History and Rituals of Korean Shamanism - Research Paper Example

Shamanism is considered as one of the oldest spiritual traditions in the world. The task of a shaman is to mediate between the human and spiritual dimensions, helping to guarantee harmony and balance between the two dimensions. What differentiates a shaman from a priest is that the former undertake trance rituals. According to Mircea Eliade, an anthropologist, shamans have an ancient history of practice in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.1 However, in this essay, I will explore the history, traditions, practices and societal implications of shamanism in Korea. I. History and Rituals of Korean Shamanism It could be argued that shamanism embodies the oldest human religion, for the most adventurous of archaeologists provided evidence of shamanistic practices among homo sapiens. Its prevalence all over the world as well indicates that in several ways shamanism is the perfect example of human religiosity. It continues to be extremely important at present, less often clearly as in the case of Haiti than totally as in the case of the Pentecostal.2 The word shaman has a Siberian origin and a shaman is a person who arbitrates the connection between the natural world and a dynamic supernatural dimension or realm of spirits for the goal of obtaining some control over or wisdom of natural phenomena. The practice is indicative of situations in which individuals either had extremely little control over their fate as in ancient societies or whose individual power is inadequate in a world that appears overpowering or menacing as under contemporary capitalism. To obtain a union with a power that is mystical, the shaman is mounted by a spirit after having freed his/her mind from innate limitation. This emancipating process is frequently attained through drugs such as sot-weed or tobacco, whirling or dancing, thumping or singing yawning tones.3 The word shaman is not just Siberian in origin, but Northeast Asia appears to have been a key center of later transmissions of the spiritual practice into the Americas, particularly Native America, and later all over Eurasia, as in ancient Southeast Asia. For the reason that the deepest origin of Korean culture and civilization rest in the Altaic province of Northeast Asia, it is not astonishing that shamanism had a fundamental part in Korean civilization, as it as well does in the case of Tibetan. When the Yamacek, or also called the Tungusic people, moved to the Korean Peninsula at the advent of first millennium B.C., they pioneered a deeply shamanistic culture.4 Among the Yemacek-Tungusic society’s manufactured bronze items were several objects that it appears were used in shamanistic rites. The key locations of bronze production, which are supposed to be the primary sites of ancient Korean civilization, are in the region of Pyongyang in the northwest, the southeast Taegu-Kyongju region, and other regions in the southwest, in which a specifically abundant variety of shamanistic tools were unearthed in the 1960s.5 Ancient totemistic tribes evidently followed collective shamanistic practices initially that involved the yonggo ritual to pray to a mystical energy. The shamanistic ch’on’gun or Heaven Prince related to these tribes may have performed wide-ranging religious and military headship functions.6 Nevertheless, the two functions later on diverged in a way parallel to the coming out of the kshitrya or warrior and a brahmana or religious aristocrats in Hindustan in the early part of the second millennium B.C. It has been hinted that this split is defined by the segregation of the practice of criminal justice within the tribal settlements or sodo as they turn out to be religious centers gradually more under the control of the ch’on’gun shaman cleric. Possibly because shamanism was assimilated into a feature of the male leadership of the emerging state institutions representing a social conflict, shamanism as a mainstream spiritual practice at the village stage became connected to mudang or women priests. These women priests would have put up a poll in the sodo on which were suspended bells and a spirit-summoning drum for the shamanistic rites. A part of them as well was the Dance to Heaven.7 Since the shamanistic leaders has access to mystical energies, and was hence less limited by condition, it was able to glimpse further than the tribe to set up alliances. As a matter of fact, at the advent of the first millennium A.D., the tribal realm of Saro surfaced as a tribal coalition ruled by shaman kings.8 The designation of these kings were originally kosogan, then changed into ch’ach’aung which means shaman and finally to isagum. These shaman kings functioned to mitigate conflict between fighting tribes in advocacy of tribal state establishment.9 The tribal coalitions later on merged into the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea, namely, Koguryo, Paechke and Silla. In the Koguryo Dynasty, the king carried out the rituals at the place of pilgrimage of his Urfather, launching an ancestor faction that strengthened political leadership. These kingdoms were profoundly affected by the political institutions and philosophies of China that integrated the landed gentry of tribal patriarchs and tribal rulers into a military elite ruling class. They as well played a role in the transition of Japan to a state-level society.10 The new leading philosophy in Korea was Buddhism. For instance, in the kingdom of Silla, hyangga or native song poetry embodies a conversion of shamanistic prayer into Buddhist incantation. Due to the ideological part of Buddhism, the throng of people carried on with their historical shamanism as an opposition.11 However, there was always a stress in Korea between a spiritual life that fulfilled