HaeSinDang Park - 해신당 공원

In addition to its snowy mountains, its lookout into North Korea, and its familiar-feeling small industrial towns, GangWon province is home to one of the most unique parks I have ever visited, HaeSinDang park (해신당 공원).

I visited 해신당 공원 on a lightly overcast afternoon.  In the winter sun, the almost snow free landscape of the park showed off its many tones of brown, while occasionally sporting evergreen hues.  The first section of the park was deserted, and serene...  perfect for a quiet winter afternoon walk.

해신당 공원, on a cold January day.

Another view of 해신당 공원.

Dry grass in 해신당 공원

But I soon came upon the park's main attraction, an attraction that draws to it visitors from all over Korea, and it transformed into something more light-hearted and cheeky the serene mood that I had cultivated in the park's natural landscape.  You see, 해신당 공원 is a sculpture park, and certainly one of the most unusual ones I have ever heard of.  Here are some of the first sculptures that I saw in the park: 

A sculpture in 해신당 공원.

Another sculpture in 해신당 공원.

 

Having first stumbled upon some of the more subtle of the park's sculptures, it didn't take long for me to find some of the more realistic ones.

A bench in 해신당 공원.

In case you needed a close-up of the sculpture to see what it is...  :)

That's right, 해신당 공원 is a penis park...  a theme park dedicated to sculptures of the human male's favourite reproductive organ.


By my estimate, the park is home to more than 50 penis sculptures, some of them silly...

A laughing penis and his friend, in 해신당 공원.

A penis in a robe.

... others more realistic looking...

A penis canon.

Penises by a pond, in 해신당 공원.

Seems that a woodpecker thought that this wood pecker would make a good home.  (Sorry.)  :)

해신당 공원 is on the GangWon coast, and the coastline by the park is also beautiful.

Looking down to the East Sea from a steep hill in 해신당 공원.

The GangWon coast, from 해신당 공원.

Rocks by the East Sea shore, in 해신당 공원.

Just outside of 해신당 공원, there is a little harbour with a lighthouse marking its entrance, the shape of which is in keeping with the park's theme.

A harbour lighthouse, just outside 해신당 공원.

So why is there a penis park in southern GangWon province?  Because the people living in the area near HaeSinDang park have an interesting cultural legend, known as the legend of HaeSinDang.

According to the legend, there once lived in HaeSinDang a young woman named AeRang (애랑) who was engaged to a fisherman named DeokBae (덕배).  One morning, 애랑 went out to sea with 덕배 as he went to work, and he dropped her off on a rock so she could collect some seaweed.  He was going to pick her up again on his way back home in the evening, but the weather changed suddenly and he was not able to go back to the rock to find her.  So, 애랑 drowned.

After her drowning, the fishermen of HaeSinDang started having difficulty catching enough fish.  Until the day that one of them realized that if he urinated while facing the ocean in the morning, his catch would be much better.  He concluded that the fish must be perturbed by the spirit of 애랑, as her spirit must be sexually frustrated.  He also understood that, if he showed 애랑's spirit his penis,  her frustration eased and she did not disturb the fish so much.  And so from that day on, the fishermen of HaeSinDang presented their penises to the ocean before going fishing, and this greatly improved their catch.


The woman in this legend, 애랑, is a local goddess in the region near HaeSinDang.  There is a small shrine dedicated to her in 해신당 공원.  As I passed it on my way out of the park, someone placed an offering in the shrine and prayed to 애랑.

The shrine to 애랑, in 해신당 공원.

A final note...
I learned the Korean word for penis when I visited 해신당 공원.  In Korean, a penis is a "nam geun" (남근).
I can't be sure of the etymology of the word, as the Korean language has many words borrowed from the Chinese language, many of which sound almost the same but are written using different characters.  Often, Koreans will want to know the Chinese spelling of a word in order to clearly differentiate it from a number of other similar-sounding options.
Having said this, I think that the word "nam geun" is a compound word.  The word "nam" (남) means "male".  I encounter this word quite commonly, as the Korean word for "man" is "nam ja" (남자), which literally means "male person".  Also, one meaning of the word "geun" (근) is "muscle".
So in Korean, a penis is a 남근, or a "male muscle".