It is ironic and poetic that Cheju islanders, faced with a lifetime of shifting heavy
stones, should once have lifted stones for fun
Korean Culture 5,1 (Mr. 1984)
The Lifting-Stones of Cheju Island
David Nemeth
A popular pastime of mainland
Koreans prior to the twenueth century
was stone-fighting. Menfolkc)f ennre
villages annually squared off and let
loose with stones and clubs in a hall
of seml-orgamzed bloodletting
Homer B. Hulbert, a contemporary
of these events in thmr dechne, wrote
that the games were played' only at
the beginning of the year when people
had nothing else to do and the fields
lay "bare and mvmng.''1 On isolated
Cheju Island, however, where there
has ahvays been a shortage of able-
bodied males, this mainland passaon
for stone-fighting nevel developed.
The Cheju populauon could an no
way endure a wolent socml actavlty
lake stone-fighting, which saclahced
for sport the hves of those ÿelatlvely
fen, survavors of fishing acodents.
1 HomerB Hulbert, "TheStone-hght," Korea Revtezo 5
(1905) 50
3O
Instead, Cheju Manders developed a
game to match their social needs and'
precarmus hwng conditions. It was a
test of strength, and more, that solidi-
fled householders into villagers, while
pitting them against other wllagers
and against their anoent antagomst--
the stone.
A Great Circle of Stone
Cheju Island as the largest island In
the Republic of Korea (fig. 1). Both
Korean mamlanders and Cheju 1s-
landers acknowledge the important
influence of Cheju's asolatlon and
harsh volcanic condmons on the
island's cultural development Rock-
bound, wind-swept Cheju Island is
located approxamately one hundred
kilometers south of the southwestern
tip of the Korean peninsula, a position
J
north of the equator comparable to
Santa Catalina m California, Mar-
rakesh in Morocco, and Nanjing
(Nanking) in the People's Republic
of China.
Halla Mountain, a strato-volcano,
is the major geographical feature of
Cheju Island, rising to a lofty peak at
the Island's center. Surface conditions
on the large oval-shaped island are
explainable m terms of its past vol-
camc activines. Much of Cheju Is-
land's 1810 square kilometer surface
is exposed rock The remainder con-
sists of someumes arable soÿls whach
are tholoughly peppeled with vol-
canic bombs and cinders. Trouble-
some field stones such as these were
originally blown out fiom the mare
volcano, and from the hundreds of
parasmc cones tha t non, cling silently

?,
car
Plate 1, ,4 Chelu lÿftmg-stone zs ÿdentÿfted by Song ]t-chun of Seong Eup.
to its flanks. Those island surfaces
that are not too rocky, too steep, or
too high on the mountain to cultivate,
are often yet too dry to farm. Tens of
miles of lava tubes snaking beneath
the porous smls form an internal
plumbing system throughout the
island that too quickly drams away
whatever useful moisture reaches the
surface, despite voluminous rains.
Although Cheju Island is but a
great c:rcle of stone in the northern
reaches of the East China Sea, :t has
nevertheless been home to :ts anc:ent
race of hardy agncuhural inhabitants
Over millenia, Cheju islanders have
come to know the subtlet:es of the
ubiquitous stone that surrounds
them--about as well as Esk:mos know
snow. They have learned to live
among their stones harmoniously. In
doing so, Cheju people have them-
selves become hke their stones:
rugged, mtrans:gent, durable. Main-
land historlans have made much of
the vmlent, rebelhous nature of Chej u
1slanders. Yet, m Cheju legends and
m the stone-hfting game there is
evidence of a conventmnal wisdom
that once operated to promote the
peaceful arbitration of disputes be-
tween wllage householders. Pubhc
health was thereby preserved for the
dffficuh task of farming and the
dangerous craft of hshmg.
The prevalence of stone at the
surface of Cheju as justly notorious.
A fractmn of the land has been suc-
cessfully reclaimed for agncuhural
purposes from this mass of clinkers,
but only after applying generatmns
of back-breaking labor to the removal
of held stones The removal and
remrangement of surface rock for
pracucal reasons has always chal-
lenged the :ntelhgence of the native
islanders Forcentunes, stones coerced
from thear nests in the helds have
served as the universal bmldlng
"matei:al on the island H:stoncally,
individual stones have been used and
re-used in house, outbuilding, tomb
wall, and held wall constructions.
The Cheju Lifting-stone
Island octogenarmn Song Ji-chun
of Seong Eup on Chqu Island led
this researcher to an ancient crossroads
where an odd boulder lay neglected at
the roadside. He identified :t in :sland
dialect as a tudum dol, or 'lifting-
stone,' and calculated from memory
that at was last used in a stone-lifting
competmon sixty-seven years ago (pl.
1) It :s iromc and poetic that Cheju
islanders, faced with a hfeume of
shifting heavy stones from fields to
thmr margins and beyond, once hfted
stones for fun Yet, old-umers hke
Mr. Song recall that the stone-hfting
game was popular and wMespaead
throughout the island. It is a good
example of a rehc social landscape on
Cheju Island.
Many of these stones once lifted for
sport can sull be found here and there
on Cheju island. Tens, perhaps
hundreds, are now incqrporated into
the lowest tiers of walls fashioned
from lava rocks. These walls are
ublqmtous on Cheju, forming tor-
tuous narrow lanes m the villages.
Such walls, especmlly those built
near the historic centers of the older
villages, are an interesting collage of
worn and d:scarded stone implements
and artifacts. Patient wall-watchers
will fred here a grinding stone, there
a foundatmn stone, and occasmnally
an :mbedded hftmg-stone (pl 2).
The Cheju lifting-stone as lnvan-
ablyround, averaging about 125 kilo-
grams and a meter or so m c:rcum-
ference. Whale most Cheju wall rocks
are angular basalts, pocked w:th holes,
those des:gnated as hftmg-stones are
distinctively round, smooth and
dense Some found m villages near
Cheju City are actually pink-wh:te in
31

