Abstract
A Korean house consists of the puok (earthen-floored room), maru (wooden-floored room) and ondorpang (heated room). In this essay I discuss the internal nature of a Korean dwelleing by focusing on the ondor pang, particularly anpang, which can be regarded as the center of Korean daily life. Anpang occupied the innermost space in a Korean dwelling. It establishes a clear contrast with maru both in its physical expression and in the type of house gods enshrined. The hierarchical order of space within an anpang is determined by the oven, as it is articulated into are (upper seat) and wi (lower seat) based on the distance from the oven. Many rituals are conducted with the oven as the focal point. Closely linked with fire, these rituals function to purify the dwelling, to effectuate its internal order and to revive the communal unity of the people, especially family members, associated with that particular dwelling. The building of an oven materializes a "purified internal space" but this internal order is constantly threatened by external factors. In ancient time Korean people believed that illness is caused by the food carried into a house from outside or by "moving earth" during construction and that the god of the oven (jowang) inflicts punishment upon them for committing such undesirable acts. An oven, through its connection with the stability of the earth, realizes the protective and internal nature of a Korean dwelling. However, in. order to build an oven one must commit the act of "moving earth" thereby disturbing the immobility of the earth. The protection and internal order brought about by the oven, therefore, is fundamentally endangered by the negative force required during the process of its very creation. An oven in a Korean dwelling directly affects the physical well-being of people living there as its existence is crucial to the internal order of a dwelling. Furthermore its significance extends to the opening of the world cosmic order. Thus the internal nature of a Korean dwelling discussed here is not relative to the external world but exists as an absolute principle in itself.
