title: Marian Rivera

text: In 2012, Rivera entered the chart at #5, her lowest since topping the said list in 2008. She became a cover for the first time on "FHM" through its January 2013 issue, which made her one of the biggest contenders for the title, Sexiest Woman of the World for 2013. Rivera appeared on the cover of "Cosmopolitan Magazine" in the same month. For the third time, she was given a cover of "Women's Health" in March 2013. She stated she owes her physique to Muay Thai and Wushu; both are forms of martial arts.


title: Marian Rivera

text: In 2013, Rivera was declared by "FHM Philippines" as "the sexiest woman in the Philippines", making her second to reclaim the coveted title five years after she first won it (the first was Angel Locsin, who won it in '05 and '10). According to "FHM", more than 16 million votes were cast this year, and the final tally saw Rivera raking in a total of 890,490 votes against Sam Pinto's 778,681.


title: Marian Rivera

text: In 2013, Rivera became the image of popular brand Ginebra San Miguel following her successful stint for the brand way back 2009.


title: Marian Rivera

text: In 2009, Rivera was listed as #5 in "Top 20 Celebrity Endorser"'s list of Manila Standard and #1 in QTV's "Ang Pinaka..." List of Endorsers. In 2010, she was listed at SPOT's list of "Top 10 Most In-demand Celebrity Endorsers" at #3. Christine Marie Leido of AB Communications, Inc. stated, "In our choice, for instance, of Marian Rivera[...]she provided the excitement, fresh look and instant recognition the brand needed. The market understood the product and was able to relate to it because she embodied the values the brand stood for ... As could be expected, she motivated purchase because of her appeal across all classes and gender."


title: Marian Rivera

text: In 2011, "YES! Magazine" listed her on their "Top 20 Endorsers" list which was a result of cumulative earnings of each celebrity on their endorsements alone.


title: Marian Rivera

text: In 2012, she charted at #9 on the "Top 10 International Beauties of 2012" published by TopTenz, the only Asian who made it to the list. According to the web site, Rivera belongs to the major stars in the Philippines.


title: Marian Rivera

text: In August 2014, during a live airing of Rivera's dance program, Dantes, her longtime boyfriend, made a special guest appearance. Dantes made a surprise live proposal to Rivera. It was the second proposal by Dantes; the first one was in Macau. In order to marry him, she had to be received into the Roman Catholic Church via conditional baptism as her baptism in Spain was not recognized as valid.


title: Marian Rivera

text: On 30 December 2014, she married Dingdong Dantes. The wedding was held at Cubao Cathedral in Quezon City, while the reception took place at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, and was televised on GMA Network. Dantes and Rivera had invited over 1,200 guests to their wedding. In April 2015, the couple announced that they were expecting their first child. Rivera gave birth to a daughter, Maria Letizia (named Zia), at the Makati Medical Center on 23 November 2015.


title: Marian Rivera

text: Rivera supports breastfeeding in public. She was given the Breastfeeding Influencer and Advocate Award by the Mother and Child Nurses Association of the Philippines on 25 November 2016, citing her advocacy for public breastfeeding.


title: Marian Rivera

text: On 25 September 2018, Dantes and Rivera announced that they were expecting their second child. Their son, Jose Sixto Gonzalez (named Ziggy), was born at the Makati Medical Center on 16 April 2019.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: In Arthur C. Clarke's "Space Odyssey" series, Monoliths are machines in black cuboids whose sides extend in the precise ratio of 1 : 4 : 9 (1 : 2 : 3) built by an unseen extraterrestrial species whom Clarke dubbed the Firstborn and whom he suggests are the earliest highly intelligent species to evolve in the Milky Way.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: In the series of novels (and the films based on these), three Monoliths are discovered in the Solar System by australopithecines and their human descendants. The response of the characters to their discovery drives the plot of the series. It also influences the fictional history of the series, particularly by encouraging humanity to progress with technological development.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: The first Monolith appears at the beginning of the story, set four million years before the present era. It is discovered by a group of australopithecines and triggers a shift in evolution, starting with the ability to use tools and weaponry. It is later revealed that thousands of other Monoliths exist elsewhere in the galaxy.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: The species that built the Monoliths is never described in detail, but some knowledge of its existence is given to Dave Bowman after he is transported by the star-gate to the "cosmic zoo", as detailed in the 1968 novel "" and its 1982 sequel, "". The existence of this species is only hypothesized by the rest of humanity, but it is obvious because the Monolith was immediately identified as an artefact of non-human origin.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: The species that built the Monoliths developed interstellar travel millions or perhaps billions of years before the present time. In the novels, Clarke refers to them as the "Firstborn", since they were quite possibly the first sapient species to possess a significant capability of interstellar travel. Members of this species explored the universe in the search of knowledge, especially knowledge about other intelligent species.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: While these early explorers discovered that life was quite common, they observed that intelligent life was often stunted in its development, or else died out prematurely. Hence, they set about fostering it. Though not at all morphologically similar to humans, the Firstborn were nonetheless creatures of "flesh and blood", and like humans, were originally mortal.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: However, the evolutionary development projects they began would by their nature require very long time-spans to complete, far longer than the lives of their creators. Therefore, the aliens created increasingly complex automated machines to oversee and carry out their projects over the eons. When they encountered a living world that had features in favour of the evolution of intelligent life, they left behind the Monoliths as remote observers that were also capable of taking a variety of actions according to the wishes of their creators. One such planet, encountered when it was still quite young, was Earth. They also observed Jupiter and its watery moon, Europa. The decaying ecology of Mars was also visited, but passed over in favour of more fruitful locations like Earth. The Firstborn left behind three Monoliths to observe and enact their plan to encourage hominids to pursue technology and space travel.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: As described in Clarke's novel, the Firstborn discovered later how to transfer their consciousness onto computers, and thus they became thinking machines. In the end, they surpassed even this achievement, and were able to transfer entirely from physical to noncorporeal forms — the "Lords of the Galaxy" — immortal and capable of travelling at great speeds. The Firstborn had abandoned physical form, but their creations, the Monoliths, remained, and these continued to carry out their original assignments.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: The term "Tycho Magnetic Anomaly" is something of a misnomer when referring to "TMA-0" and "TMA-2", since neither of these is found on the Moon (let alone in Tycho Crater) and neither one of them emits any significant magnetic field, as described in the novel "". (The characters in some of the novels do refer to this anomalous nomenclature quizzically.) In the novel, the Russian crewmen of the spaceship "Alexei Leonov" refer to TMA-2 as ""Zagadka"" (from the Russian word for "enigma", "mystery", or "riddle").


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: The name "Tycho Magnetic Anomaly-1" (also known as TMA-1) refers to the strong magnetic field found somewhere in the lunar Crater Tycho by an American scientific satellite. Astronauts find that this magnetic anomaly is caused by an alien Monolith buried about 15 meters below the surface. In the novel, when the Monolith is excavated and examined, it is found to be a black cuboid whose sides extend in the precise ratio of 1 : 4 : 9 (1 : 2 : 3). Its measurements are given in the novel as ; actually a ratio of 1:4:8.8. The monolith is sitting on a platform of the same material above undisturbed rock. Clarke suggests that the sequence or ratio extends past the three known spatial dimensions into much higher dimensions.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: TMA-1 was dug up during the lunar night but, after sunrise and its exposure to direct sunlight, TMA-1 emits a single powerful burst of energy, interpreted as radio waves – aimed at Iapetus (a moon of Saturn) in the novel or Jupiter in the motion picture. (The subsequent novels follow the continuity of the film, placing all of the activity around Jupiter.) Its powerful magnetic field disappears immediately. In the novel, some scientists speculate that its magnetic field came from large electric currents, circulating in a system of superconductors for millions of years as an energy-storage mechanism. All of that electric power was expended in the one signal aimed at what would be discovered to be TMA-2.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: An identical (except in size) object was found later, orbiting Jupiter (on a moon of Saturn in the "2001" novel, although this was changed to Jupiter in the sequel, ""). This object was dubbed "TMA-2", a term that the book calls "doubly inappropriate": it had no magnetic field, and was millions of miles from Tycho. (TMA-2 was often referred to as "Big Brother" due to David Bowman's comments on its larger size.) TMA-2 acted as a Star Gate and transported Dave Bowman across the galaxy in 2001 and brought his consciousness back again in 2010, at which time it duplicated itself over a million times to transform Jupiter into a star. Afterwards, TMA-2 became the home for the digitized minds of Bowman and HAL and supposedly moved to Europa to watch over the evolution of life there. In "", it is implied that TMA-2 is the monolith found resting on its side on Europa because it has the same size (2 kilometers long) and contains the digitized minds of Dave Bowman and HAL; however, no character refers to it as TMA-2 or Big Brother, instead christening it "The Great Wall". In "", the author changes the description of the Europan monolith to be 20 kilometers long, so it is unclear whether TMA-2 changed size or it is actually a different monolith. In any case, HAL and Bowman infect that monolith with a computer virus after it is learned that its superiors are sending an order to destroy humanity. As a result of the virus, TMA-0, TMA-1, and TMA-2/The Great Wall disappear from the Solar System.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: In the year 2513, the first Monolith to be encountered by humankind's prehistoric evolutionary predecessors (the ones featured in the first novel) was found in Olduvai Gorge, buried in ancient rock, and was retroactively dubbed "TMA-0".


