Jeju Island,” The Blessed Isle,” and Phantasmal Destination Tourism

David J. Nemeth

Department of Geography and Planning

University of Toledo

Toledo, Ohio USA

David.nemeth@utoledo.edu

Abstract

Present day economic development planning on Jeju Island has many tools in its kit bag strives

to promote sustainability but it lacks the traditional pungsu tool of habitat alchemy -- the

geomancy compass. New generations of development planners and Jeju citizens have neglected

to study the wisdom and the use of the geomancy compass. Meanwhile, the productive habitat

ecology of the past has been replaced by an onerous and dangerous complicatedness in the

contemporary habitat sustainability on the island that is the outcome of reckless economic

growth ideology. My paper introduces Professor P. B. Singh’s conceptualizations of “habitat

alchemy” and “heritage ecology” in relation to the importance to geomancy in the sustainable

development planning for a “Living Earth.” In addition I introduce the opportunity for

development planners to adopt “reverential best practices” by observing and learning from

Nature’s Own Principles of Self-organization in Physical Space. Organized Jeju Island studies

can spearhead the discovery and dissemination of pungsu planning achievements in the past that

might prove to be viable alternatives to present-day development theory and planning on the

island. I next turn to complicatedness in the Jeju Island habitat generated by the current

promotion of short-sighted stratagems of mass tourism on the island. I offer as an alternative to

mass tourism and its accompanying complications the possibility of promoting “phantasmal

niche destination tourism” on Jeju Island; for example, by branding The Blessed Isle as an

authentic, mystical experience for tourists. This choice could provide a novel path to restoring

and preserving complexity and a sustainable habitat ecology on the island. This proposal falls

under the umbrella of an “enlightenment underdevelopment” mode of thinking; one that

mindfully moderates the excesses of an overzealous economic growth ideology that prevails

worldwide and one Jeju Island in the mass tourism development sector.

Keywords: Jeju Island studies; sustainable economic development planning; Professor Rana P.

B. Singh; habitat alchemy, geomancy, heritage ecology, mass tourism; phantasmal destination

niche tourism; enlightened underdevelopment

Introduction

Economic development planners on Jeju Island have many tools to assist them in their quest for

local sustainable economic growth, and most are machines and mechanical devices. They apply

these tools skillfully and strive to be sensitive to the needs of environmental protection and

promoting a sense of well-being among island inhabitants. Meanwhile the world is changing

rapidly.

Here is a tool that is not presently in their kit bag but could be: The geomancy compass. It was

once the essential environmental planning tool of pre-modern times throughout East Asia as well

as on Jeju Island.

Figure 1: An antique p’ungu compass from Jeju Island

The p’ungsu compass in traditional East Asia, and in Korea, was a comprehensive and

comprehendible cosmological model and a moral compass. Similar cosmological models

developed in India as reported in the many significant researches undertaken by Professor Rana

P. B. Singh, Professor of Cultural Geography and Heritage Studies at Banaras Hindu University.

Figure 2: Rana P.B. Singh, Professor of Cultural Geography and Heritage Studies

Professor Singh’s broad expertise includes comparing and contrasting the profound philosophical

and cultural foundations of landscape architecture in both traditional East Asia and South Asia

(for example, see Singh, 2013-forthcoming ). One of Professor Singh’s primary areas of

expertise is “habitat alchemy,” a focus that he and I have shared for some time.1

Professor Singh will be delivering the keynote address on that topic at an International

Symposium sponsored by the Asian Cultural Landscape Association (ACLA), next week at

Seoul National University. The tentative title of his presentation is “Meanings & Aesthetics in

Asian Cultural Landscapes.” I encourage anyone here who is interested in heritage ecology

studies as a major component of Jeju Island Studies and how the promotion and study of sacred

space and place issues might potentially influence the future of sustainable strategic “niche”

tourism planning and development on the Island, to attend his lecture.

When Professor Singh examines the sacred dimensions of “heritage ecology” in his researches,

he refers to “sacredscapes” which I interpret to mean “charged” or “empowered” cultural

landscapes as per this diagram (“The Tree of Living Earth”; see Singe 2013-forthcoming; image

originating in Devereux 1991: 40-41).

