Durin-gut
The Durin-gut, also called the Michin-gut and the Chuneun-gut, is the ritual for mental illnesses in the Korean shamanism of southern Jeju Island. While commonly held as late as the 1980s, it has now become very rare due to the introduction of modern psychiatry.
In Korean shamanism, a disease—whether physical or mental—is often thought to be caused by the entry of a malevolent spirit into the body. The Durin-gut seeks to cure the mental illness by exorcising this spirit, which is often identified as a yeonggam, a type of dokkaebi or goblin-like being with a penchant for attaching to human women that he lusts for. A similar exorcistic ceremony to treat mental illnesses, called the Gwang'in-gut, is known in North Gyeongsang Province in mainland Korea.
The Durin-gut begins with the introductory ceremonies common to all major Jeju rituals, in which the gods are invited to the ritual ground. Once these have been completed, a number of dance sessions begin, in which the lead shaman sings and the apprentice shamans beat drums and gongs while the patient is made to dance to the music. The dancing may extend for as many as fifteen days. When the patient is physically unable to dance further after a number of sessions, the lead shaman talks to the patient, who is thought to be channeling the spirit inside their body. The shaman makes the patient recall the traumatic experience that caused the spirit's entry, and the spirit vows to leave the body. The ritual may be concluded by a number of preventive healing ceremonies, or only by a few rituals intended to avoid the spirit's vengeance and send back the gods.
Etymology
Durin-gut is a compound of durin, the adnominal form of the Jeju-language adjectival verb durida "to be deranged; to be foolish; to be lacking; to be young", and the noun gut "ritual". It is also called the Michin-gut, meaning "insane ritual", and the Chuneun-gut, literally "dancing ritual," after its key component of making the patient dance to the point of collapse.Shamanic view of disease
traditionally offers a number of supernatural explanations for human illnesses, both physical and mental. This includes the escape of part of the soul due to a traumatic or shocking event, especially common in childhood when the soul's association with the body is weaker; the attachment of a malignant force, such as a minor spirit or ritual impurity, upon the patient's body, also often caused by a traumatic event; and the anger of a god or an ancestor at the patient's behavior.Various ritual methods are used to cure disease. If part of a child's soul has escaped, the shaman holds rituals to put it back inside the body. When a malevolent force has attached to the patient, small-scale healing ceremonies may be held to detach it. Sometimes, the shaman confines the patient and makes them follow certain taboos in order to be cured. Large-scale rituals, or gut, are required for certain diseases such as smallpox. In these rituals, the shaman engages in active communication with the gods or ancestors that have brought on the disease and convinces or intimidates them into departing or taking mercy.
The Durin-gut—the healing ceremony for mental disorders in Jeju Island shamanism—belongs to the final category, in which the shaman communicates with a malevolent deity that has entered the body and forces it to depart. The deity in question is often a yeonggam, a type of dokkaebi or goblin-like being. According to these spirits' origin myth, the Yeonggam bon-puri shamanic narrative, the yeonggam are seven brothers born in Seoul but exiled to Mount Halla in Jeju Island. The youngest of the yeonggam brothers is a hideous creature who often attaches to human women that are the objects of his lust, and drives them insane. The other yeonggam brothers are more benevolent figures who the shaman convinces through ritual to take away their troublesome youngest sibling. Other spirits are also thought to cause mental illnesses. The purpose of the Durin-gut is to cure the illness by creating a gawp, or separation, between the human patient and these possessing spirits.
Many, but not all, Korean healing ceremonies are in decline due to the introduction of modern medicine. This includes the Durin-gut, which is very rarely performed as of 2006, although it was common as late as the 1980s. A video of a 1984 Durin-gut ceremony—held for a twenty-one-year-old woman who had gone insane while working at a Seoul factory in order to financially support her family—is the key primary source for ritual procedures.
Ritual procedure
Preliminary rites
As with most Jeju rituals, the Durin-gut begins with the Samseok-ullim, a sacred drum performance held before the formal beginning of the ritual. This serves to forewarn the gods that the ritual will be held on that day.Again like all major rituals, the Durin-gut proper begins with a version of the Chogam-je, a series of ceremonies that serve to invite the gods into the ritual grounds. The Chogam-je of the Durin-gut involves the Bepo-doeop-chim, in which the shaman narrates the Jeju creation myth; the Nal-gwa-guk-seomgim, in which the time and place of the ritual is specified for the sake of the gods; the Yeonyu-dakkeum, in which the shaman explains the reasons the ritual is being held, in this case the specific details of the patient's illness; the Gunmun-yeollim, in which the shaman opens the gates of the gods' abode to allow them to descend into the human world; the Sincheong-gwe, in which the shaman leads the gods from the village pavilion where they have descended into the actual ritual ground; and the San-bada-bonbu-saroem, in which the shaman divines the will of the gods by throwing his sacred mengdu implements and receives divine approval that the ritual should continue.
