Korean and Vietnamese Religious Traditions

Korean shamanism, known as muism or musok, is among the oldest continuous religious practices on the Korean peninsula, centered on the mudang, ritual specialists, overwhelmingly women in the historical and modern record, who mediate between the human and spirit worlds. Mudang conduct the gut, an elaborate ceremony combining music, dance, costume, and trance, performed to heal illness, ensure prosperity, guide the spirits of the deceased, or resolve misfortune attributed to displeased or unsettled spirits. Despite centuries of suppression under Confucian-dominated Joseon governance, which regarded shamanic practice as superstition unworthy of the educated classes, and despite the later spread of Buddhism and Christianity, muism has persisted into the present, continuing to be practiced and, more recently, recognized by some scholars and cultural institutions as an important element of Korean cultural heritage.