UNESCO World Heritage Site

UNESCO World Heritage Site The Jongmyo Shrine is where JongmyoJerye, or the Royal Ancestral Rite, is performed to commemorate the life and legacy of the Joseon kings and their queen consorts. The shrine is on a site seven times larger than a soccer field and consists of a number of buildings including the two main shrine buildings, Jeongjeon, or the Main Shrine Hall, and Yeongnyeongjeon, Hall of Everlasting Peace.

The extraordinary cultural and historical value of the shrine earned it a spot on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list in 1995. Similar legacies were preserved in Asian countries with Confucian traditions, China and Vietnam in particular, but it is only the Jongmyo Shrine that the original memorial ritual is held still today by the descendants of the royals whose spirit tablets were enshrined. In addition to the shrine, the memorial rite regularly held at the shrine and the music and dance performed for the rite were also proclaimed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

You can see a paved path called Samdo, or Triple-lane Road, starting just inside the entrance gate to the Main Shrine Hall. The path was used only when the ancestral memorial rite took place by the king and the crown prince who were to take the eastern and western lane respectively. The central lane was used only by the royal ancestral spirits whose mortuary tablets were housed in the shrine and the chief ritual officiant carrying incense to the shrine.