Namhae Gacheonamsubawi

In Gacheon village, 100 m north of the coast, a pair of male and female rocks stand 5 m apart at the corner of the lowest field. Locally they are called Mireukbul (Maitreya Buddha) and referred to individually as the female Mireuk and the male Mireuk. The female Mireuk is 3.9 m high with a circumference of 2.3 m and lies at an angle in the shape of a pregnant woman at full term; the male Mireuk is 5.8 m high with a circumference of 2.5 m and stands upright in the shape of a male sexual organ. It is said that childless women who prayed secretly beneath the male Mireuk, unseen by anyone, would go on to bear a son, so that women came not only from this area but from other regions as well. Tradition holds that the rocks were discovered in 1751, the 27th year of King Yeongjo of Joseon, after an old man appeared in a dream to the magistrate of Namhae, Jo Gwang-jin, and revealed where they lay. Every year on the 23rd day of the tenth lunar month, a village rite (dongje) is held to pray for the peace of the village and an abundant harvest; it is said that hanging the first fish caught of the season on the rocks brings a good catch and prevents accidents. Carved in the shape of sexual organs to pray for many children and for agricultural abundance, the rocks show an example of folk belief in which the object of such prayer came to be transformed into the guardian deity of the whole village, and was then further merged with the Maitreya Buddha of Buddhism.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Namhae, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Folklore Heritage · 시도민속문화유산