The royal ancestral shrine of Jongmyo is a simple but serene wooden complex housing spirit tablets of kings and queens of Joseon dynasty who ruled Korea for more than 500 years in the city center of Seoul. The complex is quite unique in East Asia where normally the spirit tablets are kept in a small shrine in the house or palace in case of royalties, but Jongmyo was built apart from the palace which makes it different from other royal Confucius shrines in China. However, Jongmyo is not an active shrine and most of the times are closed making it just big boring buildings in the forest-liked park with few visitors, a really contrast to lively Japanese royal shrines in Tokyo or Kyoto.

The royal ceremony in Jongmyo called Jongmyo Daeje, a performance of ritual, music and dance, is considered the only existing royal Confucius ceremony that still practicing in modern time recognized by UNESCO as world intangible cultural asset, so Jongmyo is few places on earth holding two statuses from UNESCO world heritage program.

In 2008, I chose to visit Jongmyo on the first Sunday of May, the only time of the year when Jongmyo is backed to its glory by the performance of Jongmyo Daeje. The whole park is really crowded with thousands of spectators and lots of people dressed in ancient Korean ceremonial robes, a real feast of sight. I decided to see the morning ceremony at Yeongnyeongjeon Shrine since it was impossible to find a seat in the already full Jeongjeon Shrine where the afternoon ceremony would take place. The ceremony was nice with strange sound of ancient musical instruments and many graceful ritual movements from dancers and because of the ceremony, all gates of the shrine were opened providing a rare chance to peek the spirit tablets inside the building.

However, I was not impressed Jongmyo at all since the whole area was quite chaotic with lots of noisy spectators and paparazzi-liked photographers in every corner of the shrine, the organizing system need to be set up, I even think it could be nicer to visit this place when there is no ceremony at all.