Bihwa Gaya, also known as Bijabal in Japanese records of the time, was one of the member states of the

Gaya confederacy Gaya (, ) was a Korean confederacy of territorial polities in the Nakdong River basin of southern Korea, growing out of the Byeonhan confederacy of the Samhan period. The traditional period used by historians for Gaya chronology is AD 42–5 ...

during the

Three Kingdoms period of Korea Samhan or the Three Kingdoms of Korea () refers to the three kingdoms of Goguryeo (고구려, 高句麗), Baekje (백제, 百濟), and Silla (신라, 新羅). Goguryeo was later known as Goryeo (고려, 高麗), from which the modern name ''Kor ...

. It was based near the modern-day city center of

Changnyeong County Changnyeong County (''Changnyeong-gun'' 창녕군) is a county in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. In the early Three Kingdoms period, Changnyeong was the seat of Bihwa Gaya, a member of the Gaya confederacy which was later conquered ...

in South Gyeongsang province,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

. It was conquered by

Silla Silla or Shilla (57 BCE – 935 CE) ( , Old Korean: Syera, Old Japanese: Siraki2) was a Korean kingdom located on the southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula. Silla, along with Baekje and Goguryeo, formed the Three Kingdoms ...

in the 6th century AD, some time before 555. Bihwa Gaya is mentioned in the '' Goryeo Saryak'' and under the name in the Japanese chronicle '' Nihonshoki''. It may have arisen from the 3rd century

Jinhan Jinhan () was a loose confederacy of chiefdoms that existed from around the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD in the southern Korean Peninsula, to the east of the Nakdong River valley, Gyeongsang Province. Jinhan was one of the Samhan (or "T ...

state of Bulsaguk (불사국, 不斯國) which was probably also located in modern-day Changnyeong. Archeological evidence suggests a close relationship between Bihwa Gaya and nearby Silla, although as part of the Gaya confederacy, Bihwa would frequently have been at war with Silla. The royal

tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...

s of Bihwa Gaya are located in Gyo-dong, Changnyeong-eup, in Changnyeong County. Some of these tombs were excavated during the colonial period in 1918, but all records of that excavation have since been lost. In 1973, a team of researchers from

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, ...

's Dong-A University excavated several remaining tombs. These tombs appear to have been constructed in the 5th century AD. Some of them show indications of the live burial of members of the royal household. In 1996, a museum focusing on the relics of the Bihwa Gaya period opened adjacent to the tombs.

References

{{Reflist Gaya confederacy Former countries in East Asia Former countries in Korean history South Gyeongsang Province

See also

References