Koreans and ghosts

Hi all,
Anybody out there Korean? Anyone know about Korean Shamanism? Here's my situation.

My mc is not Korean, but she is a psychic. Her boyfriend is Korean American, with a big family. In a subplot the mc has a couple of angry ghosts invading her home and she can't seem to shake them. What I want to do is create an aunt for the bf who is a Shaman or at least knows a lot about Korean Shamanism; enough to be able to put some sort of protection on the mc's house.

I've done a bit of reading and it does look like there are rituals, but I'm leery of writing about something without better understanding it. I don't want to represent Koreans as superstitious and exotic.

If all else fails, I'd go for some simple talisman or something, rather than a full-blown ritual. You know how Catholic cathedrals have gargoyles to ward off evil spirits. Do Koreans have something that's supposed to do that? A specific herb? Spreading salt? Medallions? Mirrors?

Thanks so much in advance!

mgencleyn,
Thank you! I'll definitely be posting this question there.

Nadia,
Oh my gosh you have no idea how pleased I am to have someone to dialogue with about this! These ghosts are murder victims, so they are just what you describe: spirits with unfinished business. The difficulty for my mc is she knows who killed them and she's working on it, but they are being very... intrusive in the mean time. So she's not looking to harm them in any way or even to exorcise them, just to make it so that they can't come into her house and she can get a good night's sleep! Are "gui-shin" what you call the ghosts? Or is that a different sort of shaman? Do you know if anything could be done to block this sort of ghost from an area? In the research I've done I found out that there is a ritual performed by some shaman to protect a village, but nothing about a specific dwelling.

I have it in mind that I may eventually (in a later book) have my mc learn some rituals from the aunt or even go through the ritual to become a shaman herself. Do you know is this would be possible, or are mudang exclusive of non-Koreans?

Can you recommend any literature to me?

Nadia said:

The thing is most guishin (ghosts) harass their murderers or look for someone who can make things right, esp. if their spirits are bound to the place for some reason. Or at least that's how most folktales go. They're not very intrusive or abrasive if you're their agent of vengeance. (But if you break your promise, they WILL be cruel.)

Click to expand...

That makes sense. I was looking at it as, here are these two people who were murdered and they're pissed. Then they realize that this woman can actually see and hear them, so they express their rage to her. They are also frustrated that it's taking her a while to resolve the situation. In my novel's cosmology, ghosts don't interact with ordinary living people, so they can't harass their murderer directly... although come to think of it, I have considered changing that so they could do poltergeisty things in a later scene.

I've never heard of non-Korean mudang as it's a Korean thing.

Click to expand...

Is there a Korean word for "psychic" or "medium"? What would the aunt call my mc? It would be okay if it was pejorative.

I'm not sure exactly how their rites work, but I've seen TV dramas (historical) that have them in colorful clothes and do rites (a very noisy affair it seems).

Click to expand...

Noisy how? Singing? Drums? Other instruments? Other sounds?

I've never seen a modern mudang do the rites, though I think they're done in some areas.

But the biggest difficulty is going to be due to regional differences. Different areas of Korea practiced it in their own ways. For example, certain areas allowed men & women to be shamans, but others did not (only women could become mudang). Not only that certain types of mudang had a shrine to host their spirit (shin), but others did not because they never received any spirit in order to become mudang. Also the ones who received spirits had multiple ritual robes, while the others did not need those, etc.

Click to expand...

Well, I wanted the aunt to be from a fishing area, and so I just looked at a map and picked Busan. But please feel free to give me a better suggestion, if that's not a good choice, and also if you happen to know about rituals in one specific area. As she's a woman the gender issue doesn't come into play. I can go either way with the shrine and robes, with your guidance.

Wikipedia has an entry on this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_shamanism

Click to expand...

Actually, that's where I read about it to begin with, and all other internet sites I've found seem to be the same article, verbatim.

But to be honest, I don't know how much stuff you'll be able to find in English. I usually read Korean text directly to get info.

Click to expand...

Yeah... that's why I'm so excited that you responded. I've been asking around and trying to get someone to talk to. I think even if I read about it I might misinterpret, so it's really helpful to be able to ask questions and get clarification. Thank you!

Well, thank you for your help! You've already given me some great answers.

Wow, that was... really random.

Nice, Grady! Thank you so much. I'm going to check netflix, too.