🎧 Yul's Korea Audio Guide
Jeju Haenyeo, the Women Divers
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! It's Yul. Hold your breath with me. One, two, three... okay, I'm done. Now imagine doing that for hours in the cold sea. That's the life of Jeju's haenyeo, the women divers.
Haenyeo dive without oxygen tanks, down to about ten meters, holding their breath for around a minute each time, to gather abalone, sea urchins and more. Some are still diving in their eighties! When they come up, they let out a special whistling breath called sumbisori. Phweee!
Haenyeo work as a team. Divers are grouped by skill; the most experienced, the sanggun, guide the others. Before they dive, they pray to the goddess of the sea for safety and a good catch. In 2016, UNESCO added the Culture of Jeju Haenyeo to the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Daebak!
Now the twist. They were fighters too! In 1932, during Japanese colonial rule, Jeju's haenyeo led a major women-led protest against colonial rule. Today, the garden of the Haenyeo Museum stands on that site, with a memorial to them.
The museum, in Gujwa-eup, opened in 2006. It shows the divers' tools, daily life and beliefs. Sadly, their numbers are falling. In 1970, Jeju had more than fourteen thousand haenyeo. Recently, only about twenty-four hundred are registered, most of them seventy or older.
Yul's tip! The museum is closed on Mondays. If you see haenyeo at work, watch from a distance and don't swim into their diving area.
That's our Jeju trip for now, but many more stories are waiting across Korea. Annyeong!
