Ondol
| Korean spelling | |
|---|---|
| Korean alphabet : | 온돌 |
| Hanja : | 溫 突 |
| Revised Romanization : | ondol |
| McCune-Reischauer : | ondol |
Ondol is the Korean word for " underfloor heating ".
The word Ondol (Sinocorean on = warm; Korean dol = stone) indicates how this traditional heating system worked: The stone-covered floor was heated with fire. The living rooms have a free space under the floor that serves as a heating pipe and is heated by the smoke from the fire. Roman hypocausts worked on a similar principle .
On cold days, the residents of the houses with Ondol preferred to sit on the floor. This is interpreted in various ways as the starting point for Korean seating culture - people preferred to sit, eat and sleep on the warm floor. The same room served as a study, dining, living room and bedroom.
Today (modern) underfloor heating is part of the basic equipment of every apartment in Korea and is therefore much more common than in Central Europe. Usually the heated part of the floor is therefore slightly higher than the unheated part; this can be clearly seen on the Tobang .