title: Korean mythology

text: The foundation of the southwestern kingdom of Baekje is also linked to the Jumong myth. According to the "Samguk sagi", when Yuri is made heir, Jumong's two sons by a local wife are excluded from the kingship. These two brothers, Biryu and Onjo, migrate south to found their own kingdoms. Biryu sets up court in an unfavorable place, while Onjo founds Baekje in good terrain in what is now southern Seoul. The former dies of shame when he learns that his brother's kingdom is flourishing, and the remnants of his people join Baekje.


title: Korean mythology

text: The myth of Jumong is of the northern type, with Haemosu as the celestial father and Yuhwa as the earthly woman. Contemporaneous Chinese sources report that Jumong and Yuhwa were both actively worshipped as gods by the Goguryeo people, including in rituals involving shamans. Like the Dan'gun myth, the story is also subject to euhemerized interpretations. For instance, Seo Daeseok argues that Haemosu symbolizes an ancient iron-using, agricultural sun-worshipping people, that Yuhwa was a member of a riverine group of hunters, farmers, and fishermen, and that Geumwa's polity centered on hunting and pastoralism.


title: Korean mythology

text: The Jumong myth is first attested in the fifth-century Gwanggaeto Stele, but the first-century Chinese text "Lunheng" describes a barbarian tale of a good archer who crosses a river on the backs of fish and turtles to found a new kingdom in the south. However, this figure's mother is a slave-girl impregnated by an egg-like energy rather than a goddess who gives birth to a physical egg, and the figure himself founds the kingdom of Buyeo, rather than that of Goguryeo. The Goguryeo foundation myth thus incorporates the myths of Haemosu and Yuri and the Buyeo foundation myth into a single narrative.


title: Korean mythology

text: The ancient Silla kingdom was originally dominated by three clans: the Bak, the Seok, and the Kim. At some point the Seok were eliminated from power, and all Silla monarchs from then on were children of a Kim father and a Bak mother. All three clans have associated founding myths.


title: Korean mythology

text: The Bak foundation myth is given in the fullest detail in "Samguk yusa". Six chieftains of the Gyeongju area convene to found a united kingdom. They see a strange light shining on a well. When they go there, they see a white horse kneeling. The horse ascends to heaven, leaving a large egg behind. The chieftains break open the egg and find a beautiful boy inside, who they name Hyeokgeose.


title: Korean mythology

text: Some time later, a chicken-dragon gives birth to a beautiful girl with a chicken beak from its left rib. When they wash the girl in a nearby stream, the beak falls off. When the boy and the girl are both thirteen years old, the chieftains crown them as the first king and queen of Silla and give the king the clan name of Bak. Hyeokgeose rules for sixty-one years and ascends to heaven. Seven days later, his dead body drops from the sky. The queen dies soon after. A giant snake prevents the people from holding a funeral until they dismember the body into five parts, which is why Hyeokgeose has five different tombs.


title: Korean mythology

text: The "Samguk yusa" also records the Seok and Kim foundation myths. In the first, a ship surrounded by magpies lands on the Silla coast after sailing away from Gaya for unspecified reasons. There is a giant chest in the ship, and when they open it they find slaves, treasures, and a young boy inside. The boy, Seok Talhae, reveals that he is a prince of a country called Yongseong (). When he was born in the form of an egg, his father put him inside the chest and sent him away to found his own kingdom abroad. Having settled in Silla, Seok steals the house of the aristocrat Hogong through deceit and marries the eldest daughter of the Silla king, a descendant of Hyeokgeose. He succeeds his father-in-law as king and founds the Seok clan. After his death, he becomes the patron god of a local mountain. A village-shrine "bon-puri" very similar to the Seok Talhae myth is transmitted by modern shamans in the southern island of Jeju.


title: Korean mythology

text: Hogong appears prominently in the Kim foundation myth as well. One night, Hogong sees a great light in the woods. When he goes closer, he discovers a golden chest hanging from a tree and a white rooster crowing below. He opens the chest and discovers a boy, who he names Alji. Alji is brought to court and made the Silla king's heir, but he later abdicates his position. Alji would become the mythical founder of the Kim clan, which would later monopolize the patrilineal line of the Silla kings.


title: Korean mythology

text: Until their conquest by Silla in the sixth century, the delta of the southern Nakdong River was occupied by the Gaya polities. The "Samguk yusa" preserves the foundation myth of one of the most powerful Gaya kingdoms, that of Geumgwan Gaya. The nine chieftains of the country hear a strange voice announce that heaven has commanded it to found a kingdom there. After singing and dancing as commanded by the voice, a golden chest wrapped in red cloth descends from heaven. When the chieftains open it, they find six golden eggs. The eggs hatch into giant boys, who fully mature in merely two weeks. On the fifteenth day, the six each become kings of the six Gaya kingdoms. The first to hatch, Suro, becomes king of Geumgwan Gaya.


title: Korean mythology

text: Later, Suro is challenged by the Seok clan's founder Seok Talhae. According to the history of Gaya given in "Samguk yusa", the two engage in a shapeshifting duel, after which Seok acknowledges defeat and flees to Silla. A beautiful princess named Heo Hwang'ok then arrives on a ship with red sails, bearing great wealth from a distant kingdom called Ayuta. Heo tells Suro that Shangdi has commanded her father to marry her to Suro, and the two become king and queen. They both live for more than 150 years.


title: Korean mythology

text: The foundation myths of Silla and Gaya are of the southern type, with the founder descending directly from heaven on vessels such as eggs and chests. The myths may also reflect real historical figures and processes. Hyeokgeose may therefore symbolize an ancient migration of northern horse-riders who created the state of Silla with the support of local chieftains, while Seok Talhae stands for a maritime group that was defeated by Gaya and was integrated into the Silla state and Heo Hwang'ok preserves the historical memory of a merchant group that contributed to the establishment of the early Geumgwan Gaya polity.


title: Korean mythology

text: Many other supernatural stories are contained in the "Samguk yusa" to the point that Grayson calls its compiler, Iryeon, "the first Korean folklorist." Some of these stories reflect shamanic mythology. One example is the tale of Cheoyong. Cheoyong, a son of the Dragon King of the East Sea, arrives in the Silla court where he marries a beautiful woman. One night, he goes home to find the smallpox god having sex with his wife. Rather than punish the intruder, Cheoyong only sings a song. The smallpox god is so astounded by his mercy that he repents and agrees to never enter any house with Cheoyong's face on its gate. The people of Silla then attach portraits of Cheoyong to their gates. The story of Cheoyong is traditionally interpreted as the myth of a shaman or benevolent deity who wards off the spirit of pestilence, although the exact relationship between Cheoyong's song (which survives in two different versions) and Korean shamanic chants continues to be debated.


title: Korean mythology

text: Another genre of literary mythology are the origin myths of specific family lineages, which are recorded in genealogies. The motif of the founding ancestor's birth from a stone or golden chest also appears in the genealogies of many non-royal lineages. Other ancestor myths involve the coupling of a human and a non-human. The Chungju Eo ( "fish") claim descent from a man who was born to a human mother and a carp father, while the Changnyeong Jo are thought to descend from the offspring of a Silla noblewoman and the son of a dragon.


title: Korean mythology

text: The shamanic narratives are works of oral literature sung during "gut"—the Korean term for large-scale shamanic rituals—which constitute the mythology of Korean shamanism, the indigenous polytheistic religion of the country.


title: Korean mythology

text: Since the long-ruling Joseon dynasty (1392—1910), the attitude of the Korean population towards the traditional religion has been ambivalent. The Joseon, whose state ideology was Neo-Confucianism, were opposed to shamanism and made significant efforts to eliminate the religion from the public sphere. As Koreans increasingly accepted the Joseon state's patriarchal and anti-shamanic ideology, shamanism became increasingly associated with women, who were also marginalized by the new social structure. It was in this restrained capacity as women's private religion, without public influence, that shamanism was still tolerated by Joseon society.


title: Korean mythology

text: Despite the continued presence of shamanism as a significant force in Korean religious life, a cultural ambivalence regarding it persists. As of 2016, the capital of Seoul alone has hundreds of ritual places, where "gut" are held on most days of the year. Yet when in public, many worshipers—often Christians or Buddhists as well as practitioners of shamanism—avoid discussing their shamanic worship and sometimes disparage their own beliefs as superstition.


title: Korean mythology

text: Reflecting this ambivalence, shamanism and its mythology are often characterized as subversive of Korea's mainstream values and official culture, though some may also simultaneously incorporate more mainstream thinking such as the Confucian virtues. The story of Princess Bari is a typical example. The myth centers on the princess's journey to the world of the dead to save her parents. The story is thus "an affirmation of a Confucian virtue," that of filial piety. Yet the parents' savior is not a son but a daughter—indeed, the very daughter that Bari's parents abandon at birth merely for being a girl. Later, Bari leaves her husband for her parents, although Confucian culture demands that women transfer their loyalties to their husband's family after marriage. The myth therefore can be interpreted to subvert the Confucian framework of patriarchy using the very values of Confucianism.


title: Korean mythology

text: All shamanic narratives meet the purposes of both religiosity and entertainment, albeit to varying degrees. Shamanic narratives are almost never sung in non-religious circumstances, and the ritual context is critical to a full understanding of the mythology. For instance, the story of Bari is performed at ceremonies where the soul of the deceased is sent off to the realm of the dead. Bari is the goddess that guides the soul on its way, and the story of the princess's journey thus further reassures the bereaved that the spirit of their loved one is in good hands. At the same time, shamans also seek to entertain worshippers. This may be done by inserting riddles, popular songs, or humorous or sexual descriptions into the retelling of the myth, or by having the accompanying musicians interrupt the narrative with often vulgar jokes. Such humorous elements also helped convey the subversive message of many shamanic myths, such as criticism of gender hierarchies and class structures.


