Why Korean shamans are women

#korea #history #mudang #shaman #exhuma

[libra]

We have parallel realities in the Philippines. Our shamans were mostly women. Men could be shaman but they have to dress talk and move like women. The women shamans were called babaylan or baylan, the men were asog. They were suppressed by Christianity. The theory was women have closer access to the divine because of fertility birthing whose processes follow the lunar cycle and tides.
The rituals are almost similar to that of the mud ang of Korea. The babaylan stood in equal status of the datu or rajah and the panday/bagani.

[Kumota]

As northeast indian from assam, our Deori tribe have all female shamans ( we mostly called them as Midi khayasi or deodhani or deo khayasi) the one who is possessed by God.

[Maneyaku]

"most religions are dominated by men" *shows pic of men dominating each other

[car]

For anyone asking:

The first scene is from a movie called "Exhuma" (2024). It's released quite recently in the cinemas and so far not yet streamed online. It's a horror movie and really well produced.

Edit: looks like it's been released on several online platforms, check out comments if you'd like!

[adventuretime]

Im from Arunachal Pradesh and my grandmother herself is a shaman, she is always being called by some people to carry out this shamans

[fish]

무당은 600년보다 더 전부터 있어서 유교 영향이라는 추측은 잘못된 것 같습니다. 한국인으로서 한국의 무당에 대해 한국 밖의 분들이 관심을 가지니 좋네요 ㅎㅎ

[Msing]

It is because woman are giving birth and get pregnant, the most spiritual thing in a human life: giving life. Life of a woman is sacred, and magical. Sadly we live in a world where women are being oppressed and tortured daily, belittled and restricted in everything.

[phizzy]

i love how in almost every culture of the world traditionally they were revering the spirits that represent the forces of nature. says a lot about how our human ancestors actually were connected to and appreciated the earth that they live on. can’t say much of the same for the vast majority of people today.

[infinite]

In Hinduism, women were the co-composers of the 5k old Vedas, the oldest extant literature of Hinduism, who are called Brahmavadini.
Prominent names of Brahmavadinis are Gargi, Lopamudra, Shikta, Ghosa, Niravari etc. They also officiated religious ceremonies and initiations, but patriarchy crept and Hindu religion only favored male priests since some 2k years ago.

Still, there are many popular Hindu temples where the priests are all women, like Attukal Bhagavathy temple, pancha barahi temple etc.
Nowadays, women are also taught priestly duties and employed as priests, like 2k years ago! But personally speaking, its not as pronounced as men.

[cakeva.]

In Manipur, northeast India, our tribe meitei also have female shamans and are called Maybii. Who are possessed by God and can heal the sick.

[ntranphuong]

I mean if you want to know why shamans are all women, it has nothing to do with patriarchy. For many East Asian native beliefs (polyatheism, pagan, whatever you call it), men have yang and women have yin. Yang is sun and yin is moon. The world needs both yin and yang but yang is the qi of the living and things above the ground while yin is the qi of the underworld. So women, especially virgins, whose qi was not polluted with the male counterpart qi, are perfect medium to connect with the underworld and allow spirits to overtake their worldly body for brief time. And of coz there are male with more yin power and female with more yang power too, which nowadays people call non-binary. If you don't have belief in afterlife, all of this sounds like bs. But it's just kind of like choosing containers for the substance you want to keep in: frozen food in freezer, rising bread in oven.

[Armand]

This is really similar to pre colonial Philippines. Babaylan is what you call a shaman (in bisaya) and they are almost always a women or feminized men. Ancient Filipinos believed babaylan have spirit guides, by which they could contact and interact with the spirits and deities (anito or diwata) and the spirit world. The reason why the babaylan were primarily women was because they held significant roles in society as spiritual leaders, healers, and mediators. Being a shaman or a spiritual realm was seen as a feminine thing. When the Spaniards colonized the islands, they branded these priestesses as witches or servants of the devil. demonizing them during their efforts of Christianizing the Philippines. They where not witches and where highly respected. Today, Babaylans/shamans still exist amongst the indigenous peoples. :)

[trisrob]

We had a Korean Shaman perform for our Babaylan(Female Pre-Hispanic shaman) festival in a town here in the Philippines last year. She was dancing on top of sharp blades, it was very mesmerizing to see close up.

[NombusoThabethe-mi]

Ooh this is so beautiful. In a way it reminds of our Zulu shamans in South Africa also mostly female. They are called izangoma. Even the cadence of the drumming is familiar. How fascinating!!

[eugenic]

In Buryatia and Mongolia also the most respectful shamans are usually women. Shamanism in Asia coexist with other religions such as Buddhism and Daoism

[ericashiorikayo]

Okinawan shamans are mostly women, too ❤ they're called yutaa or kaminchu

[Esnez]

Of course, there is also a male shaman. In the movie, however, Lee Do-hyun plays a role of assisting a shaman. It is said that if an ordinary person realizes his or her spiritual ability and rejects it, he or she dies. That is why a shaman performs a gut to accept spiritual ability without physical damage. In the movie, Kim Go-eun is a person who gave a gut(The act of removing or removing evil spirits from a person's body or protecting a person from bad things to come) to Lee Do-hyun so that he or she can accept spiritual ability well. That is why Lee Do-hyun always stays with Kim Go-eun while assisting her. And shamans also need powerful aides. This is because in the case of evil spirits with strong power, the power of not only shamans but also aides is important. Especially in Korea, the number of aides with strong power is rather insufficient. Lee Do-hyun in the movie can exercise his spiritual ability alone. However, I think it is his duty to assist Kim Go-eun.

[balaramprasadsatapathy]

Most Asian religions started with Matriarchial societies which later became patriarchal (well thanks to the men thinking they are better with their superiority complex 😂)

Early Japan, Korea, China had that influence, North east still has Matriarchial societies which stems from religions or shamanism that gives more importance to women being creators or progenitors

[magdajuniper]

It's the same for Turks. Female shamans are always stronger and they are called Udagan. It means lady of fire. The reason why female shamans are stronger is that they can establish a better bond with nature and most of the protective spirits they call are male. In addition, Kâm's (means shaman in Turkish) dress like women and move and dance like women while performing rituals.

[tshiololiai]

In Congo, we do have female shaman we call them Mama Mbikudi