Resources on Shamanism in Korea and East Asia
Here are a number of links to articles on shamanism in Korea and other East Asian cultures. Click on each title to open the document.
- New Technologies in Korean Shamanism: Cultural Innovation and Preservation of Tradition, by Liora Sarfati (2014)
- Korean Shamanism: Mu, by Cha Ok-Soong (2001)
- Korean Shamans and the Spirits of Capitalism, by Laurel Kendall (1996)
- Dancing on Knives: An Introduction to the Politics of Sexuality and Gender in Korean Shamanism, by Heinz Insu Fenkl (n.d.)
- Nothing Says "Lucky" Like a Swine Head (2011)
- Shamanism in Cross-Cultural Perspective, by Michael Winkelman (2013)
- Jeju Shamans Healing Minds and Hearts, by Anne Hilty (2011)
- Korean Shaman Paintings as Objects of Ambiguity, by Laurel Kendall and Jongsung Yang (2015)
- Cyber Shamanism in South Korea, by Dirk Schlottmann (2013)
- Female Mountain Spirits in Korea, by James Grayson (1996)
- Meeting with Sanshin, by Lauren W. Deutsch (1993)
- Korean Shaman Art, edited by Lauren W. Deutsch (2009)
- The Mysterious Lonely Saint: Dokseong Images in Korea, by Beatrix Mecsi and David A. Mason
- Why is the Lonely Saint so Lonely in Korea's Buddhist Monasteries? by Beatrix Mecsi (2010)
- A Shamanic Korean Ritual for Transforming Death and Sickness into Rebirth and Integration, Nami Lee and Eun Young Kim (2017)
- Theories of Disease: Shamanistic Healing Rituals in Korea, by Tae-han Hong (nd).
- The Sponsorship of Korean Shamanic Healing Rituals, by Thomas G. Park (2017)
- A Tricky Business: Mongolian and Korean Shamans in the Modern World, by Josh Philip Ross (2015)
Bibliography of English Language Resources On Korean Shamanism
Blacker, Carmen (1999). The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan. London: Routledge.
Bruno, Antonetta L. (2002). The Gate of Words: Language in the Rituals of Korean Shamans. Leiden, The Netherlands: Research School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies (CNWS), Universiteit Leiden.
Cho, Hung-youn (1999). Cultural Interbreeding between Korean Shamanism and Imported Religions. Diogenes 47(3): 50-61.
Choi, Chongmoo (1989). The Artistry and Ritual Aesthetics of Urban Korean Shamans. Journal of Ritual Studies 3(2): 235-49.
Ch'oe, Kilsǒng (1984). Male and Female in Korean Folk Belief. Asian Folklore Studies. 43(2):227-233.
Choe, Chun-sik (2006). Folk-religion: The Customs in Korea. Seoul: Ewha Womans University Press.
Covell, Alan Carter (1993 3rd ed.) Folk Art and Magic: Shamanism in Korea. Elizabeth, NJ: Hollym International Corporation.
Covell, Alan Carter (1984). Shamanist Folk Painting: Korea's Eternal Spirits. Elizabeth, NJ: Hollym International.
Deutsch, Lauren W. (1993). Meeting with Sanshin: An Interview with Hiah Park, Lover of the Mountain God. Kyoto Journal, vol. 25.
Deutsch, Lauren W.(ed.) (2009). Korean Shaman Art. Korea Art Society Newsletter, Vol. 1, no. 1: 3-46.
Deutsch, Lauren W. (2009) Don’t Buy the “Buddha”! An Overview of Collecting Korean Shaman Paraphernalia. Korean Art Society Newsletter. 1 (1): 23-28.
Grayson, James Huntly (1992). The Accommodation of Korean Folk Religion to the Religious Forms of Buddhism: An Example of Reverse Syncretism. Asian Folklore Studies Vol. 51, No. 2 (1992), pp. 199-217.
Grayson, James H. (1996). Female Mountain Spirits in Korea: A Neglected Tradition. Asian Folklore Studies, Volume 55: 119-134.
Grayson, James H. (1998). Sŏngha Sindang: The Tutelary Shrine of T'aeha Village, Ullŭng Island, Korea. Asian Folklore Studies. 57(2):275-291.
Grim, John A. (1984). Chaesu Kut: A Korean Shamanistic Performance. Asian Folklore Studies. 43(2):235-259.
Guisso, Richard W. I. (1988). Shamanism: The Spirit World of Korea (Studies in Korean Religions and Culture, 1). Fremont, CA: Jain Pub Co.
