As you walk the grounds of Jongmyo Shrine, look down at the stone pathways. You will see they are divided into three lanes. The king walked on the right. The crown prince walked on the left. The slightly higher center lane was left completely empty. That path is strictly for the spirits of the dead. Even today, you are asked not to step on it.
Jongmyo is the royal shrine of the Joseon Dynasty. It was built to hold the spirit tablets of Korea’s deceased kings and queens. Because it is a place for the dead, the design is deliberately simple. The buildings are made of natural wood, painted in muted reds and black.
The main hall here is one of the longest wooden buildings in the world. It stretches for more than a hundred meters in a single line. It grew this long for a simple reason. Every time a king died, builders added a new room to the side of the hall to house his tablet.
The grounds around the shrine are heavily wooded. The trees block out the noise of Seoul, leaving a quiet space for the ancestors to rest.
