Korean shamanism

Besides "Shinism" and "Muism", other terms used to define Korean shamanism include Goshindo (고신도, 古神道; "way of the ancestral gods"), used in the context of the new religious movement of Daejongism,[15] and Pungwoldo (風月道, "way of brightness"), used by the Confucian scholar Choe Chiwon between the 9th and the 10th century.[16] Shamanic associations in modern South Korea use the terms Shindo or Mushindo (무신도 "shamanic way of the spirits") to define their congregations or membership, and musogin ("people who do shamanism") to define the shamans.[4]

The Korean word 무 mu is related to the Chinese term 巫 wu,[17] which defines shamans of either sex, and likely also to the Mongolic "Bo" and Tibetan "Bon". Already in records from the Yi dynasty, mudang has a prevalent usage.[18] Mudang itself is explained in relation to Chinese characters, as originally referring to the "hall", 堂 tang, of a shaman.[18] A different etymology, however, explains mudang as stemming directly from the Siberian term for female shamans, utagan or utakan.[18]

Mudang is used mostly, but not exclusively, for female shamans.[18] Male shamans are called by a variety of names, including sana mudang (literally "male mudang") in the Seoul area, or baksu mudang, also shortened baksu ("doctor", "healer"), in the Pyongyang area.[18] According to some scholars, baksu is an ancient authentic designation of male shamans, and locutions like sana mudang or baksu mudang are recent coinages due to the prevalence of female shamans in recent centuries.[9] Baksu may be a Korean adaptation of terms loaned from Siberian languages, such as baksi, balsi or bahsih.[6]

The theory of an indigenous or Siberian origin of Korean shamanic terminology is more reasonable than theories which explain such terminology as originating in Chinese,[6] given that Chinese culture influenced Korea only at a relatively recent stage of Korean history.[6] Likely, when Koreans adopted Chinese characters they filtered their previously oral religious culture through the sieve of Chinese culture.[6]

There are four basic categories of Korean shamans, referred to by the dominant local name for shamans.

The mudang-type shamans are traditionally found in northern Korea: the provinces of Hamgyong, Pyongan, Hwanghae, and northern Gyeonggi, including the capital of Seoul. They are initiated into shamanism by sinbyeong, an illness caused when a god enters their bodies and which is cured only through initiation. They share their body with the soul of a specific deity, referred to as mom-ju ("lord of the body"). During shamanic rituals, they undergo trance possession and speak with the voice of the god being invoked.[19]

The dan'gol-type shamans are priests and not shamans in the strict sense. They are found in the southern and eastern provinces of Gangwon, Gyeongsang, Chungcheong, and Jeolla, although they are increasingly displaced by the dominance of Seoul-style shamanism in South Korea. The dan'gol are hereditary, rather than being initiated by a supernatural experience. They have no supernatural powers, are not associated with their own gods, and do not undergo trance possession. They merely worship a number of gods with a fixed set of rituals. Unlike mudang-type shamans, dan'gol-type shamans are associated with the gods of their specific community.[20]

The simbang-type shamans are found only in Jeju Island, and combine features of the mudang and dan'gol types. Like the mudang, the simbang of Jeju are associated with a specific set of gods. But these gods do not inhabit the shaman's body but are externalized in the form of the mengdu, a set of sacred ritual implements in which the gods and spirits of dead shamans are embodied. The simbang's basic task is to understand the divine message conveyed by their mengdu and to use the mengdu to worship the gods.[21]

The myeongdu-type shamans co-occur with the dan'gol-type shamans. They are believed to be possessed by the spirits of dead children, and are able to divine the future but do not participate in general rituals for the gods.[22]

Altar of a Sansingak, "Mountain God shrine". Mountain God shrines are often controlled by Buddhist temples. This one belongs to the Jeongsusa (Jeongsu Temple) of Ganghwa Island.