Harvey, Youngsook Kim (1979). Six Korean Women: The Socialization of Shamans (American Ethnological Society Monographs). West Group Publishing.
Hogarth, Hyun-key Kim (1999). Korean Shamanism and Cultural Nationalism. Jimoondang Pub. Co.
Hong, Tae-han (nd). Theories of Disease: Shamanistic Healing Rituals in Korea. ICH Courier Online – Intangible Cultural Heritage Courier of Asia and the Pacific. http://ichcourier.ichcap.org/en/theories-of-disease-shamanistic-healing-rituals-in-korea-2/
Howard, Keith (1991). Paper Symbols in Chindo "Ssikkim Kut": a Korean Shamanistic Ceremony. Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie (1991) Vol. 6, pp. 65-86.
https://www.persee.fr/doc/asie_0766-1177
Howard, Keith (Editor) (1998). Korean Shamanism: Revivals, Survivals, and Change. The Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, Seoul Press.
Huhm, Halla (1980). Kut: Korean Shamanistic Rituals. Weatherhill.
Hwang, Merose (2007). “The Mudang: The Colonial Legacies of Korean Shamanism”. In Han Kut: Critical Art and Writing by Korean Canadian Women, edited by The Korean Canadian Women's Anthology Collective. Pp 103-119.
Im, Sok-Chae (Editor), Alan C. Heyman (Editor) (2003). Mu-Ga: The Ritual Songs of the Korean Mudangs. Fremont, CA: Asian Humanities Press.
Jang, Nam-hyuck (2000). Shamanism In Korean Christianity(Korean Studies Dissertation Series No. 4). Seoul: Jinmoodang International.
Kendall, Laurel (1984). Korean Shamanism: Women's Rites and a Chinese Comparison. Senri Ethnological Studies 11: 57-73.
Kendall, Laurel (1985). Shamans, Housewives, and Other Restless Spirits. (Study of the East Asian Institute) Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.
Kendall, Laurel (1988). Life and Hard Times of a Korean Shaman: Of Tales and the Telling of Tales. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.
Kendall, Laurel (1996). Korean Shamans and the Spirits of Capitalism. American Anthropologist 98 (3): 512-527.
Kendall, Laurel (2008). Of hungry ghosts and other matters of consumption in the Republic of Korea: The commodity becomes a ritual prop. American Ethnologist, 35(1): 154-170.
Kendall, Laurel (2010). Shamans, Nostalgias, and the IMF: South Korean Popular Religion in Motion. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.
Kendall, Laurel, and Jongsung Yang (2015). What is an Animated Image? Korean Shaman Paintings as Objects of Ambiguity. Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 5 (2): 153-175.
Kendall, Laurel, Jongsung Yang, Yeolsu Yoon (2015), God Pictures in Korean Contexts: The Ownership and Meaning of Shaman Paintings. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Kim, Chongho (2003). Korean Shamanism: The Cultural Paradox. (Vitality of Indigenous Religions Series). Ashgate Publishing.
Kim, David J. (2013). Critical Mediations: Haewŏn Chinhon Kut, a Shamanic Ritual for Korean Comfort Women. Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, Volume 21, Number 3, Summer 2013, pp. 725-754.
Kim, David J. (2015). Visions and Stones: Spirit Matters and the Charm of Small Things in South Korean Shamanic Rock Divination. Anthropology and Humanism, 40 (1): 1–19.
Kim, Jin-Young & Young-Gun Ko (2011). Korean Shamans and Childhood Trauma. The Journal of Psychohistory 39 (1): 41-49.
Kim, Seong-nae (2004). Shamanic Epics and Narrative Construction of Identity on Cheju Island, Asian Folklore Studies, Volume 63: 57-78.
Kim, Tae-gon (1988). Regional characteristics of Korean shamanism. In Yu, Chai-shin & Guisso, R. (eds.), Shamanism. The spirit world of Korea. Berkeley, California: Asian Humanities Press, 119-130.
Kim, Tae-kon (1998). Korean Shamanism: Muism. Jinmoondang International.
Kister, Daniel A. (1995). Dramatic Characteristics of Korean Shaman Ritual. Shaman Vol 3, no. 1-2, pp. 33-60.
Kister, Daniel A. (2006). Korean Shamanist Ritual: Symbols and Dramas of Transformation. Fremont, CA: Jain Pub Co.
Koudela, Pál & Yoo, Jinil. (2016). Music and Musicians in Kut, the Korean Shamanic Ritual. Revista de etnografie şi folclor (Bucureşti) [Journal of ethnography and folklore]. 1-2: 87-106.
Lee, Jung Young (1973). The Seasonal Rituals of Korean Shamanism. History of Religions 12(3): 271-287.
