Waheulbonhyangdang Hall

In Jeju villages there is a place called a 'bonhyangdang', the central shrine of worship for the village. Waheulbonhyangdang Hall stands at the entrance to Waheul-ri village in Jocheon-eup, Jeju City. The village rite held at this bonhyangdang has preserved the form of old Jeju village rites so well that many people visit to study it. Today most village rites have changed into the Confucian-style poje, but old records of Jeju state that "the people of Jeju would all gather at the bonhyangdang, where men and women danced and ate together as they held the village rite." Waheul-ri is the village where that old form survives most fully even within Jeju, and on the day its dangje (shrine rite) is held, not only the village's men and women but many outsiders come to see it. The people of Waheul believe that every affair of the village is governed by the bonhyangdang deity: birth and death, a household's rise to wealth or its sudden fall into poverty, and even accidents suffered by villagers away from home are all held to be the deity's doing. For this reason the villagers hold rites for the bonhyangdang deity three times a year, on which days a simbang (shaman) performs a gut (shamanic ritual) all day to please the deity. At the start of each new year they first hold a 'sinnyeon-gwasejae', a rite paying New Year's respects to the deity; this is held on a far larger scale than the other rites. In the second month comes the 'yeongdeungje' for the Yeongdeung deity, a rite devoutly performed by the fishermen and haenyeo of coastal villages who live from the sea. In the seventh month the 'baekjung-mabullimje' is held, an important rite for the people of the mid-mountain villages who raise livestock, and when the harvest ends in the tenth month the 'siman-gokdaeje' is held to give thanks to the bonhyangdang deity.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jeju City, Jeju

Designation

Provincial Folklore Heritage · 시도민속문화유산