When Thomas Duvernay turned eight years old, he received a fiberglass bow for a birthday present and archery became a part of his life. Years later in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Duvernay’s young son Nick is continuing the tradition and gripping the exact same bow.

The Duvernay family was introduced to Korean archery after looking for a place to practice. “I found this empty construction site,” he recalled. “My son and I were shooting there, but we kept getting strange looks from Korean passersby and I was getting self-conscious.”

Duvernay mentioned the problem of finding a place to practice to his faculty assistant at Dongguk University who in turn asked, “Why not try gungdo?”

Gungdo, or “Way of the bow,” has its roots in the Hwarang knights of the Silla Kingdom (57 B.C. - 935 A.D.) and was an art practiced by aristocrats to cultivate mental and physical discipline. The martial art is governed by nine major precepts that emphasize Korean Confucian philosophy and proper decorum, such as having a mind and body as straight as an arrow.

That kind of clear mental focus is needed to hit the targets positioned 145 meters from the shooting line.

At the Tiger Forest Pavilion in Gyeongju, Duvernay was introduced to the club’s members and he became intrigued with the martial art. He fell under the tutelage of Bak Dong-sub, a master archer.

Duvernay’s new teacher understood that he had been an archer for many years and his first instruction was, “Forget what you already know, this is a different style.”

Before firing an arrow, Duvernay spent days learning how to brace the bow and to hold it with the proper grip. He was instructed to draw the bow as if pushing a high mountain and pulling a tiger’s tail. Later, he was fitted for a thumb ring, and then practiced with the tethered arrow that is attached by a long line to a twenty-foot bamboo pole.

“I’d keep my eyes and ears open. I’d ask, what’s this, what’s that?” he said.

Before firing the first arrow of the day, tradition dictates that the archer bows to the target and says, “I’m learning the bow.” The other archers reply, “Have many hits.”

Within a few days of shooting, Duvernay got his first hit, which was a special event. He bowed to the target according to etiquette and received congratulations from the other members. Then he learned that on this occasion he’s obliged to provide refreshments and drinks for the club members.

A couple months later he hit the target with five consecutive shots, a perfect score. Witnesses recorded the time and date. With this achievement he earned his “muho,” or archer’s pen name. During a ritual ceremony, the director of Tiger Forest Pavilion gave him the name Cheong-ho, meaning Blue Lake, which refers to his home state of Michigan that borders the Lake Superior and Lake Michigan.

Continuing his study and practice of gungdo, he wrote an article about the martial art for Instinctive Archer magazine and later developed his Web site, www.koreanarchery.org, which details the intricacies of the sport. Along with his Web site, he has developed archery connections all over the world, including a friend in Hong Kong who is trying to revive traditional archery in China.

As his research continued, he became interested in the construction of traditional archery tackle.

He produced a four-hour video with a bowyer acquaintance at the Tiger Forest Pavilion, documenting the process of making a horn bow from the traditional materials of water buffalo horn, bamboo, mulberry, oak, sinew, birch bark, and fish bladder glue.

“Nobody had done this before,” he said. “I had to consider not just the steps but also present the subject as a story. It takes more than a year to make a horn bow - each procedure has a season.”

He filmed and narrated the video himself and worked with a professional film-editing studio with the collected footage. Two and a half years later, the video was completed.

The opening scene of his second video is at the entrance of the Tiger Forest Pavilion where a stand of bamboo (Sasa coreana) grows. This type of native bamboo is used as the arrow shaft. The fletching is made of pheasant feathers, and the nock is from bush clover. A friend of his is one of the twelve traditional fletchers in Korea. Duvernay recorded the construction process of over fifty steps and unlike his first video; the production of this one was finished in two weeks.

Duvernay’s son began shooting Western style archery when he was six years old. Accompanying his father to the archery range while growing up, he naturally took up gungdo. He asked another club member to be his teacher, but Duvernay said that eventually his son had many teachers.

“It’s like an extended family here. Korean archers are friendly people and will go out of their way to help another archer improve,” he said.

Now at the age of sixteen, Nick has earned the name “Blue River.” Duvernay explained that a blue river flows from a blue lake.

His next project is writing a book about traditional Korean archery.

“Gungdo is steeped in history. I’ve always loved traditional things and sometimes I think I was born in the wrong century. Often in modern society, especially with archery, people think too much about fast and flashy, and forget archery’s aspect as an art; it’s about getting back to the roots of archery,” he said.

Traditional Archery at a Glance

■Dress
For competitions, archers wear white shirts, white pants and white athletic shoes.

■Ranking
Like other martial arts in Korea, the “dan” and “geup” ranking system is used. Several times each year, special competitions are held to decide official rankings.

The first dan level is reached when you hit the target 25 out of 45 tries.

Only two level advancements are allowed per year.

Rank is signified by the Mugunghwa (Rose of Sharon) flowers embroidered on the archer’s bow cover.

When an archer reaches fifth dan, a special rank is awarded. This level is known as myeonggoong, or famous-name archer. At this level, the archer will be given another ceremony and the archer’s name will be registered nationally.

■Competition

It is possible to compete in both team and individual events in local and provincial matches. The team event is decided by elimination.

If you hit the target and your arrow doesn’t go past the target, it’s a hit. There will be a target judge with a flag to indicate a hit or if the arrow went long or short.

Trophies and certificates are awarded at the closing ceremony.

■Equipment

Two types of bows are used: the modern laminated bow and the traditional Korean composite horn bow. Similarly, two kinds of arrows are used, both carbon arrows and bamboo arrows.

A teardrop-shaped thumb ring is used in a technique called the “Mongolian draw.”

A bow cover is used to protect the bow while in storage and also used as a waist sash that doubles as a quiver.

■The range

Upon arrival a slight bow is given before the pavilion hall affixed with a sign written with the Chinese characters meaning the “righteous room.”

The shooting positions are under a covered area that has arrow holders and hooks for hanging the bows, along with tables and chairs for judges and scorekeepers.

The plywood targets covered with hard rubber are located 145 meters from the shooting line. The target is 2.67 meters high and 2 meters wide. It is tilted 15 degrees back.

■Getting started

Thomas recommends finding a nearby club and getting to know some of the members. Visit his website at www.koreanarchery.org to learn more about gungdo. He can be contacted for further information at goongdo@hotmail.com.

Copyright © James Card.