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: Other than the Monoliths bearing TMA labels, there are many other Monoliths that are seen in the series. In two instances, millions of Monoliths are generated for a limited time purpose. In the first, in "", millions of Monoliths are generated to transform Jupiter into a star, subsequently named Lucifer. In the second, in "", millions of monoliths are generated to block both the Earth and human-settled Ganymede from their primary star in an attempt to destroy the humans. Other specific monoliths are described below.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: A large Monolith is found resting on its side on Europa in the "2061" novel. It is nicknamed the Great Wall after the Great Wall of China due to its horizontal orientation. It is believed to be watching over the Europans in a manner similar to what TMA-0 did on Earth in the first book. The "2061" novel implies that this Monolith is TMA-2 from the previous novel, but the characters never refer to it as TMA-2 or "Big Brother." It is described as being the same size as TMA-2 and is the home to the digitized minds of Bowman and HAL just as TMA-2 was at the end of the last novel. However, the "3001" novel changes the description of the Great Wall to be 20 kilometers long, so it is unclear whether this monolith is the same as TMA-2 or not. In "2061", Bowman and HAL describe how it was knocked on its side and possibly damaged by the impact of Mount Zeus, a vast diamond shard from Jupiter's core that struck Europa's surface some time following Jupiter's transformation. But in "3001," the monolith on its side is described as having a purpose to protect the evolving Europans. (Arthur C. Clarke admitted to changing some concepts each time he wrote another sequel novel so it is not possible to fully reconcile TMA-2 and The Great Wall.)


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: A small Monolith appears before Heywood Floyd in 2061 on board the "Galaxy" spacecraft. He nicknames it "Minilith" for its small size compared to other observed Monoliths. At the end of the book it is explained that Halman used the Minilith to replicate Heywood Floyd's consciousness to help him uncover the Monolith's operations.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: In the "3001" novel, it is realized that back in the early 22nd century, TMA-2 broadcast a status report message to a point 450 light years away and is just now receiving instructions in return. Although unseen, this is assumed to be another monolith which is in charge of the monoliths in the Solar System. In other words, TMA-2 was reporting to its Superior.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: In the movies, all the Monoliths are black, extremely flat, non-reflective rectangular solids. In the first novel, the monolith on the African savannah was transparent and "it was not easy to see except when the morning sun glinted on its edges", but became less transparent when active and was described as a crystal. Also, the final monolith is described as a transparent crystal that becomes less transparent when active.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: In the novels and in the films, the dimensions of the monoliths are in the precise ratio of 1 : 4 : 9 (the squares of the first three positive integers). These dimensions are the main source of debate about the simple external design of the Monoliths. It is suggested in the "2001" novel that this number series does not stop at three dimensions.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: The Monoliths come in several different sizes: TMA-0 and TMA-1 are both about 11 feet long, TMA-2 is two kilometers long, and the "minilith" is smaller than TMA-1. The Great Wall Monolith is described as being two kilometers long in the "2061" novel but 20 kilometers long in the "3001" novel. Monoliths may be able to assume any size, because in "2010: Odyssey Two", the Star Child, created from the astronaut Dave Bowman, cryptically notes that the Monolith is actually one size – "as large as necessary".


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: The Monoliths are extremely long-lived and reliable machines, able to survive for millions of years buried in the ground or resisting meteorite impacts and radiation in space with no apparent damage. The two Monoliths recovered and examined by humans are virtually indestructible and impenetrable, resisting all attempts to analyze their composition or internal structure right up to the end of the series. Dr. Heywood Floyd proposes they have some sort of force shield, an impression he gets from touching it; this hypothesis is later accepted as probable because the Monoliths resist destructive testing beyond the theoretical limits of material strength. However, they are not completely indestructible: The Great Wall Monolith (perhaps the same as TMA-2) was knocked on its side and suffered from damage caused by a giant meteorite of solid diamond that collided with Europa in "". In the final book, "", all three Monoliths known to humankind are deactivated by being infected with a powerful computer virus.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: While it is unclear what the composition of the Monoliths is, they clearly have mass, which is about the only observation that can be made. In the novel "2010", the crewmen of the spaceship "Alexei Leonov" measure the mass of TMA-2 and find that it has a density slightly higher than that of air. The masses of TMA-0 and TMA-1 are never revealed by Clarke.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: In "2001", TMA-2 opens up a stargate that takes Dave Bowman on a trip across the universe at faster-than-light speeds, and with as much acceleration as the creators of the stargate wish. In "2010" and again in "3001", TMA-2 teleports itself.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: TMA-2 replicates itself by a form of symmetrical binary fission and exponential growth to create thousands or millions of identical Monoliths in just a matter of days. In "2010", the many units act to increase the density of Jupiter until stellar ignition is carried out, converting the planet into a miniature star. In "3001", millions of copies of TMA-2 assemble themselves into two megastructure disks that attempt to block the Sun from Earth and Lucifer from its colonies in the Jovian system.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: The Monoliths are clearly described in the novels as controlled by an internal computer, like Von Neumann machines. In "2061", the consciousness of Dave Bowman, HAL-9000, and Dr. Floyd become incorporated as computer programs in TMA-2 as their new home. TMA-2 then observes the development of the Europans and guards them from any interplanetary (i.e. human) interference.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: Both TMA-1 and TMA-2 produce occasional, powerful, directional radio transmissions. TMA-2 sends a radio transmission towards a star system about 450 light years away in the 22nd century. However, only TMA-1 ever exhibited any strong magnetic fields.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: The TMA-2 Monolith had judged that it would be desirable to nurture the primitive Europans by preventing the eventual freezing of their moon, and to keep humanity separated from them. TMA-2 thus converted Jupiter into a new star (dubbed "Lucifer", meaning "light-bringer") to warm Europa into more habitable conditions – at the cost of exterminating the Jovians, ocean-like creatures who swam through the upper atmosphere of Jupiter. The Jovians were judged too primitive, as due to their environment they had no hope of ever developing to become an advanced civilization.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: TMA-2 also apparently decided, in the early 21st century, that humanity was a failed species and that it was possibly necessary to destroy them. Apparently the TMA-2 Monolith was allowed to destroy primitive species at its own discretion, but needed the authorisation of a "superior" to destroy an advanced spaceflight-capable civilisation such as humanity. This "superior" was a Monolith located in a distant star system, but even the Monoliths were limited by the speed of light in their interstellar communications. Thus it took 450 years for the message sent by TMA-2 to reach its "superior", which then sent a message giving permission to destroy humanity, which took another 450 years to return to the Sol system in the year 3001. Due to the efforts of Frank Poole and the Europa team on Earth, the ascended Dave Bowman and AI HAL (now fused as one being "Halman" in the Monolith's computational matrix) were able to introduce a subtle computer virus into TMA-2 which destroyed it before it could render the human race extinct.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: The Firstborn did not appear to have abandoned all interest in the evolutionary experiments overseen by the ancient Monoliths. The Monoliths' communications are said to be limited by the speed of light, but Dave Bowman is sent on an interstellar journey at the end of "2001: A Space Odyssey", and Bowman is apparently transformed into the Star Child, not by the Monoliths, but by the Firstborn (both Kubrick and Clarke have similarly stated that Bowman was transformed by non-corporeal aliens, not the Monoliths). They also subsequently transform HAL in 2010, to give Bowman a companion. The epilogue to "" reveals that the Firstborn had been monitoring humanity's final confrontation with the Monoliths in the Sol system, but chose not to intervene, likely considering it a test of mankind's abilities - either they would find a way to stop the Monoliths and thus prove their worth, or fail and prove the Monoliths' point. Unlike the TMA-2 Monolith, whose judgment of humanity was based on its social progress by the year 2001, the Firstborn considered the more peaceful and responsible humanity of the year 3001 worthy of survival, or at least not a threat to the Europans. Their assessment seems to prove true, as subsequently Frank Poole and the other humans land on Europa and attempt to start peaceful relations with the primitive native Europs.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: When TMA-2 transformed Jupiter into the new star "Lucifer", it warmed Europa to nearly the average temperature of Earth, melting the ice sheets which once covered the moon - and giving an evolutionary boost to indigenous life-forms which had existed in the oceans hidden beneath. This is directly compared to how the original TMA-0 gave pre-human apes an evolutionary nudge on the path towards sapience. The near-sapient life-forms on Europa are dubbed "Europs" by humans.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: Due to the branching storylines of each book, the third novel ends with a flash-forward 20,000 years into the future, with the Europs developing a basic civilization without outside contact from humanity. The fourth and final novel, "3001", altered this to end with the revived Frank Poole making first contact with the Europs and attempting to begin peaceful relations.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: Physically, Europs are described as looking like "a small, leafless bush, with no obvious sense organs or means of communication". They walk on half a dozen slender trunks, which divide into hundreds of twigs, which divide again - making them very dexterous, and potential tool-users. Prior to the Monoliths' interference, they evolved as filter-feeders on the frozen seas under the moon's ice, using their twig-arms to strain for plankton. They were hunted by predators, one notable species of which is described as "like a flying carpet, but as big as a football field", dredging the ocean floor. In response, the Europs gradually evolved to build basic shelters for themselves on the ocean floor - comparable to Earth cephalopods using shells as "tools" in the form of protection. The Monolith's warming of the moon spurred the Europs to become amphibious, migrating on land where they construct basic ice-igloos, as an advancement from their underwater hovels. The Europs still need to return to water to feed, but now have total protection from aquatic predators while they sleep in their land-based shelters.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: Because life in Europa's oceans evolved around thermal vents that received no sunlight, the Europs' biochemistry is based on sulfur respiration. This is much less energy efficient than the Terran biosphere's oxygen-based respiration, resulting in the Europs being very slow: it's remarked that "even a sloth could outrun a Europ". This limit on energy efficiency also results in Europs being much smaller than humans. Overall, without the protection of the Monoliths, the Europs could have easily been wiped out by humanity with little effort.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: One area of pre-sapient activity observed among the Europs by 3001 is that they are fascinated by metal artefacts from crashed human spaceships and probes - as they have no counterpart in their raw state under the oceans. Whenever the Europs find abandoned human machinery (or the crashed ship "Tsien") they strip all the metal from them, and pile it in heaps, frequently rearranging the pieces. Frank Poole speculatively compares this to the "Cargo cult" phenomenon on Earth in the twentieth century, and cites it as a spark of curiosity that shows advancement from pure animal instinct. At the end of the final novel, when Frank Poole approaches the Europs for first contact, he carries a large shiny copper wire as a peace offering to them.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: The first design for the Monolith for the "2001" film was a tetrahedral pyramid. This was taken from the 1951 short story "The Sentinel" that the first story was based on.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: A London firm was approached to provide a plexiglass pyramid, and due to construction constraints they recommended a flat slab shape. Kubrick approved, but was disappointed with the glassy appearance of the prop on set, leading art director Anthony Masters to suggest making the monolith black. The rejected acrylic monolith can be seen in St Katherine Dock, London, where it was hung in 1977 to commemorate the Queen's silver jubilee.


