Korean's Animistic Beliefs

The Beginning:

Hwanung, the Prince of Heaven saw the earth below him filled with mountains and valleys saw its beauty and asked his father Hwanin, the Lord of Heaven if he might live on the earth below. Thus, the Lord of Heaven not only permitted his son to live upon the earth, but also sent along three thousand helpers to help Hwanung bring knowledge to the humans. Along with the three chancellors, cloud, rain and wind they brought prosperity and abundant harvest to the land.

A bear and tiger dwelling in a cave, prayed earnestly to Hwanung that they might become human. Hwanung took pity upon them and called them forth to see him. To become human, he told them to stay out of the sun for a hundred days and eat only a bundle of mugwort and twenty cloves of garlic which was provided for them in the hundred day time span.

The animals receded into the darkness of the cave, but the tiger after only a few days hated the boredom and the sparse diet, and went along his way. The bear, on the other hand, waited still, enduring the silence patiently, and for her suffering, turned into a beautiful woman after only twenty-one days.

The bear was overjoyed, thanking Hwanung and making offerings to him, however as time passed, she grew sad at the prospect of no husband and not carrying any children, and prayed for a child. Hwanung, moved, took her for his wife, and she bore him a son, Dangun (or Tangun) Wanggeom.

Upon listening to the Korean creation story, who cannot dream of a land so beautiful that the gods thought it paradise, or the glory of being human? Humans, in Korean eyes, have the power to mold their own destiny, and

What human being has not looked at a beautiful scene and lost breath at its glory for a split second? What magnificence and awe is there for someone who has seen the ocean, a different country, or the mountains for the first time. The moment the heart stops as it purveys the scene before one’s eyes, looking at paradise on earth.

The Korean landscape is filled with wonder at every turn, the mountains