Seoul's Shamanistic Mountain People

I woke up this morning and decided to take charge of my Monday..the first day of my weekend. Not that I normally don't come at Monday with a take charge attitude, it's just usually more focused on sleeping in and eating, more "get-up-and-brunch" then "get-up-and-go." Today, however, was different and not just because my brunch-making boyfriend is out of town (ok maybe a little because of that) but because the sun was shining, it was (relatively) warm outside, and I desperately needed to combat the extra .2 kilograms that showed up on the scale this morning and are most definitely not welcome.

As I ate my morning fruit salad (and tried to ignore the images of syrup drenched blueberry pancakes not just dancing but shimmying seductively in my head) I contemplated what to do with my day. Highlight my hair? See a movie? Art galleries? Shopping? And finally decided to consult my Lonely Planet Korea. Hair highlighting, while fun, entertaining, and totally necessary for spring isn't really in my pre-vacation budget right now...most of the movies are in Korean...since it's Monday most of the galleries are closed..and really how many pair of leggings and 10 dollar t-shirts with misspelled words and pictures of mickey mouse does one woman need? So I decided to take one of the preplanned "walking tours." There were two tours outlined in the book: one that began in shopping heaven and ended in street food paradise, and the other that promised an hour and a half of up hill climbing to Seoul's most famous shamanist shrine without going anywhere near the carts selling my favorite honey and nut stuffed pancakes dripping with grease and conveniently placed in a dixie cup for your hand held ease and enjoyment. Thus I set off for the, "Inwangsan Shamanist Hillside Walk."

A bus and a subway ride later I exited Dongnimmun station, took the first left as the book instructed, and started the long up hill climb to the shrine's gate. I have to say I was excited as I huffed and puffed along, it's not often that I go anywhere by myself and I was looking forward to finding a quiet stretch of rock and just being alone and at peace. At the top of a very steep driveway I finally reached the gate, took a guide book instructed left towards the temple, and tried to avoid the stares of confusion from a disheveled pack of elderly koreans who were loitering in the parking lot. The temple had (in my professional oppinion) seen it's better days. Still I took a look around and was careful to take Lonely Planet's advice and not take any pictures or make any unnecessary noise to disturb the peace. I was fully prepared to silently take it all in when I heard..and I am not exaggerating here...screaming coming from behind the temple. I walked around to see a man screaming at the top of his lungs at an older woman as they were preparing food offerings for the alter. He screamed..she screamed..he threw a bag of rice...it got louder..and louder...and louder. Clearly they had not read Lonely Planet Korea. Getting to the stairs I needed to continue up the mountain involved crossing infront of them and I hesitated just out of sight debating whether seeing the shamanistic mountain people was worth being yelled at and possibly having a bag of rice thrown at me. Finally I made up my mind and decided I would not let a couple of rice throwing Korean yellers stop me from experiencing Seoul's most famous shamanist shrine. As I walked past they stopped yelling, the woman smiled at me and the man shot me a look of pure disdain. All in all, a great start.

I continued onward and upward and came to the next stop on the guidebook tour, some rocks that had been eroded into almost human like forms, and were now considered religiously significant. I'm not sure how the wear and tear on some rocks makes them holy or who decided their new shapes look anything like people, and apparently I was alone in those thoughts as the other 10 or so people around me were kneeling in prayer.

Past the rocks I continued up even more stairs preparing for the final push to the shamanist shrine which my guidebook described as having an "X-files like feeling," referring to air thick with drum beats and the echoes of words chanted over and over for hundreds of years. The trees were a little thicker over head here and I'll admit I started to get a little anxious as I climbed ever higher, my ears straining to catch the first vibrations of ancient rhythms. Finally I heard something. Excited I started climbing faster and faster, eager to let the everyday world of subways and street vendors (and those extra .2 kilos) fall away from me. The music started getting louder, and louder, and louder, until I turned a corner and saw......a radio playing from the Snack Shack half way up the mountain. Yes, not only can you take a hike to Seoul's most famous shamanist shrine to get away from it all, but you can take a bottle of water and a Snickers bar with you while you do it.

Not to be discouraged I by passed the Snack Shack and finished the climb up to where the mountain leveled off. And here I found them, the shamanist mountain people. A whole community of elderly Koreans living in tents on the top of this mountain surrounded by city streets. I have no idea why they were living up there, or more importantly how they got up there in the first place. I had only been climbing for half an hour (and consider myself to be in pretty good shape) and my thighs were BURNING. The only reason I could come up with was that they had to stay because they couldn't get back down.

Here were the drum beats: elderly Korean woman kneeling in front of drums on rock faces high above where any of the trails reached. Here was the chanting: groups of people kneeling before rock walls and burning incense and bowls of rice offering their prayers up to the heavens. Here was a man dressed in robes and open toed leather sandals talking on his cell phone. I guess I was still in Seoul after all.

As I started back down the mountain I couldn't help but wonder what it was that brought all of those people up there. It must take a pretty strong belief in something to get those 70+ year old bones up those 70 million + steps (ok maybe a slight exaggeration here). And I can almost guarantee they weren't doing it for the weight loss benefits. The cynical side of me says what a waste of time, they should be in the highlight of their twighlight, finally getting to use the reserved seating on the subway and pushing unsuspecting foriegners out of the way on the sidewalk without a backward glance, not kneeling on the hard ground waving smoke at some rocks. And the other side of me, that side wants to believe that they are trying to connect with something greater, something so important that it drew them up this mountain, on a chilly day in March, to kneel on that ground and breathe in that incense and say those words. I really hope whoever they're talking to is listening.