Okay, it's a very interesting subject for me. Because I'm a pilgrim from Korean. Korean also know it's getting more pilgrims to walk the camino.
The word 'Camino' was mentioned in a book as top 100 Trendy word in 2007 in Korea. I see that there's three points of camino boom in this country as a social phenomenon.
First of all, the works by Paulo Cohelo has been popular here. <The Alchemist> is still on top selling chart since many years ago. And I counted that 9 books were published about the camino(mainly it's kind of essay). So the camino is being very popular in Korean publishing world.
Second is that in January, this year a major broadcasting channel aired a documentary about the camino. But before the documentary, there had a few programmes introduced about the camino.
And last one is that, there's an on-line community which has over 4600 Korean members. They shared their camino experience, know-how and support future pilgrims. It's very similar with this forum.
It's just my personal opinion, after drastic economic development, there's a huge increase of overseas tourists since late '80s. And especially after 2000, people started to find different experience with tourists. And the camino is being one of attractive destinations to choose. Many of Korean think that this could be an instant phenomenon. I'm not sure about it but sounds quite reasonable.
But if someone asked "Why do you walk the camino?", I think very few people can answer the question precisely wherever they live or which nationality they have. It's as same as we're pilgrims.
Personally, I walked the
camino frances last summer. It was a life-changing experience for me. And now I'm planning for my next camino. Simply I thank God because the camino is in the world.
Just Buen camino to you all of pilgrims. :arrow:
I always welcome any words about this subject.
Jihyeong.