Ancient Hairstyles from the Korean Shilla Dynasty Come to Life
[www.ntdtv.com 2010-11-04]
Korea has a long history of around five thousand years, and one dynasty, the Shilla (SHE-LA), in 57 BC, lasted for around a thousand years. In Gyeongju, the capital city of the Shilla dynasty, experts are reproducing noblewomen’s elaborate hairstyles of the time. This is a very rare opportunity.
[Choi Tae-Yeon, Research Association of Traditional Hairstyles]:
“Shilla people usually put their hair in up styles because they had attractive and strong hair. Their hairstyle was really gorgeous due to the influence from China’s Tang dynasty.”
Watching these magnificent hairstyles being made, gives a strong impression of how dedicated to looking beautiful these noblewomen must have been. Jewelry was also used to decorate the hair elaborately. But when this trend became too extreme, the 41st Shilla king forbade using jewelry in the hair ? and then everyone had to use flowers.
[Seol Young-Hee, Research Association of Traditional Hairstyles]:
“China`s Tang dynasty had some records about the Shilla dynasty and were analyzed by Korean researchers. We also had to use a lot of imagination to fill in the gaps. It was difficult to find historical records about the Shilla dynasty.”
Some information on Shilla period hairstyles was found in records from the Tang Dynasty, but a lot has been lost.
What is certain, is there’s a lot of curiosity about the life and style of the ancient Shilla dynasty.
NTDTV Gyeongju, South Korea