title: Korean mythology

text: As oral literature, shamanic narratives are also affected by both the received tradition and the performing shaman's original innovations. Many narratives have lengthy formulaic paragraphs and imagery that appear identically throughout multiple versions of the myth or even across multiple myths, and which are memorized by shamans when they first learn the songs. For instance, a series of highly metaphoric descriptions of Bari's mother's pregnancies is found in all regions where the Princess Bari myth is performed. On the other hand, shamans regularly add new content and reword phrases of the narratives, and the same shaman may even sing different variants of the same myth depending on the specific circumstances of the "gut". A certain degree of consistency is nonetheless expected; in one case, a Jeju shaman reciting the "Chogong bon-puri" narrative was interrupted ten times for giving inaccurate details until more experienced shamans demanded that he name the man who taught him. The shamanic mythology is thus unusually conservative for oral literature.


title: Korean mythology

text: Unlike the literary mythology, the shamanic mythology is a living tradition capable of creating new narratives. In the 1960s, an unknown shaman in eastern Gangwon Province adapted the "Simcheong-ga", a story involving a blind man, into the new "Simcheong-gut" narrative, recited in order to ward off eye disease. The new myth has since become very popular in the region. Another apparently new myth is the "Jemyeon-gut" narrative, which appeared in the city of Gangneung for the first time in 1974 despite not being attested when the same ritual was held in 1966 and 1969. The "Jemyeon-gut" myth has no clear source for its story, and researchers have noted an increase in narrative details from the 1970s to the 1990s. Several other shamanic narratives appear to have been adapted at some point from, or otherwise bear a close relation to, late Joseon-era vernacular literature. Cross-cultural similarities have also been noted between Korean shamanic narratives and other East Asian myths, in particular the mythology of Manchu shamanism.


title: Korean mythology

text: Korean shamanism is currently undergoing a major restructuring that is not favorable towards a lengthy performance of the mythology. The traditional village community-oriented ceremonies are in decline, while rituals commissioned by individual worshippers are on the rise. The setting of the "gut" has also shifted to ritual places where only the shamans and the relevant worshippers are present, in contrast to the public participation that was traditional for the ceremonies. Most of these individual worshippers have little interest in the mythology itself, sometimes even leaving when the narrative begins, but are very invested in ceremonies specifically related to themselves or their friends and family, such as the "gongsu" rite in which the shaman conveys messages directly from the gods to the worshipper. With the emergence of other forms of entertainment, the entertainment value of shamanic rituals has also declined. In at least Seoul, the performance of the "Princess Bari" is therefore becoming increasingly shorter. As many new shamans now learn narratives from published books or recordings rather than being taught personally by a more experienced shaman as was traditional, the regional diversity of the mythology may also be in decline.


title: Korean mythology

text: Unlike the Greco-Roman or Norse mythologies familiar to Western readers, the deities of Korean shamanic mythology exist mostly independently of each other. Each shamanic narrative establishes the nature and functions of the deities it is dedicated to, but there are few cases where gods that have previously appeared in their own narratives interact with each other. It is thus not possible to establish a genealogy of the gods.


title: Korean mythology

text: The shamanic mythology is divided into five regional traditions (Korean: ), representing the primary variations of the two narratives the "Jeseok bon-puri" and the "Princess Bari", which are both found throughout the Korean peninsula. Each of the five regions also has myths not found in the other regions, as well as distinctive tendencies in the actual performance of the narratives. The mythological tradition of southern Jeju Island is particularly divergent.


title: Korean mythology

text: A characteristic of Korean mythology is that the corpus is poorest in and near the capital of Seoul—the traditional political, economic, and cultural center of the country—and largest and most diverse in South Hamgyong Province and Jeju Island, the northernmost and southernmost peripheries respectively. The two peripheral mythologies are the most archaic. Several similar myths are found in both Hamgyong and Jeju despite the great distances involved, suggesting that the two mythologies both descend from a common ancient Korean source.


title: Korean mythology

text: The northern tradition is poorly understood because all of its area is now part of North Korea, where ethnographic research is not feasible. Ethnologist Hong Tae-han calls it a grouping made for convenience's sake, as what regional diversity may have existed there is now inaccessible to scholarship. The religion of South Hamgyong Province may form a coherent shamanic tradition independent of other northern shamanism. The South Hamgyong mythology includes a large corpus of unique shamanic narratives, of which the most important is the "Song of Dorang-seonbi and Cheongjeong-gaksi", centering on a woman who attempts to meet her beloved husband after his death. Other notable South Hamgyong myths include the "Seng-gut" narrative, which combines the creation myth and the "Jeseok bon-puri"; the "Donjeon-puri", in which a husband and wife become the gods of money; and the "Jim'gajang" narrative, about three boys who take vengeance on their murderer by reincarnating as his sons. By contrast, the province of Hwanghae in North Korea has virtually no shamanic mythology. The ritual and entertainment role played by mythical narratives in other regions is served by an unusually developed tradition of ceremonial dance and theater.


title: Korean mythology

text: According to a North Korean shaman who defected in 2008, shamanism is widespread in modern North Korea and "de facto" condoned by the state, but the old songs and chants are no longer transmitted.


title: Korean mythology

text: The west-central tradition is the mythological tradition of Seoul and its environs, and is distinguished by a strong emphasis on the sacred nature of the narratives. The recitations are primarily addressed to the deity, not the physically present human worshippers. Formulaic phrases of the received tradition are frequently used. Hong Tae-han characterizes the west-central mythology as the most "solemn" of Korean shamanic narratives. This may be because Seoul shamans frequently held ceremonies in the royal palaces for queens and other court women, who would have expected dignity and gravity from the rituals. This region also has the fewest myths. The only specifically west-central narrative is "Seongju-puri", explaining the origins of the patron god of the household. In the city of Seoul itself, "Princess Bari" is the only shamanic narrative that is performed.


title: Korean mythology

text: In contrast to the west-central tradition, shamans of the East Coast and Gyeongsang tradition do much to make their narratives entertaining for the human worshippers. Narratives are recited with an unusual level of detail, and the diversity of rhetorical techniques is unprecedented. Indeed, Hong Tae-han refers to the East Coast shaman families as "the most skilled performing arts group in the entirety of Korea." The musicians go beyond simply providing background music and intervene directly in the performance, while the performing shaman actively interacts with the human audience. Non-shamanic music, such as folk songs or Buddhist hymns, is integrated into the narrative at appropriate moments. Characteristic regional narratives include a very detailed account of the journeys of the Visitors, the gods of smallpox. The region currently has the most vigorous mythological tradition.


title: Korean mythology

text: The Jeolla tradition is characterized by the reduced importance of the pan-Korean narratives, and the greater prominence of two other myths: the "Jangja-puri", about a rich man who evades the gods of death, and the "Chilseong-puri", featuring seven brothers who become gods of the Big Dipper. As of 2002, the Jeolla mythology was in decline.


title: Korean mythology

text: The Jeju tradition also stresses the sanctity of the myths to the point that the performing shaman always sings the stories while facing the sacrificial altar, turning their back towards the musicians and worshippers. The explicit purpose of the Jeju mythology, as expressed in many narratives directly, is to make the gods "giddy with delight" by retelling them the story of their lives and deeds. The island has the richest corpus of shamanic narratives. The island represents the only tradition where Princess Bari is unknown. The Jeju mythological tradition is also at risk, as the largest Jeju "gut" rituals—which take fourteen days to complete—are seldom fully held nowadays. Several myths are already no longer performed by shamans.


title: Korean mythology

text: Several Korean shamanic narratives discuss the creation and primordial history of the world. The most complete creation narratives are found in the northern and Jeju traditions, although one is known from the west-central tradition. Several East Coast versions of the "Jeseok bon-puri" also incorporate relevant elements.


title: Korean mythology

text: The northern and Jeju creation narratives share many elements. In both traditions, the universe is created with the division of heaven and earth, which were originally fused. A giant is often involved in the creation; in one northern narrative, the creator god Mireuk who cleaves heaven and earth is said to have eaten grain by the "seom" (180 liters) and to have worn robes with sleeves twenty feet (6.7 meters) long or wide. In both northern and Jeju myths, a benevolent god is challenged by an usurper who claims rule over the human world. The two gods engage in three contests to decide who will rule. In both, the final challenge is a flower-growing contest, in which the god that grows the better flower will take charge of humanity. The benevolent god grows the (better) flower, but the usurper steals it while the other god sleeps. Having won this final contest, the usurper takes control of the world, but his unjust victory is the source of the evil and suffering of the present world. Both northern and Jeju creation myths also tell of how there are once two suns and two moons, making the world very hot during day and very cold during night, until a deity destroys one of each.


title: Korean mythology

text: Nonetheless, the northern and Jeju creation myths differ significantly in structure. In the north, the two protagonists are the creator Mireuk and the usurper Seokga. Both are Buddhist names, referring to Maitreya and Shakyamuni respectively. But as the myths are otherwise unrelated to Buddhism, they are believed to be indigenous gods whose original names were at some point replaced. The two gods fight two duels of supernatural power—such as making a river freeze in midsummer, or hitting a bottle of liquor midair and having the liquor float in the air even while the bottle shatters and falls—before the final flower contest. In the majority of narratives, the sun and moon double or disappear after Seokga's unjust victory, and the usurper is obliged to embark on a quest to restore cosmic order by retrieving the sun and moon or destroying the doubled ones. Only the northern tradition discusses the creation of humanity; according to one narrative, Mireuk grows insects into humans.