People who become shamans are believed to be "chosen" by gods or spirits through a spiritual experience known as shinbyeong ("divine or shaman illness"), a form of ecstasy, which entails the possession from a god and a "self-loss". This state is said to manifest in symptoms of physical pain and psychosis. Believers assert that the physical and mental symptoms are not subject to medical treatment, but are healed only when the possessed accepts a full communion with the spirit.[23]

The illness is characterised by a loss of appetite, insomnia, visual and auditory hallucinations. The possessed then undergoes the naerim-gut, a ritual which serves both to heal the sickness and to formally establish the person as a shaman.[24]

Korean shamans also experience shinmyeong ("divine wind"), which is the channelling of a god, during which the shaman speaks prophetically.[25] Shinmyeong is also experienced by entire communities during the gut hold by the shaman, and is a moment of energisation which relieves from social pressure, both physical and mental.[26]

The Princess Bari narrative is found in all regions except Jeju.[27] Roughly one hundred versions of the myth have been transcribed by scholars as of 2016, around half of those since 1997.[28] As of 1998, all known versions were sung only during gut rituals held for the deceased. Princess Bari is therefore a goddess closely associated with funeral rites.[29] Bari's exact role varies according to the version, sometimes failing to become a deity at all, but she is usually identified as the patron goddess of shamans, the conductor of the souls of the dead, or the goddess of the Big Dipper.[30]

Princess Bari holding the flower of resurrection. Painting for shamanic rituals, eighteenth century.

Despite the large number of versions, most agree upon the basic story. The first major episode shared by almost all versions is the marriage of the king and queen. The queen gives birth to six consecutive daughters who are treated luxuriously. When she is pregnant a seventh time, the queen has an auspicious dream. The royal couple takes this as a sign that she is finally bearing a son and prepares the festivities. Unfortunately, the child is a girl.[31][32] The disappointed king orders the daughter to be thrown away, dubbing her Bari, from Korean 버리- beori- "to throw away."[lower-alpha 1][33] In some versions, she must be abandoned two or three times because she is protected by animals the first and second times. The girl is then rescued by a figure such as the Buddha (who regrets upon seeing her that he cannot take a woman as his disciple), a mountain god, or a stork.[34]

Once Bari has grown, one or both of her parents fall gravely ill. They learn that the disease can only be cured through medicinal water from the Western Heaven. In the majority of versions, the king and queen ask their six older daughters to go fetch the water, but all of them refuse. Desperate, the king and queen order Princess Bari to be found again. In other versions, the royal couple is told in a dream or a prophecy to find their daughter. In any case, Bari is brought to court. She agrees to go to the Western Heaven and departs, usually wearing the robes of a man.[35]

The details of Bari's quest differ according to the version.[36] In one of the oldest recorded narratives, recited by a shaman from near Seoul in the 1930s, she meets the Buddha after having gone three thousand leagues. Seeing through her disguise and remarking that she is a woman, the Buddha asks if she can truly go another three thousand leagues. When Bari responds that she will keep going even if she is to die, he gives her a silk flower, which turns a vast ocean into land for her to cross.[37] She then liberates hundreds of millions of dead souls who are imprisoned in a towering fortress of thorns and steel.[38]

When Bari finally arrives at the site of the medicinal water, she finds it defended by a supernatural guardian (of varying nature) who also knows that she is a woman, and obliges her to work for him and bear him sons. Once this is done―she may give birth to as many as twelve sons, depending on the version―she is allowed to return with the medicinal water and the flowers of resurrection. When she returns, she finds that her parents (or parent) have already died and that their funerals are being held. She interrupts the funeral procession, opens the coffin lids, and resurrects her parents with the flowers and cures them with the water.[39] In most versions, the princess then attains divinity.[40]

Part of the original 그때의 무장신은 산신제와 평토제를 반게 점지하고, 비리공덕 할아비는 노제 길게 받게 점지하고, 비리공덕 할미는 새남굿을 받을 때에 가시문 쇠문 별비를 받게 점지했다. 그리고 바리공주 일곱 아들은 저승의 시왕이 되게 점지하였다. 그렇게 점지한 뒤 바리공주는 인도 국왕 보살이 되어서 절에 가면 수륙제 공양을 받으시고, 들에 내리면 큰 머리단장에 입단치마 수저고리 찬란히 입은 뒤에 은월도 삼지창과 쇠방울 부채를 손에 쥐고 만신들의 왕이 되었다. -<바리 공주>

