COMPARISON: Korean Shamanism & Hinduism

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J. M. Atkinson (1992) uses the plural term 'Shamanisms' in the article "Shamanisms  Today" citing M. Taussig (1989) that,  "Shamanism is… a made-up, modern, Western category, an artful rectification of  disparate practices, snatches of folklore and overarching folklorizations, residues of long-established myths intermingled with the politics of academic departments, curricula, conferences, journal juries and articles, and funding agencies",  she refutes the assumption that there is a uniform monolithic shamanism.   

"Krinvanto Visham-aryam" meaning "Make the world noble" is an essential teaching of the Vedas. From the point of view of the historical texts within Indian traditions, of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, one finds an interesting narrative again and again that the from the beginning of mankind till recent times, the entire world was filled with people who were either Aryas or else Anaryas. Among Anaryas, some were cruel, immoral and inhuman and they were called as Dasyus. These Dasyus included Mlechhas which included dacoits and murderers, Pishachas who included meat eaters and cannibals and Rakshasas who included rapists and barbarians. The other types of Anaryas were the people who weren't as bad as the Dasyus yet who didn't fully cultivate the qualities required to be classified as Arya. They were classified as Shudras. Many Shudras who were moral and imbibed "noble" behaviour were considered as Aryas. Many Aryas who compromised a few of their "Noble" qualities were referred to as Vratyas, though they weren't always demoted to being Anaryas.

The Aryas have been called as Devas and Dasyus have often been called Rakshasas. Many Anaryas were simply called Asuras and the struggle for power and survival against the Devas have been described in the Brahmanas, Aranyakas and other Itihasas as Deva-Asura Sangrama (struggle  between Devas and Asuras). It is well known among scholars of Vedic lore that in the Vedic scriptures even philosophical and Yogic concepts of Pranavayus (breath energy) and Indriyas (senses) have been explained in the terminology of Deva-Asura conflicts. Even many natural phenomena have been taught using such  Deva-Asura analogy. In spite of these, even historical conflicts across the world between the morally 'noble' (Aryas) and the immoral barbarians (Anaryas) have been described as Deva-Asura conflict.

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These texts also tell an important thing that all Anaryas were descendants of Aryas preceding them and every human on Earth is a descendant of the first generation of Aryas among humans. Hence every Hindu caste (jāti) and tribe in India traditionally claims to be a descendant of some Deva or Rishi (enlightened sage).

I hopefully gave an informative general introduction to ancient Indian narratives of history... Now... the fact is that EVERY OTHER COUNTRY in the world that can be traced to any of the ancient civilizations of the world have similar legends or mythologies that have many parallels to Hindu, Jaina and Buddhist myths or historical narratives. The cultures of the civilizations I mean are the Pagan and prehistoric and ancient ones that predated the spread of Abrahamic religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, though early Hebrew Jewish sources do have parallels to rest of the Pagan cultures.

Every religion, culture, denomination has traces of this apparent Arya and Anarya traditions, all that got mixed through time.

## This series of posts will focus on the indigenous folk religious traditions, specifically the Shamanistic ones, belonging to the people of Korean peninsula- both North Korea as well as South Korea and their parallels and differences with Vedic as well as non-Vedic streams of thought within Hinduism. I must inform beforehand that there are more similarities than differences between most of Korean folk religious thought and Vedic-Yogic spiritual schools of thought, assuming that the academic scholarly books on Korean Folk Religion (Sinism/Sindo) are accurate or near accurate (since I myself haven't got the opportunity to travel to Korea and study it's folk religions).##

(A KOREAN SHAMAN- CALLED 'MU' IN KOREAN )

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First of all it's important to know that there isn't any organized religion or belief system called "Korean Shamanism" or "Korean Folk Religion". This English term was formed in premodern times to club in diverse indigenous belief systems centered in the Korean peninsula, in which a "Shaman" or a divinator in trance played a central role in rituals. 

