Over the centuries, Koreans have shown themselves to be adept at assimilating new religious beliefs. Whether it was Buddhism in the fourth century after Christ, or Catholicism in the eighteenth century, Koreans have been quick to take up new doctrines. In the case of Confucianism, which is perhaps more a set of precepts for conducting public and private life than it is a religion, the Koreans so took to it that they would eventually claim to be more correct practitioners than the Chinese, who had developed it in the first place.

SHAMANISM
A much older religious tradition, shamanism, has survived despite all the new beliefs and all attempts to suppress it. Even today, in the modern city of Seoul, a visitor may come across the mudang, or shaman, interceding with the spirit world, and especially with the dead, on behalf of those on earth. Shamanism is not like other religions in that there is no central authority and no doctrine; rather, each shaman is a self-elected specialist. Most are female. Early Korean kings seem to have had shamanistic roles, and archaeological remains from various early kingdoms include artifacts that appear to be linked with shamanism. The famous gold crowns of Shilla are an example and seem to reflect shamanistic practices in what is now Siberia.

With the arrival of Buddhism (see below), shamanism became marginalized, but it did not disappear. While popular among ordinary people, it also had a following at court during the Koryo period (918–1392). Under the Yi or Chosun dynasty (1392–1910), which was heavily influenced by Confucianism, shamanism was officially excluded from the court. In practice, however, this exclusion was never complete, especially as far as the women of the court were concerned. Shamanism also influenced courtly music and dance, despite the official disapproval. It survived in the Japanese colonial period (1910–45) but was much discriminated against.

Since 1945, shamanism in South Korea has suffered periods of discrimination. After the 1961 military coup, President Park Chung Hee and his military colleagues tried to end shamanistic ceremonies, which they saw as old-fashioned and superstitious. Yet at the same time, “traditional” music was much encouraged, even though it often derived from such rituals. Since Park’s assassination in 1979, shamanism has reemerged into a more public position in South Korea. No figures on the number of shamanistic believers in Korea are available. There is nothing in shamanism that prevents its adherents from following other religions as well, and there are strong links between shamanism and Buddhism.

“I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.” ― Marilyn Monroe

BUDDHISM
Buddhism has suffered ups and downs over the centuries but has survived. Introduced from China, according to tradition, from 372 CE onward, it spread from the Koguryo kingdom in the north of the peninsula to the other kingdoms. In turn, Koreans took the new doctrine to Japan. Buddhism had a profound influence both intellectually and as a source of artistic expression. In the Koryo period, Buddhism was both a popular and a court religion. Many monasteries were built, and members of the royal family became monks. Although few monastic buildings from these early periods have survived, statues and other remains testify to the importance of the religion.

Buddhism suffered under the Yi dynasty, with many of the monasteries being suppressed. Under government pressure, the monks were forced out of the cities and new monasteries were built in remote districts; many survive to this day. But anti-Buddhist pressures were not constant, and even some kings who persecuted Buddhism at one stage would turn to it in old age. By the end of the nineteenth century, Buddhism seemed in decline, with many of its ceremonials and rituals almost indistinguishable from shamanism. Visiting foreigners described dirty and ignorant monks, and ramshackle monasteries.

Buddhism did survive, reviving in the face of the growing challenge of Protestant Christianity from the 1880s onward. It also survived what many Koreans saw as a too close relationship with the Japanese authorities, though the divisions then created caused problems within the Buddhist community well into the postliberation period. This was partly because some Buddhists were active in the anti-Japanese movement, even if others worked with the authorities. The Japanese also encouraged Korean monks to marry, as Japanese monks had been doing since the thirteenth century. Today, Korean Buddhism flourishes, with about 10 million, or about a quarter of South Korea’s population, claiming to be Buddhists. It has adopted some of Christianity’s techniques for involving the faithful, such as collecting funds for welfare, and Buddhists have played a prominent role in opposition to dictatorial rule since 1948. Buddhist nuns have also become active. Korean Buddhism has become better known internationally, especially since a number of monasteries have been willing to accept Westerners as monks since the 1970s.

CONFUCIANISM
Whether or not Confucianism should be classified as a religion is a long-standing debate. To some, it was, and is, more a social and political philosophy, linked to a series of obligations and ceremonies, than a religious doctrine. Others disagree, seeing in the custom of honoring ancestors, and the honor paid to Confucius in particular, elements of religious practice.