title: Korean mythology

text: The Jeju creation myth does not show Buddhist influence. In Jeju, the sky god Cheonji-wang descends to earth some time after creation, often to punish an impious man named Sumyeong-jangja. There, he sleeps with an earthly woman and gives her the tokens of two gourd seeds as he returns to the heavens. The woman gives birth to the twins Daebyeol-wang and Sobyeol-wang. When the brothers grow up, they plant the gourd seeds, which grow into gigantic vines that stretch into heaven. The twins climb these vines to enter their father's realm. After verifying their parentage, the twins hold a contest to decide who will rule the human world and who the world of the dead. After two riddle contests, the younger twin wins the final flower contest through cheating and takes charge of the living. The realm of Sobyeol-wang, the physical world where humans live, is full of suffering and disorder. But Daebyeol-wang establishes justice and order for his kingdom of the afterlife, where human souls go after death.


title: Korean mythology

text: The "Jeseok bon-puri" is the only truly pan-Korean myth, being found in all five regional traditions. The mainland versions of the narrative recount the origins of the Jeseok gods, fertility deities that guarantee fortune and agricultural prosperity, as well as often Samsin, the goddess of childbirth. As of the year 2000, there were sixty-one known versions of the "Jeseok bon-puri", excluding the highly divergent Jeju versions.


title: Korean mythology

text: All versions share the following basic narrative structure. Danggeum-aegi is the virgin daughter of a nobleman. When her parents and brothers are temporarily absent, a Buddhist priest comes on an alms round to her house. Danggeum-aegi gives alms in the form of rice, but the priest usually stalls for time by spilling all the rice that she gives, so that she must pick them up and offer them again.


title: Korean mythology

text: In the Jeolla tradition, the priest then briefly grasps her wrist before leaving. In the west-central tradition, Danggeum-aegi eats three of the grains of rice that the priest has spilled. In the northern and East Coast-Gyeongsang traditions, the girl offers the priest lodging in her father's room, but he refuses. He consecutively rejects her offer of every room in the mansion until she agrees to share her own room with her, where they have sex. In any case, the girl becomes pregnant. When her family returns, they attempt to kill her to salvage the family's honor but fail, sometimes because rocks and earth fall on top of her parents and brothers while celestial light shines on the girl.


title: Korean mythology

text: In the west-central and Jeolla traditions, they then expel her from the household. Danggeum-aegi successfully finds the priest and gives birth in his presence to sons, usually but not always triplets. The priest abandons Buddhism and starts a family with her and the sons. In the Jeolla tradition, the myth ends here without anybody becoming gods. In the west-central tradition, the priest confers divinity upon his sons with Danggeum-aegi as the Jeseok gods.


title: Korean mythology

text: In the northern and East Coast-Gyeongsang traditions, the family imprisons Danggeum-aegi in a pit or stone chest, but she miraculously survives and always gives birth to triplet sons. Danggeum-aegi is then brought back to the family. In most versions, the triplets prove to be supernaturally talented, such that the other children repeatedly attempt and fail to murder them out of envy. One day, the triplets ask who their father is. Danggeum-aegi usually gives the names of various trees as their father, but each tree tells the triplets that she is lying. Once she admits the truth, the brothers go out to find their father. When they reach the priest's temple, he gives them a series of impossible tasks to verify their parentage. This includes walking in water while wearing paper shoes without making any of the paper wet, crossing a river using only the bones of cows dead for three years, creating a rooster out of straw that perches and crows, and eating a fish and then vomiting it out alive. The triplets succeed in all these tasks, and the priest acknowledges that they are his sons when he sees that his blood mingles with the triplets'. The priest then makes Danggeum-aegi the goddess of childbirth, and the triplets either the Jeseok gods or a group of equivalent fertility deities.


title: Korean mythology

text: In the northern and eastern traditions, the "Jeseok bon-puri" is often linked to the creation narrative, with the usurper Seokga being the same god as the priest who impregnates Danggeum-aegi. According to Hong Tae-han, the "Jeseok bon-puri" was probably originally episodes in a longer narrative centering on the deeds of the creator god, as still seen today in the South Hamgyong "Seng-gut" narrative. The northern versions where the "Jeseok bon-puri" follows the creation narrative are thus the most archaic.


title: Korean mythology

text: Despite the Buddhist veneer, the priest has many attributes of a sky god. In various versions, the priest is said to live in the palace of the heavens, or to ride into his home in the clouds on a paper horse, or to take Danggeum-aegi with him on a journey to heaven using a rainbow as a bridge. Many versions refer to the priest or his temple as "Golden" ( ), which may be a corruption of the archaic Middle Korean phrase "han kem" () "the Great God." The myth is thus one in which an earthly woman is impregnated by a celestial male figure and gives birth to children who become the objects of worship. Scholars have noted parallels between the meeting of the girl and the priest and the meeting of Yuhwa and Haemosu in the Goguryeo founding myth, and between the triplets' quest to find their father and their subsequent attainment of divinity and Yuri's quest to find Jumong and his subsequent coronation as king.


title: Korean mythology

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, and 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 mythology

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 버리 "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 mythology

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 mythology

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 mythology

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 mythology

text: Each of the four mainland regional traditions feature distinctive elements of the "Princess Bari". The west-central tradition is marked by strong Buddhist influence. The rescuer is always the Buddha, who brings her to be raised by an old childless couple who are said to desire good "karma". The East Coast and Gyeongsang tradition elaborates the most on Bari's quest, and portrays the guardian of the medicinal water as an exiled god who must have sons in order to return to heaven. The Jeolla tradition is the least detailed, and does not mention Bari dressing as a man. There is great diversity within regions. For instance, the aforementioned 1930s version mentions a wood of resurrection, although most other versions, including other west-central ones, involve a flower.


title: Korean mythology

text: The northern tradition is represented by only two versions, both from South Hamgyong, but feature remarkable differences. The princess does not reach the divine realm on her own, but through divine mercy. There, Bari steals the flowers of resurrection and flees. She suddenly dies at the end of the narrative without becoming a goddess, and the mother that she resurrected dies soon after. Her divine role in funerals as the link between the living world and the afterlife is replaced by the local goddess Cheongjeong-gaksi.


title: Korean mythology

text: The "Princess Bari" has traditionally had an informal association with the royal court, and there is some evidence that its performance was patronized by King Jeongjo for the soul of his father, Prince Sado, who starved to death in a rice chest in 1762. According to modern Seoul shamans, an older version of the narrative had much jargon that was specific to the Korean court. Parallels to the Manchu folktale "Tale of the Nishan Shaman" have also been drawn.


title: Korean mythology

text: The vast majority of mainland shamanic narratives are localized, being transmitted only in one or two specific regional traditions. South Hamgyong Province was particularly rich in these localized myths, with nine different narratives recited during the Mangmuk-gut funerary ritual alone. One of the most popular myths in South Hamgyong was the "Song of Dorang-seonbi and Cheongjeong-gaksi". The myth centers on a woman named Cheongjeong-gaksi, who is devastated by the death of her husband Dorang-seonbi. The priest from the Golden Temple gives her a series of tasks in order to meet her husband again. This includes tearing out all her hair, twisting them into a rope, boring holes into her palms, and hanging from the rope in the middle of the air, with the rope passing through her palms, without screaming in pain; immersing her fingers in oil for three years, then praying while setting them on fire; and, finally, paving rough mountain roads with only what remains of her bare hands.


title: Korean mythology

text: Despite succeeding in all this, she can only temporarily be reunited with Dorang-seonbi. In one version, the husband drowns in an accident the same day he is revived. As he dies, he tells his wife to commit suicide so that they can meet again. Cheongjeong-gaksi hangs herself and is united with her husband in the afterlife. Some time later, they both become gods. Dorang-seonbi and Cheongjeong-gaksi were the most important of the deities invoked in the Mangmuk-gut funeral, and were even worshipped in Buddhist temples as second only to the Buddha himself.


title: Korean mythology

text: In a testimony to the diversity of Korean mythology, the localized narrative of the Visitors ( ), a group of wandering male and female smallpox gods most prominent in the East Coast-Gyeongsang tradition, covers entirely different themes from the tragic romance above. The narrative was traditionally performed to appease these dangerous deities during smallpox epidemics so they would inflict only light cases of the disease, and also to forestall potential epidemics. In a typical version performed in 1987, three of the Visitors, a group of male and female smallpox gods living in China, decide to visit Korea one day. The ferryman on the border demands that a female Visitor have sex with him to cross. The goddess immediately kills him and consecutively kills six of his seven children with smallpox. When his wife begs for mercy, she lets the youngest live as a blind, immobile hunchback.


title: Korean mythology

text: In Seoul, the Visitors are chased away from the house of the wealthy Kim-jangja and lodge at the house of a poor crone. In return for her hospitality, the gods reward her and her granddaughter with great fortune. The crone also requests that the Visitors bless Cheolhyeon, Kim-jangja's fifteen-year-old son who she used to nurse. But when Kim-jangja rejects the Visitors a second time, the female Visitor takes the form of Cheolhyeon's mother in order to lure him away and gives him a severe case of smallpox. Kim-jangja vows to sacrifice a calf for the gods, only to refuse the sacrifice when the Visitors recall the illness in response. The outraged gods kill Cheolhyeon, who becomes the youngest Visitor. Later, the Visitors discover that Kim-jangja has been reduced to poverty and that he has no children left due to Cheolhyeon's death. They take pity on him and give the 70-year-old Kim-jangja a new son.


title: Korean mythology

text: The Jeju tradition has the richest mythology. Its corpus of shamanic narratives, called "bon-puri" (), is divided into three or four categories. The approximately dozen general "bon-puri" are known by all shamans, and involve deities with universal functions who are worshipped throughout the island. The village-shrine "bon-puri" feature the guardian gods of a specific village, and are known only by shamans from the relevant village and its neighbors. The ancestral "bon-puri" are about the patron gods of specific families or occupations; despite the name of the category, the god is often not perceived as an actual ancestor. They are known only by shamans from the family or occupation in question, and are thus poorly understood. Some analyses also include a small fourth category of "special "bon-puri"," which are no longer ritually performed by shamans.