title: Monolith (Space Odyssey)

text: On 5 December 2021, a similar shaped object, referred to as a "mystery house", was reported to have been viewed on the Moon by the Chinese lunar rover, "Yutu-2".


title: West End of London

text: The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, in which many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings and entertainment venues, including West End theatres, are concentrated.


title: West End of London

text: The term was first used in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross. The West End covers parts of the boroughs of Westminster and Camden.


title: West End of London

text: While the City of London is the main business and financial district in London, the West End is the main commercial and entertainment centre of the city. It is the largest central business district in the United Kingdom, comparable to Midtown Manhattan in New York City, the 8th arrondissement in Paris, Causeway Bay in Hong Kong, or Shibuya in Tokyo. It is one of the most expensive locations in the world in which to rent commercial and office space.


title: West End of London

text: Medieval London comprised two adjacent cities – the City of London in the east, and the City of Westminster in the west.


title: West End of London

text: Over time they came to form the centre of modern London, although each kept its own distinct character and its separate legal identity (for example, the City of London has its own police force and is a distinct county). The City of London became a centre for the banking, financial, legal and professional sectors, while Westminster became associated with the leisure, shopping, commerce, and entertainment sectors, the government, and home to universities and embassies. The modern West End is closely associated with this area of central London.


title: West End of London

text: Lying to the west of the historic Roman and medieval City of London, the West End was long favoured by the rich elite as a place of residence because it was usually upwind of the smoke drifting from the crowded City. It was close to the royal seat of power at the Palace of Westminster (now home to Parliament), and is largely contained within the City of Westminster (one of the 32 London boroughs).


title: West End of London

text: Developed in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, it was built as a series of palaces, expensive town houses, fashionable shops and places of entertainment. The areas closest to the City around Holborn, Seven Dials, and Covent Garden contained poorer communities that were cleared and redeveloped in the 19th century.


title: West End of London

text: As the West End is a term used colloquially by Londoners and is not an official geographical or municipal definition, its exact constituent parts are up for debate. Westminster City Council's 2005 report "Vision for the West End" included the following areas in its definition: Covent Garden, Soho, Chinatown, Leicester Square, the shopping streets of Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street, the area encompassing Trafalgar Square, the Strand and Aldwych, and the district known as Theatreland. The Edgware Road to the north-west and the Victoria Embankment to the south-east were also covered by the document but were treated as "adjacent areas" to the West End.


title: West End of London

text: According to Ed Glinert's "West End Chronicles" (2006) the districts falling within the West End are Mayfair, Soho, Covent Garden, Fitzrovia and Marylebone. By this definition, the West End borders Temple, Holborn and Bloomsbury to the east, Regent's Park to the north, Paddington, Hyde Park and Knightsbridge to the west, and Victoria and Westminster to the south. Other definitions include Bloomsbury within the West End.


title: West End of London

text: One of the City of Westminster wards is called "West End". This electoral unit includes some of the most prosperous areas of the borough, including Soho, Mayfair and parts of southern Marylebone. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 10,575.


title: Conjugate transpose

text: In mathematics, the conjugate transpose, also known as the Hermitian transpose, of an formula_1 complex matrix formula_2 is an formula_3 matrix obtained by transposing formula_2 and applying complex conjugate on each entry (the complex conjugate of formula_5 being formula_6, for real numbers formula_7 and formula_8). It is often denoted as formula_9 or formula_10


title: Conjugate transpose

text: where the subscript formula_15 denotes the formula_16-th entry, for formula_17 and formula_18, and the overbar denotes a scalar complex conjugate.


title: Conjugate transpose

text: where formula_20 denotes the transpose and formula_21 denotes the matrix with complex conjugated entries.


title: Conjugate transpose

text: Other names for the conjugate transpose of a matrix are Hermitian conjugate, adjoint matrix or transjugate. The conjugate transpose of a matrix formula_2 can be denoted by any of these symbols:


title: Conjugate transpose

text: In some contexts, formula_10 denotes the matrix with only complex conjugated entries and no transposition.


title: Conjugate transpose

text: Even if formula_2 is not square, the two matrices formula_43 and formula_44 are both Hermitian and in fact positive semi-definite matrices.


title: Conjugate transpose

text: The conjugate transpose "adjoint" matrix formula_9 should not be confused with the adjugate, formula_46, which is also sometimes called "adjoint".


title: Conjugate transpose

text: The conjugate transpose of a matrix formula_2 with real entries reduces to the transpose of formula_2, as the conjugate of a real number is the number itself.


title: Conjugate transpose

text: The conjugate transpose can be motivated by noting that complex numbers can be usefully represented by formula_49 real matrices, obeying matrix addition and multiplication:


title: Conjugate transpose

text: That is, denoting each "complex" number formula_51 by the "real" formula_49 matrix of the linear transformation on the Argand diagram (viewed as the "real" vector space formula_53), affected by complex "formula_51"-multiplication on formula_55.


title: Conjugate transpose

text: Thus, an formula_1 matrix of complex numbers could be well represented by a formula_57 matrix of real numbers. The conjugate transpose, therefore, arises very naturally as the result of simply transposing such a matrix—when viewed back again as an formula_3 matrix made up of complex numbers.


title: Conjugate transpose

text: The last property given above shows that if one views formula_2 as a linear transformation from Hilbert space formula_96 to formula_97 then the matrix formula_9 corresponds to the adjoint operator of formula_99. The concept of adjoint operators between Hilbert spaces can thus be seen as a generalization of the conjugate transpose of matrices with respect to an orthonormal basis.


title: Conjugate transpose

text: Another generalization is available: suppose formula_100 is a linear map from a complex vector space formula_101 to another, formula_102, then the complex conjugate linear map as well as the transposed linear map are defined, and we may thus take the conjugate transpose of formula_100 to be the complex conjugate of the transpose of formula_100. It maps the conjugate dual of formula_102 to the conjugate dual of formula_101.


title: Jon Barinholtz

text: Jon Barinholtz is an American actor, comedian, and producer based in Los Angeles. He has appeared in film and television, and is best known for the role of Marcus White on the NBC sitcom "Superstore". Barinholtz has an older brother Ike Barinholtz who is also an actor.


title: Jon Barinholtz

text: In July 2021, Netflix announced that it has ordered a new adult animated series "Chicago Party Aunt". Barinholtz is one of the show's creators and will also serve as an executive producer and voice actor for the series. Also in July 2021, Barinholtz was added to the main cast of the NBC sitcom "American Auto", which premiered on December 13, 2021.


title: Mozart and scatology

text: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart displayed scatological humour in his letters and multiple recreational compositions. This material has long been a puzzle for Mozart scholarship. Some scholars try to understand it in terms of its role in Mozart's family, his society and his times; others attempt to understand it as a result of an "impressive list" of psychiatric conditions from which Mozart is claimed to have suffered.


title: Mozart and scatology

text: A letter dated 5 November 1777 to Mozart's cousin Maria Anna Thekla Mozart is an example of Mozart's use of scatology. The German original is in rhymed verse.


title: Mozart and scatology

text: "Leck mich im Arsch" is a standard vulgarism in German, euphemistically called the Swabian salute (). Although contemporary German would rather say "Leck mich am Arsch." The closest English counterpart is "Kiss my arse".


title: Mozart and scatology

text: The passage of time has created an almost unbridgeable gulf between ourselves and Mozart's time, forcing us to misread his scatological letters even more drastically than his other letters. Very simply, these letters embarrass us, and we have tried to suppress them, trivialize them, or explain them out of the epistolary canon with pathological excuses.


title: Mozart and scatology

text: For example, when Margaret Thatcher was apprised of Mozart's scatology during a visit to the theatre to see Peter Shaffer's play "Amadeus", director Peter Hall relates:


title: Mozart and scatology

text: She was not pleased. In her best headmistress style, she gave me a severe wigging for putting on a play that depicted Mozart as a scatological imp with a love of four-letter words. It was inconceivable, she said, that a man who wrote such exquisite and elegant music could be so foul-mouthed. I said that Mozart's letters proved he was just that: he had an extraordinarily infantile sense of humour ... "I don't think you heard what I said", replied the Prime Minister. "He couldn't have been like that". I offered (and sent) a copy of Mozart's letters to Number Ten the next day; I was even thanked by the appropriate Private Secretary. But it was useless: the Prime Minister said I was wrong, so wrong I was.


