TAEKWONDO HISTORY

Brief Introduction:

The Historical / successful development of Taekwondo can be divided in 4 ages, they are;

Ancient times,

Middle ages,

Modern ages &

Present day Taekwondo

Taekwondo is one of the proudest cultural heritages for the Koreans and it is also national martial art of Korea. Taekwondo has been developed into a modern Olympic sport as a result of painstaking researches and experiences by the Taekwondo practitioners and masters through their incessant upgrading of technical and spiritual refinement. At the same time, it has been firmly established as a real national martial art enabling the people to defend the nation.

In the early history of the Korean peninsula, there were three tribes dwelling there, each enjoying warrior's martial art contests during the ritual seasons. At that times people learned techniques from their experiences of fighting against the beasts whose defensive and offensive motions were also the subject of analysis. It is believed that this was exactly the true grounding of today's Taekwondo. Whose names have descended from "subak","Taekkyon", "takkyon" and so on.

Koren Peninsula

Later in the latter part of ancient times on the Korean peninsula, three kingdoms namely KOGURYEO (B.C 37), PAEKJE (18BC)& SILLA (B.C 57) were come into existence and always rivaling among them for the hegemony. All indulged in growing national strength with trained warriors. Therefore, the Korean history tells that there were military personalities among the well-known prominent national leaders of the three kingdoms, which proves the military tendency of ruling hierarchy.

Silla was a kingdom founded in B.C. 57 on the southeastern part of Korea peninsula where there were no immediate threats from outside, but along with the birth of Paekje Kingdom on its west flank and the start of invasions by Koguryo from the north, Shilla was impelled to arm itself with development of martial arts. "hwarangdo" is the typical example of Shilla's martial arts, which is an assimilation of Koguryo's "sunbae"

Koguryo founded in B. C. 37 on the northern part of Korea along the Yalu river, both making great efforts to raise their youngsters into strong warriors called "hwarang" and " sonbae" respectively, certainly with Taekwondo as one of the principal subjects of physical training. Baekje or Paekche (BC 18-AD 660) was a kingdom located in southwest Korea.