| Devil posts from circa 1910 / Courtesy of Robert Neff collection |
This is the first in a series of articles on “Korea's Haunted Past” ― Ed.
By Robert Neff
Korea is often referred to as the “Land of the Morning Calm” but when the first Westerners arrived on the peninsula in the early 1880s, they found it be anything but calm. They were greeted by a land plagued with disease, unrest and, according to their Korean hosts, haunted by malevolent and demanding spirits of the past.
In the 1890s, George Heber Jones, an American missionary, declared Korea to be the most haunted place on the earth and poignantly described the spiritual world that oppressed and surrounded the average Korean:
“In Korean belief, earth, air, and sea are people by demons. They haunt every umbrageous tree, shady ravine, spring and mountain crest. On green hill slopes, in peaceful agricultural valleys, in grassy dells, on wooded uplands, by lake and stream, by road and river, in north, south, east, and west they abound, making malignant sport out of human destinies.
They are on every roof, ceiling, oven and beam. They fill the chimney, shed, the living room, the kitchen ― they are on every shelf and jar. In thousands they waylay the traveler as he leaves his home, beside him, behind him, dancing in front of him, whirring over his head, crying out upon him from air, earth, and water.
They are numbered by thousands of billions, and it has been well said that their ubiquity is an unholy travesty of Divine Omnipresence. This belief, and it seems to be the only one he possesses, keeps the Korean in a perpetual state of nervous apprehension, it surrounds him with indefinite terrors, and it may be truly said of him that he ‘passes the time of his sojourning here in fear.'
Every Korean home is subject to demons, here, there and everywhere. They touch the Korean at every point in life, making his well-being depend on a continual series of acts of propitiation, and they avenge every omission with merciless severity, keeping him under this yoke of bondage from birth to death.”
Many of the early Westerners were also affected by these beliefs but in a positive way. Many of the homes they purchased (quite cheaply) were said to have been haunted ― including the present-day site of the American ambassador's residence.
Over the past several years I have asked random people (Korean and foreigners residing in Korea) what they thought about ghosts in Korea. Many people were reluctant to admit they believed in ghosts ― the fear that they would be ridiculed for believing in something so archaic ― but others, once they were assured that I was serious, provided me with some great anecdotes ― some of them quite humorous. One of my favorites was from a small boy who confessed to me that his family had a ghost living in his refrigerator. He knew this was a fact because his mother had warned him that if he opened the refrigerator without her at his side, that the ghost within would snatch him up.
With Halloween rapidly approaching, we will, over the next couple of days, examine not only ghostly encounters and macabre subjects from the past but also from the present. Are ghost stories merely fables from the past that no longer scare us but entertain us? You decide.
Robert Neff is a historian and columnist for The Korea Times. He can be reached at robertneff103@gmail.com.