1 Professor Singh was instrumental in arranging my invitation to a “World Philosophers Meet” convened in Pune,

India, during November, 1996. Invited scholars, scientists and religious leaders from around the world participated. The wealthy sponsor of the event I think aspired to generate an alchemical reaction from all the brain-power converged “on-the-spot” in that sacred city in the hopes of triggering in World Peace. Perhaps the “Peace Island” designation for Jeju Island at its inception was similarly inspired by its perceived mystical and mysterious heritage ecology centering on Halla Mountain as a powerful axis mundi. Along these lines I focus in this paper on the concept of “phantasmal destination niche tourism” for Jeju Island that motivates pilgrimages to the Island and its sacred sites in all of their mystical manifestations; for example, the legendary site of Donnaeko Valley and its healing plunge pool located near Sogwipo Town. Although I am tempted to digress from Peace Island and sacred space into a condemnation of the notorious Navy base construction project at Gangjeong Village, I will not. Obviously, from the combined perspectives of alchemy and heritage ecology the massive construction project is profane. Also, it appears to be illegal: Jeju Island is a United Nations protected habitat zone and this construction project thrusts untold animal and plant species and historic, pristine seashores directly into Harm’s Way. It is a calamity.

Figure 3: “The Living Earth” diagram

Professor Singh’s concept of heritage ecology is much more profound and multifaceted than my

own, but it does emphasize the significance of geomancy (as a major branch of learning about

“sacredspace” and “Earth Mysteries”) that I propose has applications in sustainable habitat

planning (what Professor Singe terms reverential development planning), for example on Jeju

Island.

What I have learned from my geomancy (p’ungsu)-related observations and experiences on Jeju

Island that may be useful for development planners at this time involves aspects and personal

insights of a theoretical nature. These can be applied to a planning praxis that generates “best

practices” in order to guide the future development of economic planning on the island and, in

particular, where those economic drivers involve the implementation of sustainable tourism

planning.

Nature’s Principles of Self-organization in Physical Space

The study of geomancy traditions in the broadest sense of that term as it once was and

remains a viable practice found worldwide in Asian, African, and European agricultural

civilizations is not only intellectual enriching, but personally fascinating, stimulating, and

satisfying. I think all planners everywhere today should study geomancy. Professor Singh and I

have both focused our geomancy studies within the related contexts of “heritage ecology” and

“habitat alchemy” on the theories and practices of vastu in India, fengshui in China, fuusui in

Japan and pungsu in Korea. Jeju Island has its own localized and special variant of pungsu.

The East Asian geomancies (for example, vastu and pungsu) as practiced seem to be different but

actually have a lot in common. For example, on both sides of the Himalayas the theory prevails

the Heaven and Earth connect through a sacred peaks and life energies flow from Heaven to the

Earth. Earth, thus energized, is perceived a living organism, as the illustration (Figure 3 above)

intimates. In fengshui and pungsu the conduit between Heaven and Earth connects on earth at

mystical axes mundi (plural of axis mundi) where vital energies concentrate and can benefit

human habitations coinciding with “Heaven’s Pole” as detected here and there on the Earth

surface by highly educated pungsu experts:

Figure 4: How “things fall apart” by becoming less complex and more complicated.

The search the elusive location of a mystical axis mundi (called myongdang jali [auspicious

place] in Korean) through pungsu practices initiates in a complex (chaotic) Natural setting at the

time of human settlement. The ideal situation is the founding of an ideal subsistence agricultural

setting at the axis mundi where humans make a deliberate choice to live in harmony with Nature

by strictly mimicking what I will identify here as Nature’s own principles of self-organization in

physical space (Nemeth, 1993:91). These include:

Centrality

Connectivity

Hierarchy

Symmetry (Proportion)

Periodicity

Similarity at Different Scale

Completeness

I have observed through my own Jeju Island pungsu studies that Nature operating at the scale of

the island deploys Nature’s Self-organizing Principles in Physical Space in ways accessible to

humans and can be applied to sustainable habitat planning. Inhabitants of a mature peasant

landscape in Korea were able to follow Nature’s Principles and achieve an ideal habitat alchemy

with such precision and satisfactions that they were able observe their surrounding cultural

landscape from any vantage point and conclude poetically:

I climb the high ridge and view the Four Quarters.

Blue Dragon to the east, White Tiger to the west,

Somber Warrior to the north, Vermillion Bird to the south.

