Legend of Smoking Tiger
- Nam An
- Dec 8, 2015
- 1 min read
When I was little, before I went to sleep, my grandmother often told me a fairy tale. When she told me a story, it always started, "A Long long time ago when tigers were smoking..." You see, in Korea, this is how every fairy tales starts. Korean culture has very deep relationship with tigers. Due to many mountains and valleys, Korea had large population of tigers, and they had a big influence on Korean culture. When tobacco was first sold in Korea, it was advertised as a medicinal product and almost everyone was smoking. Later, during the 17th century, tobacco became luxury item and only aristocrats were allowed to smoke. Peasants could only watch people with money and power smoke and the saying "We miss the time when even the tigers were smoking" was born. This phrase has since been modified and when old events, legends, or fairy tales are told, Korean people say: "A Long long time ago when tigers were smoking..."