Rice Landscape Ethnography

Research in process… to be updated.

Farmers’ Ecological Knowledge

(Preliminary Fieldwork at Gosung, July 2023)

After I wrote about Gosung and its agricultural heritage, Dumbung (traditional water irrigation system) in the essay <Rice, Ritual, Spirits>, I visited Gosung and had a meeting with the Gosung Agriculture Technology Center and received contacts of the Dumbung conservation group.

Ecological Traditional Agricultural Heritage, Dumbung

(Fieldwork in June 2025)

After participating in the Tidal Flat Ecology Workshop for Families by Gosung Ecology Center (http://www.gsvulture.kr/main), the ecology guide introduced me to a Dumbung ecology guide, JongYeol Kim. Later, I had an interview with him at his farm next to three Dumbungs, where he shared his memories and knowledge about traditional rice agriculture and dumbung. He also mentioned problems of heritage conservation, where the municipality’s repair of the old dumbung caused severe damage instead due to a lack of understanding of dumbung. Our ancestors built dumbungs by piling up stones so that underground water could flow in and out and be filtered naturally, much like constant breathing. However, the construction filled the old dumbung with cement, so the contained water couldn’t move and become polluted, and it no longer functions as a water storage facility.

The next day, I visited the Hawon Village Community Center, where all-female farmers gathered for a special event. I had a brief conversation with them, then had a longer discussion with the village headman at the pavilion next to the community center, where he shared his memories of traditional rice agriculture and showed me around another dumbung in the area.