title: Korean mythology

text: Many general "bon-puri" are clearly related to mainland narratives but have distinctive Jeju characteristics. A typical example is the "Chogong bon-puri", the Jeju version of the "Jeseok bon-puri" but with a very different ritual function. The early part of the "Chogong bon-puri" is similar to "Jeseok bon-puri" versions from Jeolla, the closest part of the mainland. After being supernaturally impregnated, the teenage Noga-danpung-agassi (the Jeju equivalent of the mainland Danggeum-aegi) is expelled from home and goes in search for the priest. But in Jeju, the priest sends her away to give birth to the triplets alone. Unlike in Jeolla, but like in the northern and eastern traditions, the triplets grow up fatherless.


title: Korean mythology

text: When they best three thousand Confucian scholars in the civil service examinations, the jealous scholars murder Noga-danpung-agassi. The triplets visit their father for help, and the priest makes them abandon their previous life and initiates them into shamanism. The triplets hold the first shamanic rituals to successfully resurrect their mother, then become divine judges of the dead in order to bring justice to the scholars in the afterlife. When asked about the origin of a ritual, Jeju shamans respond that "it was done that way in the "Chogong bon-puri"."


title: Korean mythology

text: Village-shrine "bon-puri" are dedicated to the patron gods of one or multiple villages. Most fit a formulaic structure. In their most complete form, a carnivorous hunting god emerges from the hills of Jeju and an agricultural goddess arrives from overseas, often China. The two marry and become village gods, but then separate, generally because the goddess cannot stand the god's foul habits or the stench of his meat. The goddess then gives birth to a third god, who is expelled from the island and goes on adventures abroad before returning to settle as the god of a different village. Many villages have only parts of this structure, so that the "bon-puri" ends with the marriage or even involves only the emergence or arrival of the deity. Many Jeju village gods are also thought to be related to one another. Among the most important village "bon-puri" is thus the one dedicated to the gods of Songdang shrine, who are the parents or grandparents of 424 guardian gods of various villages and locations on the island.


title: Korean mythology

text: As in Jeju, mainland Korean villages are traditionally associated with specific guardian deities. The Joseon dynasty strongly promoted Confucian-style worship for these gods over traditional shamanic practices. By the late nineteenth century, most important rituals for village gods were being held by men according to Confucian norms, complete with invocations in Chinese instead of Korean. The sacred stories associated with these gods are therefore not (or no longer) shamanic narratives, except in Jeju Island.


title: Korean mythology

text: Nonetheless, many such stories reflect shamanic beliefs, such as the emphasis on appeasing sorrowful spirits. Like the shamanic narratives, village-shrine myths are closely associated with rituals dedicated to the god, often explaining the identity of the deity that is venerated. The village mythology is also a living one. For example, it is now believed in the village of Soya, in North Gyeongsang Province, that the local guardian god accurately predicted which soldiers from the village would survive World War II.


title: Korean mythology

text: In a study of 94 village-shrine myths from South Jeolla Province, Pyo In-ju divides the myths into two major categories, depending on whether the god is identified as a natural object or a human spirit. The most prominent natural objects in the myths are trees, dragons, and rocks. In the village of Jangdong in Gwangyang, for example, a local tree is said to have wept one day during the 1592 Japanese invasion. While all the villagers crowded to the tree at this strange sound, the Japanese attacked. Finding the village abandoned, they suspected a trap and left. A few days later, the Japanese returned and attempted to cut down the tree, but the tree dropped giant branches on them and killed them all. The Japanese never dared approach the village afterwards. Ever since, locals have worshipped the tree as a god.


title: Korean mythology

text: Village gods identified as the spirits of humans are often the founder of the village, or alternatively a sorrowful spirit (, ) which has remained in the human world after death because of their grief or resentment, for instance because they were murdered or because they died as a child.


title: Korean mythology

text: The state-foundation myths have been adapted into several South Korean TV series, such as the popular 2006 series "Jumong", but their potential in popular culture is limited due to the small size of the corpus and the lack of thematic diversity. In recent years, the larger and more diverse shamanic mythology has also appeared in South Korean culture beyond its ritual context. The shamanic narrative best known in South Korea is the "Princess Bari" in large part due to the work of feminists since the 1990s, who highlighted the myth's characteristics as women's literature. The goddess has since appeared in mediums as diverse as flash games to musicals. In 2007, Hwang Sok-yong—one of the country's most important living novelists—published "Bari-degi", a novel set in the modern day about a girl named Bari, whose life parallels the myth of her divine namesake. Other shamanic narratives have also recently entered popular culture, notably in the 2010s Webtoon "Along with the Gods", which draws heavily on Jeju "bon-puri". However, much of the shamanic mythology remains largely unknown to the South Korean public.


title: Psylocke

text: Psylocke is the name of two connected fictional mutant superheroes appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men.


title: Psylocke

text: The first character to use the Psylocke moniker, Betsy Braddock, was initially a supporting character in stories focusing on her twin brother Brian, adopting the codename upon joining the X-Men. For 29 years of publication history, the character was body-swapped in-story with the assassin Kwannon, who subsequently took on the Psylocke moniker after they returned to their respective bodies and Braddock claimed the mantle of Captain Britain.


title: Psylocke

text: Created by writer Chris Claremont, Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock first appeared in "Captain Britain" #8 (Dec. 1976), with "Captain Britain" #10 (Dec. 1976) as her first cover appearance, published by the Marvel Comics' British imprint Marvel UK. In "New Mutants Annual" #2 (1986), Claremont integrated Betsy Braddock into the X-Men franchise. After being rescued by the New Mutants and taking up residence at their mutant-training academy, Braddock is formally invited to join the X-Men and officially adopts the codename Psylocke, becoming an enduring fixture of the team over the next three decades.


title: Psylocke

text: In a 1989 story, an amnesiac Betsy is kidnapped by The Hand, who brainwash her and physically alter her to take on an East Asian appearance. Under the name Lady Mandarin she briefly becomes the Hand’s supreme assassin. While her memories return, she retains her new appearance and skills, including the ability to manifest the focused totality of her telepathic power in the form of a “psychic knife.” A 1993 story by Fabian Nicieza would retroactively establish that Braddock’s changed appearance was the product of a body swap between Braddock and the assassin Kwannon.


title: Psylocke

text: In the Claremont-written "X-Treme X-Men" #2 (2001), the character dies, her comic book death lasting until 2005's "Uncanny X-Men" #455. During the Hunt for Wolverine storyline, the psychic vampire Sapphire Styx absorbs the entirety of Braddock’s soul, leaving her body dead. After destroying Sapphire Styx from the inside with assistance from a fragment of Wolverine’s soul, Braddock reconstitutes her original body with the villain’s remaining soul power.


title: Psylocke

text: During the Dawn of X, Braddock subsequently took up her brother Brian’s former title of Captain Britain, forming a new iteration of Excalibur with Apocalypse, Gambit, Rogue, Jubilee, and Rictor, to protect the Kingdom of Avalon.


title: Psylocke

text: In Kwannon’s first appearance, using the codename Revanche, she traveled to the United States to confront Braddock, believing herself to be the real Betsy Braddock due to amnesia caused by the body swap. She discovered that she was formerly The Hand’s prime assassin before incurring brain damage and falling comatose as a result a battle with her lover Matsu’o Tsurayaba, a high-ranking member of the Hand. In hopes that, due to Kwannon’s low-level psychic abilities, the powers of the high-level telepath Betsy Braddock would be able to save her life, Tsurayaba sought the help of the sorceress Spiral, who instead transferred the women’s minds into each other’s bodies rather than simply recovering Kwannon.


title: Psylocke

text: After accepting that she is not the original Betsy Braddock, Kwannon becomes a member of the X-Men, shortly thereafter contracting the Legacy Virus. As the disease progressed, Kwannon’s psychic abilities increased, allowing her to clarify her own distorted memory. Choosing to die on her own terms, Kwannon confronts Tsurayaba, who complies with her request to kill her rather than waiting to succumb to the disease.


title: Psylocke

text: Following the Hunt for Wolverine, when Braddock was restored to her original body, Kwannon was reborn in her original body as well. Claiming the codename Psylocke for herself, Kwannon became a citizen of the mutant nation of Krakoa. After the apparent murder of her long-lost daughter by a threatening artificial intelligence called Apoth, Psylocke assembled a new team of Fallen Angels with X-23 and Cable. After finding out that Apoth was using children to disseminate a technological drug called Overclock, Mister Sinister modified Overclock to allow Psylocke to interact with Apoth in a cyberspace, killing Apoth, whose remains she delivered to Mister Sinister in exchange for his assistance in keeping this extrajudicial mission a secret from the Krakoan Quiet Council.


title: Psylocke

text: Following the Apoth incident, Psylocke was assigned to monitor Mister Sinister’s new team of Hellions, composed of mutants considered too violent or troubled to assimilate into Krakoan society. The character was later featured as a member of the Marauders as the team was refocused on their mission of mutant rescue.


title: Psylocke

text: Psylocke has been featured in media other than comic books, including the 1992 "" animated television series, a variety of video games, as well as film portrayals by Meiling Melançon in the 2006 film "" and by Olivia Munn in the 2016 film "". Appearances prior to 2019 have generally featured the iteration of the character with Braddock's mind in Kwannon's body, while the Kwannon iteration has since been featured as a purchasable outfit in "Fortnite Battle Royale".


