An Authentic Korean Shaman Ritual

Thanks to a friend's notification (and ride) I was able to witness a real local community gut (shaman ritual) involving an actual Jeju simbang, or "mudang" in mainland Korean. The ritual was quite fascinating and there is a lot of symbolism that a casual outsider can't decipher without prior knowledge or insider information. There were many paper decorations to represent money and lots of food as offerings and some were thrown into the sea. The shaman carried a pair of branches with paper streamers to attract the deity's attention and she also had a pair of knives used to perform fortune telling. The ritual was held in a small and ordinary community hall, but at the door facing the sea, the shaman and her assistants set up a symbolic "bridge" to the other world as a way to connect the human world and the sea god's kingdom.

As a lot of this is all passed through oral tradition or inherited local traditions, most of it is not recorded or translated in English so it was exhilirating to actually see the practice at the local level. The big shaman rituals are designated as an "Intangible Cultural Asset [insert number here]," but this ritual was truly a local ritual for Gimnyeong village.

Sunday marked March 8th on the Korean lunar calendar; this is the day when the gates of the sea king god, Yongwang, open to our world. The Haenyeo ("sea women"; women divers) and the fishing association of Gimnyeong hold their ceremonial rites to greet Yongwang on this day to ask for his blessing, to pay tribute to those who passed away at sea, and to determine the future outcome of the year and supernatural advice.

The ritual lasted from 10 AM to 6 PM, but what was quite interesting about it was the relatively casual nature of it all in comparison to a "religious" ceremony. Though there was quite a lot of ritual dancing, drumming, and ceremonial actions (such as throwing the barley to discard bad luck or divining spiritual portents), there was also somewhat of a laid-back atmosphere. The people attending the ritual chatted amongst themselves even while the shaman was "talking" to Yongwang. Two of the other shamans where dressed in ordinary everyday clothes (only the main shaman had the traditional shaman's hanbok). Most amusing was at one point the shaman was text-messaging in the middle the ritual! She also had a way of weaving her remarks at the other people into her ritual chanting as if they were part of the prayer. When the camera people got in her way, she was yelling at them to get out, and when she was reading names written on ceremonial paper, she complained about how small the writing was. This was all done in a manner that sounded as if she was still chanting. At two points in the ritual, the shaman lead a traditional community song and dance with the senior haenyeo taking part. Unlike a regular quiet religious ceremony, the shaman ritual was very much a community-oriented affair.