CHEJU ISLAND
Suwclnÿ . Terim
o .Hallem
o tests of manhood once practiced in
Fÿgure 1 Che]u Island, wÿth the place names mt*oduced m the text
color Their circular symmetry was
not fashioned by human hand, but by
nature, during intermittent violent
tumbhng m one or another of the
rugged and frequently storm-washed
gullies rangirig seaward from HaBa
Mountain. A par ticula{ly fine, almost
perfectly round, lifting-stone once
belonged to the village of Gosan in
the extreme west of Gheju island (pl.
3). The stone is referred to, in island
dialect familiar to that quarter, as
ddung dol.
Sociology of Stone-lifting
The hftmg-stone game can be inter-
preted at several levels. Superficially,
and in in the collective memory of
most old folk, it was simply a contest
of strength, a source of diversion and
amusement: 'Who's the village cham-
pion? Well, let's gather 'round the
lifting stone and see!' The stone-
lifting compeution was no less com-
plex than a modem weight-hftmg
event Several lifting styles were prac-
ticed, and each of these reqmred a
hfter to master the coordination of
distinct muscle groups.2
Beyond this, stories abound of
hostile villages attempting to steal
each other's hftmg-stones. Was the
lifting-stone, then, a village tahsman,
having power to improve the villager's
luck and to plevent calamities? It is
impossible to say Islanders deny.
2 Chin Song-gl, "Ddung Dol [The Lifting-stone]," m
Chelu Mmsokuÿmot [Cheju Island Folkways] (Seoul
Yonhwadang, 198t), pp 34-35
32
Cheju islanders have
themselves become like
thezr stones: rugged,
intransigent, and durable
MI Halla however, that they ever worshipped
.Seong the stones.
Eup Villagers agree that the stone-hftmg
game was a rite of passage for its
young men. Competition with the
0 I0 20 stone was a strictly male prerogative.
I J ,, I Thus, tlÿe stone-lifting game of Cheju
ktlometerÿ can be classed with simdar traditional
such diverse places as Greece, Scot-
land, and Germany. Stone-lifting of
this sort is still practiced in Switzer-
land, and by Basque shepherds m
Spain.
There is a folk tale that may explain
the origin of the stone-hfting game
on Cheju The tale demonstrates the
strong influence of geomancy on the
islanders. Geomancy is a theory and
practice which assumes that any
human construction is an intervention
m the universal harmony of nature,
and of serious consequence to the
fortunes of villagers.
About two hundred and fifty years
ago the people of a village now called
Terlm were advzsed by a geomancer
that a dangerous weakness in land-
form existed to the west of their
village. Alarmed villagers were in-
structed to reinforce that direction
artificially by lifting one gigantic
stone upon another€ there at the
Plate 2, d hiring-stone embedded m a wall
near Seong Eup. western border of Tenm Village. Two
massive stones were rolled into place,
but no way could be found to stack
them. Meanwhile, the village was an
ambiguous peril. Miraculously, a
young Mr. Pak from the village
embraced one stone and single-
handedly lifted it upon the other.
The village soon began to prosper,
and was known thereafter as Ipsok,
or 'Standing-stone Village '
Due west of Ipsok, just beyond the
stone pale, was the village of Suwon.
As Ipsok prospered over the years, so
Plate 3 The hJtmg-stone of Gosan Vzllage Suwon declined. The vallagers of

