Gaisi village in North Gyeongsang Province is designated as National Folklore Cultural Heritage

Gaisi village in Yeongdeok, North Gyeongsang Province, a well-known village of the noble class, was designated as a National Folklore Cultural Heritage on Monday.

The village is the birthplace of Mogeun Yi Saek, a great scholar of the end of the Goryeo Dynasty and the Yeongyang Nam clan settled in the village around the 1630s under the King Injo of the Joseon Dynasty.

The village has kept its history well with over 40 traditional houses. The so-called “wing houses,” which have a “ttuljip” with a protruding “sarangchae,” comprise the most. They were mostly resided by the upper class in Andong. Ttuljip refers to a box-shaped house like Korean letter "ㅁ" with anchae, sarangchae, and busokchae – rooms with different purposes – connected with each other. About 70 percent of all ttuljips in South Korea are concentrated in the norther region of North Gyeongsang Province.

According to the Cultural Heritage Administration, ttuljips in Gaisi village were introduced by the Yeongyang Nam clan in the 17th century and spread through marriages, moving about from parents, and school ties. “Ttuljips in Gaisi village are important data to understand the spread of the architectural culture and human exchanges from Andong to Yeongdeok across the Taebaek Mountains.


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