TOUGH JOURNEY IN VISITING ANCESTORS

[Anchor Lead]

With Chuseok only a week away, people whose hometown was flooded by due to a nearby dam construction once again go on a difficult journey to visit their ancestors’ graves. This trip may be rough and tiring, but it is still a cherished occasion for relatives to get together and remember their ancestors and lost hometown.

[Pkg]

​These people load the boat with weed whackers and rakes. To ensure plenty of manpower, the brothers and nephews have been fully vaccinated. Their ancestors’ graves are located right in the middle of Daecheongho Lake. Their village was completely submerged when a dam was built nearby some 40 years ago. Now their ancestral graves can be accessed only by boat.

[Soundbite] Jeong Jin-baek(Daejeon Resident) : "My ancestors’ graves are located in the area flooded by Daecheong Dam."

After a 10 minute boat ride, they revisit their hometown. They go through dense vegetation before arriving at the grave site overgrown with weeds. They place offerings of wine and rice cake in front of the graves. They apologize for infrequent visits by cutting down weeds. But they are not sure how long their children, who didn’t experience the floods, would carry on this duty.

[Soundbite] Jeong Sam-yeong(Daejeon Resident) : "I don’t know how long we can keep doing this because we’re getting old. I wish our descendents would take over, but I’m not sure if they would later on."

It’s been roughly 40 years since the village was flooded by the construction of Daecheong Dam.Despite sailing across the lake and climbing steep hills to visit their ancestors, the displaced villagers still find solace in the fact that they can still visit their hometown.