“Cho-bun”, An Anthropogeneous Landscape in Haui Island, Southwestern Korea

Abstract

In a double funeral, the body is not buried in a grave immediately. The body is left to decompose, and the remains are cleaned and then buried. In Korea, such burial places are found in a grass tomb, a Cho-bun. The Cho-bun covered by this article was made on Haui Island in 2005. A Cho-bun in Korea means that the corpse is not put in the earth immediately after death. The relatives wait until the flesh has decayed so that the bones may be collected and then buried in a formal tomb. This practice was discouraged by the Sanitary Act during the Japanese occupation, and cremation was then encouraged. However, the ancient practice was still performed on several islands in the south and west of Korea. Then in the period of the Saemaeul Movement (the new community movement) in the 1970s, it was banned by law. However, this change will not happen easily because of the long-established tradition of cherishing the bones of the dead.