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: The Coup d'état of 9 Thermidor or the Fall of Maximilien Robespierre refers to the series of events beginning with Maximilien Robespierre's address to the National Convention on 8 Thermidor Year II (26 July 1794), his arrest the next day, and his execution on 10 Thermidor Year II (28 July 1794). In the speech of 8 Thermidor, Robespierre spoke of the existence of internal enemies, conspirators, and calumniators, within the Convention and the governing Committees. He refused to name them, which alarmed the deputies who feared Robespierre was preparing another purge of the Convention.


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: On the following day, this tension in the Convention allowed Jean-Lambert Tallien, one of the conspirators whom Robespierre had in mind in his denunciation, to turn the Convention against Robespierre and decree his arrest. By the end of the next day, Robespierre was executed in the Place de la Revolution, where King Louis XVI had been executed a year earlier. He was executed by guillotine, like the others.


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: On 27 July 1793, Robespierre was elected to the Committee of Public Safety, and would remain a member up until his death. During the months between September 1793 and July 1794, the Committee's power increased dramatically due to several measures instated during the Terror, such as Law of Suspects, and the latter Law of 14th Frimaire, becoming the "de facto" executive branch of the Revolutionary Government, under the supervision of the National Convention.


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: During this time, two different factions rose in opposition to the restructured Revolutionary Government: the left-wing "ultra-revolutionaries" and the moderate right-wing "citra-revolutionaries". The "Ultras" (also known as Hébertists or "Exagérés") gathered around Jacques Hébert, as well as leaders of the Paris Commune and the "exagérés" of the Cordeliers Club. They pushed for stronger repression measures than those already in place during the Terror, and campaigned for de-Christianization.


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: The "Citras" (also known as Dantonists or "Indulgents"), formed around Georges Danton as well as the "indulgents" members of the Cordeliers Club, including Camille Desmoulins. They were strongly opposed to the machinery of the Terror and policies of the Committee of Public Safety. Both these factions were charged as conspirators against the Revolutionary Government and sentenced to the guillotine: the Hébertists on 24 March (4 Germinal) and the Dantonists on 5 April (16 Germinal).


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: With these purges, the power of the Committee was reaffirmed. The death of Danton and Desmoulins, both formerly friends of Robespierre, left a deep toll on him. This, combined with the increasing demands of both the Committee on Public Safety and the National Convention washed away Robespierre's mental and physical health to the point he was forced to reduce his presence in the Jacobin Club and the National Convention.


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: Robespierre did not reappear in the National Convention until 7 May (18 Floréal). For this day he had planned a speech addressing the relationship between religion, morality, and the republican principles; and to establish the Cult of the Supreme Being in place of the Cult of Reason promoted by de-Christianizers like the Hébertists. Robespierre led the processions during the Festival in Honor of the Supreme Being celebrated on 8 June (20 Prairial). Although the festival was well accepted by the crowds, Robespierre's prominent position in it was suspicious in the eyes of some deputies, and muttering began about Robespierre's fanaticism and desire for power.


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: Two days after the Festival, on 10 June (22 Prairial), Robespierre pushed the National Convention to pass a new law drafted by him and Georges Couthon which accelerated the trial process and extended the death penalty to include a new set of "enemies of the people" which included people seeking to reestablish the monarchy, interfering with food provisions, discrediting the National Convention, communicating with foreigners, among others. The fear of assassination drove Robespierre to take this measure: two assassination attempts against Robespierre and Collot d'Herbois had taken place on 23 and 24 May (4–5 Prairial), and the memory of Lepeletier's and Marat's murder still roused feelings in the Convention. The law was not universally accepted in the Convention, and critics of Robespierre and Saint-Just would use it against them during the events of 9 Thermidor.


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: More opposition came from the Committee of General Security, which had not been consulted over the contents of the Law. The Committee of General Security already felt threatened by the Committee of Public Safety's new ability to issue arrest warrants, as well as by the new Police Bureau, which was created by Saint-Just and was being run by Robespierre in his absence, and whose functions overlapped with that of the Committee of General Security. As payment, they presented a report on the ties between the English enemy and the self-proclaimed "Mother of God", Catherine Théot, who had prophesied that Robespierre was a new Messiah. This was done both with the intention of diminishing Robespierre, and to mock his religious positions and the Cult of The Supreme Being.


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: On 28 June (10 Messidor), Saint-Just returned from the northern front bearing news: the Revolutionary Army had defeated the Austrian army in Belgium at the Battle of Fleurus, securing the road to Paris. This victory signaled the end of the war against the Austrians, and with it, the end of the Terror government. Robespierre, wishing to get rid of both internal and external enemies, objected to the disbandment of the war government. The following day, in a joint meeting of the Committees of Public Safety and General Security, Lazare Carnot allegedly shouted at Saint-Just that both he and Robespierre were "ridiculous dictators". Following this event, Robespierre stopped participating directly in the deliberations of the Committee of Public Safety.


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: Having abandoned both the Committee and the National Convention, which he stopped frequenting after his presidency ended on 18 June (30 Prairial), Robespierre's absence allowed the breach between him and other members of the revolutionary government to widen. He did not reappear until 23 July (5 Thermidor), when he sat for another joint convention of the two Committees put forward in a failed attempt to resolve their mutual differences.


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: During his absence from both the National Convention and the Committee of Public Safety through the months of June and July (Messidor), Robespierre prepared a speech to be delivered on 26 July (8 Thermidor). He delivered the speech first to the National Convention, and later that same day at the Jacobin Club. In it, he attempted both to defend himself from the rumors and attacks on his person that had been spreading since the start of the Reign of Terror; and to bring light to an anti-revolutionary conspiracy that he believed reached into the Convention and the Governing Committees.


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: Although he only accused three deputies by name (Pierre-Joseph Cambon, François René Mallarmé, and Dominique-Vincent Ramel-Nogaret), his speech seemed to also incriminate several others. Moreover, it was precisely because he failed to name the condemned that terror spread through the Convention as the deputies started thinking that Robespierre was planning yet another purge like that of the Dantonists and Hébertists.


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: Later the same day he presented the speech at the Jacobin Club, where it was received with overwhelming support despite some initial opposition. Both Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne and Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois, who opposed to the printing of the speech, were driven out of the Jacobin Club.


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: In the morning of 27 July (9 Thermidor), Louis Antoine de Saint-Just started addressing the Convention without having shown his speech to the two Committees. He was interrupted by Tallien, who complained that both Robespierre and Saint-Just had broken with the Committees and now spoke only for themselves; and then by Billaud-Varenne, who related how he and Collot had been driven out of the Jacobin Club the previous day, and who accused Robespierre of conspiracy against the Convention. Robespierre attempted to defend himself, but was silenced by the commotion within the Convention and by the screaming deputies condemning him as a tyrant and conspirator.


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: The Convention then voted to arrest five deputies – Robespierre, his brother, Couthon, Saint-Just, and Le Bas – as well as François Hanriot, and other Robespierrist officials. They were taken before the Committee of General Security and sent to different prisons. None of the city prisons wanted to arrest the deputies and officials, and once a deputation from the Paris Commune, which had risen in support of Robespierre, arrived to the city prisons demanding they refuse to take in the arrested, the prison officials complied. A little after midnight, about fifty people, the five rebellious deputies, Dumas and Hanriot consulted on the first floor of the Hôtel de Ville.


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: Upon receiving news that Robespierre and his allies had not been imprisoned, the National Convention, which was in permanent session, declared that Robespierre, Saint-Just, and the other deputes were outlaws, and commanded armed forces to enter the Hôtel de Ville. By 2:30 a.m., they had entered the Hôtel de Ville and made the arrest.


title: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

text: Robespierre was taken out of the Hôtel de Ville with a broken jaw. There are two conflicting accounts of how Robespierre was wounded: the first one puts forward that Robespierre had tried to kill himself with a pistol, and the second one is that he was shot by Charles-André Meda, one of the officers occupying the Hôtel de Ville. He, together with the surviving deputies and seventeen other prisoners considered to be loyal Robespierrists (including Hanriot) were brought to the Revolutionary Tribunal and condemned to death. He was guillotined at the same Place de la Révolution where his enemies King Louis XVI, Georges Danton, and Camille Desmoulins had been executed.


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa ( , ; 2021 population 175,383; CMA 415,311) is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of Downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the Greater Toronto Area and of the Golden Horseshoe. It is the largest municipality in the Regional Municipality of Durham. The name Oshawa originates from the Ojibwa term "aazhawe", meaning "the crossing place" or just "a cross".


title: Oshawa

text: Founded in 1876 as the McLaughlin Carriage Company by Robert McLaughlin, and then McLaughlin Motors Ltd by his son, Sam, General Motors of Canada's headquarters are located in the city. The automotive industry was the inspiration for Oshawa's previous mottos: "The City that Motovates Canada", and "The City in Motion". The lavish home of the automotive company's founder, Parkwood Estate, is a National Historic Site of Canada is located in the city.


title: Oshawa

text: Once recognized as the sole "Automotive Capital of Canada", Oshawa today is an education and health sciences hub, although General Motors still plays significant role in city's economy. After having been closed for about 2 years, the Oshawa car assembly plant reopened on 10 November 2021, when the first Canadian-made Chevy Silverado was completed. GM invested C$1.3bn into plant retooling. Prior to reopening, GM said that the site would continue to be used for autonomous vehicle testing and production of vehicle stampings and other sub-assemblies.


title: Oshawa

text: The city is home to three post-secondary institutions Durham College, Trent University Durham and Ontario Tech University formerly the University of Ontario Institute of Technology as well as the Lakeridge Health Education and Research Network (LHEARN), in association with Lakeridge Health Oshawa, formerly the Oshawa General Hospital. Key labour force sectors include advanced manufacturing, health technology, logistics, energy and IT. In 2016, Oshawa was the sixth best place in Canada to find full-time employment based on data from StatsCan.


