Shaman Village Adventure

First, I went to the Seoul Museum of Art.



There was a fun kinetic sculpture in the courtyard.











Next on my schedule was the National Museum of Art, which is located inside the grounds of Deoksugung Palace. The show at the museum turned out to be a Picasso exhibit, so I rushed through it and then explored the rest of the palace.













There are several palaces in Seoul, and the ones I've seen are all nestled incongruously in dense parts of the city, most of which was built from 1970 onwards. Deoksugung Palace, by comparison, was built as a villa in the 15th century.









Look! I saw a red pigeon.



As I was leaving I caught the changing of the royal guard ceremony. The monarchy has ended, but the pageantry endures!







For some reason, as I was leaving a giant group of riot police was forming--the one photo I got of them doesn't really capture it, but there were suddenly hundreds of them streaming out of police buses. The mood on the street seemed fairly calm, and I couldn't really understand their presence there, but I decided I'd rather not wait to find out.



I was scheduled next to be visiting a nearby square, but instead I hopped on the subway and headed for Mt. Inwangsan, a sacred mountain in Korean shamanism. It's located a hop, skip, and a jump from the Dongnimmun subway station, and it's home to Korea's most important shamanist shrine, Guksadang.





I had to walk through a high-rise apartment complex to reach the shaman village.



Koreans practice several religions--Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, and shamanism--and there seems to be a good deal of overlap. Mt. Inwangsan is apparently no exception, as Buddhist temples coexist there with the shaman shrines.



There was a bit of a hike involved, but the shaman mountain was really worth it.



Here is a worshiper at Seonbawi, a strange rock formation that is known for it's fertility powers.



And here is Guksadang, the shamanist shrine.



There was a small group of women praying and talking inside, and one of them showed me around the tiny, mysterious shrine. There were some paintings and food offerings, and my friendly guide taught me the proper way to pray, talking all the while in Korean and blithely unaffected by the obvious fact that I couldn't understand a word she said. After a few minutes we left together and she leaned a large dried fish against the wall by the door.