(image courtesy Piotrus via Wikimedia Commons)

M is for Mysterious Sea Route Myth

I’ve written about the island of Jindo a few times during this Blogging from A to Z challenge. I mentioned the shifting tides that Admiral Yi Sun Shin used to defeat the Japanese navy in the 16th century and that contributed to the Sewol ferry disaster.

Part of the unusual land/sea formations in this part of the world is an annual natural phenomenon in which a land bridge opens for one hour. During this hour, people can walk through the sea from the island of Jindo to the island of Modo.

As with most unique natural phenomena, this sea parting has birthed a myth known in English as the Mysterious Sea Route or the Moses Miracle. Once I came across this cool myth, I had to use it. Here is the myth excerpted from Moonlight Dancer:

Once, in the long past time of tigers and dragons, Grandmother Bbong yearned to rejoin her family.

A streak of hungry tigers, so the old ones say, had driven the villagers from their homes. Grandmother fled, but churning seawater surrounded her so she could not cross to Modo Island where her family had rafted to safety.

At the end of the land Grandmother wailed and prayed, prayed and wailed.

That night, the Sea King appeared in her dream. “Tomorrow,” he told her, “follow the rainbow.”

In the morning a ribbon of dazzling colors rose over the waters. As Grandmother stepped forward, the Sea King parted the waves. Suddenly, a walking path broke through the waters all the way to her family on Modo Island.

Every year since then, the sea splits for one hour on one day in the fourth lunar month, and the mysterious path between the islands appears.

Pretty cool, right? Here is a photo of the Mysterious Sea Route festival. You can see the Grandmother Bbong pursued by the tiger.

(image courtesy Piotrus via Wikimedia Commons)

If you go to the edge of land where the mysterious sea route originates, you will see this monument.