Opening of King Sejong Language Institute in Adelaide ....

Food, wine, discussions on Korean culture and ceremony was the order of the night last evening when the University of South Australia held the official opening ceremony of the 'King Sejong Korean Language Institute' in Adelaide.

There were a wide range of dignitaries in attendance, many of whom had flown in from around the country. They included Politicians and Korean Diplomats from Canberra, Korean Consulate staff from Melbourne and members of the Korean Cultural Centre from Sydney. There were also University of South Australia Professors and Board members of the Australia - Korea Foundation from various States in Australia.

The Korean Ambassador to Australia Mr Woo Kyoung-Ha

Mr Nigel Roth, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Uni SA and unknown guest

I had been invited to display my Hanji and it quickly received keen interest from those in attendance including the Koreans who had little idea there was someone in Australia who was doing one of their traditional Korean crafts. I was able to talk with some acquaintances I had made from the Korean Cultural Centre in Sydney and the Korean Consulate in Melbourne as well as many of the dignitaries who were very kind with their comments. The Korean ambassador to Australia, Mr Woo Kyoung-ha and his wife, showed great interest in the Hanji pieces on display and I was thrilled to receive an open invitation to the Korean ambassadors residence whenever I'm in Canberra.

I created this piece for the opening of the Language Institute.

'Earth, Fields and Sky'

Patchwork the fabric of Korean life representing their close connection to nature, learning and culture.

The tiger in Korean culture is regarded as a guardian that drives away evil spirits and brings good luck. The crane represents longevity and harmony whilst the butterflies symbolizes joy.

Wishing the Adelaide King Sejong Language Institute and its students good luck in their studies, longevity in their pursuit of knowledge and joy at learning a new language.

Another wonderful evening with some lovely Korean people.

Comments

Lotus symbol in Korean culture .....

In traditional Korean Hanji art you can see many different designs of plants, animals, letters and insects. I'm sure you've wondered what they all symbolise as they are repeated so often and in many different ways. In this post I just want to take a brief look at the lotus plant and what it symbolises for the Korean people. I've used this design on a few articles but I never really knew the full meaning of what it represented until I started doing some research for my book. Even though many of us aren't Korean we can still use these designs and in so doing, translate a deeper meaning to our articles. Here are a just a few of my favourites from the easiest to the more difficult to cut out. The lotus flower symbolises creation, birth, liveability and reproduction and therefore it's one of the most important symbols in both Korean culture a...

The Buddhist symbol, Hanji & Korean culture ....

When selecting designs for my Hanji pieces I tend to make stylistic choices as to what will look best on each piece but the Korean designs all have very deep symbolic meanings. None more than the Buddhist swastika (manja) design. ‘Manja’ (만, Man is “卍” and 만자, Manja literally means “letter Man”) is also called Srivatsalksana in Sanskrit. It is one of the thirty-two (32) marks of excellence of the Buddha and is said to exist on his hands, feet, hair and waist. For those of us in the West this is often confused with the German Nazi swastika symbol but in fact it's been around for about three thousand years. The swastika is an equilateral cross with arms bent at right angles and all in the same direction, usually to the right, or clockwise. It's a symbol of prosperity and good fortune and it originally represented the revolving sun, fire, or life. The word swastik...

Online Hanji paper store, in English .....

I'm really pleased to be able to share with you this website where you can order a variety of Hanji papers from Korea and it's all in English !!! The store is based in Daejon, Korea. HAMINBRIDGE ( Thehanji ) was established by Moonyang Park in 1983. It's a family owned 2nd generation business and they have a factory in Junju. They also have a factory in China where some of the paper is made. The website is at www. thehanji.com and it provides a selection of specialty Hanji paper (Korean paper) and products. I ordered some papers from them recently to see what it was like and they were extremely efficient in dealing with the order and it was here in the UAE within 5 days so I was really impressed. The prices were good and they even have some on special, the paper is beautiful and the ease of ordering was amazing. They do sell rolls of paper, traditional papers and lanterns but overall I did think the range...

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