All perfect and complete as a painted scroll. (Pak In-no [1561-1643], cited in Lee, 1963:257)

Which humans today can perhaps be sensitized to similarly appreciate the outcome of Nature’s

perfect planning model and strive to mimic that model? I say those first who are not hopelessly

alienated from Nature. Professor Singe suggests: “Certainly there exists some extrasensory

perception element in human sensitivities.” I agree. Perhaps it remains latent in all of us? And so

propose that with training and practice humans (for example, educable economic development

planners) can become increasingly sensitized to “reading” the pulse of the “Living Earth” and

embracing reverential heritage development planning.

Knowledge -- at minimum an appreciation -- of geomancy (pungsu) theories and practices is

teachable. Figure 3 above suggests how geomancy can inform and remind Jeju Island economic

development planners and tradition-minded citizens how cultural properties are related to

astronomy and how this knowledge can profoundly broaden their own intellectual horizons and

guide them towards refining their best practices at work and at home to be in tune with Nature

(Singh, 2013-forthcoming). Through pungsu education they can thereby empower themselves to

intuitively grasp Nature’s own planning model and apply that model towards achieving a

healthy, productive, habitat ecology.

Figure 5: A healthy, productive complexity (vitality)

Without an economic planning and development model that gives serious consideration to the

cosmic ordering according to Nature’s Principles of Self-Organization in Physical Space, the

future for island habitat seems dismal. Humans and other living creatures must not be

increasingly subjected to the whims and stratagems of an uninformed and short-sighted

economic planning model; one that continues along its risky path of deliberate alienation from

Nature and continues to trend away from a productive complexity and instead toward a sterile

complicatedness:

Figure 6: an unproductive, unhealthy, sterile complicatedness (entropy)

The “Grounding of the Cosmic Order” on Jeju Island

We can claim with confidence I think that the ”grounding” of the complex cosmic order

on Earth through the long repetition of pungsu practices in strict accordance with Nature’s Self-

organizing Principles in Physical Space in Korea was successfully achieved, and reached its

heyday of agriculture productivity2 and ecological harmonies under Neo-Confucian auspices, by

the mid Yi-dynasty (circa 17th

century). Then things got complicated.

2 The term “productivity” used here in the subsistence agricultural context that characterizes human habitat as

part of an ideal ecological dynamic equilibrium. This is different from the “productivity” in the machine age and manufacturing context that characterizes successful economic growth through the attainment of ideal Fordist “assembly line” efficiencies.

Figure 7: A mature peasant landscape becomes complicated.

You are thinking perhaps that if complicatedness in recent Korean history has led to the “Korean

Miracle” and the reality that the Republic of South Korea is now the 13th

strongest economy in

the world -- then complicatedness is great! Professor Singh I think, and I for certain, would

respectfully disagree with that conclusion. Instead, I observe that the world, Korea, and Jeju

Island, due to the deleterious impact of a long-term and deeply entrenched economic growth

ideology is now so alienated from Nature that much of humanity is blind to its rapid descent and

downward spiral towards sterility. Confucius observed that “Behind every success story is a

great crime.” Greed is not good.

Figure 8: A mature peasant landscape under siege by runaway

economic growth ideology becomes complicated.

I fear that the present and growing stampede of humanity in pursuit of the almighty dollar around

the world, in Korea and on Jeju Island, is the “great crime” behind the “success story” of

economic growth that has led to avoidable complications like perpetual war, violence in the

streets, the decline of family values, neglect of tradition and the elderly, environmental

degradations (including catastrophic anthropogenic global warming) -- and the absurd criminal

construction of a massive navy base in a pristine ecological setting on Jeju Island -- all due

primarily to humanity’s rapid alienation from Nature resulting in its ignorance of habitat

alchemy, heritage ecology, and the significance of Nature’s Principles of Self-organization in

Physical Space. This trend is still reversible, at least locally.

A Jeju Island Studies program that is attuned to Nature’s Principles and the Cosmic Order has

the potential be a significant contributor to a reversal of this self-destructive trend from vitality

into entropy. The potential contributions can be realized through the informed agencies of so

many different yet related aspects of Jeju Island sustainable development planning (urban

planning, rural planning, economic planning, recreational planning, environmental planning,

transportation planning, agricultural/fisheries planning, education planning, … to name only a

few).

My presentation here, mainly due to time constraints, focuses only on one significant aspect of

Jeju Island development planning; the one that seems the most appropriate and urgent to address

at this time. That one is tourism planning.

