Seonangdan Altar in Mundang-ri, Goesan

A seonghwangdan is an altar for offering rites to Seonang-sin, the guardian deity of the land and the village, and is also called a seonangdan. Such altars are usually formed from a pile of small stones at a village entrance or mountain pass, with a tree standing nearby. The Seonangdan of Mundang-ri stands at the entrance to Ori-mok village, and the altar itself, together with the stone mounds on either side, retains its original form. Centred on a relatively neatly built altar, two cone-shaped stone mounds are piled up on either side, together forming a stone altar in the shape of a male sexual organ. It is an unusual seonangdan made of stone cairns in the form of a serpent-dragon (saryong) descending from the mountain towards the village with a long trailing tail: two cairns shaped like male genitals stand on either side, with a stone altar built in the centre in the shape of a phallus. With the stone mounds placed on either side, a ritual space measuring 3 m wide and 5 m long is built in the centre, together with an offering table about 90 cm by 90 cm in size. From the altar, piled stones trail off for some ten-odd metres towards the mountain like a dragging tail, connecting to the village's guardian mountain. This seonangdan is presumed to have been built in the mid-Joseon period, when the village was formed. Each year at the New Year, a straw rope strung with coloured cloth strips was hung on the sacred tree (sinmok) beside the stone altar, and rites were held on a day chosen for bringing good fortune, with a period of ritual taboo observed from three days beforehand; this practice has now disappeared. Although the date of its construction is not certain, this altar is valued as important and rare material, both for preserving a gradually vanishing form of village folk belief and as a type of ritual shrine (jedang) whose form differs from the types generally known until now.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Goesan, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Folklore Heritage · 시도민속문화유산