國師堂信仰硏究

A Study of the Kug-sa-dang Worship in Korean Folk Religion

Belief in and worship of the Kug-sa-dang(國師堂), the shrine of a village god and, sometimes, the god himself, is a form of worship of rural gods common in most Korean rural districts. Worship of village gods in Korea is represented by the enshrining by villagers of a village god, that is, a god considered protecting the village, in a certain sanctified area of a village and the worshipping by the villagers in group through periodical performance of rituals. The divine thus worshipped by villagers in Korea number 42 kinds in all today, but worship of this Kug-sa-dang began much early and maintains a very important position in study of the source of such worship of village gods. The present paper has been devoted mainly to a determination of the essence and origin of the worship of Kug-sa-dang and, further, of the influence of this worship on the religious and social life of the general populace today, by means of combining and analysing all the information and data that the writer obtained through his continuous surveys undertaken in a ten-year period, 1959~1969. The ‘Kug-sa’ of the name Kug-sa-dang is no more than a transcription of Korean in Chinese characters, but the popular names are Kug-su-dang, Kug-si-dang and others, Kug-su-dang of all these being the most representative. As regards the form of Kug-sa-dang worship, it is to be noted that, generally, there are a divine tree and an altar on the top of a mountain in the back of a village, and the villagers gather together before them with offerings twice a year to pray the village god Kug-sa-dang for his protection of the village againist evils of various kinds. The area where the divine tree stands and the altar is set in front of it, is regarded as a sacred place in which the village god resides, and no one is allowed to enter the place except on the days of rituals. The god enshrined in Kug-sa-dang is understood to be the god of heaven, upon analysis, Worship of Kug-sa-dang, therefore, started with a worship by ancient tribes of the god of heaven based on the belief that the god of heaven governs all down on earth. Mountain tops were invariably selected for this religious observance. It is not difficult to imagine that in the ancient people’s primitive psychology and crude view of the universe, mountain tops were the best and also the nearest place for the god of heaven to descend or for the villagers to meet and communicate with him. This worship of the god of heaven led the villagers before long to enshrine the god of heaven on the earth, and the name ‘ku-su’(龜首=龜旨)or ‘kug-su’ was originated in their idea of the place on a mountain top as a ‘sin-san-ma-ru’ (peak of god’s mountain). This religious faith spread among the people as their principal religion in relation with the ritual services for the heaven. Gradually, however, this worship of the god of heaven was blended with the people’s worship of mountain gods, losing its pure character, and getting absorbed into the latter, it is at present on the verge of total extinction. Now the worship of Kug-sa-dang, when viewed from its religious functions, is related with his protection of particular villages in terms of felicities in agriculture and fisheries and also of prevention of diseases and other evils. It has become a folk faith among villagers in a form of nature belief. At the same time this worship of Kug-sa-dang has become a focal point of the religious fervour of an entire village, enjoying a status similar to temples or churches of modern religions. When viewed from its social functions, the worship of Kug-sa-dang has resulted in very powerful ties and a solidarity in a village through participation by all the villagers in the rites.