Shamanism is a native religion in Korea. Confucian concepts, Taoism, and Buddhism were imported from China and influenced Koren culture and religion. I think Christianity wasn't introduced into Korea until early this century. BTW, there is supposedly larger populations of Jewish and Muslim Korean worshipers than shamanistic worshipers.
Korea has had a stable society for much of it's recorded history. It's not likely that a religion/belief practiced for hundreds or thousands of years will vanish in less than century. In many ways, I think a lot of shamanism has been assimilated into more dominant religions (similar, I think, to the way Buddhism and Shintoism has 'merged' in Japan).
>The second was the seeming distrust with
>which most Koreans view the shamanic practitioners of their own village --
>apparently, most find it difficult to believe that someone they've known all
>their life is an actual shaman, and so treat the local villager as a fake and
>prefer to go to a shaman in _another_ village when necessary. While
>heavily-shamanic cultures such as that of the Prax probably wouldn't follow
>that model, it struck me as an interesting cultural feature for Gloranthan
>cultures in which shamanism is rarer/non-central, such as perhaps the
>Orlanthi, so I thought I'd pass that tidbit along.
I dunno about this. Perhaps, it's hard to conceive that old Cho, who delivers fermented bean curd to the village bakery, as a powerful shaman? Or is it that you don't want people you know to find out that you visited a shaman?
Ed Moon
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