title: Mozart and scatology

text: Benjamin Simkin, an endocrinologist, estimates that 39 of Mozart's letters include scatological passages. Almost all of these are directed to Mozart's own family, specifically his father Leopold, his mother Anna Maria, his sister Nannerl, and his cousin Maria Anna Thekla Mozart. According to Simkin, Leopold, Anna Maria and Nannerl also included scatological humour in their own letters. Thus, Anna Maria wrote to her husband (26 September 1777; original is in rhyme):


title: Mozart and scatology

text: Several of Mozart's scatological letters were written to Maria Anna Thekla Mozart, his cousin (and probable love interest, according to the musicologist Maynard Solomon). These are often called the "Bäsle letters", after the German word "Bäsle", a diminutive form meaning "little cousin". In these letters, written after Mozart had spent a pleasant two weeks with his cousin in her native Augsburg, the scatology is combined with word play and sexual references. American academic Robert Spaethling's rendered translation of part of a letter Mozart sent from Mannheim 5 November 1777:


title: Mozart and scatology

text: One of the letters Mozart wrote to his father while visiting Augsburg reports an encounter Mozart and his cousin had with a priest named Father Emilian:


title: Mozart and scatology

text: Mozart's scatological music was most likely recreational and shared among a closed group of inebriated friends. All of it takes the form of canons (rounds), in which each voice enters with the same words and music following a delay after the previous voice. Musicologist David J. Buch writes:


title: Mozart and scatology

text: Historian Lucy Coatman argues that Maria Anna Thekla and Mozart likely had a shared sense of humour, something which she believes has been "discounted throughout much of the historiography on this set of correspondence". While scholars are not aware of her replies to her cousin, it can be assumed from what is known of their relationship and his continued correspondence that she was not horrified by what she received.


title: Mozart and scatology

text: In 1798, Constanze sent her late husband's Bäsle letters to the publishers Breitkopf & Härtel, who at the time were gathering material in hopes of preparing a Mozart biography. In the accompanying letter she wrote "Although in dubious taste, the letters to his cousin are full of wit and deserve mentioning, although they cannot of course be published in their entirety." K.A. Aterman suggestes that this ambivalence is a result of the "change in the taste and the 'refinement' spreading to, and in, the rising middle class" in the early 19th century.


title: Mozart and scatology

text: suggests that in the 18th century scatological humour was far more public and "mainstream". The German-language popular theatre of Mozart's time was influenced by the Italian "commedia dell'arte" and emphasized the stock character of Hanswurst, a coarse and robust character who would entertain his audience by pretending to eat large and unlikely objects (for instance, a whole calf), then defecating them.


title: Mozart and scatology

text: Schroeder suggests a political underlay to the scatology in popular theatre: its viewers lived under a system of hereditary aristocracy that excluded them from political participation. The vulgarity of scatological popular theatre was a counterpoint to the refined culture imposed from above. One of Mozart's own letters describes aristocrats in scatological terms; he identified the aristocrats present at a concert in Augsburg (1777) as "the Duchess Smackarse, the Countess Pleasurepisser, the Princess Stinkmess, and the two Princes Potbelly von Pigdick".


title: Mozart and scatology

text: The folklorist and cultural anthropologist Alan Dundes suggested that interest in or tolerance for scatological matters is a specific trait of German national culture, one which is retained to this day:


title: Mozart and scatology

text: Some of the phrases used by Mozart in his scatological material were not original with him but were part of the folklore and culture of his day: professor of German describes the Bäsle letters as involving "Mozart's intentional play with what is for the most part preformulated folk speech". An example given by Robert Spaethling is the folkloric origin of a phrase seen above, "Gute Nacht, scheiß ins Bett dass' Kracht", claimed by Spaethling to be a "children's rhyme that is still current in south German language areas today". Likewise, when Mozart sang to Aloysia Weber the words "Leck mich das Mensch im Arsch, das mich nicht will" ("Whoever doesn't want me can lick my arse") on the occasion of being romantically rejected by her, he was evidently singing an existing folk tune, not a song of his own invention.


title: Mozart and scatology

text: An early 20th-century observer who suspected that Mozart's scatological materials could be interpreted by psychological pathologies was the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, who amassed a large collection of musical manuscripts. His collection included the Bäsle letters (at the time, unpublished) as well as the autographs of Mozart's scatological canons "Difficile lectu" and "O du eselhafter Peierl". Zweig sent copies of the Bäsle letters to the psychiatrist Sigmund Freud with the following suggestion:


title: Mozart and scatology

text: Freud apparently declined Zweig's suggestion. As Schroeder notes, later psychobiographers seized on the letters as evidence for psychopathological tendencies in Mozart.


title: Mozart and scatology

text: Some authors in the 1990s interpreted the material as evidence that Mozart had Tourette syndrome (TS). Simkin catalogued the scatological letters and compared their frequencies with similar vulgarisms from other members of Mozart's family—they are far more frequent. The scatological materials were combined by Simkin with biographical accounts from Mozart's own time that suggested that Mozart suffered from the tics characteristic of Tourette syndrome. His claim was picked up by newspapers worldwide, causing an international sensation, and internet websites have fueled the speculation.


title: Mozart and scatology

text: While often discussed, the Mozart/Tourette hypothesis has failed to sway mainstream opinion on this issue. Indeed, German psychiatrist Thomas Kammer (2007) states that the work proposing the hypothesis has been "promptly and harshly" criticized. The critical commentary asserts both medical misdiagnosis and errors of Mozart scholarship. Kammer concluded that "Tourette's syndrome is an inventive but implausible diagnosis in the medical history of Mozart". Evidence of motor tics was found lacking and the notion that involuntary vocal tics are transferred to the written form was labeled "problematic". Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks published an editorial disputing Simkin's claim, and the Tourette Syndrome Association pointed out the speculative nature of this information. No Tourette's syndrome expert or organization has voiced concurrence that there is credible evidence to conclude that Mozart had Tourette's. One TS specialist stated that "although some websites list Mozart as an individual who had Tourette's or OCD, it's not clear from the descriptions of his behavior that he actually had either".


title: Mozart and scatology

text: Coatman, who supports a social and philological explanation of Mozart's scatology, has suggested that such retrospective diagnoses reveal a problem with the perusal of letters as a genre. Following ethicist Osamu Muramoto. she states that "retrospecive diagnosis can be challenged not only on an epistemic level but also on the ontological and ethical ones". She notes that by projecting modern sensibilities back onto the letters, scholars from a range of fields have "failed to understand the historical context, language usage of eighteenth-century Salzburg, and indeed, the personality of Mozart".


title: Mozart and scatology

text: The canons were first published after Mozart's death with bowdlerized lyrics; for instance, "Leck mir den Arsch fein rein" ("Lick me in the arse nice and clean") became "Nichts labt mich mehr als Wein" ("Nothing refreshes me more than wine"). In some cases, only the first line of the original scatological lyrics is preserved. The following list is ordered by Köchel catalog number. Voices and conjectured dates are from ; and links marked "score" lead to the online edition of the "Neue Mozart-Ausgabe".


title: Korean shamanism

text: Korean shamanism or Mu-ism is a religion from Korea. In the Korean language, alternative terms for the tradition are musok () and mugyo (무교, 巫敎). Scholars of religion have classified it as a folk religion. There is no central authority in control of the religion and much diversity exists among practitioners.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The "musok" tradition is polytheistic, promoting belief in a range of deities. Both these deities and ancestral spirits are deemed capable of interacting with living humans and causing them problems. Central to the religion are ritual specialists, the majority of them female, called "mudang" (Hangul:무당, Hanja: 巫堂) or "mu" (무, 巫); in English they have sometimes been called "shamans," although the validity of this is contested. The "mudang" assist paying clients in determining the cause of misfortune using divination. "Mudang" also perform longer rituals called "kut", in which the gods and ancestral spirits are given offerings of food and drink and entertained with song and dance. These may take place in a private home or in a shrine, the "kuttang", often located on a mountain. There are various sub-types of "mudang", whose approach is often informed by regional tradition. The largest type are the "mansin" or "kangsin-mu", historically dominant in northern regions, whose rituals involve them being personally possessed by deities or ancestral spirits. Another type is the "sesûp-mu" of eastern and southern regions, whose rituals entail spirit mediumship but not possession.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Elements of the "musok" tradition may derive from prehistory. In Joseon Korea, the Confucian elites suppressed the "mudang" with taxation and legal restrictions, deeming their rites to be improper. From the late 19th century, modernisers – many of whom were Christian – characterised "musok" as "misin" (superstition) and supported its suppression. During the Japanese occupation of the early 20th century, nationalistically-oriented folklorists began promoting the idea that "musok" represented Korea's ancient religion and a manifestation of its national culture; an idea later heavily promoted by "mudang" themselves. In the mid-20th century, persecution of "mudang" continued under the Marxist government of North Korea and through the New Community Movement in South Korea. More positive appraisal of the "mudang" occurred in South Korea from the late 1970s onward, especially as practitioners were associated with the "minjung" pro-democracy movement and came to be regarded as a source of Korean cultural identity.


title: Korean shamanism

text: "Musok" is primarily found in South Korea, where there are around 200,000 "mudang", although practitioners are also found abroad. While Korean attitudes to religion have historically been fairly inclusive, allowing for syncretism between "musok" and Buddhism, the "mudang" have nevertheless long been marginalised. Disapproval of "mudang", often regarded as charlatans, remains widespread in South Korea, especially among Christians. "Musok" has also influenced some Korean new religions, such as Cheondoism and Jeungsanism.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The anthropologist Chongho Kim noted that providing a definition of Korean shamanism was "really problematic". He characterised "Korean shamanism" as being a largely "residual" category into which all Korean religious practices that were not Buddhist, Confucian, or Christian were lumped. Scholars like Don Baker have conversely presented Korean shamanism as just one facet of "Korea's folk religion." Korean shamanism has varyingly been labelled a vernacular religion, a folk religion, and a popular religion. It is a non-institutionalized religion, rather than being an organized religion akin to Buddhism or Christianity. It has no doctrine, nor any overarching hierarchy. It is orally transmitted. It displays considerable regional variation, as well as variation according to the choices of individual practitioners. Over time, the tradition has displayed both continuity and change.