Plate 4 "To wrestle the stone was the rtght of each youth "" A t pÿ esen t, the challenge of the ÿ oadstde
hftzng-stone ts *arely, zf ever, taken up by the ,slanders.
Suwon eventually fixed the blame for
their run of bad luck on the artificial
stone pile bmh by thmr neighbors,
the Ipsok villagers, to the east The
stone pile had fouled the eastern
border of Suwon, obstructing its for-
tune, or so they beheved. The Suwon
villagers dispatched a raiding party
and toppled the perched stone. The
villagers of Ipsok, who were now
blessed with many strong young men,
quickly replaced the fallen stone
The next day, however, it was down
again. Then up. Then down. And so
on for decades,a
The stone-hftmg game of Cheju
conceivably originated in Terim
Village to commemorate this feud, or
the prowess of its young Mr. Pak.
The custom could have diffused from
Terlm to other parts of the island.
However, several varianons on this
legend are told in villages located m
distant parts of Cheju Island. It is
dlfficuh to speculate where the earhest
version originated. Wherever its
origins, the stone-lifting game once
had an important social role in pre-
3, Hyon Yong-lu, "Terzmut Sondol [Tenms Standing-
stone]," m Cheludo Chonsol [Cheju Island Legends]
(Seoul. Seomoon Moongo, 1976), pp 217-18
modern agrarmn vallage life on Chej u
Island. Ironically, the historic perched
stone between Wenm and Suwon was
recently reduced to fragments as part
of a local agncuhural Improvement
program.
In Hallim, just south of Terim,
there is a hfting-stone half-buried
and half-forgotten beneath a village
tree. This particular stone was al-
legedly muscled over to Hallim from
Terim by a Halhm raiding party 4
Halhm's possessmn of Tenm's stone
is a trophy of its evolving dominance
over Terlm.
The lifting-stones of Cheju were
indeed once used to measure power
among villages. Villages with big
stones were proud, since the stones
indirectly represented village prosper-
lty and the excellent conditon of its
youth. Villages with small stones
were objects ofndlcule Furthermore,
ff a stranger boldly entered a village
he risked being invited to lift its
stone. His failure could result in a
thrashing at the hands of the locals.
after which he could expect to buy for
4 Interview wHh Mr Pak, a resident of Halhm, 1981
5 Chin Song-g*, "Ddung Dol," pp 84-85
them a round of dlinks as ÿ ecompense
for his trespassing 5
A Place in the Natural Order
At a mine pÿofound level, the
lifting-stone game can be viewed as a
ritual confrontation between Cheju
man and an everywhere mu ansÿgent
nature. Young Chelu menfolk had
reason to confront the hftlng-stone
wÿth a vengeance after a displrmng
day in the fields Just seeing the idle
lifting-stone reposing in the shade at
the village crossroads inspired work-
weary farmers to take up its challenge.
The stone must have appeared
pathetic rather than formidable,
squatting there in the dust, alone,
and at the hub of human acuwty.
Young farmers who whale out in
thmr fields felt helplessly out-
numbered by entrenched armies of
stone, could encircle a solitary lifting-
stone at the village center and enjoy
the delicious reversal of roles they
were enacting
To wrestle the stone was the right
of each youth (pl. 4). To actually lift
the stone was a rare and dramatic, ff
temporary, victory over stone-nature
The village lifting-stone, in an anal-
ogy with ,slander kinship systems,
was a father to all stones in the
VlClmty. With the lifting of the path-
arch, stone-nature reverberated with
this message: human virtue and dih-
gence have earned this man and these
villagers a respectable place in the
natural order.
Although the lifting-stone game is
no longer practiced on Cheju Island,
the stones remain as an example of a
vital socml landscape once centered
at mare village crossroads--an arena
rich in sights, sounds and cama-
raderie-where individual house-
holders gathered to express their
sohdarlty against outsiders, and
against oppressive nature
David Nemeth is a doctoral candidate in the
Department of Geography at UCLA. His dis-
sertation focuses on the culture and landscape
of Cheju Island Nemeth's reticle, "Glaven
Images and Cosmic Landscape on Chejn
Island," appeared in Korean Culture, 4:1
(March 1983), pp. 4-19.
3ÿ
 VOL. 5 NO. 1 MARCH 1984

4 The Korean Buddhist Image:

Embodiment of the Transcendent
Marylin Martin Rhie

16 THE SPORTS AND GAMES OF KOREA:

Traditional Korean Games
Denise Yarfÿtz

30 The Lifting-Stones of Cheju Island

David Nerneth

34 Tour Guide to Korea: 1984

Elizabeth McCarthy

50 Review: Black Ink, Rice Paper, and

an Occasional Pink Ballerina
Maureen McCabe

54 Publisher's Note

54 Calendar

On the cover:
Korean wrestling, sszrum, requnes physical strength and agility, as well as finely-tuned
technique As these contestants stuggle to bring one another to the ground, they seem to be
engaged in an athletic ballet Sszrum is among the many traditional games discussed by Denise
Yarfitz in this issue of Korean Culture, in the first installment of a four-part series on 'The
Sports and Games o[ Korea '

Pubhsher: Korean Culture is published quarterly by the Korean Cultural Service, thd Consulate General
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Cultural Serwce, 5505 Wflshlre Blvd, Los Angeles, Cahforma 90036 (213) 936-7141 ISSN
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0270-1618 Vol 5, no 1 (March 1984), © 1984 Korean Cultural Service
Steven Douglas Halasey
Art Dÿector.
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