Seomunan Village Guardians, Buan

A dangsan is an object believed in folk religion to house a deity and is venerated accordingly. The Seomunan dangsan in Buan consists of a pair of tall stone pillars and a pair of stone jangseung guardian posts. The stone pillars are a type of sotdae, erected to block the entry of impurity from outside the village and to ensure the village's peace. The two pillars represent a grandfather shrine and a grandmother shrine: the grandfather dangsan, the principal deity of the Seomunan dangsan, has a stone-carved bird set on top, while the grandmother dangsan does not have a separate bird on top but instead has one carved into the upper part of the pillar. The stone jangseung are likewise a male-and-female pair. The one called "grandfather", Sangwon Jujanggun (上元周將軍), wears a tanggeon (a type of hat) and has a beard. The "grandmother" is somewhat smaller than the grandfather and has "Hawon Dangjanggun" (下元唐將軍) carved on its body. One of the sacred objects based on pungsu-jiri (geomantic) theory, these stone pillars are also called "jimdae". Since the local terrain is said to resemble the shape of a floating boat, the pillars are thought to have been erected to give it a sense of stability. The village treats the two stone jangseung and two stone pillars as a single unit and worships them as the village's guardian deities, holding a dangsan rite around midnight on the first day of the first lunar month each year. In the past, with a strong sense of community, the whole village gathered to hold the rite together, but in recent times participation has shrunk to only a few households, and for ease of protection and management the objects have been gathered near the grandmother dangsan. A record on the stone pillars of the Seomunan dangsan preserves the date of construction and the name of the builder, showing that they were erected in 1689, the fifteenth year of King Sukjong, though the exact date the stone jangseung were made is not known. The Seomunan dangsan of Buan is a piece of folk heritage that shows the process by which jangseung and sotdae, ordinarily made of wood, came to be made of stone.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Buan, Jeonbuk

Designation

National Folklore Heritage · 국가민속문화유산