Whether it's from red neon crosses lighting up the night sky or the sound of monks rapping on moktok it is not unusual to encounter evidence of the influence that Christianity and Buddhism have had in South Korea. For someone not specifically looking for them though, it can be much harder to spot the references to Daoism and Shamanism that have ( Read more... )

The end of October saw a reenactment of King Gojong's enthronement as head of the Korean Empire at Unhyeongung in Jongno-gu, Seoul that was an interesting experience to attend. Admission fees were waived on account of the special event, though the light rain that afternoon seemed to keep many people from attending. It was also a little ( Read more... )

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Since I mentioned shamanism in my last entry this seems as good a time as any to share the following video.

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One of the remarkable things about Korea is the degree of syncretism that takes place between religions. While there are several 'universal truths' to be found within the world's belief systems it's not often that they borrow from one another to the extant that they do here. Take, for example, the following sign that I encountered a couple of ( Read more... )

Continuing on from this entry, the next site one encounters on Dobongsan after Daewonsa is the complex at Shinwonsa. As with all of the other temples that I've written about from this particular trip, Shinwonsa shares its name with a more popular temple to the south, this one located in Chungcheongnam-do. In Hanja the temple's name is 新元寺, which ( Read more... )

Two weeks ago I picked up a copy of the Samguk Yusa (삼국유사) by the Buddhist monk Ilyon - described on Wikipedia as "a collection of legends, folktales, and historical accounts relating to the Three Kingdoms of Korea (Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla), as well as to other periods and states before, during, and after the Three Kingdoms period" - and I came ( Read more... )

Another interesting thing to note about the Gyeongju National Museum is their collection of golden crowns. Apparently there are only ten fully golden crowns in the world, with eight coming from the Korean peninsula and six of those excavated from tombs near Gyeongju. I saw several of them at the Gyeongju National Museum and an additional crown on ( Read more... )