A graphic illustration of the Korean Bell Garden

By Chung Ah-young

Every May, a cherry blossom festival opens in Washington, D.C., marking one of the biggest outdoor events to celebrate spring and Japanese culture.

But from next year, Korean culture will be added to the diversity in the area with the creation of the 4.5-acre Korean Bell Garden at the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens.

The garden is now under construction by the Korean American Culture Committee

Jeung-hwa Yi, president of the Korean American Culture Committee (KACC), holds up a photograph of the Korean Bell Garden that will open in Washington, D.C. in May next year, during an interview with The Korea Times, Wednesday in Seoul. / Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han

(KACC) and will open in May next year. It will have a traditional Korean pavilion with a sloping roof and a bronze bell inside, surrounded by pine trees, lotuses and Korea’s national flower, the rose of Sharon, over the hillside in Fairfax County.

“It will be the first of its kind in the United States holding Korean cultural identity,” Jeung-hwa Yi, 55, president of the committee, said in an interview with The Korea Times.

She said that there has been no Korean symbol although some 250,000 Korean-Americans live in the Washington, D.C. area, most in northern Virginia.

The KACC was launched in 2005 to build the Korean garden to reach out to the American community and educate second-generation children about Korean heritage and culture.

The project was initiated in 2003, in time for the 100th anniversary of Korean immigration to the U.S., to bring awareness to the Korean identity in American society and has pushed ahead with the detailed plan since 2005.

“The Chinese community has its own symbolic gate in the area and the Japanese community has its own cherry blossom festival every year. Why not the Korean community? The Washington area greatly influences American society. So it’s the perfect place for a symbolic Korean place that gives a ripple effect to the American mainstream,” said Yi.

The bell is one of the Korea’s traditional icons, which was used in ancient times to mark places of significance in a village or a temple and town square. There is a large Korean bell in a park in San Pedro, Calif., but not on the same scale as the new garden in the Washington, D.C. area.

Yi said that the committee intends the project, in which Korean-Americans make the garden on the regional soil through fundraising and donations to become a part of the efforts to seek harmony within diverse regional communities.

“This project cannot be made through the power of one person. Korean-Americans are voluntarily making concerted efforts to create the Korean garden in the area. The process is quite touching and inspiring. Most of the costs have been covered by fundraising from the community. I am really impressed by their devotion and cooperation to the community,” she said.

The Northern Virginia Park Authority Board approved the plan for the project and will manage the garden after the construction with an endowment from the KACC worth $200,000.

The committee has raised some $450,000 from some 200 donors for the construction of the bell and its pavilion in the first phase of the project and is now raising a second round of funding for the remaining landscaping.

The garden will include the landmark pavilion built by roofing tile masters Lee Geun-bok and Kim Hak-young and master carpenter Lee Gwang-bok and the bell will be cast by Won Gwang-sik with a Korean alphabet park, and turtle-ship park and totem poles, which are to be made using traditional methods.

The whole concept of the garden will be designed by Y. David Chung, professor of the University of Michigan and the Hunt Laudi Studio, is influenced by the 10 traditional symbols of longevity, which are patterned on the bell and decorated on the garden as a whole.

The committee wants to use the garden for Korean cultural events to celebrate national days such as the Liberation Day and the March 1 Movement and hold Korean culture day events in May to introduce Korean culture, from food to traditional costumes at the site.

“Not only Korean Americans but also other people like the place. They are ready to enjoy Korean culture,” said Yi. Also, the garden can host traditional Korean wedding ceremonies in the beautifully adorned garden.

“In the area, minority power is quite big. We hope the garden will be meaningful for Korean-Americans and serve for harmony and peace in American society,” she said.

The committee is a non-profit and non-partisan organization to solely build the Korean garden in the area and seeks harmony with diverse people in American society.

Yi immigrated to the county in 1973. She worked as vice president in the Virginia branch of AXA, a France-based securities and investment service for 10 years from 2000 and currently works as a retirement planning specialist of Millennium Wealth Management Group LLC and chairperson of the National Institute of Family Counseling, formerly the Korean American Family Counseling Center.

chungay@koreatimes.co.kr