The “Golden Hoard” or the “Magic Purse”?

I first want to remark on what I observe to be the present unsustainable path of mass

tourism for Jeju Island, and then conclude my presentation with a proposal to promote what I

believe to be the sustainable path of “phantasmal niche destination tourism” for Jejudo into the

future. Here is the path we would travel if I was the “King of Development Planners” on Jeju

Island.

Figure 9: A mature peasant landscape due to “enlightened underdevelopment” ideology is preserved.

Figure 9 is the outcome what I would seek to achieve through a deliberate “enlightented

underdevelopment” economic development plan for Jeju Island. It is a plan that mitigates a

mindless economic growth ideology by giving mindful attention to the virtue of moderation in

economic development planning. Choosing moderation, it think, offers an alternative to any

further descent in complicatedness on the island. Mindful moderation is in the spirit of achieving

habitat alchemy and heritage ecology on the island.3

Before I proceed, let me ask you a simple question: If you were treading a dangerous path into a

contingent and unpredictable future would you rather carry with you a magic purse? Or a hoard

of gold?

3 Complicatedness due to mass tourism has seriously threatened the unique and complex habitat ecology of

Yosemite National Park (Onishi, 2013). National Parks Recreational Planners are now opting for mindful

development alternatives that map an “enlightened underdevelopment” path into the future that is paved with

moderation.

Figure 10: The “magic purse” of a long-term phantasmal niche tourism planning strategy

Figure 11: The “golden hoard” of a short-term mass tourism planning stratagem

Let me simply contrast here the wisdom of choosing the “magic purse” of a short-term niche

tourism planning strategy in contrast to the folly of choosing the “golden hoard” of a short-term

mass tourism planning stratagem. I think you would want to maintain a nimble, athletic, and

flexible survival capability in the face of a present and future contingent world full of

unpredictable economic and environmental unknowns.

Phantasmal Niche Destination Tourism as the “Magic Purse.”

Did you know that there is a fabulously successful tourism destination in Yunnan

Province in China named “Shangri-La? Outsider visits to the region increased dramatically from

43,000 visitors in 1995 to over one million visitors in 2003, and have since escalated. The

mystical, magical storybook tale of Shangri-La that appeals and attracts tourists from around the

world begins originally a1933 adventure book titled Lost Horizons written by James Hilton, and

subsequently adapted into a Hollywood film shown around the world.

How a fantastic place invented in the imagination of one author becomes a success story in niche

destination tourism demonstrates the victory of a successful tourism marketing strategy devised

by a team of provincial economic development planners. Because the niche market for tourism

centers on a fantastic and “legendary” place, it is called “phantasmal” niche destination tourism

(Gao, 2011; Gao et al, 2012).

This example demonstrates how choosing the path of niche marketing instead of mass marketing

can be successfully achieved in isolated, rural areas with limited agricultural potential. Many

Chinese who are now flooding Jeju Island no doubt prefer the Jeju Island phantasmal landscape

as their tourist destination to the Shangri-La alternative because they consider it a more

“authentic” phantasmal experience than the visit to Yunnan, which is totally faked, though

marketed as the “authentic” Shangri-La.

I have no hard data at hand today on the extent to which and the reasons Chinese choose Jejudo

as their preferred phantasmal tourist destination. My best guess is that if informed Jeju Island

economic developers promoted phantasmal destination tourism on the island based on its

authentic and validated phantasmal niche assets – the uniqueness of its pungsu lore centering on

Halla Mountain as a powerful axis mundi and so on – that complexity would begin to return to

the island in the place of complicatedness. This strategic shift in economic development

priorities may mean that the teddy bear museums, sex parks and such will be deliberately

planned away to better fit the integrity of the island’s phantasmal destination niche tourism

identity. Such postmodern enterprises oddly juxtaposed to sacred space seem anyway marginal

along the path toward promoting pride of islanders eager to return to a productive, harmonious,

Natural complexity and respect for heritage ecology on their island.

In sum, phantasmal niche destination tourism as long-term economic development strategy

strikes me as a viable, sustainable alternative “magic purse” for Jeju Island in contrast to what

appears to be an existing short-term “mass tourism” planning stratagem that ignores the wisdom

of space “prohibiting so much and permitting so little” which is requisite knowledge in order to

achieve a sustainable habitat ecology by mimicking the cosmic plan of Nature’s Self-organizing

Principles in Physical Space.

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