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The surprising determine was splashed throughout on-line posts and stories: Korea is allegedly residence to as many as 800,000 shamans — a quantity practically double the nation’s lively navy and nicely over twice the whole foreign-born inhabitants of Seoul.
However do not begin studying the tea leaves but.
Specialists are calling the huge determine completely unverified, noting there’s not one shred of official knowledge to again up the supposed surge in shamans.
“Eight hundred thousand is an exaggeration. We estimate the quantity at round 300,000,” stated an official for the Korea Gyeongshin Affiliation, the nation’s largest group of shamans, who requested anonymity.
He stated the estimate attracts partly from mid-Nineteen Seventies data exhibiting about 300,000 registered members. Though he declined to disclose the present whole, he famous that there are normally round 30 new registrations every month.
Cho Sung-je, a professor of shamanist research at Dongbang Tradition College, additionally rejected the 800,000 estimate, saying even he doesn’t know the precise quantity.
“I consider the quantity is nearer to 100,000, and even that may imply practically one out of each 500 individuals within the nation is a shaman,” Cho stated. “Something considerably greater than that’s merely absurd.”
A shaman performs a ritual throughout the Changmu Worldwide Performing Arts Competition in Jung District, central Seoul, Aug. 26, 2024. Korea Instances photograph by Ha Sang-yoon
Authorities knowledge exhibits a fair smaller quantity — simply over 10,000.
Based on the Ministry of Information and Statistics, 10,512 individuals had been working within the “fortune-telling and associated providers” trade in 2023, with 9,895 registered companies.
The precise variety of shamans is believed to be smaller, because the class additionally covers providers corresponding to “saju” readings, a conventional fortune-telling apply based mostly on start date and time, and tarot.
The federal government acknowledges 12 culturally vital shamanic ceremonies, together with the Gangneung Danoje, however there aren’t any complete statistics on shamans exterior these state-designated traditions.
Amid the shortage of official knowledge, crimes by some shamans have prompted trade requires oversight.
Final month, a shaman in her 70s was sentenced to life in jail for killing her nephew throughout a ritual she claimed would expel evil spirits. In June, a shaman in his 50s obtained a suspended jail sentence for extorting 79 million received ($53,800) by threatening a household with misfortune.
Specialists say the trade wants a system to make sure stronger self-regulation and legitimacy.
“In contrast to Catholic monks or Buddhist monks, who’re licensed by formal screening methods, shamans presently face no comparable system of qualification or oversight,” the Gyeongshin Affiliation official stated.
He added that the trade may contemplate establishing a “shamanism college” and making a vetting and credentialing system, saying, “We’d like a system that may filter out those that lack credibility.”
Prof. Cho stated a legally approved integrated affiliation with the facility to manage its members, much like the Jogye Order, the executive physique for the nation’s largest Buddhist sect, is required to make sure accountability, stressing that inside self-regulation can be important.
“There ought to be ethics coaching earlier than somebody turns into a shaman, however no such course of exists,” Cho stated, including that many shamans carry out pointless rituals for revenue.
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