Originally from China, where Confucius lived and taught, Confucianism was well established in Korea by the time of the Three Kingdoms. Its approach to the conduct of both public and personal affairs found a welcome acceptance among Koreans. While the more intellectual concepts may not have spread very far in society, the rules of behavior, and especially the honoring of ancestors, seem to have gained a wide acceptance, admittedly encouraged by the state and local authorities.

Until the fourteenth century, Confucianism was not dominant—it competed with both shamanism and Buddhism for influence—but it came into its own under the Yi dynasty. The new rulers who took power in the 1390s were anxious to restore relations with China. In doing so, they embraced with enthusiasm Zhu Xi’s approach to Confucianism, with its emphasis on rites and obligations, which had become the new orthodoxy in China. Other Confucian principles, such as advancement on the basis of intellectual merit alone, received somewhat less attention, or were modified to suit the Yi dynasty rulers.Confucian ritual ceremony in Cheju, South Korea.

Today, few formally claim to be Confucian. Yet the precepts of Confucius still predominate in both Koreas. Respect for elders and respect for authority, both derived from Confucian principles, are strongly ingrained and encouraged. Whether it is students criticizing the government—behavior that many trace back to the idea that the righteous or educated have a duty to tell the truth whatever the consequences—or respect for the Leader, elements of traditional Korean Confucianism continue to come into play.

CHRISTIANITY
Christianity came to Korea in the eighteenth century. Korean officials visiting Beijing encountered Roman Catholic priests and took back the doctrines of this new religion to Korea. Not only did they study the literature, they also set up a Church of their own. The Roman Catholic hierarchy in China did not approve of this, but it is thus that Korea’s involvement with Christianity began.

From the beginning, the state was suspicious of these people who rejected the Confucian rites honoring ancestors and who looked outside the country for spiritual guidance. Thus the persecution of Catholics began almost as soon as the Church was established. It would continue until the 1880s, giving the Korean Church a string of martyrs; more than one hundred of these were canonized in the late twentieth century. One reason for these persecutions was the link between Catholicism and the Western powers; the Korean government’s fear of Catholics was intensified by the clear link between Catholic priests and France.

In the 1880s, Protestant Christianity arrived in Korea. American Presbyterians and Methodists predominated. They have left their mark on the puritanical cast of many Korean Church communities, in which the use of alcohol and tobacco is very much frowned upon. These missionaries were followed between 1890 and 1910 by smaller groups such as the Anglicans (Episcopalians) and the Salvation Army. By then the atmosphere had changed and the persecutions ended. Many Koreans welcomed the missionaries as harbingers of the modern world. Protestants would make major contributions to the development of Korean education and social services such as hospitals, as well as having a profound influence in other areas such as music and the spread of the Korean alphabet, Han’gul. Christians would play a prominent role in opposition to the Japanese.

Today, South Korea is second only to the Philippines as a center of Christianity in Asia. The total number of Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, is more than 12 million, and growing—as already noted, however, the Koreans, like some others, distinguish between Catholics and Christians; the latter term refers to Protestants. Many prominent South Koreans have professed Christianity, including several presidents, and Korean Churches now send missionaries abroad. The Pentecostal Yoido Full Gospel Church claims the largest congregation in the world. Pope John Paul II visited South Korea in 1984 and 1989. Pope Francis visited in August 2014. There is also a small Orthodox community.

OTHER RELIGIONS AND BELIEFS
A small Muslim community originally developed among Koreans who had moved into northeast China, where they encountered Chinese Muslims, during the Japanese colonial period. Most of these Koreans returned to the peninsula at the end of the war in 1945, but there were no clergy to minister to them. In the 1950s, imams working with the Turkish forces that came to Korea during the Korean War began to minister to these groups and to make additional converts.

The first Korean imam was elected in 1955. The conversion of Korean construction workers in the Middle East since the 1960s has boosted the numbers of Korean Muslims since then. Today, the number of Korean Muslims is around the 40,000 mark. The first mosque was erected in Seoul in 1976. There are also mosques in Pusan and some other cities.

In addition to these mainstream religions, Korea has produced several new religions. One, Chondogyo, developed out of the nineteenth-century Tonghak (“Eastern Learning”) Rebellion. Today it exists in both North and South Korea, linked to the peasant communities in the countryside. Probably the best known outside Korea is the Unification Church, often called the “Moonies” after its founder, the Reverend Moon Sun Myong (1916–2012). Moon, born in what is now North Korea, was originally a Presbyterian minister, but his Church now is far removed from orthodox Christianity. While it has attracted a considerable following outside Korea, the number of its Korean adherents is relatively small. In South Korea it has many business interests, and although Moon was for long seen as anti-Communist, he began visiting North Korea in the 1980s. He met Kim Il Sung on several of his visits. When he died in 2012, Kim Jung Un sent a wreath and he was posthumously awarded a DPRK decoration. The Unification Church has business interests in North Korea, including an involvement with the Potonggang Hotel and a joint venture automobile factory near Pyongyang. The Church has sometimes been favored by the South Korean authorities and sometimes restricted.