The Chogong bon-puri is a shamanic narrative whose recitation forms the tenth ritual of the Great Gut, the most sacred sequence of rituals in Jeju shamanism.[41] The Chogong bon-puri is the origin myth of Jeju shamanic religion as a whole, to the point that shamans honor the myth as the "root of the gods" and respond that "it was done that way in the Chogong bon-puri" when asked about the origin of a certain ritual.[42] It also explains the origin of the mengdu, the sacred metal objects that are the source of a Jeju shaman's authority.[41] As with most works of oral literature, multiple versions of the narrative exist.[43] The summary given below is based on the version recited by the high-ranking shaman An Sa-in (1912—1990).[44]

Shamanic ritual in Jeju Island. The modern rituals are said to be the same as the ones the triplets performed to resurrect Noga-danpung-agassi in the Chogong bon-puri.

Jimjin'guk and Imjeong'guk, a rich couple, are nearing fifty but still have no children. A Buddhist priest visits from the Hwanggeum Temple[lower-alpha 2] and tells them to make offerings in his temple for a hundred days. They do so, and a girl is miraculously born. They name her Noga-danpung-agissi.[46] When the girl is fifteen, both of her parents leave temporarily. They imprison her behind two doors with seventy-eight and forty-eight locks each and tell the family servant to feed her through a hole, so that she cannot leave the house while they are absent.[47]

The Buddhist priest of the Hwanggeum Temple learns of the great beauty of Noga-danpung-agissi and visits the house to ask for alms. When the girl points out that she cannot leave the house, the priest takes out a bell and rings it three times, which breaks every lock. When she comes out wearing a veil of chastity, he strokes her head three times and leaves. Noga-danpung-agissi then becomes pregnant.[48] When her parents return, they decide to kill her to restore the family's honor. When the family servant insists that she be killed instead, the parents relent and decide to expel both instead. Her father gives Noga-danpung-agissi a golden fan as she leaves.[49]

The two decide to go to the Hwanggeum Temple, encountering various obstacles and crossing many strange bridges on the way. The servant explains the etymology of the bridges, connecting each name to the process of Noga-danpung-agissi's expulsion from the family. They eventually reach the temple and meet the priest, who banishes her to the land of the goddess of childbirth. Alone there, she gives birth to triplets who tear out of her two armpits and her breasts.[lower-alpha 3] Having bathed them in a brass tub, she names the three boys Sin-mengdu, Bon-mengdu, and Sara-salchuk Sam-mengdu.[50]

The family lives an impoverished life. At the age of eight, the three brothers become manservants of three thousand corrupt aristocrats who are preparing for the civil service examinations. Seven years later, the aristocrats go to Seoul to pass the examinations and take the triplets with them. The aristocrats leave the triplets stranded atop a pear tree on the way, but they are rescued by a local nobleman who is forewarned by a dream of dragons ensnared on the tree. They reach Seoul and are the only people to pass the examinations. Outraged, the aristocrats imprison Noga-danpung-agissi in the "palace of Indra of the three thousand heavens."[51] This is generally understood as a metaphor for the aristocrats killing her, with other versions explicitly mentioning a murder.[52]

The triplets visit their father, who makes them abandon their old lives and become shamans in order to save their mother. He asks his sons what they saw first when they came to the temple, and they respond that they saw heaven, earth, and the gate. The priest accordingly gives them the first cheonmun, or divination discs, with the Chinese characters 天 "heaven", 地 "earth", and 門 "gate" inscribed. The triplets hold the first shamanic rituals as their father has ordered them to do, aided by Neosameneo-doryeong, the young god of shamanic music. The rituals successfully resurrect their mother. The triplets then summon a master smith from the East Sea to forge the first mengdu implements.[53] In some versions, this smith's mengdu are unsound, and the triplets' father summons a celestial smith named Jeon'gyeongnok to forge good-quality mengdu.[54] In any case, the triplets store them in a palace where their mother and Neosameneo-doryeong will keep watch over them. They then ascend into the afterlife to become divine judges of the dead, wielding the sacred shamanic knives that they will use to bring justice to the aristocrats.[53]