According to Dr. Dong Kyu Kim, an authoritative expert on Korean Shamanistic traditions, Shamanism is generally looked down upon by the Christian minority (both, Protestants as well as Catholics). Even though the non-religiously affiliated population, forming the majority of South Korea, engages in traditional customs- yet they do it only as a part of their culture. Though according to online sources such as Karen Frances Eng and Jorge Mãnes Rubio, a big population within the Korean modern and young generation is taking keen spiritual interests in their Shamanistic cultural roots. Women play important roles as Shamans in Korea.

(Medieval Korean depiction of a Shaman. Image source: Google images)

Dr. Kim says that there exists a wide difference between folk traditions of Northern Korean peninsula and the Southern one.
As mentioned in the introduction, within all traditions of Korean Folk Religion or Sinism one can finds traces of Arya teachings as well as Anarya teachings, as this what I have analysed. When people of different, and at times contrasting, mentalities started accommodating each other and the respective spiritual practices, their following generations started mixing up many beliefs and such practices leading to a formation of a fusion of different belief systems, values and raw philosophies.

● MUGYO within Sinism and YOGIS within Hinduism.

It is also called as "Musog" in some parts of Korea. It translates as "belief (-gyo/-sog) of the Shamans (Mu)" from Korean into English. 

According to this informative article of The Korea Post, Korean Shamanism (Mugyo) can be dated back to 4,348 years at least. 

Today, in the 21st century, the number of Korean Shamanists have a population over 300,000 according to a recent official announcement of the South Korean government-recognized Gyeongsin Yeonhap-hoe (Federation of Korean Folk Religious Organizations). There are interesting parallels of Korean Shamanism with Siberian Shamanism since they are thought to have a common origin.

The belief system of Korean Shamanism is centered on a set of legends within Korean mythology which center on the Mu- the Shaman. It is called Musogsinhwa in the Korean tongue.

The Mu or Shamans are considered to be "chosen people" of the Gods and ancestors as it's believed that the reason why the specific individual has become a Shaman or Mu is that a deity chose to be "one with the Shaman's soul".

This is quite similar, though there is a fair share of differences, to the traditional Vedic narrative of history where the "Rishis" are humans chosen by the Supreme Being- or else Devas to attain enlightenment. The meaning of 'Devas' here may mean natural or psychological entities and forces as well as living people who have 'divine' qualities (such as wisdom, compassion, bravery, fearlessness, truthfulness, etc.) and perform 'divine' deeds (such as performing the fire oblations or Agnihotra Yajna, work hard, study and spread the word of the Vedas, etc.). The term "Rishi" means 'Seer' or an enlightened person who has a "spiritual cosmic vision" of the knowledge of the Vedas behind it's words. The 'Pitras' mean the elders of one's clan or family as well as the infinite number of dead ancestors whose spirits may have either been reincarnated or else have attained freedom from the cycle of birth-death-rebirth by dwelling in the Supreme Being- Aum. But on what basis were and are the Rishis chosen in the Vedic religion? The answer to this is that onn Karma, or previous deeds of the individual, he or she EARNED Rishi-hood.

It is also worth mentioning that various tribal, folk rural and semi-urban non-Vedic traditions among Hindus have customs of spirit possession where usually a local Goddess or God, often considered as forms or incarnations of Durga-Parvati or else Shiva, is believed to "enter" the body of the host and convey messages. Such "spirit possessions" among some Hindus is pretty similar to Korean Shamans. 

References:- 

• The Emergence of National Religions in Korea, by Dr. Lee Chi-ran.

• The Political Message of Folklore In South Korea's Student Demonstrations of the Eighties: An Approach to the Analysis of Political Theatre, by Clark W. Sorensen. 

• Looping Effects Between Images And Realities:  Understanding The Plurality Of Korean Shamanism, by Dong Kyu Kim. 

• Light of Truth, by Swami Dayanand Saraswati. 

• Introduction to the Commentary on the Rigveda and other Vedas, by Swami Dayanand Saraswati. 

• Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, by Mircea Eliade.