title: Korean shamanism

text: One of the terms commonly used to describe this religious tradition is "musok" (""mu" folklore"), coined by the folklorist Yi Nŭnghwa. This term emerged during the Japanese colonial period and was used by the Japanese Governor-General in a judgemental fashion to describe rituals he deemed primitive, although has since become popular with scholars and the Korean population. Other terms that have been applied to the religion include "mugyo", "muijǔm", and "mu". In Korea, the term "misin" ("superstition") is sometimes used for this religion, but is also applied to other religious and cultural practices like geomancy. While "misin" carries negative connotations in Korean culture, the term is sometimes used by "mudang" to describe what they do.


title: Korean shamanism

text: English language studies of the "mudang" have repeatedly referred to them as "shamans" and their practices as "Korean shamanism" since the late 19th century. Some Korean sources have rendered this English term as "shyamǒnijŭm". Having been introduced into English from the Tungusic languages at the end of the 17th century, the term "shamanism" has never received a commonly agreed definition and has been used in at least four distinct ways in the English language. A common definition uses "shamanism" to describe traditions involving visionary flights to perform ritual tasks in another realm, a practice not found in Korean traditional religion. Many scholars avoid the term "shaman" as a cross-cultural category altogether. While considering the term's applicability to Korean religion, Chongho Kim noted that its use as a blanket term was "often unhelpful", while the anthropologist Liora Sarfati noted its use was "controversial" in the Korean context.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Suk-Jay Yim suggested that the term "mu-ism" was more appropriate for the Korean religion than "Korean shamanism."


title: Korean shamanism

text: Prior to Christianity's arrival in the 17th and 18th centuries, Korean religion was rarely exclusivist, with many Koreans practising Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and vernacular practices like "musok" simultaneously. There has been particular syncretism between "musok" practice and Buddhism. If asked, "mudang" will often identify as Buddhists, and often worship Buddhist deities, while some Korean Buddhist temples venerate deities traditionally associated with "musok". In contemporary South Korea, it remains possible for followers of most major religions (barring Christianity) to involve themselves in "musok" with little censure from fellow members of their religion. Meanwhile, "mudang" based in Europe have merged the tradition with New Age elements.


title: Korean shamanism

text: A key role in "musok" is played by individuals whom the anthropologist Kyoim Yun called "ritual specialists who mediate between their clients and the invisible" forces of the supernatural. The most common term for these specialists across Korea is "mudang", with Sarfati noting that this term "encompasses a variety of folk religion practitioners" across the peninsula. The term "mudang" can apply to a man or woman; male practitioners are also commonly called "paksu", although in the Seoul area, male practitioners have sometimes been called "sana mudang" (male mudang). Although commonly used, the term "mudang" carries derogatory connotations in Korean culture and thus some practitioners avoid it. The term "mu" is sometimes used instead. The Korean word "mu" is synonymous of the Chinese word "wu" 巫, which defines both male and female shamans. Several modern "mudang" advocacy groups have adopted the term "musogin", meaning "people who do "mu"." These modern advocacy groups have also described supporters as "sindo" (believers,信徒) or "musindo" (believers in the ways of "mu,巫信徒").


title: Korean shamanism

text: The "mudang" are often divided into two broad types: the "kangsin-mu", or "god-descended" "mu", and the "sesûp-mu" or "hereditary" "mu". The former engage in rituals in which they describe themselves as being possessed by supernatural entities; the latter's rituals involve interaction with these entities but not possession. The former was historically more common in the northern and central parts of the Korean peninsula, the latter in the southern parts below the Han River. The "kangsin-mu" tradition has since spread and by the early 21st century was dominant across South Korea. As Sarfati noted, the line between the "sesûp-mu" and the "kangsin-mu" "is blurry", while Yun commented that dividing the "mudang" into distinct typologies "cannot explain complex reality." The "sesûp-mu" are typically presented as inheriting the role in a hereditary fashion, although not all "sesûp-mu" do so, while some "kangsin-mu" continue the role of a family member, as if it maintaining a hereditary tradition.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Many practitioners prefer the term "mansin", meaning "ten thousand gods". The term "mansin" is often applied specifically to "kangsin-mu", in contrast to the more inclusive use of the term "mudang". Another term some practitioners use to describe themselves is "posal" ("bosal"), originally a Korean term for a Buddhist bodhisattva; this is favored more by female than male practitioners. Both "mansin" and "posal" are terms deemed "less derogatory" than "mudang". The term "yeongmae", describing a spirit medium, is sometimes used to describe separate practitioners from the "mudang" but is also widely seen as a synonym.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Other terms are common in particular regions. In Jeolla Province, the "sesûp-mu" are often referred to as "tanggol". On Jeju Island, the "sesûp-mu" are typically called "simbang"; this was first recorded in the 15th century, used for "mudang" on the Korean mainland, but by the early 19th century was exclusively being used for practitioners on Jeju.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The "simbang" of Jeju are associated with a specific set of gods. But these gods do not inhabit the shaman's body but are externalized in the form of the "mengdu", a set of sacred ritual implements in which the gods and spirits of dead shamans are embodied. The "simbang" basic task is to understand the divine message conveyed by their "mengdu" and to use the "mengdu" to worship the gods.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The "myeongdu"-type shamans co-occur with the "dan'gol"-type shamans. They are believed to be possessed by the spirits of dead children, and are able to divine the future but do not participate in general rituals for the gods.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The "musok" religion is polytheistic. Supernatural beings are called "kwisin", or "sin". The "mudang" divide these beings into two main groups, the gods and the ancestral spirits, although may use the term "sin" for all of them. Supernatural beings are seen as volatile; if humans do well by them, they can receive good fortune, but if they offend these entities then they may suffer. These spirits are sometimes regarded as inhabiting specific landscape locations, such as trees, rocks, springs, and stone piles. The anthropologist Laurel Kendall suggested that the relationship that "mudang" had with these spirit-inhabited sites was akin to animism. Each "mudang" will have their own personal pantheon of deities, one that may differ from the pantheon of a "mudang" they trained under.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The deities are called "janggunsin". Some of these derive from Daoist or Buddhist traditions, others are unique to Korean vernacular religion. The gods appear in human form, and like humans require food and drink, spend money, and enjoy song and dance, and thus receive these things as offerings. Some of the more powerful deities can make demands from humans without any obligation to reciprocate. Spirits of the dead are thought to yearn for the activities they enjoyed in life; spirits of military generals are for instance believed to like dangerous games. Mountain gods are called "sansin", or sometimes "sansillyǒng". Spirits of military generals are "sinjang", while child deities are "tongja".


title: Korean shamanism

text: Yǒngdǔng is a goddess of the wind, popular in southern areas including Jeju. The "ch'ilsǒng" is the spirit of the seven stars of the great dipper, and is regarded as a merciful Buddhist figure.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Villages traditionally had Jangseung, timber posts representing two generals that guard the settlement from harmful spirits. Historically, villages would often hold annual festivals to thank their tutelary deities. These would often be seen by local men and reflect Confucian traditions, although sometimes "mudang" were invited to participate. In Korean society, rapid urbanisation has radically changed how people interact with their local deities.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Korean vernacular beliefs include the existence of many household deities. Keeping these entities happy was traditionally regarded as the role of the housewife, and is achieved through offering them food and drink. These informal rituals do not require the involvement of "mudang", who would only be called in for special occasions.


title: Korean shamanism

text: There are various house spirits, one of the most prominent of which is Sǒngju, the House Lord. Pollution caused by births or deaths in the household are believed to result in the House Lord leaving, meaning that he must be encouraged to return through ritual. The House Lord may also require propitiation if expensive goods are brought into the home, as he expects a portion of the expenditure to be devoted to him.


title: Korean shamanism

text: A personal spiritual guardian is the "momju" (plural "momjusin"). The "momjusin" of male "mudang" are usually deemed female; those of female mudang are typically male.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Korean shamanic narratives include a number of myths that discuss the origins of shamans or the shamanic religion. These include, the Princess Bari myth, the Gongsim myth, and the "Chogong bon-puri" myth. Origin myths are often called "ponp'uri". These narratives have been extensively collected and studied by Korean scholars.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The "Princess Bari" narrative is found in all regions except Jeju. Roughly one hundred versions of the myth have been transcribed by scholars as of 2016, around half of those since 1997. As of 1998, all known versions were sung only during "gut" rituals held for the deceased. Princess Bari is therefore a goddess closely associated with funeral rites. Bari's exact role varies according to the version, sometimes failing to become a deity at all, but she is usually identified as the patron goddess of shamans, the conductor of the souls of the dead, or the goddess of the Big Dipper.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Despite the large number of versions, most agree upon the basic story. The first major episode shared by almost all versions is the marriage of the king and queen. The queen gives birth to six consecutive daughters who are treated luxuriously. When she is pregnant a seventh time, the queen has an auspicious dream. The royal couple takes this as a sign that she is finally bearing a son and prepares the festivities. Unfortunately, the child is a girl. The disappointed king orders the daughter to be thrown away, dubbing her Bari, from Korean "to throw away." In some versions, she must be abandoned two or three times because she is protected by animals the first and second times. The girl is then rescued by a figure such as the Buddha (who regrets upon seeing her that he cannot take a woman as his disciple), a mountain god, or a stork.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Once Bari has grown, one or both of her parents fall gravely ill. They learn that the disease can only be cured through medicinal water from the Western Heaven. In the majority of versions, the king and queen ask their six older daughters to go fetch the water, but all of them refuse. Desperate, the king and queen order Princess Bari to be found again. In other versions, the royal couple is told in a dream or a prophecy to find their daughter. In any case, Bari is brought to court. She agrees to go to the Western Heaven and departs, usually wearing the robes of a man.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The details of Bari's quest differ according to the version. In one of the oldest recorded narratives, recited by a shaman from near Seoul in the 1930s, she meets the Buddha after having gone three thousand leagues. Seeing through her disguise and remarking that she is a woman, the Buddha asks if she can truly go another three thousand leagues. When Bari responds that she will keep going even if she is to die, he gives her a silk flower, which turns a vast ocean into land for her to cross. She then liberates hundreds of millions of dead souls who are imprisoned in a towering fortress of thorns and steel.