title: Oshawa

text: Downtown Oshawa is identified as an Urban Growth Centre in the Government of Ontario's Places to Grow initiative. More than 5,000 people work and more than 2,400 university students study in the downtown core. The downtown is a prominent centre for entertainment and sporting events (Regent Theatre and Tribute Communities Centre), food (50+ restaurants and cafes) and culture (The Robert McLaughlin Gallery and Canadian Automotive Museum). Oshawa is home to a Regional Innovation Centre and offers start-up facilities for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Co-working offices are also located in the downtown.


title: Oshawa

text: Historians believe that the area that would become Oshawa began as a transfer point for the fur trade. Beaver and other animals trapped for their pelts by local natives were traded with the coureurs des bois (voyagers). Furs were loaded onto canoes by the Mississauga Natives at the Oshawa harbour and transported to the trading posts located to the west at the mouth of the Credit River. Around 1760, the French constructed a trading post near the harbour. This location was abandoned after a few years, but its ruins provided shelter for the first residents of what later became Oshawa. Most notably, one of the fur traders was Moody Farewell, an early resident of the community who was to some extent responsible for its name change.


title: Oshawa

text: In the late 18th century a local resident, Roger Conant, started an export business shipping salmon to the United States. His success attracted further migration into the region. A large number of the founding immigrants were United Empire Loyalists, who left the United States to live under British rule. Later, Irish and then French Canadian immigration increased as did industrialization. Oshawa and the surrounding Ontario County were also the settling grounds of a disproportionate number of 19th century Cornish immigrants during the Cornish emigration which emptied large tracts of that part of England. As well, the surveys ordered by Governor John Graves Simcoe, and the subsequent land grants, helped populate the area. When Col. Asa Danforth laid out his York-to-Kingston road, it passed through what would later become Oshawa.


title: Oshawa

text: In 1822, a "colonization road" (a north–south road to facilitate settlement) known as Simcoe Street was constructed. It more or less followed the path of an old native trail known as the Nonquon Road, and ran from the harbour to the area of Lake Scugog. This intersected the "Kingston Road" (present-day King Street) at what would become Oshawa's "Four Corners." In 1836, Edward Skae relocated his general store approximately 800 m east to the southeast corner of this intersection; as his store became a popular meeting place (probably because it also served as the Post Office), the corner and the growing settlement that surrounded it were known as Skae's Corners. In 1842, Skae, the postmaster, applied for official post office status, but was informed the community needed a better name. Moody Farewell was requested to ask his native acquaintances what they called the area; their reply was "Oshawa," which translates to "where we must leave our canoes". Thus, the name of Oshawa, one of the primary "motor cities" of Canada, has the meaning "where we have to get out and walk". The name "Oshawa" was adopted and the post office named accordingly. In 1849, the requirements for incorporation were eased, and Oshawa was incorporated as a village in 1850.


title: Oshawa

text: The 1846 Gazeteer indicates a population of about 1,000 in a community surrounded by farms. There were three churches, a post office, tradesmen of various types and some industry: a foundry, a grist mill and a fulling mill, a brewery, two distilleries, a machine shop and four cabinet makers.


title: Oshawa

text: The newly established village became an industrial centre, and implement works, tanneries, asheries and wagon factories opened (and often closed shortly after, as economic "panics" occurred regularly). In 1878, Robert Samuel McLaughlin, Sr. moved his carriage works to Oshawa from Enniskillen to take advantage of its harbour and of the availability of a rail link not too far away. He constructed a two-story building on Simcoe Street, just north of the King's Highway. This building was heavily remodelled in 1929, receiving a new facade and being extended to the north using land where the city's "gaol" (jail, firehall and townhall) had once stood. The village became a town in 1879, in what was then called East Whitby Township. Around 1890, the carriage works relocated from its Simcoe Street address to an unused furniture factory a couple of blocks to the northeast, and this remained its site until the building burned down in 1899. Offered assistance by the town, McLaughlin chose to stay in Oshawa, building a new factory across Mary Street from the old site. Rail service had been provided in 1890 by the Oshawa Railway; this was originally set up as a streetcar line, but c. 1910 a second "freight line" was built slightly to the east of Simcoe Street. This electric line provided streetcar and freight service, connected central Oshawa with the Grand Trunk (now Canadian National) Railway, and with the Canadian Northern (which ran through the very north of Oshawa) and the Canadian Pacific, built in 1912–13. The Oshawa Railway was acquired by the Grand Trunk operation around 1910, and streetcar service was replaced by buses in 1940. After GM moved its main plants to south Oshawa in 1951, freight traffic fell and most of the tracks were removed in 1963, although a line to the older remaining "north" plant via Ritson Road remained until 2000.


title: Oshawa

text: Col. R. S. McLaughlin and "Billy" Durant signed a 15-year contract in 1907, under which the McLaughlin Motor Car Company began to manufacture automobiles under the McLaughlin name, using Buick engines and other mechanical parts. 1908 Buick was merged into General Motors Holding shortly after, and in 1915 the firm acquired the manufacturing rights to the Chevrolet brand. Within three years, the McLaughlin Motor Car Company and the Chevrolet Motor Car Company of Canada owned the General Motors Holding in 1916 he in 1918 merged his Chevrolet and Buick, creating General Motors of Canada in 1918 with McLaughlin as President. The factory expanded rapidly, eventually covering several blocks. The popularity of the automobile in the 1920s generated rapid expansion of Oshawa, which grew in population from 4,000 to 16,000 during this decade, and of its land area. In 1924, Oshawa annexed the area to its south, including the harbour and the community of Cedardale. This growth allowed Oshawa to seek incorporation as a city, which took place on 8 March 1924.


title: Oshawa

text: With the wealth he gained in his business venture, between 1915 and 1917, McLaughlin built one of the most stately homes in Canada, "Parkwood". The 55-room residence was initially designed by Toronto architect firm Darling and Pearson as well as John M. Lyle in the late 1930s. McLaughlin lived in the house for 55 years with his wife and they raised five daughters. The house replaced an older mansion, which was about 30 years old when it was demolished; the grounds of the earlier home had been operated as Prospect Park, and this land was acquired by the town and became its first municipal park, Alexandra Park. Parkwood today is open to the public as a National Historic Site. Tours are offered.


title: Oshawa

text: On 8 April 1937, disputes between 4,000 assembly line workers and General Motors management led to the Oshawa Strike, a salient event in the history of Canadian trade unionism. As the weight of the Great Depression slowly began to lift, demand for automobiles again began to grow. The workers sought higher wages, an eight-hour workday, better working conditions and recognition of their union, the United Auto Workers (Local 222). The then-Liberal government of Mitchell Hepburn, which had been elected on a platform of being the working man's friend, sided with the corporation and brought in armed university students to break up any union agitation. These much-derided "Hepburn's Hussars" and "Sons of Bitches" were never needed as the union refused to be drawn into violent acts. The union and workers had the backing of the local population, other unions and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation party and, on 23 April, two weeks after the strike started, the company gave in to most of the workers' demands, although it pointedly did not recognize the union.


title: Oshawa

text: In 1950, the city annexed a portion of East Whitby Township west of Park Road. Some of this area had been developed during the 1920s boom period, although it was not within the boundaries of the city. The opening of the Oshawa Shopping Centre (now the Oshawa Centre) fewer than two kilometres west of the "four corners" in 1956 struck a blow to Oshawa's downtown from which it has never been able to recover. The shopping centre was built on land which had been an unproductive farm; when its owner gave up on agriculture, this released a very large area of land for the construction of a mall. The opening of what later became Highway 401, then known as Highway 2A, shortly after World War II sparked increased residential growth in Oshawa and the other lakeshore municipalities of Ontario County, which led to the creation of the Regional Municipality of Durham in 1974. Oshawa was amalgamated with the remaining portions of East Whitby Township and took on its present boundaries, which included the outlying villages of Columbus, Raglan and Kedron. Much of Oshawa's industry has closed over the years; however, it is still the headquarters of GM Canada and its major manufacturing site. Current industries of note include manufacturing of railway maintenance equipment, mining equipment, steel fabrication, and rubber products. Oshawa is also recognized as an official port of entry for immigration and customs services.


title: Oshawa

text: Similar to all of southern Ontario, Oshawa has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: "Dfb") with vast, but not extreme, seasonal temperature differences. Summers are generally warm, while winters are cold, but not extreme by Canadian standards. Oshawa receives one of the lowest yearly snowfall totals in all of Ontario.


title: Oshawa

text: In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Oshawa had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.


title: Oshawa

text: At the census metropolitan area (CMA) level in the 2021 census, the Oshawa CMA had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.


title: Oshawa

text: According to the 2021 Census English was the mother tongue of 79.5% of the residents of Oshawa. 1.7% of the population had French as their mother tongue. Other common mother tongues were Urdu (1.5%), Chinese Languages (1.3%), Tamil (1.2%), Tagalog (1.0%), Spanish (1.0%), Polish (0.8%), and Italian (0.7%).


