Festival offers int'l perspectives on shamanism

Manshin Kang Min-jeong holds a sword and a trident during the Shamanism Festival at the Museum of Shamanism in northwestern Seoul, Oct. 7. Courtesy of Jack Greenberg

While politicians in this country have come under scrutiny for their alleged ties to shamans and popular television dramas like "The Glory" have portrayed shamanism as a "backward" or "evil" practice, the 2023 Shamanism Festival highlighted a very different picture. It demonstrated the richness of shamanic practice as a cultural symbol that traces its roots to traditional societies around the world while showcasing regional forms of shamanism as vibrant and engaging parts of contemporary life.

The festival was held over two days, from Oct. 6 to 7, at the Museum of Shamanism in northwestern Seoul’s Eunpyeong District. It also coincided with the 10th anniversary of the museum and the first anniversary of the World Shamanism Forum (WSF), which was founded at its premises. Initially established in nearby Seongbuk District at the home of Dr. Yang Jong-sung, its founder and WSF president, the museum has occupied the historic Geumseong Shamanic Shrine since May 2016 per an agreement with the local government.

A shaman bows before an altar during the Shamanism Festival at the Museum of Shamanism in northwestern Seoul, Oct. 7. Courtesy of Jack Greenberg

The shrine is the only one of its kind in Seoul that remains in its original location. It is believed to have been constructed before the 1880s and functioned until circa 2004 as a site dedicated to the worship of various gods, including its namesake the Great Prince Geumseong ― the sixth son of King Sejong the Great. Yang and others had fought tenaciously for the shrine to be preserved when it was threatened with demolition during the construction of Eunpyeong New Town, a project that was designed to build a residential area for about 16,000 households.

The first day of the event was focused on shamanism-related academic research, which the WSF fosters as part of its mission. Dr. Laurel Kendall, curator of Asian Ethnographic Collections at the American Museum of Natural History, delivered the first of two keynote presentations. She spoke about the role of museums in caring for and preserving objects and artifacts that some believe to be “sacred, empowered and possibly dangerous.”

Dr. Laurel Kendall presents a keynote speech during the 2023 Shamanism Festival at the Museum of Shamanism in northwestern Seoul, Oct. 6. Courtesy of Jack Greenberg

Kendall first came to South Korea in the 1970s as a Peace Corps Volunteer, during which time she had a chance encounter with a female manshin (shaman). She has been awarded several recognitions for her anthropological fieldwork and the books and articles she has written about Korean shamanism over the last four decades.

The second keynote was delivered by Dr. Diana Riboli, a professor and head of the Department of Social Anthropology at Athens’ Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. She is also president of the International Society for Academic Research on Shamanism. In her address, she argued that the objective of studying shamanism ought to involve its reinterpretation as a set of practices and beliefs that are deserving of respect and capable of "fully expressing, interacting with, [and evolving alongside] the contemporary."

One of the most interesting speakers during the subsequent panel discussion was Prasana Kumar Dash, a retired civil servant from India. In 2017, Dash, who is also a hobby painter, founded the Odi Art Centre ― also home to the Purvasha Tribal Art Museum. It is located in Odisha, an eastern state with India’s highest number of Adivasi or Indigenous tribes, including the Saora. He presented how Langia Saora shamans liaise with spirits of dead ancestors in the underworld and while in a trance they direct locals to draw paintings in their homes solely for such spirits to reside in and protect them. The paintings must be done to the satisfaction of the spirits, as conveyed by the shaman, otherwise, the whole process is started again from the beginning. The paintings are usually linear drawings in a single white color on the saffron surface of a home’s mud wall.

Saora-style paintings from the Odi Art Centre in India are on display at the Museum of Shamanism in northwestern Seoul, Oct. 6. Courtesy of Jack Greenberg

An exhibition of paintings in the Saora style was displayed around Geumseong Shrine throughout the festival to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and India, while Odissi folk and classical dances were performed by renowned dancers Sagarika Mohanty and Saswat Ranjan Joshi following a celebratory "pansori" (traditional musical storytelling) recital.

Odissi dancers are joined by Mongolian Zairan Gantulga, left, and Manshin Kang Min-jeong, right, at the Shamanism Festival held at the Museum of Shamanism in northwestern Seoul, Oct. 6. Courtesy of Jack Greenberg

Another aspect of the museum and WSF’s work is to strengthen international networks and cooperation between practitioners of different shamanisms. Korean shamanism has much in common with the shamanism practiced in continental Northeast Asia, including Mongolia and Siberia, although it would be difficult to confuse a Korean manshin at work with one of their counterparts from these areas. In August, Yang led a delegation of Korean manshin to Mongolia’s Khovsgol Lake, an important site of shamanic ritual. They also went to the capital, Ulaanbaatar, where they toured the Mongolian Museum of Shamanism and performed an abbreviated version of the Seoul (Hanyang) Gut at the National Centre for Cultural Heritage.

The exchange between Korean and Mongolian shamanisms continued at the Seoul festival with a riveting execution of Mongolian rituals by three male shamans (zairan), including Angar Tungalag, who is the eighth generation of his family to practice, Basandorj Odontuya and Ochirbat Gantulga, who is also a young lawyer.

A shaman from Mongolia performs a ritualistic dance during the Shamanism Festival at the Museum of Shamanism in northwestern Seoul, Oct. 7. Courtesy of Jack Greenberg

It began with the offering of milk to the gods and the playing of a Jew’s harp (huur) to communicate with them and allow the shamans to access their supernatural realm. Large drums wrapped in animal skin were also thumped by the shamans to connect with the heavens. They wore robes weighing at least 20 kilograms, which are supposed to safeguard them from bad spirits during the ritual. Amid their drumming, all three zairan became possessed. They danced, spun around and chanted as they received luck and other good wishes from the spirits before sending them back to the sky.

The festival concluded with a three-hour performance of the Seoul (Hanyang) Cheonsin Gut, a four-step ritual, to appease the local earth and grain gods, and to pray for an abundant harvest, the peace and safety of the community and the health and wealth of each individual attending.

Throughout the afternoon, the courtyard of Geumseong Shrine was packed to capacity while neighbors from the surrounding apartments and other spectators surrounded its mud and stone fence to catch a glimpse as officiating manshin, Kang Min-jeong and her assistants, donned colorful and elegant robes, sang sacred songs accompanied by traditional instruments and paraded before an altar decorated with offerings of food, drink, money and paper flowers. At times a fan was wielded, at other moments symbolic weapons such as a sword and trident or five square flags of different colors that audience members were directed to choose from.

Manshin Kim Kyu-ri and Dr. Yang Jong-sung perform the Cheonsin Gut during the Shamanism Festival at the Museum of Shamanism in northwestern Seoul, Oct. 7. Courtesy of Jack Greenberg

An event like this festival does important work towards dispelling destructive prejudices and denigrations that are the result of government policies, religious organizations and others who are against the practice of shamanism. For the observer, it is indeed an enlightening experience, no matter how many times one has witnessed the rituals being performed. It is an opportunity to appreciate age-old practices in harmony with the rhythms of the present.

The Museum of Shamanism can be visited for free on Thursdays and Fridays. Public shamanic rituals are held annually, normally in the spring and autumn. Visit shamanismmuseum.org for more information.

Jack Greenberg is a recipient of the Global Korea Scholarship, currently pursuing a master's degree at Korea University's Graduate School of International Studies. Follow him on Twitter at @jackwgreenberg.