Geumgwan Gaya
Geumgwan Gaya (43 - 532), also known as
Bon-gaya (본가야, 本伽倻, "original Gaya") or
Garakguk (가락국, "Garak State"), was a major chiefdom of the
Gaya confederacy during the
Three Kingdoms Period in
Korea. It is believed to have been located in modern-day
Gimhae,
Gyeongsangnam-do, near the mouth of the
Nakdong River. Aided by its strategic location, this kingdom played a dominant role in the regional affairs from the
Byeonhan period forward.
According to
Samguk Yusa, Geumgwan Gaya was made of 9 villages united by
King Suro. His wife
Heo Hwang-ok is said to be a princess from Ayuta (아유타국), a region in
India, although this may have been an embellishment during later Buddhist times.
During this time, several waves of migration from the north, including the earlier
Gojoseon,
Buyeo, and the later
Goguryeo, overtook and integrated with existing populations and stimulated cultural and political developments. A sharp break in burial styles is found around the later 3rd century. Burial forms associated with North Asian nomadic peoples, such as the burial of horses with the dead, suddenly replace earlier forms in the tombs of the elite (Cheol 2000). In addition, earlier burials were systematically destroyed. In the early 1990s, a royal tomb complex was unearthed in Daeseong-dong,
Gimhae, attributed to Geumgwan Gaya but apparently used since Byeonhan times.
After Geumgwan Gaya capitulated to
Silla in 532, the royal house was accepted into the Silla aristocracy and given the rank of "true bone," the second-highest level of the Silla
bone rank system.
*
History of Korea*
List of Korean monarchs*
List of Korea-related topics*Cheol, S.K. (2000). Relations between Kaya and Wa in the third to fourth centuries AD.
Journal of East Asian Archeology 2(3-4), 112-122.
