by Cin Woo Lee
Seowons were the dominant educational institutions of Korea's final dynasty -- the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897). Privately owned, exclusively male, and Confucian, these elite boarding schools of yesteryear were the gathering place of the top budding intellects in the Hermit Kingdom.
With such a high concentration of the nation's cleverest minds, seowons became very powerful, with its aristocratic members enjoying privileges like tax breaks. It was a recipe for corruption, and seowons became a source of political cliques and party squabbles.
During the resign of King Gojong, the regent Heungsun Daewonkoon issued a decree that abolished hundreds of seowons, excepting the few that were officially recognized by the king.
Today they are all relics.
But if that sounds sad, there's a bright side. A whopping 637 seowons are still standing today, and the Korean media recently made much of the fact that nine of the 637 were included on UNESCO's tentative list of potential World Heritage sites earlier this month. The nine seowons may be relics, but at least they'll be relevant relics.
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Source: http://rss.cnngo.com/~r/cnngo/~3/Y2xWnFapPEk/koreas-latest-unesco-candidates-342289
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