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Korea (5) Food

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  Salty, sweet, spicy, hot, well the Korean food has it all. Many tourists coming to Korea tasting the food for the first time say the food is Hot, red and lots of garlic! The red tone in the food is from the red pepper. Red pepper is a very common ingredience in Korean cuisine but it is not originated from Korea. It was the Portuguese who took it to China and Korea during the 1500 and 1600 and it is in Korea to stay! The garlic though is much older and no one really knows why the Koreans eat that much garlic. The Japanese usually call the Koreans “garlic eater”, they use that name in disrespect, but I personally salute the Koreans using that much garlic. A typical Korean meal contains three main ingredience, Rice (pap), soup (guk) and Kimchi. Everything else you see at the table is named Panchan, side dishes, and they are placed in small nice plates all over the table. The more of these panchan you get, the better it is. Kimchi, what’s they? Well it is perhaps the most typical Kor...
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Korea (4) The three kingdoms

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  Around 400 BC different tribes came together in the north part of the peninsula and created the kingdom named “Choson”. Choson is a Chinese word that means “The land of the morning calm” Around 200 years after this Choson was divided into three kingdoms. It was Koguryo in the north, Silla in the southeast and Paeche in the southwest. China was influencing them all and because of this powerful influence it was hard to develop in its own way. Koguryo tried to break free from China and war broke out. They won against China in the year 313, but pretty soon China took over again. During these wars against Koguryo and China, Paeche had the possibility to strengthen just as Silla had. Buddhism came from China to Koguryo in the year 372 and in the year 384 Buddhism came to Paeche. In order for Buddhism to reach the Kingdom of Silla it took almost 150 years more. In the year 528 Buddhism came to Silla and the three kingdoms now developed in to strong and powerful kingdoms. They competed a...
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South Korea ( Korea) 3

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  There are always legends and myths in all cultures and so even in Korea. The story of Tan-gun is something every Korean seams to know. If you have never heard of this Tan-gun don’t worry. To be very honest I did not hear about this before I started to get more interested in the history of Korea, and some things have I already forgot about, since I last wrote it down, and now reading it through I get reminded. Once upon a time there was a king named Hwang-ung. He was the son of the heavenly God. Hwang-ung wanted to help the people on earth and asked his father for advice and together with 3000 helpers he step down on earth on the mountain of “Taebeack”. He renamed himself as Chonwang, “God of Heaven”, and established a city named Shin-si. He founded 3 leaders who were responsible for the wind, rain and the clouds. He thought the people different professions and even thought the people what was good and evil. He created laws and made sure that people lived by them. In these days th...
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South Korea 2

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  Korea has four distinct seasons. During summer which starts in the beginning of  June to the end of September, winds from the Pacific Ocean is sweeping in,  making the air hot and very humid. Summer is the rainy season in Korea and  Korea get the most of the rain during this period. This is not the best time to visit  Korea. Most of the time, people are indoors enjoying the cool air-condition. Winter in Korea is cold. Winds from Siberia are affecting the peninsula and it is not rare that the capital Seoul gets lots of snow. During winter it is very sunny compared to northern Europe, and the white snow is beautiful on the rooftops at the old palaces around the cities. During my time in Korea I have never experienced real winter. In 2018, my son went to visit his grandmother and grandfather and he catched a cold. Very cold outside and strangely even indoors. Animal life A lot of the big animals have unfortunately disappeared from Korea because of all the felling...
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Good news Sweden

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I have heard it from the media, read it in newspapers that Sweden is a secular nation, that Christianity is on decline in Sweden and that many churches, more or less, are empty. Well, it is true in one way but false in another. The nation is perhaps secular but not the people. Many Swedish Lutheran churches are empty but some are not.   Like, St Clara church in Stockholm that is doing so much for the homeless and the outcast. The church is full with needy people, celebrating together.   During winter, people are  sleeping and eating there, so the church serves as a shelter.   Another church in Malmo city was in great need of restoration, too expensive they said, so instead of fixing it, they built a new much smaller church. For years, that was fine but now that church is too small. A whole new generation is now coming to church with small children etc., so now they are in desperate need of renovating that old and bigger church.     In a ...
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South Korea 1

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  SOUTH KOREA Many people know something about South Korea. It can be around Its food, K-pop, make-up, films and series, the nobel prize winner in literature Han kang, or perhaps the last mess within the parliament. But I would like to show you more about this rather tiny country in Asia. I wrote down for many years ago my thoughts and my knowing of Korea's history and culture, but it's just been there in a file and nothing happened to it. I do not say that I know everything, and I am not a resident of South Korea, but I have been there some times and my wife is from Korea. So Hopefully on a weekly basis I will be able to write down something from this old country, but young democracy in the far east. What is also a bit interesting is that to build bridges is necessary to reach people, but South Korea's northern neighbor has tear down them all. Korea, as I see it.   What do I really know about Korea? How would I best describe “The land of the morning calm”?   I ha...
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God opens doors 2

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An aquentence said one morning that he is not an atheist more than a agnostic, but more and more he he is thankful for what Christians has done to this nation and to the western world.  He said he is aware that a lot to be thankful for is for what the Christians has done. He then told me a story that he thought was so emotional and I will recite it for you. Perhaps you heard it as well. "There’s a story of how the Cherokee would perform a right of passage for all boys before they were considered men.  To become a man, the boy would be led into the woods at night. His father would sit him on a stump, blindfold Him and then leave him. He was told that he had to sit there all night, but he couldn’t make a sound. When he saw the sun rays through the blindfold, he could take it off and find his way back to camp. It was tough to sit there silently. With their eyes covered, their sense of hearing was enhanced. They heard ever twig break as an animal stepped on it. They could hear th...
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