history

The name of King Tongmyong is Ko Jumong.

According to legends, his father was Haemosu, son of heavenly emperor, and his mother was Ryuhwa, daughter of sea god.

He was born in Puyo in 298 BC.

He was quite good at archery from his childhood.

It is said that a month after his birth he shot insects with arrows his mother made for him, never missing a target.

He was named Jumong in the meaning that he was a master archer.

He founded Koguryo, first feudal state of Korea, in Jolbon in 277 BC.

After becoming the king of the feudal state, he changed his last name to Ko and declared the country’s name as Koguryo.

He established a feudal ruling system and public order in the new country and extended its territory by annexing several small neighbouring countries, thus laying the foundation of the country which existed for nearly a thousand years as a powerful state in the East.

Science and culture developed in Koguryo, its national power was tremendous and its people never knew the words “big-power worship” and “submission”. 

How tremendous the national power of Koguryo was can be known through the fact that a chief of foreign aggressors left a verbal will that they should not invade Koguryo again.

The people of Koguryo firmly kept the spirit of attaching importance to military affairs and they regarded the dignity and sovereignty of the nation as more valuable than their lives.

Koguryo demonstrated its commanding influence in relations with surrounding countries.

After the death of Ko Jumong, he was called Tongmyong the Sacred in the sense that he was a sacred king of the brightest country in the East.