Have you ever thought about
what is above the blue sky and white clouds?
Long, long ago,
a race of people lived in heaven.
The King in heaven Hwan-in ruled over them,
and the people are happy and peaceful.
Hwan-in, the God of Heaven, had a son named Hwan-ung.
As he looked down at the world under his feet,
he thought that
the mountains looked so green
and the rivers were so clear.
"I wish I could live with the people on that beautiful land…"
Understanding his son’s heart, Hwan-in allowed his son to leave for the world below.
"I will give you three cheonbuins. You can bring them to earth to bring good fortune for the people."
The door of heaven then opened wide, and Hwan-ung came down to earth.
The gods controlling the wind, rain, and clouds, and three thousand attendants followed him.
Hwan-ung made an altar under a sacred tree on Taebaek Mountain.
Then, for the people on the land,
he sorted out right from wrong, healed diseases,
and did about three hundred and sixty different acts of good.
The people on the land
planted seeds and harvested grains.
The god of wind helped with wind, the god of clouds helped with clouds,
and the god of rain helped with rain.
As time went by, the land became a good place to live.
More and more people gathered, and the town grew bigger and bigger.
One day, a bear and a tiger came to Hwan-ung.
“Dear Hwan-ung, we want to become human beings and live happily too.
Please, grant our wishes.”
Hwan-ung gave them a handful of wormwood and twenty pieces of garlic, and told them,
“Eat these, do not see any sunlight for one hundred days, and you will be humans.”
The bear and the tiger entered into a dark cave
with absolutely no sunshine to live only with the bitter wormwood and smelly garlic.
After a few days,
the tiger could not stand it anymore and ran out of the cave.
“Yuck! I would rather live as a tiger than become a human with these plants!”
However, the bear endured,
and finally became a beautiful woman in twenty one days.
She was Ung-nyeo, the Bear-Woman.
Ung-nyeo, now a woman, had one more wish:
she wanted to have a baby.
Everyday, she prayed under a birch tree.
“Please, please, let me have a baby.”
Hwan-ung pitied her and took her as his wife.
After nine months, Ung-nyeo gave birth.
“Eungae, eungae! Waa waa!”
Even at a glance, one could see it was a healthy boy.
“Ha ha, what a strong crying sound!
You will rule over the world in the future!”
With his great joy, Hwan-ung named the baby Dan-Gun.
Dan-Gun grew well with the great love of his father Hwan-ung and his mother Ung-nyeo.
He grew as a young man with a gentle mind, thoughtful wisdom, and powerful strength.
The adult Dan-Gun ruled over people just as well as his father, Hwan-ung, did.
People believed and followed Dan-Gun.
“Dan-Gun was born between the heaven and the earth.
Such a great man must become our king!”
Leading his people, Dan-Gun, now a king, left the land of his father, Hwan-ung.
He built a nation as a great place for people to live and grow.
This place was called Gojoseon.
That was the first nation on this land, the Korean peninsula.
King Dan-Gun ruled Gojoseon for as long as 1,500 years!
Gojoseon became a great and strong nation with vast land.