Rangrang-guyŏk or Rangrang District is one of the 18 ''kuyŏk'' that constitute the city of

Pyongyang Pyongyang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution" (). Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. Accordi ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

. It is located south of the

Taedong River The Taedong River () is a large river in North Korea. The river rises in the Rangrim Mountains of the country's north where it then flows southwest into Korea Bay at Namp'o.Suh, Dae-Sook (1987) "North Korea in 1986: Strengthening the Soviet ...

, and is bordered to the north by

Songyo-guyok Sŏn'gyo-guyŏk or Songyo District is one of the 18 guyŏk that constitute the city of Pyongyang, North Korea. It is on the eastern bank of the Taedong River at the center of East Pyongyang. It is bordered to the south by Nakrang-guyok, to the ...

, to the east by the Ryokpo-guyok, and to the south by Chunghwa and Kangnam counties.

History

The

Lelang Commandery The Lelang Commandery was a Commandery (China), commandery of the Han dynasty established after it had conquered Wiman Joseon in 108 BC and lasted until Goguryeo conquered it in 313. The Lelang Commandery extended the rule of the Four Commande ...

was, according to the ''

Book of Han The ''Book of Han'' is a history of China finished in 111 CE, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. The work was composed by Ban Gu (32–92 CE), ...

'', composed of 27 districts and had a population of over 406,748 people. Located on the Taedong River at the approximate location of modern Pyongyang, archeological evidence suggests that the seat of the commandery had been moved to this district here after the destruction of Wanggeom-seong, the old Koguryo capital at Pyongyang and is claimed to have been original seat of the lelang commandery. During the Japanese colonial period, the area was part of Taedong County. As Pyongyang grew and annexed many former parts of Taedong County, the area was later split up Pyongyang's Dong-guyok, Kangnam-gun, and Chunghwa-gun. Rangrang-guyok was officially created as a separate district in 1959. The district is famous for the large number of Han and Koguryo tombs which litter the area, many of which were first discovered by the Japanese in the early 1910s (see

Nakrang Tombs Nangnang or Naklang can have several meanings: * Lelang Commandery ** The ancient Korean peninsular polity ** The commandery of the Han empire of China * Rangnang-guyok, Nangnang-guyok, a district of Pyongyang, North Korea * Nangnang, Bhutan, a town ...

). Japanese archaeologists Torrii Ryuzo and Imanishi Ryu, in particular, were instrumental in the tomb excavations and in identifying the Nakrang Earthen Castle in Tosong-ri as the seat of the commandery. Over 1,500 tombs in all have been located, with sixty-three alone located in just one district (Chongbaek-dong). However, North Korea claims that all tombs are in fact of the

Koguryo Goguryeo (37 BC – 668 AD) (; ; Old Korean: Guryeo) also later known as Goryeo (; ; Middle Korean: 고ᇢ롕〮, ''kwòwlyéy''), was a Korean kingdom which was located on the northern and central parts of the Korea, Korean Peninsula an ...

period, as it denies the existence of the Chinese settlement of Lelang, claiming it was a Koguryo city-state, and that the thousands of Chinese artifacts merely represent the burgeoning trade that the State of Nakrang had with the Han.

Administrative divisions

Rangrang-guyok is divided into nine administrative districts known as tong, as well as nine villages ("ri"). The larger five tong (Chongbaek, Chongo, Kwanmun, Nakrang, and Tongil) are further divided in two parts for administrative purposes, which Chungsong-dong is divided into three.

References

Districts of Pyongyang {{NorthKorea-geo-stub