Shamanism is Korea's native religion. Over time, it has mixed with Buddhism and even incorporated some Buddhist figures. As a general rule, Buddha is seen as a benevolent but more passive presence than Shaman Gods, who can be both extremely supportive and extremely severe.
During the Chosun dynasty (1432-1910), Confucionism became the dominant doctrine and, together with Buddhism, Shamanism was gradually marginasied. It was completely repressed during the Japanese Occupation (1910–1945) and resurfaced again after Korea's liberation in 1945. Even though, the country's Westernisation (understood as an intense swing towards the rational and the scientific) posed another challenge to Shamanism, the tradition is still alive and popular even today.
What is Shamanism?
Shamanism is a set of beliefs and practices that aim to restore the balance between heaven, earth and people. Balance is a core principle, the same core principle lieing a the heart of the Korean flag and the Korean alphabet. According to the Shamanist view, all ills in life arise from a disbalance between these three components and, through specific dances and rituals, the shaman's role is to restore the unity of the three main components, heal divisions and eliminate suffering, thereby achieving salvation and gaining greater happiness. These specific rituals, or performances, are known as Gut/Kut and they serve to liberate people from bondage and distaster.
Shamanist rituals are closely tied to the concpet of Han. In Korean mentality, Han represents a deep-rooted sense of having been wronged, hurt, abused, misfortuned. Through Shamanism, such knots of repressed negative feelings can be released and inner balance can be regained with the ultimate result being purification and inner peace.
The prerequisite to becoming a shaman is to suffer from a mysterious illness called Shinbyeong. Once can be healed from it only if they accept their fate as a Shaman. If they refuse, the Gods will torture them to death for not accepting their calling.
While dancing in a sacred costume, the Shaman communicates with a specific diety and delivers the diety's message to their clients. Regular clients can speak directly to the diety through the Shaman. This is possible because the Shaman enjoys a special relationship with the diety which has been developed through devotion and pilgrimages to sacred mountains. A Shaman, who misinterpretes the message they receive from the diety risks punishment for themselves and for their clients. Once angered, a God may abandon a Shaman and thus doom them to insanity or death.
The Biological Basis for Shamanism
Native Shamanist traditions exist all over the world. In fact, they are seen by scholars as a prototype of contemporary religions. Despite that, post-Enlightenment culture has tended to see Shamanism with particular suspicion and at times even disdain.
Recent scientific research, however, has given more credibility to such practices by explaining the biological basis for altered states of consiousness. The existing literature suggests that all altered states arise from the integration of previously less active brain networks.
According to Arnold Mandell, one of the key researchers in this field, hallucinogens, amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana, polypeptide opiates, long-distance running, hunger, thirst, sleep loss, auditory stimuli such as drumming and chanting, sensory deprivation, dream states, meditation, and a variety of psychophysiological imbalances or sensitivities resulting from injury, trauma, disease, or hereditarily transmitted nervous system conditions interefere with serotonin inhibition which in turn causes the activation of dopamine mechanisms.
Another key scholar in this area, Previc, argued that common to all forms of altered states is a disinhibition of dopaminergic extrapersonal brain systems, particularly those involving the ventral cortex and the limbic circuit. He suggested that dopamine is key in a variety of cognitive abilities crucial to humans’ advanced intelligence and cognition including motor programming, working memory, parallel processing, spatial and temporal abstraction, cognitive flexibility, stimulus associations and more.
Despite the difference in substances and exact mechanisms, all altered states involve disturbances in the serotonergic and dopaminergic connections between the limbic system and brain stem regions that enhance the integration into the frontal cortex of the activities of these lower levels of the brain.
Shamanist Paintings
Shaman shrines contain many ritual objects including paintings. The shrine is the place where the Shaman meets his or her diety. Within this sacred space, it is in the painting where the diety resides. The painting is a sort of an avatar, an extention of the diety's ability to engage with the world of the mortals. Shrine paintings contain divine agency. Shamans often warn that mishandled paintings can be polluted with bad luck and bring misfortune.
Key Motifs & Paintings
As with every artistic tradition, Shamanistic art, too, has a number of recurring motifs, namely saintly creatures believed to have diety powers. The most popular one is the tiger, often referred to as "The Mountain God", who is said to represent Tangun, the founding father of the Korean nation. He symbolises peace and safety for the community and is often depicted with a mushroom, a symbol of longevity.
The second key motif is "The Guardians of the Five Directions" - five male figures in military attire, each with a specific headpiece. They are said to guard the five directions (East, West, North, Sounth and Center) and protect from the murder of parents, being unloved by one's husband, being involved in an extramarrital affair, endless wandering, fatal disease.
Another key motif is "The Seven Star Spirit". While the above-mentioned Guardians protect from misfortune, the Seven Star Spirit brings good fortune, particularly to children.
Shamanism and Contemporary Art
Modern Korean art does not often refer to shamanistic imagery per se. However, present-day folk(ish) paintings sometimes feature different symbols from the Shaman tradition.