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa is headquarters to General Motors Canada, which has large-scale manufacturing and administrative operations in the city and employs many thousands both directly and indirectly. Since Windsor, Ontario houses Chrysler Canada headquarters, the two cities have something of a friendly rivalry for the title of "Automotive Capital of Canada", which is now held by Oshawa. While the company's once essential role in the local economy has diminished, it remains the largest local employer. In November 2018, General Motors announced the closing of the plant, with the layoff of both salaried and hourly workers. On 20 December 2018 the last car was assembled at the Oshawa plant. On 4 November 2020, GM announced "Subject to ratification of the 2020 agreement with Unifor, General Motors plans to bring pickup production back to the Oshawa Assembly Plant. Construction will begin immediately at Oshawa Assembly and will include a new body shop and flexible assembly module, to support a fast response to strong customer demand for GM’s new family of pickup trucks. Oshawa pickup production started on 10 November 2021 when the first Canadian-made Silverado was completed.


title: Oshawa

text: The revenue collection divisions of the Ontario Ministry of Finance occupy one of the main office buildings in the city's downtown. Oshawa City Hall, Tribute Communities Centre, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery are also in the downtown core. The University of Ontario Institute of Technology occupies five buildings in downtown. More than 1,900 UOIT. students and staff attend class and work in downtown Oshawa.


title: Oshawa

text: The city's older southern neighbourhoods tend to be considerably less affluent than its more suburban northern sections, which are rapidly expanding as Toronto commuters move in. The southern half of the city consists of industrial zones and compact housing designed for early 20th century industrial workers, while the northern half has a suburban feel more typical of later decades. High wages paid to unionized GM employees have meant that these workers could enjoy a relatively high standard of living, although such jobs are much scarcer today than they once were. During its heyday after World War II, General Motors offered some of the best manufacturing jobs available in Canada and attracted thousands of workers from economically depressed areas of the country, particularly the Maritimes, Newfoundland, rural Quebec and northern Ontario. The city was also a magnet for European immigrants in the skilled trades, and boasts substantial Polish, Ukrainian, HungarianCroatian, German, Slovak and Russian ethnic communities.


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa has become one of the fastest-growing cities in Canada, although statements to this effect are often in reference to the Census Metropolitan Area, which includes neighbouring Whitby and Clarington. Oshawa achieved a record-setting year of growth in 2015 with over a half a billion dollars in construction value (breaking its previous record in 2014). Many commuters have been enticed to Oshawa by comparatively low housing prices and the regular rail service into downtown Toronto provided by GO Transit and Via Rail.


title: Oshawa

text: The growth of subdivisions to house Toronto commuters will likely accelerate with the Highway 407 East extension. Highway 407 East (407E) opened to Harmony Road in Oshawa on 20 June 2016, including a tolled north–south link to Highway 401 known as Highway 412. The Highway 407 extension to Highway 35/Highway 115 in Clarington was opened on 9 December 2019, with a second tolled link to Highway 401 known as Highway 418 opened simultaneously. On 5 April 2022, Highways 412 and 418 became toll-free.


title: Oshawa

text: In spring 2016, Oshawa was ranked No. 1 city for jobs in Canada when compared to 33 cities across the country. The trend suggests major social and demographic changes for Oshawa, which has long had a vigorous labour union presence, a mostly white demographic, and a largely blue collar identity.


title: Oshawa

text: The city has been attracting film and television producers who have made parts of a number of movies and TV series in Oshawa, most recently "It" (based on the Stephen King book), but also "Billy Madison", "Chicago", and "X-Men". The most popular location in the city for film makers is Parkwood Estate.


title: Oshawa

text: The dominant presence of General Motors (and its autoworkers) meant that Oshawa was well known as a bastion of unionist, left-wing support during the decades following the Second World War. The city played an important role in Canada's labour history, including the 1937 "Oshawa Strike" against General Motors and the considerable financial support provided by the city's autoworkers to the New Democratic Party (NDP) and its predecessors.


title: Oshawa

text: However, Oshawa was part of the Ontario (County) riding when Michael Starr served. Starr was a high ranking Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) and Cabinet Member during the Diefenbaker era. Starr served the new Oshawa-Whitby riding for one term, before being narrowly defeated by future federal NDP leader Ed Broadbent in 1968. Broadbent then represented the city in the House of Commons until 1989, and in the 1980s led the NDP to its greatest electoral successes.


title: Oshawa

text: By the end of the 1990s, the city's changing economy and demographics led many voters to the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and the Canadian Alliance, a conservative party at the federal level. Conservative candidates have won recent provincial and federal elections, whereas from 1968–93 the city was a safe NDP seat in both the federal and provincial legislatures.


title: Oshawa

text: The city's shifting social and political dynamics were seen in the 2004 federal election the riding of Oshawa (not coterminous with the City of Oshawa, but containing most of it) was the country's most competitive. The candidate of the new Conservative Party of Canada, Colin Carrie, edged out his NDP rival Sid Ryan by several hundred votes; it was an atypical and ideologically stark race that left Louise Parkes of the Liberals in third place.


title: Oshawa

text: In 2006, Whitby-Oshawa also became a Conservative seat Jim Flaherty followed Starr (after over 40 years) into the Cabinet of Canada as Minister of Finance.


title: Oshawa

text: In 2014, Jennifer French of the Ontario New Democratic Party was elected as Member of Provincial Parliament in the provincial riding of Oshawa with over 40% of the vote.


title: Oshawa

text: The council of the City of Oshawa has eleven members – one mayor, five regional and city councillors and five city councillors. The current term of council began on 3 December 2018, and will end on 14 November 2022.


title: Oshawa

text: The mayor is elected at large by electors throughout the city, heads the council of the City of Oshawa and is also a representative of the city on the council of the Regional Municipality of Durham. There are five wards in the City of Oshawa. Each of the five wards are represented by one regional and city councillor and one city councillor.


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa has parks, walking trails, conservation areas, indoors and outdoor public swimming pools, community centres, and sports facilities. Lakeview Park stretches along the coast of Lake Ontario, complete with a sandy beach, and is the location of the Oshawa Museum. Also, the McLaughlin Bay Wildlife Reserve and Second Marsh Wildlife Area offer protected marshland areas with interpretive trails and viewing platforms. Oshawa's parks and trail system encompasses almost of parkland and more than of paved trails. Oshawa has more than 130 parks, more than 110 playgrounds, nine splash pads, eight ice pads and three skateboard parks.


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa hosts many annual festivals and events including the Oshawa Peony Festival, Kars on King, and Oshawa Fiesta Week, which is hosted by the Oshawa Folk Arts Council and has been celebrated for more than 45 years.


title: Oshawa

text: At the center of Oshawa is the Oshawa Centre shopping mall, the largest mall in the Durham region as well as in Ontario east of Toronto. The executive offices there include the Ministry of Long Term Health Care for Ontario.


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa is home to the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League. In 2015, the Oshawa Generals won the Ontario Hockey League Championship, and ended their season winning the 2015 Memorial Cup.


title: Oshawa

text: Famous alumni of this team include Bobby Orr, Alex Delvecchio, Wayne Cashman, Tony Tanti, Dave Andreychuk, Marc Savard, Eric Lindros, and John Tavares. The team moved from the Oshawa Civic Auditorium into the new General Motors Centre in November 2006. In 2016 the city of Oshawa partnered with Tribute Communities for naming rights and the General Motors Centre was renamed the Tribute Communities Centre.


title: Oshawa

text: The Oshawa Generals' home arena has been destroyed by fire twice in the franchise history. In June 1928, the Bradley Arena was destroyed by fire. Then, 25 years later, the Hambly Arena was also destroyed by fire.


title: Oshawa

text: In September 2018, the city hosted its first National Hockey League preseason game, when the Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders played an exhibition contest.


title: Oshawa

text: The Oshawa Power of the National Basketball League of Canada began playing in October 2011. In the spring of 2013, the Power announced a move from Oshawa to Mississauga, a western suburb of Toronto. The Power played home games at the General Motors Centre.


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa was home of the Oshawa Green Gaels, one of the most storied teams in the sport. A player of note in the 1920s was Nels Stewart, who became a Hall of Famer in the National Hockey League. Former Oshawa Green Gaels captain and Oshawa native, Derek Keenan, is the current coach and general manager of the Saskatchewan Rush. He was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2012.


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa was home to Windfields Farm, a thoroughbred horse breeding operation and birthplace of one of Canada's most famous racehorses, Northern Dancer.


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa hosted boxing and weightlifting events for the 2015 Pan American Games which were held in the Greater Toronto Area.


title: Oshawa

text: GO Transit trains connect the city with Toronto, Hamilton and points between. GO Transit buses provide service from Oshawa along the Highway 401 and Highway 2 corridors in Durham Region and to Toronto and York Region. GO Transit bus service is also provided from Oshawa Train station to Clarington and Peterborough via the downtown bus terminal. The Oshawa Station is owned by the national rail carrier Via Rail, which operates a service along the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. Other services from the station include GO Buses, and the regional transit system Durham Region Transit provides local bus service. It replaced Oshawa Transit on 1 January 2006.


title: Oshawa

text: The province announced in June 2016 an extension of the GO train service from Oshawa to Bowmanville, including extending the train network by nearly and building four new stations. The new GO rail service is expected to begin by 2023–24. The four new stations will be at Thornton Road in Oshawa, Ritson Road in Oshawa, Courtice Road in Courtice and Martin Road in Bowmanville.


title: Oshawa

text: Private intercity buses are provided by TOK Coachlines (formerly Can-ar Coach Service) daily to/from Lindsay and Toronto.


title: Oshawa

text: Rail freight is carried on the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railways which traverse the city.


title: Oshawa

text: Other than Highway 2 (King and Bond Streets), which was downloaded in 1998, the city had no provincially maintained highways until the original section of Highway 401 opened in 1947 (as Highway 2A). The highway originally terminated at Ritson Road, and was extended east through the remainder of the city to Newcastle in 1952. Oshawa was the only city that Highway 401 was built directly through, rather than bypassing. This resulted in the demolition of several streets and hundreds of homes in the 1930s and 1940s.


title: Oshawa

text: Highway 407, a tolled 400-series highway, opened to Harmony Road in Oshawa on 20 June 2016, including a tolled north–south link to Highway 401 known as Highway 412. A recently completed segment east of the city opened in 2020, connecting to Highway 35 / Highway 115 in Clarington by 2020, with a second link to Highway 401 known as Highway 418.


title: Oshawa

text: The Port of Oshawa is a major stop for the auto and steel industries as well as winter road salt handling and agricultural fertilizer. A marine rescue unit (COMRA) is also stationed at the port. On 21 May 2009, Canadian Transportation Minister John Baird announced that the status of Oshawa's port would be changed from a harbour commission to a full-fledged Port Authority. The creation of a federal port authority has caused some controversy as there are others who wish to see the port transferred to municipal ownership and recreational use.