The Chogam-je is followed by the Chumul-gong'yeon, when the shaman asks the gods to accept the offered sacrifices.
Dances and exorcism
Once the preliminary rites have been completed, the essential procedure of the Durin-gut ensues: the Chum-chwium. The Chum-chwium consists of a number of dancing sessions. A session begins with the shaman offering incense and new water and liquor at the altars for the assembled gods. Then the lead shaman sings while the apprentice shamans play the sacred drums to a relatively slow beat. The lyrics of the song include fixed refrains as well as the Yeonggam bon-puri narrative, but the shaman also improvises specific lyrics about the patient's life and condition. In the 1984 ritual, this included a comparison between the patient's life as an impoverished factory worker and the lives of the more fortunate. The patient and the villagers assembled to watch the ritual all wept as they heard the song, and the shaman herself wept while singing.
Money, money, unspeakable money—to get this demon-like money
A forlorn child lost her parents early; thinking she should make good money
She went to that factory at Majang-dong, Seoul, Gyeonggi Province
Living in dormitories, eating regulated meals, sleeping regulated sleep...
Who is that person whose fortune is good, who lives at home with both his parents?
He goes to high school and to college; he wins success in society...
The patient is made to dance to the song and the beat. Once the song is finished, the apprentice shamans change to a much quicker drumbeat, to which the patient must now dance frantically. The instruments themselves also change; while the song is accompanied by the buk and janggu drums, the faster beat involves the buk drum and both suspended and bowl gongs. Once the fast dance is finished, the shaman may sing and the patient may dance again to the slower beat. Eventually, the patient rests for a while before the next session can begin. In the meantime, the shamans use bamboo leaves to spray liquor outside the gate as a sacrifice to minor gods who could not consume the offerings at the altars.
The duration of sessions is variable. In the 1984 ritual, the shortest session of continuous dancing was ten minutes, while the longest was seventy minutes. The shortest duration of the resting period was ten minutes, while the longest was seventy-eight minutes due to the patient falling into a deep sleep. The number of sessions, and thus the overall length of the ritual, is also highly variable. The patient may refuse to go to the ritual ground at all, and the ritual must be cancelled before any dancing has been done. There are times when the illness is deemed to be cured after only a single session. In other cases, the patient is made to dance for as many as fifteen days. The 1984 ritual involved twenty-three sessions of 823 minutes of dancing in total, extended over two afternoons, a full third day, and an hour in the morning of the fourth day. By late in the third day, the patient appeared to be dancing in a trance state.
Patients are often reluctant or unwilling to dance, and must be persuaded or sometimes even forced to dance by the shaman and their family. The lead shaman and the family themselves will dance along to encourage the patient. The patient of the 1984 ritual was not only reluctant, but also collapsed physically from fatigue while dancing a number of times. A rope was even suspended in the ritual ground so that she could lean on it. The Durin-gut is also deeply exhausting for the shamans themselves, who must constantly keep up the song and drumbeat. Multiple shamans will occasionally take turns.
Once the patient is physically incapable of dancing further, the lead shaman talks to the patient, who is thought to be channeling the spirit within their body. The shaman identifies the sort of spirit that has caused the illness and continues the conversation, hitting the patient with a peach branch if the spirit's answer is not satisfactory. Sometimes, the shaman will even twist the patient's legs or nose. Over the course of the conversation, the patient confesses traumatic memories that they had repressed or were unwilling to face; this trauma is considered the moment when the malevolent spirit entered the body. Shamanism scholar Kang Jeong-sik suggests that the shaman acts as a sort of psychotherapist. In the case of the 1984 ritual, the patient talked about having discovered a corpse in the factory toilets and encountering her dead father in her dreams. Ultimately, the shaman forces the spirit to vow that it will depart from the body at a certain date and time. The shaman then makes the patient swear that they will live a healthy life once the spirit has left. This procedure is called the daegim-badeum.