title: Korean shamanism

text: When Bari finally arrives at the site of the medicinal water, she finds it defended by a supernatural guardian (of varying nature) who also knows that she is a woman, and obliges her to work for him and bear him sons. Once this is done―she may give birth to as many as twelve sons, depending on the version―she is allowed to return with the medicinal water and the flowers of resurrection. When she returns, she finds that her parents (or parent) have already died and that their funerals are being held. She interrupts the funeral procession, opens the coffin lids, and resurrects her parents with the flowers and cures them with the water. In most versions, the princess then attains divinity.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The "Chogong bon-puri" is a shamanic narrative whose recitation forms the tenth ritual of the Great "Gut", the most sacred sequence of rituals in Jeju shamanism. The "Chogong bon-puri" is the origin myth of Jeju shamanic religion as a whole, to the point that shamans honor the myth as the "root of the gods" and respond that "it was done that way in the "Chogong bon-puri"" when asked about the origin of a certain ritual. It also explains the origin of the "mengdu", the sacred metal objects that are the source of a Jeju shaman's authority. As with most works of oral literature, multiple versions of the narrative exist. The summary given below is based on the version recited by the high-ranking shaman An Sa-in (1912—1990).


title: Korean shamanism

text: Jimjin'guk and Imjeong'guk, a rich couple, are nearing fifty but still have no children. A Buddhist priest visits from the Hwanggeum Temple and tells them to make offerings in his temple for a hundred days. They do so, and a girl is miraculously born. They name her Noga-danpung-agissi. When the girl is fifteen, both of her parents leave temporarily. They imprison her behind two doors with seventy-eight and forty-eight locks each and tell the family servant to feed her through a hole, so that she cannot leave the house while they are absent.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The Buddhist priest of the Hwanggeum Temple learns of the great beauty of Noga-danpung-agissi and visits the house to ask for alms. When the girl points out that she cannot leave the house, the priest takes out a bell and rings it three times, which breaks every lock. When she comes out wearing a veil of chastity, he strokes her head three times and leaves. Noga-danpung-agissi then becomes pregnant. When her parents return, they decide to kill her to restore the family's honor. When the family servant insists that she be killed instead, the parents relent and decide to expel both instead. Her father gives Noga-danpung-agissi a golden fan as she leaves.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The two decide to go to the Hwanggeum Temple, encountering various obstacles and crossing many strange bridges on the way. The servant explains the etymology of the bridges, connecting each name to the process of Noga-danpung-agissi's expulsion from the family. They eventually reach the temple and meet the priest, who banishes her to the land of the goddess of childbirth. Alone there, she gives birth to triplets who tear out of her two armpits and her breasts. Having bathed them in a brass tub, she names the three boys Sin-mengdu, Bon-mengdu, and Sara-salchuk Sam-mengdu.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The family lives an impoverished life. At the age of eight, the three brothers become manservants of three thousand corrupt aristocrats who are preparing for the civil service examinations. Seven years later, the aristocrats go to Seoul to pass the examinations and take the triplets with them. The aristocrats leave the triplets stranded atop a pear tree on the way, but they are rescued by a local nobleman who is forewarned by a dream of dragons ensnared on the tree. They reach Seoul and are the only people to pass the examinations. Outraged, the aristocrats imprison Noga-danpung-agissi in the "palace of Indra of the three thousand heavens." This is generally understood as a metaphor for the aristocrats killing her, with other versions explicitly mentioning a murder.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The triplets visit their father, who makes them abandon their old lives and become shamans in order to save their mother. He asks his sons what they saw first when they came to the temple, and they respond that they saw heaven, earth, and the gate. The priest accordingly gives them the first "cheonmun", or divination discs, with the Chinese characters 天 "heaven", 地 "earth", and 門 "gate" inscribed. The triplets hold the first shamanic rituals as their father has ordered them to do, aided by Neosameneo-doryeong, the young god of shamanic music. The rituals successfully resurrect their mother. The triplets then summon a master smith from the East Sea to forge the first "mengdu" implements. In some versions, this smith's "mengdu" are unsound, and the triplets' father summons a celestial smith named Jeon'gyeongnok to forge good-quality "mengdu". In any case, the triplets store them in a palace where their mother and Neosameneo-doryeong will keep watch over them. They then ascend into the afterlife to become divine judges of the dead, wielding the sacred shamanic knives that they will use to bring justice to the aristocrats.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Some time later, the daughter of a state councillor falls seriously ill every ten years: at the age of seven, seventeen, twenty-seven and so forth. At the age of seventy-seven, she realizes that she is sick with "sinbyeong", a disease sent down by the gods and cured only by initiation into shamanism. However, there are no ritual devices that she can use. She goes to the palace where the ritual implements are kept and prays to the triplets, who give her the sacred objects necessary for the shamanic initiation rite. The councilor's daughter is the first truly human shaman, and her receiving the ritual objects represents the first generational transfer of shamanic knowledge.


title: Korean shamanism

text: One of the common myths in Korean Shamanism is known as the Myth of Tangun. This myth refers to the belief that God would come from heaven. This would result in the earth and heaven being unified. God and human beings would be unified as well. Korean Shamanism believes that the goddess mother of earth is married to the heavenly God.


title: Korean shamanism

text: A common belief in Korean vernacular religion is that spirits of the dead wander the human world before entering the afterlife.


title: Korean shamanism

text: After death, the soul must stand trial in court and pass through gates kept by the Ten Kings. At this court, the dead are judged for their conduct in life. The Ten Gates of Hell are regarded as places of punishment for the wicked, typified by grotesque and gory scenes.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The dead are regarded as being intrinsically dangerous to the living as their touch causes affliction, regardless of whether they mean harm or not. Dead family members with unfulfilled desires, such as grandparents who never saw their grandchildren, a first wife who was replaced by a second wife, and young people who died before they could marry, are all considered especially dangerous.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Meddlesome ghosts are thought to often enter the house on a piece of cloth, clothing, or bright object.


title: Korean shamanism

text: If a person suffers a tragic or untimely death, it is believed that their soul hovers between life and death and can cause misfortune for their family; they thus need to be dealt with through ritual.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Terms for wandering spirits include "jabkwi" and "kaeksa", and "mudang" are deemed best suited for dealing with them, because they can determine what they want and tell them to go away.


title: Korean shamanism

text: On Jeju Island, since the late 1980s there have been public lamentations of the dead involving "simbang" to mark those killed in the Jeju uprising of 1948.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Central to "musok" rituals is a reciprocal transaction between humans and supernatural entities. These rituals are typically performance-focused, rather than being rooted in a prescribed liturgy, and can last for up to several days.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Most "musok" rituals take place secretly and involve few participants, usually only the "mudang" and the clients who have commissioned them.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The "mudang" are, according to their own beliefs, people who interact with the gods and the ancestors by divining their presence and will, performing small rituals to placate them and gain their favor, and oversee the "kut" rituals to feast and entertain them. Sarfati defined them as "practitioners of spiritual mediation" between the supernatural and human worlds, and noted that in mediating between worlds they are "liminal figures". According to Sarfati, the "mudang" communicate with supernatural beings "to decrease suffering and create a more harmonious life". Individual "mudang" can be regarded as having particular specialities.


title: Korean shamanism

text: "Mudang" operate as free agents, rather than members of an ordained clergy. For them, ritual is an economic activity, often being their full-time job, upon which they depend for their income. Some "mudang" nevertheless fail to earn a living through this ritual vocation. In modern South Korea, "mudang" have advertised their services in brochures, fliers, and newspapers, and more recently via the Internet. Yun observed that some "scholar-advocates" of "mugyo" took a "nostalgic view" that the "mudang" were "once purer than they are now," having degenerated under the impact of capitalism and modernisation into displaying a more materialistic and self-interested approach to their practice.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Male "mudang" often wear female clothing and makeup when performing rituals, reflecting their possession of a female "monjusin". Female "mudang" may show an interest in smoking, drinking alcohol, and playing with bladed weapons, reflecting that they have a male "monjusin". In Korean society, there have been persistent rumours about the toleration of homosexuality within "musok" practitioners.


title: Korean shamanism

text: "Mudang" have sometimes worked in groups. This has been observed among "simbang" on Jeju, as well as "mansin" in Seoul. In the early 1990s, for example, a feminist group in Seoul sponsored several "mudang" to perform a "kut" ritual for the aggrieved souls of Korean "comfort women." When an arsonist torched Seoul's historic Namdaemun Gate in 2008, several "mansin" performed a ritual to appease spirits angered by the act.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Korean shamans also experience "shinmyeong" (; "divine light"), which is the channeling of a god, during which the shaman speaks prophetically.


title: Korean shamanism

text: "Shinmyeong" is also experienced by entire communities during the "gut" hold by the shaman, and is a moment of energisation which relieves from social pressure, both physical and mental.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The typical prerequisite for becoming a "mudang" is to suffer misfortune, with practitioners believing that the deities torment a person with misfortune, illness or madness to alert them to the deities' desire that they become a "mudang". This reveals that the supernatural entities have chosen the afflicted person to become their mediator.


title: Korean shamanism

text: They often report fearful encounters with spirits prior to becoming "mudang", for instance through dreams.


title: Korean shamanism

text: This is termed the "sinŭi kamul" ("the drought caused by the gods"), or alternatively "sinbyŏng" ("spirit possession sickness").


