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Jeju's haenyeo women free divers, a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage, harvest the seafloor without oxygen tanks while drawing tourists to Seongsan Ilchulbong.
The haenyeo of Jeju, South Korea's women free divers, have harvested marine life from the island's waters without oxygen tanks for centuries, and in 2024 they were the subject of a documentary and hold a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage listing. Many still dive in their 70s and 80s and have attained celebrity status. Sitting some 80 kilometres off the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula, self-governing Jeju is South Korea's great island escape, beloved for its beaches, hiking trails and distinctive food and culture.
Jeju Island's Diving Tradition Draws Visitors
On a morning dive beneath Seongsan Ilchulbong, an ancient volcanic peak, more than 100 tourists jostle for photos around an iridescent, jade-green cove hemmed by sheer, basalt cliffs as the elderly women wriggle into their wetsuits and a traditional song blasts from speakers. A guide whispers that it is about the hardships the women have endured. Then the women slip into the water.
One by one, they vanish below the surface to dive anywhere between 10 and 20 metres on a single breath before resurfacing up to two-and-a-half minutes later, holding aloft their haul of sea urchins, octopus and abalone. This may be a daily tourist spectacle, but watching the women harvest the seafloor in this way, as generations of Jeju women have done before them, makes the hairs on my arms stand up.
At a restaurant overlooking the cove, visitors sample the haenyeo's catch, a plate of raw sea creatures washed down with glasses of Jeju's famously sweet tangerine juice, before a post-prandial hike up the peak.
Volcanic Landscapes Shape Jeju Culture
Traditionally, Jeju is said to have three things in abundance: wind, women and stone. Almost everything here seems shaped by volcanic rock, from traditional stone houses and walls to the hulking, carved figures that guard their entrances. Hallasan, South Korea's highest mountain, rises from its centre, while ancient eruptions have left lava tubes, craters and basalt-strewn shores.
Seongsan Ilchulbong is typically a sunrise spot, but that means a 4am start and the risk of sea fog swallowing the view. By early afternoon, the climb is tough in the heat but, from the lush crater rim, Jeju unfurls clearly below, the intensely blue Korea Strait meeting its patchwork of fields. Scattered among those fields are villages that preserve a much older Jeju.
Heritage Villages And The Olle Trail
Seongeup, on the island's south-eastern side, is a living heritage village of thatched stone houses, shrines and low basalt walls dating back more than six centuries. Visitors pass between two statues, hand-carved volcanic-stone grandfathers traditionally regarded as guardians, and wind their way down a narrow lane connecting to the main road.
A local saying holds that every road begins with an Olle and leads to the world. The name now belongs to Jeju's 437-kilometre Olle Trail, whose 27 routes lace the island's coast and countryside. Workwear has been dyed with persimmon juice for centuries, the tannins helping protect the cloth from sweat and dirt. Nearby, signs advertise natural-dyeing and ceramics workshops, inspiring thoughts of a return trip staying in a traditional house, walking the Olle Trail, throwing a few pots and dyeing cloth.
Young Divers Carry The Haenyeo Legacy Forward
In the small village of Sehwa, 34-year-old Ta-eum Kim is part of a new generation of young women choosing the haenyeo life. The tradition also recalls protests against exploitative seafood prices under Japanese colonial rule in the 1930s, before Kim walks to the bay where she dives.
Kim explains that the divers do not catch everything they see. Unlike industrial fishing that can scrape the ocean floor, haenyeo gather their catch by hand, leaving undersized shellfish to grow. She says they take only what they need to earn a living so that the marine life in this ecosystem can continue to live as well.
Kim's words linger on a final morning on Jeju, along with the sense that, for all South Korea's associations with the hyper-modern, this island has something important to say about how we might live now: take only what you need. Work with, rather than against, nature. With my back to the wind, I walk the coast from Hamdeok, the popular beach town in the island's north-east. I pass a standing sentinel beside the path and walk on, the sea stretching blue and empty beside me.
Jeju Haenyeo South Korea Seongsan Ilchulbong UNESCO Heritage Seongeup Village Olle Trail Ta-Eum Kim
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