A Graduate Student Perspective: Graduate Summer Research in South Korea, Summer 2014: Nuri Kim

From late May through August, the LG Yonam Foundation Graduate Summer Research Travel Grant enabled me to travel to Korea and continue my dissertation research on the growth of New Religious Movements in colonial Korea. The first thing I did was to embark on a field trip to one of the sites that factors importantly in my project – Mount Kyeryong (near present day Taejŏn) which had been the center for numerous New Religious Movements and Shamanistic practices due to its role in geomantic prophesies that had been passed down since the mid-to-late Chosŏn dynasty. While many of the religious groups have relocated to other places due to the state’s efforts to develop this mountain into a national park and military headquarter, I was able to survey how the history of the mountain and the culture surrounding it are being remembered through exhibitions, landmarks and publications. I also visited some of the remaining Buddhist temples and other altars located throughout the mountain that are often characterized by a unique syncretism that incorporates things such as shamanistic beliefs and even the worshipping of Queen Min (who was assassinated by Japanese colonialists in 1895). Climbing the mountain, I was able to appreciate the area’s natural beauty and one of the reasons this mountain has stimulated the imaginations of so many people– its unique shape that resembles the comb of a rooster on top of a dragon.

The grant also allowed me to enroll in the Kyujanggak’s Hanmun Workshop, a four week program that trains students in reading Korean historical sources written in Classical Chinese.  This skill turned out to be crucial in my research – many of the texts left behind by these New Religious Movements were written in Classical Chinese and employed concepts that I would have had a hard time understanding without the rigorous training at the workshop. Coincidentally, the Kyujanggak is also home to a significant number of primary sources, such as scriptures written by these New Religious Movements and transcribed copies of the Chŏnggamnok, a Chosŏn-era geomantic prophesy that inspired many of the subsequent religious movements. This allowed me to apply my improved reading skills on the spot and thereby kill two birds with one stone.

Other sites where I conducted research include the National Archives in Taejon for colonial era documents mostly written by government officials, the Park Chung Hee memorial museum, and the Korean Film Archive which houses a number of colonial era films as well as one film from the ‘60s that focuses specifically on exposing the religious scene surrounding Mount Kyeryong. The archive which I visited most frequently, however, was the National Library in Seoul. After liberation, the colonial government’s archives were passed on to what became the National Library, hence its collection of historical sources relevant to my topic remains unsurpassed. Here, I discovered a photo book of Mount Kyeryong from the colonial era, journals and other texts written and published by various kinds of New Religious Movements, as well as records of the day-to-day operations of one particular group. While I still have to evaluate many of the sources I collected, this summer has furnished me with a wealth of data that will hopefully bring me many moments of pleasure and inspiration.