THE GARDENER OF TIME

Last summer in Jeju, I met someone I will not forget. His name is Bum-Young Sung an 86-year-old gardener, and he is the man behind the Spirited Garden. The story began in 1968, when Mr. Sung, then 29, left Seoul to start a new life on the island. He had once met a European tourist who told him Korea had little to see compared with China or Japan. He took that as a challenge.

He bought a barren piece of land in a rural area of Jeju—36,000 square meters of rock and dust. There was no water, no electricity. For years he worked by the light of a kerosene lamp, carrying stones, planting trees, and building walls. Typhoons often destroyed what he had built. Neighbors called him a madman. 

He kept going.

For 25 years he shaped that land. After officially opening its doors in the ’90s, the Spirited Garden’s guestbook carries the names of Chinese presidents Jiang Zemin and Xi Jinping, along with leaders from Vietnam, Japan, and Mongolia. Even Mo Yan, the Chinese Nobel laureate and author of Red Sorghum, has visited.

When I visited, Mr. Sung walked me through the paths despite the heavy heat. He pointed out his favorite trees and bonsai, the rarest and most fragile ones. We laughed, even with the barrier of language. I asked him what was hardest about caring for a garden—His answer was simple:

“waiting”

It takes decades to know if your efforts bear fruit.

Today, the Spirited Garden is a living testament to patience. It is a story of mornings and of time—beginnings that require patience, years shaped by care and dedication, and a future that turns into beauty.