Some time later, the daughter of a state councillor falls seriously ill every ten years: at the age of seven, seventeen, twenty-seven and so forth. At the age of seventy-seven, she realizes that she is sick with sinbyeong, a disease sent down by the gods and cured only by initiation into shamanism. However, there are no ritual devices that she can use. She goes to the palace where the ritual implements are kept and prays to the triplets, who give her the sacred objects necessary for the shamanic initiation rite.[55] The councilor's daughter is the first truly human shaman, and her receiving the ritual objects represents the first generational transfer of shamanic knowledge.[56]

The gut or kut are the rites performed by Korean shamans, involving offerings and sacrifices to gods and ancestors.[57] They are characterised by rhythmic movements, songs, oracles and prayers.[58] These rites are meant to create welfare, promoting commitment between the spirits and humankind.[57]

Through song and dance, the shaman begs the gods to intervene in the fortune of humans. The shaman wears a very colourful costume and normally speaks in ecstasy. During a rite, the shaman changes his or her costume several times. Rituals consist of various phases, called gori.[59]

There are different types of gut, which vary from region to region.[23]

Purity of both the body and the mind is a state that is required for taking part in rituals.[60] Purification is considered necessary for an efficacious communion between living people and ancestral forms.[60] Before any gut is performed, the altar is always purified by fire and water, as part of the first gori of the ritual itself.[60] The colour white, extensively used in rituals, is regarded as a symbol of purity.[60] The purification of the body is performed by burning white paper.[60]

Since the early 19th century, a number of movements of revitalisation or innovation of traditional Korean shamanism arose. They are characterised by an organised structure, a codified doctrine, and a body of scriptural texts. They may be grouped into three major families: the family of Daejongism or Dangunism, the Donghak-originated movements (including Cheondoism and Suunism), and the family of Jeungsanism (including Jeungsando, Daesun Jinrihoe, the now-extinct Bocheonism, and many other sects).[74]

• Keith Howard (Hrsg.): Korean Shamanism. Revival, survivals and change. The Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, Seoul Press, Seoul 1998.
• Dong Kyu Kim: Looping effects between images and realities: understanding the plurality of Korean shamanism. The University of British Columbia, 2012.
• Laurel Kendall: Shamans, Nostalgias, and the IMF: South Korean Popular Religion in Motion. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 2010, ISBN 0824833988.
• Laurel Kendall: Shamans, housewives and other restless spirits. Woman in Korean ritual life (= Studies of the East Asien Institute.). University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 1985.
• Kwang-Ok Kim: Rituals of resistance. The manipulation of shamanism in contemporary Korea. In: Charles F. Keyes; Laurel Kendall; Helen Hardacre (Hrsg.): Asian visions of authority. Religion and the modern states of East and Southeast Asia. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 1994, S. 195–219.
• Hogarth, Hyun-key Kim (1998). Kut: Happyness Through Reciprocity. Bibliotheca shamanistica. 7. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. ISBN 9630575450. ISSN 1218-988X.
• Daniel Kister: Korean shamanist ritual. Symbols and dramas of transformation. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 1997.
• Jung Young Lee: Korean Shamanistic Rituals. Mouton De Gruyter, 1981, ISBN 9027933782.
• Dirk Schlottmann: Cyber Shamanism in South Korea. Online Publication: Institut of Cyber Society. Kyung Hee Cyber University, Seoul 2014.
• Dirk Schlottmann Spirit Possession in Korean Shaman rituals of the Hwanghaedo-Tradition.In: Journal for the Study of Religious Experiences. Vol.4 No.2. The Religious Experience Research Centre (RERC) at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Wales 2018.
• Dirk Schlottmann Dealing with Uncertainty: “Hell Joseon” and the Korean Shaman rituals for happiness and against misfortune. In: Shaman – Journal of the International Society for Academic Research on Shamanism. Vol. 27. no 1 & 2, p. 65–95. Budapest: Molnar & Kelemen Oriental Publishers 2019.