Lee, Jung Young (1973). Concerning the Origin and Formation of Korean Shamanism. Numen, Vol. 20, Fasc. 2 (Aug., 1973), pp. 135-159.
Lee, Jung Young (1981). Korean Shamanist Rituals. The Hague, Netherlands: Mouton Publishers.
Lee, Kun Jong (2004). Princess Pari in Nora Okja Keller's Comfort Woman. Positions – Asia Critique 12 (2): 431-456.
Lee, Nami, and Kim, Eun-Young (2017). A Shamanic Korean Ritual for Transforming Death and Sickness into Rebirth and Integration. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 7(5): 75-80.
Mason, David (1999). Spirit of the Mountains: Korea’s Sanshin and Traditions of Mountain-Worship. Elizabeth, NJ: Hollym.
McBride, Richard (2006). What Is the Ancient Korean Religion? Act Koreana 9(2): 1-30.
Mecsi, Beatrix (2010). Dokseong: Korea's Mysterious Lonely Saint. Mélanges Offerts à Marc Orange et Alexandre Guillemoz. Cahiers d’Études Coréennes8: 357-365. Paris: Institut d’Études Coréennes, Collège de France (ISSN 0769-7295).
Mills, Simon (2012). Sounds to soothe the soul: music and bereavement in a traditional South Korean death ritual. Mortality 17(2): 145-157.
Oak, Sung-deuk (2010). Healing and Exorcism - Christian Encounters with Shamanism in Early Modern Korea. Asian Ethnology 69(I): 95-128.
Park, Jecheol (2017). Korean Shamanic Experience in the Age of Digital Intermediality: Park Chan-kyong’s Manshin. Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies 43 (2): 107-132.
Park, Jun Hwan (2012). "Money is the Filial Child. But, at the same time, it is also the Enemy!": Korean Shamanic Rituals for Luck and Fortune. Journal of Korean Religions Volume 3, Number 2, pp. 39-72.
Park, Thomas G. (2017). Why the sponsorship of Korean shamanic healing rituals is best explained by the clients’ ostensible reasons. European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 9(3): 1-24.
Rhi, Bou-Young (1993). “The Phenomenology and Psychology of Korean Shamanism.” In Guttorm Fløistad (ed.), Asian Philosophy, vol. 7, pp. 253-268. Dordrecht & Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Sarfati, Liora (2016). Shifting Agencies through New Media: New Social Statuses for Female South Korean Shamans. Journal of Korean Studies 21(1): 179-211.
Schlotttmann, Dirk (2013). Cyber Shamanism in South Korea. 사이버사회문화 (Journal of Cyber Society & Culture) 4(2): 29-61.
Schlottmann, Dirk (2018). Spirit Possession in Korean Shaman Rituals of the Hwanghaedo Tradition. Journal for the Study of Religious Experience 4: 3-23.
Synott, John (2010). The Spirit of the Mountains: Korea's San-Shin and Traditions of Mountain Worship Acta Koreana. 13(2): 199-205.
Tran, Tommy (2018) Acquired Tastes: Urban Impacts on Jeju Shamanic Ritual. The Review of Korean Studies Volume 21 Number 1 (December 2018): 93-124.
Walraven, Boudewijn (1983). Korean Shamanism (Review Article). Numen 30(2): 240-264.
Walraven, Boudewijn (1994). Songs of the Shaman. London: Routledge.
Walraven, Boudewijn (2001). “Opening the Gate of Writing: Literate Shamans in Modern Korea”. In The Concept of Shamanism: Uses and Abuses, ed. by Henri P. Francfort, Roberte Hamayon, and Paul G. Bahn, 331–348. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.
Walraven, Boudewijn (2002). “Weavers of Ritual: How Shamans Achieve Their Aims”. The Review of Korean Studies, Vol 5 no. 1: 85–104.
Walraven, Boudewijn (2009). “National Pantheon, Regional Deities, Personal Spirits? Mushindo, Sŏngsu, and the Nature of Korean Shamanism”. Asian Ethnology Vol. 68, no. 1: 55–80. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25614521
Walraven, Boudewijn (2011). Divine Territory: Shaman Songs, Elite Culture and the Nation. Korean Histories 2(2): 42-58
Yi, Kris Yongmi (2000). Shin-byung (divine illness) in a Korean woman. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 24(4): 471-486.
Yoo, Jinil, & Koudela, Pal (2014). Sesŭmmu. Distinction, Debate and Features of Hereditary Mudang in Korea. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 59, 429–440. https://doi.org/10.1556/AETHN.59.2014.2.12