Korea’s Sacred Mountains and Their Spirits
| David A. Mason | |
| |
| Name in Latin Alphabet: | David A. Mason |
|---|---|
| Nationality: | USA |
| Affiliation: | Kyung Hee University |
강연 소개
Ancient and extensive traditions of regarding certain mountains as sacred, and corresponding mountain-worship activities conducted at them were found worldwide until recent decades, although the majority of them have declined in importance or even disappeared as modernization has proceeded. However, sacred mountains continue to attract and inspire many visitors to them, even travelers from far distant lands. Global overviews of this are thoroughly provided by several well-known books on them, such as those by Bernbaum (1990), Cooper (1997), Hitchcock (2005) and Park (1994).
Korea’s sacred-mountain traditions and mountain-worshiping practices, including pilgrimage and the veneration of Mountain-spirits, have always been extremely strong and central to its culture, and despite the rapid and thorough modernization of society in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), they remain very strong and continue to evolve new forms of expression (Mason 1999 provides an extensive overview and discussion).
However, both Korea’s history of regarding many of its mountains as sacred and the identity and character of its most-sacred mountains remains relatively unknown internationally and therefore underutilized for promotion of inbound international tourism and the general national reputation. The two famous books referred to just above by Bernbaum and Cooper both have entire chapters on both China and Japan, Korea's close neighbors in Northeast Asia, with whom its culture and cultural tourism situation can usefully be compared, but include nothing at all about Korean mountains.
Which of Korea's many mountains can be designated with confidence as ‘most sacred’? Out of our “ten-thousand peaks”, what criteria can be used make a valid determination that any one of them is more sacred than another? How can we gain a sense of systematic validity in making lists of any number of the holiest mountains of Korea? What benefits for tourism and the more general national reputation could be expected from being able to accomplish these tasks? This paper explores useful answers to these questions.
강연 영상
Korea's Sacred Mountains and Their Spirits
