Heo Jae-geun, Jejojang(Bamboo Salt Making)This photo shows Heo Jae-geun, Jejojang(Bamboo Salt Making), whp has been transmitted based on Buan County.
Heo Jae-geun, Jejojang(Bamboo Salt Making)This photo shows Heo Jae-geun, Jejojang(Bamboo Salt Making), who was designated as Jeollabuk-do Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 23.
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Location439, Gyehwa-ro Gyehwa-myeon, Buan-gun, Jeollabuk-do
- CategoryCultural Heritage / Intangible Cultural Heritage
- Korean죽염제조장
- Chinese竹鹽製造匠
- FieldLifestyle & Folklore / Folklore
- Contents TypeConceptual Terminology / Conceptual Terminology (General)
- Definition
- The holder of Bamboo Salt making skills handed down in Buan-gun, Jeollabuk-do.
- Summary
- To make bamboo salt, put natural salt in a bamboo tube, close the tube with red clay, and fire it with pine firewood at a temperature higher than 1,500 °C. Repeat the process of firing nine times. In the process of firing, toxicity and impurities disappear. The salt becomes perfect for your health through the combination of effective ingredients of bamboo and red clay. Bamboo salt is made only in South Korea. Bamboo salt is said to suppress the creation of inflammation-causing substance by more than half and have very good in anti-allergic effects.
It is not known when bamboo salt was first made. The know-how about the making of bamboo salt was started by Monk Jinpyo at Gaeamsa Temple in Buan during the reign of King Gyeongdeok of Silla for the health of those at the temple. It came be known to the public through Kim Il-hun (penname: Insan) in the 1980. The know-how, which had been handed down quietly at Gaeamsa, was systematized by Monk Hyosan (secular name: Heo Jae-geun) in the 1960s. It was designated as Jeollabuk-do Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 23 in October 8, 1999. Monk Hyosan was designated as the holder of bamboo salt making skills.
- Heo Jae-geun (Monk Hyosan)
- Heo Jae-geun was born in Songgok Village, Haipseok-ri, Boan-myeon, Buan-gun, Jeollabuk-do in 1928. He became a monk at the age of 11 and started the work of making firewood with pine knots to fire salt at Gaeamsa. He learned how to make bamboo salt from Monk Hyeoneung and improved it through research. There is a story handed down about the efficacy of bamboo salt made by Heo Jae-geun. During the Korean War, he was staying at Baegyangsa Temple in Jangseong-gun, Jeollanam-do. A Buddhist follower paid a visit to him and asked for advice about his mother’s internal illness. Heo told him about bamboo salt. Seven or eight years later, he came to visit and told the monk that his mother recovered completely thanks to bamboo salt. In 1968, Heo was at Gaeamsa Temple and one of his relatives got stomach cancer. Heo made pills made with bamboo salt mixed with beans for the relative and he was cured of the cancer completely after using the pills.
Heo Jae-geun served as Chief Monk at Silsangsa Temple in Namwon and Gaeamsa Temple in Buan from 1958 until 1992. In 1992, he left Gaeamsa and started training those interested in the production of bamboo salt at a facility in Gyehwa-ri, Gyehwa-myeon in Buan-gun. In 2002, he launched the Korea Purple Bamboo Salt Research Society and started relevant research in full swing. The skill of production of bamboo salt he developed is being handed down by Gaeam Bamboo Salt Food Co., Ltd. in Buan and Sambo Salt Food Co., Ltd. in Gochang.
- Heo Jae-geun’s Method of Bamboo Salt Production
- The method of bamboo salt production orally explained by Heo Jae-geun, the holder of Bamboo Salt making skills, is as follows: ① Cut a species of thick-stemmed bamboo (phyllostachys reticulate) grown in sea wind for 3 to 5 years to a give length. ② Stuff purple salt produced at the West Coast into a bamboo tube. Take care lest salt be broken into pieces. ③ Set up the bamboo tubes stuffed with salt in a kiln and fire the kiln at a temperature of 850 – 1200 ℃ for eight hours, using pine firewood only. ④ Wait for the kiln to cool down for eight hours and take out the bamboo salt lumps. ⑤ Get rid of impurities and pulverize the lumps. ⑥ Sprinkle the water obtained from red clay spring on the salt powder. Be careful not to let the powder fly in the air. Stuff the salt powder into a bamboo tube. ⑦ Repeat the process stated in the foregoing ③ through ⑥ eight times. ⑧ Put the bamboo salt that has gone through the foregoing process into a specially made kiln and fire it at a temperature of 1500 ℃. Then, the bamboo salt flow down like lava, hardens, and turns into purple bamboo salt stones. ⑨ Pulverize the purple bamboo salt stone.
- See Also