Some call them modern-day shamans, others might call them faith healers. The South Korean followers of musok call them mudang, and they act as the link between the followers of the musok religion and its deities. The rituals they perform are meant to entertain the gods through song and dance, food and drink and storytelling. But don’t let the rituals themselves fool you; their interaction with spirits can seem over-the-top but Korean believers take the practice very seriously – and there are many gods in the pantheon of this ancient folk religion.
South Korea is a relatively new country, but the Korean people have been around for a long time and their culture has clashed with the onset of rapid change. The mudangs weren’t exempt from this. When their world collided with the arrival of the United States and U.S. troops, the shamans of musok began to channel one of America’s most recognizable leaders: Douglas MacArthur.
Mudangs have been around long before Douglas MacArthur ever came to Korea. This Korean kind of shamanism (for lack of a better term) actually predates Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taosim. The introduction of these religions converted Koreans from musok, but it never really died out. It more or less simply adopted some of the practices and beliefs of these new arrivals. Even when the Japanese invaded Korea and tried to replace it with Shinto, the folk religion endured.
The Korean Peninsula after World War II was no different. Mudangs survived the war and the subsequent Korean War, but after the partition of Korea into North and South, the shamans fled North Korea and settled primarily into cities. But their followers were persecuted under South Korean President Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-Hee – until Park was assassinated in 1979.
Gods or spirits in the pantheon of musok are as varied as the shamans who call upon them. Jesus and the Buddha are both available for believers to appeal to. And in the 1970s, as pro-American sentiment began to rise significantly in the government and among the people of South Korea, a towering figure emerged as a popular deity: U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur. The general had been a bedrock of post-World War II culture in the Pacific region, managing the occupation of Japan and famously leading the counterattack against North Korea until he was fired by President Harry Truman in 1951.
But despite the famous general’s assertion that “Old soldiers never die, they simply fade away,” old soldiers do, in fact, die. MacArthur died of kidney and liver failure in 1964 at age 84. Though his body died, his spirit lived on – and not just in the hearts of the U.S. Army or the American people. It lived on through the mudang in South Korea. In the 1970s it became a popular trend for even female shamans to summon MacArthur, going so far as to don his trademark corncob pipe and sunglasses to really get into the role.
These days, Korean shamanism has made a comeback. Koreans widely consult their local mudangs for advice in important decision making, special events and general fortune telling. It’s said that even South Korean politicians look to the shamans for advice on critical political matters. If war with North Korea ever breaks out again, it might be appropriate to revive Gen. MacArthur once more and let him call the shots for a while.