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa Executive Airport is a municipal airport owned by the city that operates all private general aviation and charter services for eastern Toronto, with customs and immigration officers on-site. Oshawa Executive does not offer any scheduled airline services. The closest international airports with scheduled service is Toronto Pearson International Airport, located west by road in Mississauga or Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport in downtown Toronto.


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa is the site of Lakeridge Health Oshawa, formerly Oshawa General Hospital. Lakeridge Health is one of Ontario's largest community hospitals. The facility also houses the RS. McLaughlin Durham Regional Cancer Centre.


title: Oshawa

text: Lakeridge Health Oshawa is also home to Lakeridge Health Education and Research Network (LHEARN) that opened in 2013. LHEARN is the academic home for Queen's University family physician residency program and for pediatric residency and training. LHEARN Centre provides training and testing medical professionals, including doctors, nurses and first responders (including Ornge critical care air ambulance paramedics).


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa is also home to the Oshawa Clinic, the largest, multi-specialty medical group practice in Canada.


title: Oshawa

text: On 24 April 2020, General Motors Canada reopened the city's local plant in order to manufacture Personal protective equipment for healthcare workers treating patients infected with COVID-19 during the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic.


title: Oshawa

text: Policing in Oshawa is provided by the Durham Regional Police Service. There are two police stations in Oshawa one at 77 Centre Street North in the downtown area, and a South Oshawa Community Policing Centre on Cedar Street. EMS/Ambulance services are also operated by the Region of Durham. Oshawa Fire Services operated by the city operates from six fire stations located throughout the city.


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa was the first city in Ontario to provide paramedic services. In 1979, 16 ambulance attendants were given specialized training to treat cardiac related problems in the pre-hospital setting. The program was called the Pre-hospital Cardiac Care (PHCC) program. From this single service, paramedic training was expanded to Toronto, Hamilton and the Provincial air ambulance service. The program has been the source of all paramedic programs in Ontario.


title: Oshawa

text: Public education in Oshawa is provided by the Durham District School Board. As of June 2015, there were 28 elementary schools and six secondary schools. The Durham Catholic District School Board, which has its headquarters in Oshawa, oversees public Catholic education in Durham Region. There are 11 Catholic elementary schools and two secondary schools. The Conseil scolaire Viamonde operates one French public elementary school, while the Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud runs one publicly funded French-language Catholic elementary school. Private schools include Durham Elementary School, Immanuel Christian School, Kingsway College and College Park Elementary School.


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa is home to 22,000 full-time students studying at three post-secondary institutions Durham College, Trent University Durham and University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT). Oshawa is a Community Teaching Site for Queen's University School of Medicine at Lakeridge Health.


title: Oshawa

text: The main campus of Durham College is located in the city. The college has grown and expanded since it opened in 1967 and now offers more than 140 full-time programs.


title: Oshawa

text: The University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) opened in 2003. Given the city's industrial heritage, the university's courses emphasize technology, manufacturing and engineering themes. UOIT has ten buildings at two stand-alone campus locations (north Oshawa and Downtown Oshawa) and houses more than 70 specialized research laboratories and research facilities. It is the only university in Canada to offer a degree program in Automotive Engineering.


title: Oshawa

text: Trent University Durham has a long history in Oshawa. In 2010, the university opened a stand-alone campus in Oshawa (beside the Oshawa Civic Recreation Complex).


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa has few media outlets of its own due to its proximity to Toronto. The city has one AM station, CKDO (1580), which is rebroadcast on 107.7 FM, and one FM station, 94.9 CKGE. Both stations are owned by Durham Radio, which also owns CJKX, which is licensed to the nearby community of Ajax, although all three stations are operated from the same studios at the Oshawa Executive Airport. CKDO has officially been licensed as a clear-channel station since 2006 and is the only full-power station in Canada on 1580 kHz it nonetheless operates at a fifth of the usual power of a clear-channel outlet with a directional signal that is pointed away from the United States.


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa has a Global O&O station, CHEX-TV-2 (Channel 12), which is a sister station of Peterborough's CHEX-DT. It airs a daily supper hour news and current affairs program targeted to Durham Region viewers. Although a larger city than Peterborough then and now, Oshawa was not granted a television station in the original 1950s assignments as it was geographically too close to Toronto, since the original spacings were nominally set at . Rogers Cable, the local cable television service provider, operates Rogers TV: a community channel with local television programming for cable subscribers.


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa is served by several community newspapers, including the "Oshawa Express", an independent which is published every Wednesday, and "Oshawa This Week", published two times per week by Metroland. The long-standing daily newspaper, the "Oshawa Times" (also known at various times as the "Oshawa Daily Times" and "Times-Gazette"), was closed by its owner Thomson Newspapers, after a lengthy strike in 1994.


title: Oshawa

text: John Short Larke was the proprietor of the "Oshawa Vindicator", a strongly pro-Conservative newspaper, in the late 19th century.


title: Oshawa

text: Oshawa is home to "Artsforum Magazine", a not-for-profit magazine of arts and ideas launched in Fall 2000 by John Arkelian, its publisher and editor-in-chief. Topics in the magazine range from foreign policy to film.


title: August Underground's Mordum

text: August Underground's Mordum is a 2003 direct-to-video horror exploitation film created and distributed by Toetag Pictures. It is the sequel to 2001's "August Underground", and was followed by "August Underground's Penance" in 2007. The film is purposely shot in an amateur way to pass off the film as a faux snuff film.


title: August Underground's Mordum

text: "Mordum" is a home movie shot by serial killers Peter Mountain, his sadomasochistic girlfriend, Crusty, and her depraved man-child brother, Maggot. After Peter walks in on Crusty and Maggot having sex, an argument erupts between him and Crusty. It is quelled when Crusty sexually arouses Peter and herself via self-mutilation with a piece of glass. The two then break into a crack house, where Peter beats the owner to death with a hammer.


title: August Underground's Mordum

text: Crusty films the filth-encrusted building and the decaying corpse of an overdosed addict. When Peter starts stripping the body of the house's owner, claiming it will be easier to dispose of without clothes, another fight breaks out between him and Crusty when she questions his motive for undressing the body, accusing him of being "a faggot."


title: August Underground's Mordum

text: Crusty demonstrates her love of self-harm to Maggot and a friend, cutting her scarred arm with a knife. Crusty and Maggot remove a bound and masked woman from a box they have been keeping her in for "a long time." Maggot rapes the woman while Crusty cheers him on and taunts the victim. When Maggot is finished, he then lets a male captive out of another box, and he and Crusty force him to perform a penectomy on himself with a pair of cuticle scissors, then seal him back up. Crusty mimics oral sex with it, then uses it to violate the female victim.


title: August Underground's Mordum

text: The trio of killers go to town, where they torment a shopkeeper, eat fast food, and wander around. Maggot and Peter then watch and masturbate to Crusty torturing two women, sexually abusing and repeatedly vomiting on them while a male corpse rots in the corner of the room. Eventually, the women are killed. Maggot disembowels one, chewing on her spilled innards and masturbating with them, while the other is beaten to death by Crusty and Peter, the latter dragging the body away to presumably have sex with it. They get drunk, and afterward, Maggot is found in the bathroom by Crusty, shaving and cutting himself to "look beautiful" for her.


title: August Underground's Mordum

text: The trio are next shown playing in the snow, attending a concert, meeting up with friends, raping a woman, and going to a piercing shop, where Maggot receives a nose ring and gets into a fight with Peter over his relationship with Crusty. The group then visit another serial killer, who shows them the contents of his shed; mutilated bodies, dying victims, and a headless and maggot-covered toddler, which Maggot eats a chunk of. Later, while the others are asleep, the new killer borrows their camera, and films himself taunting and slitting the throat of one of his female captives.


title: August Underground's Mordum

text: The trio attacks a family, killing the father first by hanging him. While Peter tortures the mother, Crusty watches Maggot have sex with the corpse of the young daughter in a bathtub. The three get into a fight, which escalates to Peter slitting the throat of the wife, while abusing Maggot with her blood, followed by the film cutting to static. Later, a cat is shown killing and eating a mouse.


title: August Underground's Mordum

text: Schneider left the crew shortly after the wrap of production on "Mordum". He released his own cut of the film, subtitled "The Maggot Cut", through Maggot Films, and the official cut of the film was released on DVD in 2003.


title: August Underground's Mordum

text: The exploitation film database The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre has "Mordum" ranked as the fourth most "vile" film viewed by the website, below "Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom", "The Angel's Melancholy" and "Carcinoma". The review of the film (which is categorized as "worthless") referred to it as "pointless hardcore depravity".


title: August Underground's Mordum

text: While traveling to Canada to attend the Rue Morgue Festival of Fear in Toronto, co-director and writer Fred Vogel was arrested, pending charges of transporting obscene materials into Canada, when copies of "Mordum" and its predecessor were found by customs officials among the merchandise he had intended to bring to the convention. The charges were dropped, after Vogel had spent roughly ten hours in customs prison, and his films were sent to Ottawa for further observation.


title: August Underground's Mordum

text: Copies of "Mordum" were confiscated by Australian customs officials in 2004, the reason given for the seizure of the DVDs being that "they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be imported".