psychic requirements and which hence surpassed class, and a religion that was a phase of state principles and which hence perpetuated class contradictions. In the Yi period, the expanding cultural conflict between the elite ruling class and the Korean people can be observed in several areas. For instance, the ruling class kept on using Chinese characters and symbolism to write, whereas the accepted writing type, Han’gul, was improved and adopted by the masses. It just gradually infiltrated socially upward, and contemporary Korean still has some influence of Chinese characters. In relation to music, the Chinese-shaped court music attracted the ruling class, whereas folk music became popular among ordinary citizens. One demonstration of this mainstream music was a smooth bodied lute referred to as the kayagum which escorted a singer who, with backup dancers, partook in the shamanistic rites.12 In the nineteenth century, novel doctrines were introduced to Korea, such as Sohak or Western Learning such as Catholicism and Tonghak or Eastern Learning such as Confucianism, but the majority of Koreans favored their indigenous shamanistic doctrines as brought together in a nineteenth-century manuscript, Chonggam-nok to unearth buried truths or divination.13 While this definitely guided itself to unfounded hearsays, it could as well motivate popular insurrections against the oppression and exploitation of the ruling class. Nonetheless, Tonghak was an integrated religion, and hence in the agricultural communities it helped propped up a nationalistic ideal that surpassed class conflicts. It assimilated the Buddhist notion of ch’i or the Confucian concept of the divine, heaven, Christianity, shamanism, and a lot else, and it directed far-reaching antagonism to official fraud and foreign powers, particularly the gross commercialism which added to it.14 Much the same could be mentioned of the Taiping rebellion in China. In the contemporary period, the practice of shamanism lives to tell the tale in more historical contexts. For instance, a woman priest in a community nowadays will conduct a kut rite that recollects the ceremonies sought for in the ancient tribal history of Korea.15 II. Korean Shamanism, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism Shamanism slowly paved the way of Buddhism or Confucianism as an instrument for governing the masses but its power and influence continued. The shaman, or also called mudang in Korea, is a mediator who can connect humanity with the spiritual realm where the spirits of the dead inhabit. The shaman is regarded as capable of warding off negative energies or bad luck, curing illnesses and diseases and guaranteeing a favorable passage from this dimension to the next. The shaman is as well seen as an arbitrator of conflicts and tensions that could be present between the living and the dead. Korean shamanism involves the adulation of multitudes of spirits and evil spirits that are though to inhabit every thing in the natural world, including trees, rocks, mountains, rivers and also extraterrestrial elements. Shamanism in early Korea was a spiritual practice of fear and false notion, but for present generations, it continues to be a vibrant and artistic component of their civilization. A shamanistic rite, rich with mystical elements, provides melodramatic components with music and dance. The entry of more refined religions such as Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism did not lead to the desertion of shamanistic creeds and traditions. They embraced elements of shamanistic beliefs and coexisted harmoniously. Shamanism has continued to be a fundamental religion in Korea as well as a core feature of Korean culture. Confucianism was able to diminish its influence and transform its context, but Shamanism maintained its well-built tradition because of its consideration to women’s needs and demands. Confucian rite is an entirely male-dominated and male-focused exhibition of filial piety; the vital ceremony, chesa, centers on the adoration of patrilineal forebears by male family members whereas women prepare ritual victuals and rearrange everything afterwards. Kendall pointed out to the mother of two timid teenager sons executing chesa, but it is an exceptionally uncommon occurrence that would be disapproved by honorable men.16 Buddhism permits women involvement in its ceremonies and its traditional hierarchy, thereby broadening the limits of their social affairs, but the topmost levels of the Buddhist social hierarchy are controlled and dominated, akin to other religions, by men. Shamanism, on the contrary, assimilates symbols from these two religious institutions into a woman-focused tradition in which women occupy high positions of authority. Moreover, it as well integrates Taoist symbols and the more ancient animist symbols which are possibly the most entrenched in the culture and civilization of Korea; but while Taoist and animist rites were often isolated, Shamanism has the capability to transform its tradition and practices into social activity.17 It is unsurprising, then, that it has survived up to this day. The integration of Taoist and animist symbols, which put emphasis on wellbeing, son-bearing and life span, as well indicates another fascinating association between Shamanism and Confucianism. In consigning Shamanism to the private dimension and transforming it into a tradition of women, the Confucian order appears to have put into effect a nature and culture differentiation. Confucianism openly demoralizes women and the commonplace Korean woman acknowledges her own depreciation and assumes on a cultural perspective. Men are the not the only individuals who make use of the aphorism, Namjon jobi, which means ‘Man high, woman low.’ The ritual setting of Shamanism and its consideration to familial and financial stability as well as childbirth is a religious institution that is perceived as intimate to nature while Confucian sacrament is ranked as more intangible, concentrated on the cultural principles of patrilineage and social structure.18 The prospect of Shamanism itself was indefinite in the latter part of the 1980s. Observers thought that several of its roles in the future perhaps will be carried out by the profession of psychiatry as the government enlarges facilities for mental health.19 Provided with the indefiniteness of economic, political and social circumstances, nevertheless, it seems definite that shamans will locate considerable number of patrons in the near future. Even though Confucianism was the state-authorized principle of the Joseon period, ancient Christian missionaries from outside Korea noticed that in actuality shamanism upholds a religious passion and energy which Confucianism doesn’t possess. In spite of the official contempt agreed practitioners of shamanism, even bureaucrats would resort to a mudang at moments of extreme necessity. This embedded sense of inter-diffusion of a mystical spiritual dimension and commonplace physical reality has been a component of the Korean knowledge for centuries.20 Shamanistic elements are enclosed in a rite that mainstream Koreans at present perform at revolutionary rituals or on the opening day of business. It is carried out even by urbane companies such as computer business and even banks, and on film studios when filming begins. Food is arranged on an offering stand, enclosing the head of a pig, favorably a jovial pig, since these are assumed to confer greater luck and blessings. Those convened offer a curtsy to the head of the pig and insert money in its open mouth. Pigs are as well favorable guests in dreams. Koreans are cheerful when they dreamt of a pig for the reason that these are thought to be forerunners of good fortune.21 In the meantime, the degradation of humanity which appears to come with politics has made the Korean public to hold traditional as well as professional politicians in low regard. High ranking public servants, in comparison, are more esteemed; at least they acquired their high positions through the painstaking reasonable civil service examinations rather than through the debasing and corrupt political system.22 It is the regrettable adversity of the nation of Korea that the historical cultural virtues of humanity and civility appear irreconcilable with representative democracy, whereas actions historically considered as unabashed and corrupted seem unavoidable civic values. III. The Prospect of Korean Shamanism In spite of the frustrations and failures, the Korean people are dedicated to democracy as their public prospect. Even faced with all the cross-cultural conflict, they appear to presume that there is no other superior system in practice. However, before they can start to take pleasure from the advantages of liberal democracy, a cultural transformation should transpire which will obliterate the shamanistic paradigm and displace it with the perspectives of modern democracy. This is a massive venture in cultural production, for which there is no triumphant blueprint, but it could be that in Korea the progress of commercial capitalism will confirm to be a genuinely successful driving force for cultural transformation. Already has the paradigm of shamanism demonstrates critical indications of erosion because of the influences of commercial capitalism; familial precedence is beginning to weaken, individualism is intensifying, youth and novelty have started to replace age and custom, and quantitative mechanisms have started to displace the qualitative as markers of significance. In other words, the points of view and traditions of the commercial middle class are gradually being opened up into the Korean paradigm. It appears probable that until the novel, elite virtues have been completely embraced by the people of Korea there will be to a certain extent perplexity and mayhem; emancipated from the limitations of personal commitment and domestic affairs which have up till now restricted it, political influence may be exploited in atrocious and tyrannical ways until the checks and balances of the democratic system is decisively assimilated by the people of Korea. It is improbable to foresee the future of shamanism in Korea and its paradigm in the perspective of the several transformations through which the society of Korea is currently undergoing. But the direction which Korea has preferred is explicitly political and, provided with its apolitical nature, shamanism may attest to be no equal for other, more revolutionary paradigm. References Clark, Charles Allen. Religion of Old Korea. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1981. Clark, Donald. Culture and Customs of Korea. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. Covell, Alan Carter. Ecstasy: Shamanism in Korea. Seoul Korea: Hollym, 1983. Grayson, James Huntley. "Female Mountain Spirits in Korea: A Neglected Tradition." Asian Folklore Studies (1996): 119+. Harvey, Youngsook Kim. Six Korean Women: The Socialization of Shamans. St. Paul: West Publishing Co. , 1979. Kendal, Laurel. Shamans, Housewives, and other Restless Spirits . University of Hawaii Press, 1985. Lee, Jung Young. Korean Shamanistic Rituals. New York: Mouton Publishers, 1981. Mattieli, Sandra. Virtues in Conflict: Tradition and the Korean Woman Today. Seoul: Royal Asiatic Society/ Samhwa Press, 1977. Walraven, B.C.A. Muga: The Songs of Korean Shamanism. Dordrecht, Netherlands: ICG Painting, 1985. Wells, Kenneth M. New God, New Nation: Protestants and Self-Reconstruction Nationalism in Korea, 1896-1937. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990. Read More