At the recommendation of Lee I-jae, who chairs the Saenuri Party’s religion committee, a “mudang gut” (shaman ritual, photo) recently took place at the National Assembly.
The purpose of the gut, performed by the Korean Fortunetellers Association (president: Baek Un-san) in the small meeting room of the National Assembly Building in Yeoeuido, Seoul, was to bring blessings to the nation: household peace, family happiness and health, prosperity for new endeavors, etc. The shaman prayed for right choices to be made by citizens in the April general elections, and for improvement to be realized in South-North relations, frozen since the North’s recent nuclear test. The 200 some persons who attended the event included Kim Ju-ho, vice chair of the Saenuri Party religion committee, fortunetellers, hermits and shamans.
The Korean Association of Church Communication (Rev. Yu Man-seok, representative) issued a statement deploring the incident. “Doesn’t the Saenuri Party religion committee know that to set up a table for religious rites and hold a shaman ceremony at the National Assembly, is inviting disaster, as happened with Empress Myeongseong (Queen Min) at the end of the Joseon Dynasty, when the gut performance she arranged ended in financial bankruptcy and national ruin?” KACC said. “They excuse it as a ceremony to bring national fortune in 2016; on the contrary, it was nothing but a shamanist action endangering the nation.”
Oh Min-gyeong, the shaman who performed the good-luck gut, said that through “gongsu” (the shaman becoming the voice of the god who has possessed her), she was conveying blessings for the nation. “This Year of the Monkey will be chaotic politically and socially…I see one or two big accidents,” she said. The gut, consisting of four performances, lasted about one hour.
Saenuri Party religion committee chair Kim Ju-ho, who emceed the event, explained, “This is the first time for the National Assembly to host a shaman gut for national blessing and foretelling of the nation’s future…Our purpose was to promote religious harmony.” On the phone with Kukmin Daily, Lee I-jae’s office explained, “We accepted the request of an acquaintance and simply provided the place, without knowing the precise nature of the event.”
Reporter Yeong Dae Yoo (ydyoo@kmib.co.kr)
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A “Mudang Gut” for National Fortune, Performed at the National Assembly?
2016-02-02 17:29