title: Korean shamanism

text: One example of "sinbyǒng" was described by a famous model who became a "mudang", Pak Mi-sǒn, who related how her experiences of partial paralysis and hallucinations resulted in her embracing the practice.


title: Korean shamanism

text: A common motif in the biographies of "mudang" is the claim that they encountered divine beings or spiritual guides while wandering in a wild environment. The "mudang" may be compelled by spirit voices or visions, or drawn by compulsion to go to a temple, shrine, or sacred mountain. By recounting these stories, "mudang" legitimate their calling to the profession. Many "mudang" claim that they never wanted to be one, and fight against the calling. Most "mudang" claim that they and their families resisted the calling due to its lowly status and social disapproval.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Once the person has accepted the calling, they must find an established practitioner who is willing to train them. They become this person's apprentice, the "chagŭn mudang". Apprentices are usually aged over 18, although there are examples of children becoming apprentices. The apprentice may be called a "sinttal" (spirit daughter) of the "mudang" teaching them; the latter will be that novice's "sineomeomi". The neophyte must ultimately perform an initiation ritual to open up "malmun" (the "gates of speech") that will allow them to receive the words of the spirits. This rite is called the "naerim kut". It involves the neophyte performing the appropriate chants, dances, and oracles to invoke and convey inspiration from the deities. If the initiate fails to perform this correctly, with the deities failing to open their "malmun", they will have to perform it again. Many "mudang" will perform multiple "naerim kut" before being recognised as properly initiated practitioners. Those "mudang" who have failed to learn how to deal with supernatural entities correctly are sometimes called "ōngt'ōri" by other practitioners.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Among the hereditary "sesŭp-mu" tradition, the teachings were not always passed from mother to daughter but sometimes involved the practitioner adopting an apprentice. Thus, "sesŭp-mu" like the Jeju "simbang" learn their trade by observing more experienced practitioners. In early 21st-century Jeju, many "simbang" have been recorded as not wanting their children to follow them into the profession.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Serving private clients is the core practice for most "mudang", even those who have built celebrity status through their performance of staged "kut". In Jeju, clients are called "tan'gol". Clients seek solutions to their practical problems, typically hoping that the "mudang" can ascertain the cause of misfortune they have suffered. Common reasons for doing so include recurring nightmares, concerns about a child getting into university, financial woes, business concerns, or physical ailments. Some clients turn to the "mudang" after being dissatisfied with the diagnosis or treatment administered by medical professionals.


title: Korean shamanism

text: In "musok", it is neglecting ancestors and gods that is seen as the primary cause of human affliction. The "mudang" uses divination and trance visions to determine the source of their client’s trouble.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Although both sexes are among the clients of "mudang", most clientele are women. From his fieldwork in the 1990s, Chongho Kim found that most of the clients were "older women," particularly in their late fifties and early sixties. In that same decade, Kendall noted that most clients in the area of Seoul and its environs were small entrepreneurs, such as owners of small companies, shops, and restaurants. Sarfati noted that in the 21st century, many young people turned to "mudang" as part of a spiritual search or for counselling. Clients do not generally regard themselves as being committed exclusively to "mugyo", and may primarily visit Buddhist temples or Christian churches. Many "mudang" themselves believe that their rituals will be pleasing to the spirits regardless of the client's personal beliefs. On occasion, a busy client will not attend the "kut" they have sponsored.


title: Korean shamanism

text: If the ritual fails to produce the desired result, the client may speculate that it was because of a bad performer, errors in the ritual, the presence of a ritually polluted attendee, or a lack of sincerity on their part. If the client feels the "mudang" has not successfully solved their problem, they may turn to another "mudang". They may be disappointed or angry at this failure given their substantial financial investment; in some rare cases clients have sued "mudang". The payment of money is often a source of mistrust between clients and "mudang". Concerns about money are heightened by the lack of an "institutional buffer" between the client and ritual practitioner, such as a temple or church.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Most of the "mudang's" rituals centre around altars. Here, the "mudang" "invite, entertain, and entreat supernatural beings". If performing a rite in a client's home, the "mudang" will often establish a temporary altar, with offerings placed on low tables. If at a shrine, the altar will often be a stone or an old tree. The "mudang" will also typically have a shrine in their home in which they host various gods and ancestors. Each shrine may have idiosyncratic elements.


title: Korean shamanism

text: This home shrine may include paintings of deities, called "musindo" or "taenghwa", usually considered the most important objects present. These paintings range from being crude to more sophisticated, and are regarded as seats for the gods themselves. Painters who produce "musindo" are traditionally expected to adhere to standards of purity while producing these artworks. Since the late 20th century, "musindo" have commonly been produced in commercial workshops. Some "musindo" have been donated to museums; certain "mugyo" practitioners believe that the deity leaves the image if that occurs. Alongside paintings will often be statues of deities, created from wood, plastic, straw, or metal; these are called "sinsang". Some "mudang" also include images of Buddhist deities on their shrines. Also present on contemporary shrines will typically be candlesticks, offering bowls, and incense pots. The home altar will often be dominated with bright, primary colors, in contrast to the muted earth tones which traditionally predominated in Korean daily life. The "mudang's" altar will also often be a place to store or display their ritual paraphernalia, such as costumes. It may also include toys or dolls to amuse the child gods.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Offerings to the deities will be placed on this home shrine. Some offerings, such as cooked rice, fruit, and water, may be changed daily; other offerings, such as sweets, cigarettes, and liquor, may be replaced more infrequently. "Mudang" hold that they provide offerings to these deities in thanks to the work that these entities have brought them; a large assortment of offerings can thus give the impression that the "mudang" is financially successful. Worshipping the deities daily sustains their ongoing favor. Clients of the "mudang" may place offerings at this shrine as well as the "mudang" themselves.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Deities are often believed to be present in all houses. Historical accounts often reference the presence of earthen jars ("tok", "hangari", "tanji") filled with grain, or smaller baskets or pouches, as offerings to household deities and ancestors. This practice was declining in South Korea by the 1960s and 1970s. By the latter decades of the 20th century, cardboard boxes had become common receptacles for these household offerings.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The religion's ritual shrines are called "kuttang" or "kut dang" (Korean: 굿당) and are typically located on mountains in South Korea. The main ritual room is called the "kut bang". There is often an offering table on which offerings are placed.


title: Korean shamanism

text: On Jeju, a shrine is known as a "tang". On Jeju Island, various villages have more than one shrine; new village shrines have been established on Jeju during the early 21st century.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Many "mudang" rent out a "kuttang" as a space in which to perform their rituals, especially if they do not have the room for such rites in their home.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The central ritual of the "mugyo" tradition is called "kut". These are large-scale rites, and are the only rituals in traditional Korean religion believed to give supernatural entities the ability to speak directly to humans. They are characterised by rhythmic movements, songs, oracles and prayers. These rites are meant to create welfare, promoting commitment between the spirits and humankind. There is regional diversity in the styles of "kut", although some "mudang" mix these different styles, with each "kut" displaying features unique to its particular circumstances.


title: Korean shamanism

text: A "kut" is sponsored for a specific purpose. A "kut" may be arranged due to an illness, domestic quarrel, or financial loss. The purpose of a "kut" is to get the supernatural beings to communicate, expressing what it is that they want and why they are angry. In the 21st century, it has become increasingly common to sponsor a "kut" to mark a new financial venture, such as the opening of a mall or an office building.


title: Korean shamanism

text: As well as being performed for clients, the "mudang" will sometimes perform these rituals for their own personal reasons.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The fee charged varies between "mudang" and the circumstances of the rite. However, a "kut" is usually very expensive for the client of a "mudang"; based on his fieldwork in 1990s, Chongho Kim noted that a "kut" in Seoul typically cost between 2 and 5 million won, whereas in the rural area of Soy it cost between 300,000 and 2.5 million won. The precise fee may be negotiated between the "mu" and their client, sometimes involving haggling. This will usually be agreed at a pre-"kut" consultation. As well as paying for the "mudang's" time, the fee also covers the wages of any assistants and the costs of material used in the rite; it may also reflect the years of training they have undertaken to be able to perform these rituals.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The "kut" is usually held in private, and few have a larger audience than the direct participants, although there are instances where those paying for a "kut" will invite neighbors to observe. These rituals are typically regarded as unsuitable for children to attend. Often it will take place outdoors and at night, in an isolated rural location, at a "kuttang" shrine rented for the occasion, or in a private home, either that of the "mudang", or that of their client. Setting up the "kut" may involve not only the "mudang" but also their apprentices, assistants, musicians, butchers, and cooks. Preparing and decorating the space is deemed a meaningful part of the ritual process, with those setting it up often concerned so as not to offend the spirits.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Colorful paintings of the gods will often be brought into the space where the "kut" is to be performed; this is not part of the "kut" performed by Jeju "simbang". God paintings are usually paper, although in modern contexts are sometimes polyester, ensuring that they are resistant to rain and tearing. Other practitioners regard the use of polyester images as a corruption of tradition. These images are then often hung on a metal frame.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Various ritual items may be included in the "kut" ritual, including swords, the "samjichang", a drum, drum stick, and the spirit stick. The "samjichang" is a three-pronged spear. The "chukwonmun" is a prayer card used in the "kut" onto which information like the name of the client may be written. The "chukwonmun" may then be attached to a drum.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Food will served as offerings to the spirits. This will often include fish, rice, rice cakes, eggs, sweets, biscuits, fruit, and meat. Some of this food will be cooked, some will be offered raw. To provide meat, animal sacrifice occurs at most "kut", although is rare in televisual, cinematic, and museum depictions of these rites. A cow or pig killed for the purpose may be butchered in the shrine room; the carcass may be impaled on the trident; if it fails to balance, then this is seen as evidence that the deities do not accept the offering.


