My hometown of Santa Rosa (well, sort of hometown since I'm really from neighboring Sebastopol) in California has had a sister-city relationship with Bukjeju located on Jeju Island, South Korea since 1996. In 2003 Bukjeju sent these two Dolharubang (stone grandfather) statues. Or to quote a friend's wife from the area, "those two dildo-looking statues".
The original meaning of the Dolharubang is long forgotten and it's unknown who their creators were. Some say they look Polynesian, many see a phallic symbol. There's even one special statue down in Jeju where a couple is supposed to rub the nose if they want to conceive a boy.
The statues were placed downtown off Sonoma Ave. and as such I'd driven past them before without much thought. But on my recent trip back I thought I'd capture them for here. The thing that got me though was the bench. Painted on it are a mixture of images from Santa Rosa and Bukjeju, from the fashion-challenged Santa Rosa highschool girls who danced at the Jeju Fire Festival, over to a picture of the Mayor Shin Chul-ju of Bukjeju, and then down in the bottom right corner to a very odd inscription:We have no beggars.
Now they sure as hell aren't describing Santa Rosa. But rather that quote reminds me of the kind of propaganda that Korea generates for foreigners. Those claims are untenable.
We have no thieves.
We have no poor.
Whee! I live in Santa Rosa. When I first saw the statues, I told my friends what they were supposed to look phallic.
There is also a fountain from Korea on Fourth Street, in the downtown area. The message below it is written in Hangul and English.
Hi I found your blog through the Korean Blog List. Your photographs are so great and are a refreshing change from touristy photos. Great job! I think I learned that those three lines are the official saying of Jejudo. Along with something about having lots of women...