The South Korean religious scene today is a vibrant one. The visitor cannot fail to be reminded of this in any Korean town or city, where neon-lit crosses can be seen in abundance at night. Many Koreans remain eclectic in their religious beliefs; just because a person professes one set of beliefs does not mean that he or she will not be interested in, or even participate in, the activities of other religious groups. This causes no problems with Buddhism and shamanism, or even Confucianism, but Christianity, whether Catholic or Protestant, has tried, not always successfully, to be more exclusive.

As well as religious believers, South Korea has a sizeable minority of people who profess no religion. Census returns show that some 15 percent of the population claim that they are atheists.

RELIGION IN THE NORTH
It is not easy to write with certainty about religion in North Korea. Before 1945, the northern half of the peninsula had many Buddhist temples and hermitages, and the same religious mix prevailed as elsewhere on the peninsula. With the arrival of Christianity, the north proved fertile ground for missionary work. Since it was closer to China, new ideas often came into the northern areas first. By 1910, Pyongyang, where several Protestant missionary groups had their headquarters, was regarded as a major Christian city throughout Asia. Pyongyang Foreign School was the school of choice for missionary families in China and Japan as well as those in Korea. Among its graduates is Ruth Graham, who married the celebrated American evangelist, Billy Graham. Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s leader, came from a family that had Christian connections, and his mother seems to have been a believer. He admitted attending church but wrote in his autobiography that he found it boring.

With the Soviet occupation of the north after 1945, and the establishment of the DPRK in 1948, all that ended. Religion was not proscribed; freedom of religion officially existed, and both the Soviet forces and the new North Korean state tried to make use of some prominent religious leaders to add to their legitimacy. But faith was subject to tight control, and the official line of the Korean Workers’ Party, like that of other Communist parties, was that religion was the “opium of the people”—nothing but superstition that had done much harm in the past. Many clergy and believers fled to South Korea, a trend that intensified during the Korean War. During the war, churches and temples were destroyed along with most other substantial buildings.

From the armistice until the late 1970s, the North Korean authorities made no attempt to rebuild religious centers. A few Buddhist monasteries survived as historical monuments rather than centers of religion. What appeared to be token religious bodies existed, but they were not much in evidence. From South Korea came persistent claims that religious believers in the North were subject to intense persecution.

The 1980s saw a change. Visitors to Buddhist temples found that people calling themselves monks now once again occupied them. A Roman Catholic church and two Protestant churches were built in Pyongyang, one close to the site both of Kim Il Sung’s mother’s birthplace and of the church at which she used to worship. A Chondogyo temple also appeared. The religious bodies, long inactive, began to function. The explanation given was that previously the state had lacked funds with which to reconstruct churches and temples destroyed during the Korean War. Now it could afford to do so. It is also sometimes claimed that the lack of such buildings had not hindered those who wished to do so from following their religious practices; they had met in houses or on the sites of former religious buildings.

Since then, many foreigners and South Koreans have visited the churches and temples. Billy Graham preached at the Bongsu Church, while the Vatican maintains a link with the Catholic Church in Pyongyang. In 2003, after North Korea’s late leader, Kim Jong Il, had visited Russia, he arranged for a Russian Orthodox Church to be built in Pyongyang, and there are, apparently, worshipers. Whether these are manifestations of real religious belief, or, as some allege, merely actors going through the motions for the benefit of gullible outsiders, nobody knows. North Korean exiles regularly allege that true believers still suffer savage persecution.

It is believed that there are some Muslims in North Korea, descended from hui, or Chinese Muslims. The only known mosque is at the Iranian Embassy, built c. 2012, which apparently hosts both Shiite and Sunni Muslims from among diplomats and aid workers.

CUSTOMS
Korea’s rich religious inheritance has affected its customs and traditions. Whatever their religion, most Koreans observe some form of Confucian ceremony to mark auspicious occasions, even if they do not realize that what they are doing is of Confucian origin. These include the celebration of one hundred days after a baby’s birth—a child that had survived so long was likely to live—and the celebration of the sixtieth birthday. Many Korean marriages reflect some aspects of the Christian wedding ceremony, even if it is only in the wearing of a white wedding dress. In South Korea, believers and nonbelievers alike incorporate Christmas and Buddha’s birthday into their informal calendar, and even in the North these dates do not go wholly unnoticed. North and South, shamanistic sounds and costumes linger on in what have come to be called farmers’ bands. Float for the Buddha’s birthday parade in Daegu, South Korea.

