🎧 Yul's Korea Audio Guide
Donggung Palace & Wolji Pond
Narrated in English with Korean phrases by YUL of KVIBE IDOLS.
🎵 Background music: Still in That Spring (그 봄에 머물러) — KVIBE IDOLS · Listen to the full song →
Full transcript
Annyeong, yeoreobun! Yul here, and it's night in Gyeongju. Look: golden pavilions glowing, and their perfect reflections floating on the water. Welcome to Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond!
In 674, King Munmu ordered a pond dug here, as part of a royal garden for flowers and rare animals. Silla was becoming the master of the peninsula, so it was party time! This became part of Donggung, the palace of the crown prince, and a stage for royal banquets. Even Silla's last king, Gyeongsun, hosted a banquet here for Wang Geon, founder of the next kingdom, Goryeo. Awkward dinner, right?
After Silla fell, the palace disappeared. Later poets called the lonely pond Anapji, the pond where wild geese and ducks play. Then, in 1974, workers dredging the pond found old roof tiles. Archaeologists dug from 1975 to 1986 and found almost thirty-three thousand relics. Inscribed finds, like a lock marked with the word Donggung, helped reveal the true names: Donggung, and Wolji, the moon pond.
And my favorite find? A fourteen-sided wooden dice called juryeonggu, for drinking games! Each side has a penalty, like drink three cups at once, dance with no music, or sing a song by yourself. Silla people knew how to party! Sadly, the original was destroyed while experts tried to preserve it, but replicas survive.
Yul's tip! Come just after sunset, when the lights turn on. The reflections on the water look unreal, so bring a fully charged phone.
Next, we go deep into the mountains, to a library of more than eighty thousand wooden blocks. Kaja!
