Korea Saemaul Undong Center (KSC) held a tree planting event for making Asadal Sharing Fruit Orchard on April 25 at the garden in Korea Saemaul Undong Academy.

The orchard will be utilized as the place where nature and humans can harmoniously coexist and people who are making a community of life gather. Participants who attended the event inclding executives of KSC and Saemaul leaders planted 300 fruit trees including apple, pear, peach, and plum.

President Chung, Sung Heon of KSC said “As a part of Saemaul Undong, we gather now to make &39Asadal Sharing Fruit Orchard&39 in the garden of Korea Saemaul Undong Academy where people live in harmony with nature. Let us cultivate the orchard as an atmosphere of communication so that people who cherish the value of life in a community of life, peace, and respect share theirs with each other.”

* Asadal (Source : Wikipedia)

In Korean mythology and history, Asadal was the mythical capital city of kingdom of Gojoseon(meaning Older Joseon), the first ever Korean kingdom and notably founded by the legendary god-king Dan&39gun. It is though that Asadal was located in Manchuria, northeastern Hwanghae Province in North Korea, or Pyongyang Province - that is, either the legendary kingdom in situ within the province of Pyongyang, not referring to the modern day capital of North Korea ?  Pyongyang.

Word for word, Asadal can be broken up as asa and dal. Asa may be cognate with a common Korean word for morning. Dal may be the reslut of reading Chinese characters in the Korean way, and the original Chinese pronunciation at the time Asadal was recorded in ancient historical texts could have been Da, a transcription of the Korean word sdah or ddang meaning land. If such is the case, Asadal would mean Morning Land. However, if dal is used much like the Goguryeo city name suffix -dal used for mountains and cities founded on plateaus/mountains, then Asadal means Morning Mountain.