, a deep bow is supposed to be made to the elders and seniors respectfully with some polite words for their health, and a slight bow to the people of the same age. Lowering one’s heads is appropriate for greeting younger ones.
Josonjol, the morally superior, hygienically impeccable and cultured greeting manners of our own style, is the best of all.
How our country could be widely known to the world as a country of courteous people in the East is also attributable, to some extent, to the fact that the people had created and constantly developed such admirable greeting etiquette.
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Jo May 9, 2024
Steamed rice cake (paeksolgi in Korean where paek means ‘white’) is named after its colour which is as white as snow. It was first introduced as paeksolgo in “Kyuhapchongso”, a book of the early nineteenth century.
Snow-white steamed rice cake reflects our people’s honesty and faithfulness. Steamed rice cake has been regarded as indispensable for several occasions like a party given to a hundred-day-old baby, the first birthday of a baby, a wedding, etc.
The custom of preparing steamed rice for hundred-day-old babies is associated with parents’ wish for them to grow up healthily and honestly like snow-white steamed rice cake.
Sharing with neighbors the dishes including steamed rice cake prepared for the day, Korean people have exchanged congratulatory remarks and shared joy with one another for good harmony and unity. Such beautiful characteristics are still being handed down.
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Jo May 5, 2024
The crater of Mt Paektu full of mysteries gives a view of extraordinary falls, too.
In the rainy season, the cliffs of the crater are covered with falling water, forming crater waterfalls. When a strong northwesterly wind blows up the slopes of the crater, it changes the downward flow into “upward waterfalls” like spout from a fountain. These extraordinary “upward waterfalls” are seen in the spring thaw from May to June and in the rain spell from July to August.
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Jo May 3, 2024
PhD. Associate Prof. Kwon Chang Dok, a section head at the Faculty of Mining Engineering, is a competent scientist who has made a distinguished contribution to the agricultural development of the country and to the improvement of the people’s living standard. Having developed a paddy rice cultivation method by electrical pulse water treatment, he has introduced and generalized it to a huge number of farms across the country in the last nine years.
Finding that the water treatment technology highly effective in floatation and leaching of nonferrous mineral significantly influences the growth of animals and plants by activating water, he started research for introducing it to stockbreeding, fish farming and vegetable farming followed by paddy rice farming. Starting from a 500-phyong (1 phyong = 3.954 sq. yds) test rice field, he rapidly expanded the area year by year. As a result, he made proud successes of increased yield of a huge amount of rice in a hundred thousand jongbo (1 jongbo = 2.451 acres) of paddy-fields in 2023.
In the course of making a lot of scientific research successes, he was highly appreciated by Chairman
During those days, he moved into a new flat in Kyongru-dong in April, 2022, and he had the greatest honor of having a significant photo session with the respected Comrade
Now he is full of enthusiasm to devote all his talent, wisdom and passion to open up a breakthrough for the economic development of the country with torchlight of science and technology, bearing in mind the trust and expectation of the Party and the fatherland that put him forward as a state top-honor scientist & technician.
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