Traditionally, the main festivals of the year began with the Lunar (sometimes called “Chinese” in the West) New Year, which falls from late January to late February. This was, and is, a time for dressing up, family visits, and feasting. Although both North and South Korea tried to substitute January 1, and in both that day is still an official holiday and the start of the year, both have accepted that the pull of the Lunar New Year is too strong, and it is now a holiday period throughout the peninsula.

The other great traditional festival was Chusok, the fall harvest festival, a time for returning home if possible, honoring one’s ancestors, cleaning graves, and celebrating the new crops. In South Korea, it is nowadays an occasion for some of the most spectacular traffic jams and crowded planes and trains, as everybody who is able struggles to get home. In North Korea, where travel is more difficult, few people return home—though if they can, they do. Instead families picnic in the parks or beside rivers, and, in the more relaxed atmosphere of recent years, once again display pictures of deceased family members. They may also bring the ashes of cremated family members along to the picnic.

TABOOS
All countries have taboos, and the Koreas are no exception. Traditionally, white clothes rather than black were worn for mourning, but this was a special type of white cloth, an off-white hemp rarely seen except at funerals today. A white mourning band is still common, but a black band is also often worn nowadays for mourning purposes. You are in any case unlikely to be invited to a funeral, but you might find yourself expected to pay respects if somebody of your acquaintance happens to die while you are in the country. Usually this will involve attending a memorial hall and solemnly bowing in front of a picture of the deceased.

Many Koreans, like Chinese, still avoid the number four (sa) since it has the same pronunciation as the word for death. You will often find that some Korean buildings will not have a fourth floor, or that the letter “F” replaces the number four. Because many Koreans are aware of Western superstitions about the number thirteen, that too may be missing.

Another common taboo is against the use of the left hand to offer an object to somebody. To use the left hand is seen by all Koreans as offensive. It is best to offer something to another person, especially if they are senior in age or rank to you, with both hands. If that is not possible, use the right hand.

Do not stick chopsticks upright in rice, as this resembles the way incense is burned at funerals.

Bare feet are generally to be avoided. Koreans live, eat, and sleep on the floor, so it is important that floors are spotlessly clean. Not wearing socks means that your feet will be dirty. (I have been reprimanded for not wearing socks with sandals by a total stranger on the streets of Seoul!)

If you find that your host is diffident about some issue, do not push too hard. Sometimes a slightly diffident attitude hides a real problem, and if you pursue the issue too much, your host or counterpart will feel a loss of face. Similarly, try not to lose your temper, however much you may feel provoked—you may not feel embarrassed, but your host will.

All gifts should be wrapped, no longer necessarily in particular colors. However, avoid using red pens when writing notes, addressing mail, or signing a letter or document.

Do not touch an adult on the head, or even the shoulder. The same prohibition does not apply to children or youngsters, but it is best to err on the side of caution and avoid touching any Korean on the head.

Until recently, homosexuality was very rarely acknowledged in South Korea—and it is still not acknowledged in the North. Today its existence is more widely accepted in the South, especially among university students, but you may still find Koreans who argue that it is something only known in the West. Do not assume that two boys or two girls walking hand in hand are homosexual. Walking thus, or with arms about each other’s shoulders, is not a taboo in Korea, merely a sign of friendship. Conversely, a man and a woman who show too much affection in public will attract disapproval.

There are few formal restrictions on photography in South Korea nowadays. Some older people, especially in the countryside, may object to having their photograph taken, and it is best to avoid giving offense. As in many other countries, it is wise not to photograph anything that looks like a military installation or could be for military purposes. This may include airports. One should also be careful at Panmunjom, the village in the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas.

Restrictions on photography in North Korea are likely to be more irksome. The North Koreans have become very sensitive about visitors abusing their position as guests to take what are seen as hostile photographs—that is, they show the country in a bad light. If you see any sign of hostility, abandon the effort. And of course, avoid any military object, including soldiers, and airports. Control of photography at Pyongyang’s Sunan Airport appears to be less stringent than in the past but taking pictures there could still get visitors into trouble. Digital cameras have made it easier to check what pictures you have taken, and some people have been forced to delete photographs deemed offensive.