title: Korean shamanism

text: When the ritual is intended to invoke Buddhist spirits, the food offerings may be vegetarian; offering these entities meat would offend them. Food offerings may also be set out at the side for wandering spirits who are attracted by the ritual, an act designed to avoid mishaps they could cause.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Offered alongside the food will often be alcoholic drinks, typically "soju", as well as non-food items like incense, cloth, money (both real and imitation), and paper flowers. The color of the flowers may indicate to whom they are offered; pink for the spirits of military generals, white for Buddhist deities, and multi-colored for ancestral spirits. The material used for the "kut" will often be bought in a "manmulsang" shop, which specialises in traditional relgious paraphernalia. In modern South Korea, the ritual paraphernalia used is often of poor quality because it is intended to be burnt following the ceremony.


title: Korean shamanism

text: These may be placed on offering tables; one table will be the "halabeoji sang", devoted to the "musok" gods, while the other table will be the "jasang sang", devoted to ancestral spirits. The "mudang" will often perform divination to determine if the offerings have been accepted by the supernatural beings. It is considered important for the person giving these offerings to do so with sincerity and devotion, with the mudang undertaking a form of divination called "weighing the sincerity" ("chǒngsǒng kŭllyang") to determine if this has been the case.


title: Korean shamanism

text: During the ritual, attendees may be expected to give additional offerings of money to the "mudang", intended as thanks both to them and to the spirits. These offerings, given in addition to the ritual fee, are called "pyŏlbi" or "kajŏn". Any real money presented as offerings to the deities will be taken by the "mudang".


title: Korean shamanism

text: Much of the food assembled for the "kut" will then be distributed and consumed by the attendees at the end of the ritual, having been charged by auspiciousness by its involvement in the rite. Attendees may distribute some of this food to non-attendees once they get home; they may also set some aside to feed any wandering spirits that might have followed them from the "kut". In some "kut", especially those held at "kut dang" shrines, food will also be left to decay.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The ritual begins with the "mudang" inviting supernatural entities to the altar, after which they set out to entertain them. Music will often be involved in the kut.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Musical instruments typically involved in "kut" include cymbals, hourglass-shaped drums called "changgu", and a gong. Also sometimes featured is a pipe, the "p'iri". The "kut" will often begin with drumming. The "mudang" will often dance to the beat of the drums, often swirling in circles, something believed to facilitate the possession trance. They may hold short sticks to which white paper streamers are attached; this device is intended to help channel the spirits into the "mudang's" body.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The songs or chants of the "mudang" are called "muga". Incantations and ritual words for communicating with the spirit are called "chukeon". The "mudang" will often recite mythological stories during the ritual, something deemed to contribute to its efficacy. These may be recited in full at a longer ritual or in condensed form for a shorter one. There may be breaks during the "kut", for instance giving time for the participants to eat.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The "mudang" may also carry a fan and brass bells; Sarfati commented that these bells were "a central symbol of musok", and their purpose is to attract the attention of the spirits.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The costumes worn for these rituals are called "sinbok". These colorful outfits resemble those documented from the 19th and early 20th centuries, and may involve a "hanbok". The "mansin" may distinguish themselves from their assistants by having their hair in the Tchokchin mŏri style.


title: Korean shamanism

text: For the "kut", the "mudang" will dress in the gods' costume, with different deities associated with different items of clothing. They may change outfit over the course of the "kut" to reflect the different entities possessing them. This is not a practice that the "sesup mu" engage in.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Also used in many "kut" are "chaktu" blades, objects symbolising the bravery of the possessing warrior spirits. The "mudang" may stab themselves in the chest with the knives, run the blade along their tongue, or press it to their face and hands. Riding knives is termed "jakdugeori" and involves the "mudang" walking barefoot on the upturned blade of the knife, sometimes while speaking in "gongsu", or possessed speech. Practitioners claim that it is the spirits that prevent the "mudang" from being cut by the blade, and the ability to undertake such dangerous acts without harm is regarded as evidence for the efficacy of the rite. Some practitioners acknowledge instances in which they have been cut by the blades. "Jakdugeori" has become an expected part of staged or cinematic "kut".


title: Korean shamanism

text: The possession phase takes place at the climax of the ritual. In some "kut" traditions, the "mudang" will stand upon an earthen jar while doing so.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The term "sin-naerim" (descending of the spirits) describes possession of the "mansin", intended in a manner that is largely controlled. Possessed speech is called "gongsu"; words from the possessing entity will then be spoken to the assembled persons by the "mudang". Over the course of a "kut", a "mansin" may be possessed by a succession of different supernatural entities.


title: Korean shamanism

text: On Jeju, the "simbang" will provide a voice for the spirits. Yun noted that the "simbang's" "so-called medium speech" typically lacked the "dramatic intensity" of the messages conveyed by the "kangsin-mu". The entities possessing the "mudang" will typically dispense advice to the ritual's sponsor and to other attendees.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Supernatural beings will often relate that if a "kut" had been performed earlier, misfortune would not have befallen the person sponsoring the "kut".


title: Korean shamanism

text: The "kkonmaji kut" or flower-greeting "kut" is an annual rite held by a "mudang" to entertain and feed their gods, ancestors, and clients. The "sin kut" are performed in gratitude to the deities and ancestors for granting a mu their spiritual power and thus a livelihood. They are regarded as returning to these supernatural beings a portion of what the mu has earned. The "sin kut" can sometimes last 10 days. The "byong kut" is a ritual for expelling bad spirits, sometimes from a human. This sometimes involves the spirit forcing it into a bottle.


title: Korean shamanism

text: The "mich'in kut" is performed for a person who is mentally afflicted and often deemed to be possessed by one or more spirits. Exorcisms will often involve throwing scraps of food, sometimes at the afflicted person. The possessing spirit is offered food to encourage it to leave.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Historically, the "kut" may have had entertainment value when there were few other outlets. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, "kut" performed primarily for entertainment purposes rather than for religious reasons are referred to as "kut gongyeon". Some practitioners who perform both draw a clear distinction between them, although many "mudang" still regard staged "kut" as genuine interactions with spirits. Performed in museums or at city festivals, these "kut" often take place on raised stages surrounded by a seated audience, typically attracting journalists, scholars, and photographers. Staged "kut" are often dedicated to general causes such as national prosperity; sometimes the food placed as an offering is fake. They often involve folklorists or other scholars who explain the ritual to the audience, while the participants will often be dressed in a common uniform, something not found in private "kut". "Mudang" may see these staged rituals as an opportunity to attract potential new clients, uploading videos of them performing such rites to social media and YouTube.


title: Korean shamanism

text: "Kut gongyeon" are often performed for their artistic value. By 2009, South Korea's government recognised ten regional "kut" styles as parts of the country's intangible cultural heritage, and that year one of these traditions — the Yǒngdŭng kut performed at Ch'ilmǒri Shrine on Jeju — was added to UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Purity of both the body and the mind is a state that is required for taking part in rituals. Purification is considered necessary for an efficacious communion between living people and ancestral forms. Before any "gut" is performed, the altar is always purified by fire and water, as part of the first "gori" of the ritual itself. The colour white, extensively used in rituals, is regarded as a symbol of purity. The purification of the body is performed by burning white paper.


title: Korean shamanism

text: In stories surrounding the "mudang", mountains are often represented as both places of sacred presence and also places associated with the ultimate origin of the "mudang" tradition. Each prominent mountain is deemed to have a specific mountain spirit who is sovereign upon it. The levels of spiritual power at a mountain are influenced not just by its associated deities but also the "ki" energy (the equivalent of the Chinese "qi") that is present there. This "ki" is believed to channel through "maek" ("veins") through the mountain landscape; these can be disrupted by roads or other construction. Thus, the potency of these mountains is thought to decline amid growing urbanisation and tourist access. In Korea, this traditional geomancy is called "p'ungsu", and is akin to the Chinese "fengshui".


title: Korean shamanism

text: Pilgrimages to mountain shrines of particular deities have long been part of Korean folk religion. On arrival at the shrine, the pilgrim will bow and provide an offering.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Mountain landscapes regularly attract "mudang" who regard these as places that concentrate powerful deities and which are conducive to receiving visions. They are also seen as places to replenish their "bright energy" ("myǒnggi"). "Mudang" will make offerings not only at the mountains but also at springs and guardian trees "en route".


title: Korean shamanism

text: The most sacred mountain for the "mudang" is Mount Paektu, located on North Korea's northern border with China. Some "mudang" from South Korea have travelled to China to make pilgrimages to this mountain.


title: Korean shamanism

text: An important component of the "mudang's" role is to produce talismans called "pujǒk" ("bujeok") which are presented as providing the bearer with good fortune. These "pujǒk" are often based on "hancha", Korean versions of Chinese ideograms. These may be distributed to attendees at the end of a rite. Clients will often affix these to the internal walls of their home.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Divination is termed "jeom". One form of divination, sometimes performed during other rituals, involves a person picking one of a selection of rolled up silk flags. The color of the selected flag is then interpreted as bearing meaning for that individual. Green and yellow flags are for instance often seek as indicating bad fortune, while red is regarded as being auspicious.


title: Korean shamanism

text: In Korean vernacular religion, there are also ritual specialists who perform divinations and produce amulets but who do not engage in "kut" rituals like the "mudang".


title: Korean shamanism

text: Detailed accounts of "mudang" rituals prior to the modern period are rare, and the fact that the tradition is orally transmitted means it is difficult to trace historical processes.


title: Korean shamanism

text: Korean shamanism goes back to prehistoric times, pre-dating the introduction of Buddhism and Confucianism, and the influence of Taoism, in Korea. Vestiges of temples dedicated to gods and spirits have been found on tops and slopes of many mountains in the peninsula.