Many people remember the 33 national representatives reading the Declaration of Independence at the octagonal pavilion in Tapgol Park on March 1, 1919. In fact, concerned about clashes and casualties, the representatives changed the planned venue to Taehwagwan. After holding the declaration ceremony and shouting calls for independence there, they were taken into police custody. Thousands of students and citizens remained in Tapgol Park.
Who read the declaration in the park?
According to materials from the Independence Hall of Korea and the National Institute of Korean History, a student representative climbed onto the octagonal pavilion and read the declaration, after which the crowd left the park waving Korean flags and began marching through the streets. The national representatives’ declaration and the citizens’ action unfolded at the same time in different places. Tapgol Park is significant not because it was where the “famous 33” gathered, but because ordinary students and citizens transformed a declaration into a movement in the streets.
An older temple lies beneath the park
Tapgol Park occupies the former site of Wongaksa Temple from the Joseon period. At the center of the park, a ten-story stone pagoda enclosed in a glass shelter and the Wongaksa stele reveal traces of the temple. A royal Buddhist temple’s pagoda, a modern park from the Korean Empire period, and an independence movement from the colonial period overlap within a single boundary. The name “Tapgol,” meaning “pagoda neighborhood,” also comes directly from this pagoda.
Do not leave after seeing only the octagonal pavilion
Viewing the octagonal pavilion, ten-story stone pagoda, Wongaksa stele, and March First Movement commemorative reliefs in that order reveals how the role of this single place kept changing. The temple became a park, and the park became a starting point for the independence movement. Jongno’s history remains not through new buildings completely erasing old ones, but through different functions being layered onto the same land.
The route outside the park is also part of the story. The independence procession did not remain inside Tapgol Park; it entered Jongno’s main road and split off in several directions. After visiting the park, walking toward Bosingak or Jonggak makes it more tangible that the Declaration of Independence was not a sealed-off commemorative ceremony, but an action that spread through the city’s transportation network.