Shaman museum shows Korea's first religion

Yang Jong-sung, right, director of the Museum of Shamanism, directs a visitor through a shamanistic ritual using a “dolhalmeoni” (grandmother stone), believed to have spiritual power to make people’s wishes come true. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

By Jon Dunbar

The Museum of Shamanism has reopened at its new location in Eunpyeong district, northwestern Seoul.

The museum for Korea’s first religion was established on May 2, 2013, in Jongno as a private museum run by folklorist Yang Jong-sung, a self-described “believer of all religions.” But after three years there, it moved to Geumseongdang, a 200-year-old former shrine dedicated to Prince Geumseong, King Sejong’s sixth son, opening on May 25.

At the end of Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910), there were three shrines dedicated to the prince within Seoul’s modern city limits, with the second in Mangwon-dong, western Seoul, and the third in Wolgye-dong, northeastern Seoul.

But according to Yang those two were destroyed in the 1970s under then-President Park Chung-hee’s Saemaul Undong, a rural modernization movement. This building, now completely surrounded by the newly constructed high-rises of Eunpyeong New Town, would have disappeared too, were it not for Yang’s efforts.

“I fought,” he told The Korea Times, describing his public campaign to earn the historic structure a stay of execution. “This is important history of shamanism culture. If we destroy it, how can we see our own history?”

Shamanism has had a profound influence on Korean “history, religion, social structures, and personalities,” according to Yang.

Exhibits include shamanistic items from across the Korean Peninsula, including costumes, ancient texts, ritual items and handcrafted paper flowers. Even modern items are found among the exhibits, including Bacchus D energy drinks which give shamans an energy boost and soju which is used in sacrificial rituals. There are also shaman clothes from Nepal and Mongolia, the latter which Yang collected there 15 years ago and says is no longer found in its native country.

The museum will also offer traditional performances, cultural festivals and hands-on activities such as making paper flowers, as part of its new role as a traditional cultural center operated and funded under Eunpyeong District Office. Its former status as a shrine has already attracted shamans. Yang lets them conduct rituals there, provided they seek prior permission and aren’t too loud.

Jeremy Seligson, an adjunct professor at Yonsei University, will lead a guided tour to the museum for the Royal Asiatic Society this Saturday. “More than the imported Confucianism, Buddhism and Christianity, shamanism carries the heart of Korean art and culture _ alive, passionate, compassionate and authentic,” he said.

“It opens wide the very soul of Koreans.”

The museum is open on Tuesdays and Fridays, from 10 a.m. to noon and from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, visit shamanismmuseum.org or call (02) 388-6522 or (02) 909-8808.