Songdangbonhyangdang Hall

Because Jeju Island's people had to live contending with the natural limits of island life, above all fierce waves, they relied heavily on the gods. Traces of diverse folk beliefs survive across the island, including bonhyangdang (village tutelary shrines), poje altars (platforms for village rites), cheonyeodang (maiden shrines), mireukdang (Maitreya shrines) and haesindang (sea-god shrines), all born of this harsh way of life. In every village on Jeju a god was worshipped who oversaw the village's land and the births and deaths of its people; this is the bonhyangsin, and the shrine where it is enshrined is the bonhyangdang. In particular, Songdang-ri, Gujwa-eup, is home to Songdangbonhyangdang, which not only governs all the affairs of Songdang village but is said to be the ancestral origin of every bonhyangsin on Jeju Island. The 'Songdangbonhyang Bonpuri', a shamanic narrative telling the history of the god enshrined there, explains how the Songdang bonhyangsin became that ancestral origin. In outline, the story runs as follows: a goddess named Geumbaekju was born on Namsan Mountain in Seoul, and when she came of age to marry she travelled to Songdang village on Jeju Island and married a man named Socheonguk. They had many children, and after a turbulent life the couple died in Witsongdang and Araetsongdang respectively, becoming the tutelary gods of each village; their children in turn each sought out a village of their own and became the tutelary gods of villages throughout Jeju Island. Foremost among these shrines, Songdangbonhyangdang stands on the northern foot of Dangoreum (306 m), a volcanic cone thick with cedar forest. A square stone wall about an adult's height encloses the site, within which a stepped altar has been built; above the altar stands a single-bay stone chamber with a tiled roof, housing the spirit tablet of Geumbaekjo. Every year, on the thirteenth day of the third lunar month, the whole village gathers at Songdangbonhyangdang to hold the dangje (shrine ritual). A bonhyangdang is a place where shamanic dang-gut rites, presided over by women, are performed.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jeju City, Jeju

Designation

Provincial Folklore Heritage · 시도민속문화유산