Burial Practices of Korea
Examines the historic funeral and burial practices of Korea.
Location: North Korea; South Korea
Burials of Early Korea
Burial traditions have always occupied an especially important role in Korean society. During the Bronze Age, expert pottery makers crafted earthenware coffins for adults and large pots for children. These were buried vertically, sometimes under dolmen stone tombs. Iron-Age Gojoseon people also used earthenware coffins, this time laid out under large burial mounds.[1]
The Three Kingdoms period produced elaborate royal tombs that continued into the Goryeo dynasty. Some featured detailed murals, providing a glimpse into the lives of kings and queens who rested there. Although most of these tombs have been looted, remains of pottery and jewelry help historians understand daily life and technology in early Korea.[1][2]
The medieval Goryeo dynasty practiced Buddhist worship, first introduced in the 4th century.[3] According to Buddhist customs, the dead were cremated and left with a temple. Relatives burned paper "spirit money" for the dead, meant to ease their way in the afterlife.[4][5] This changed with the adoption of Confucian beliefs near the end of the Goryeo dynasty. In Confucian belief, ancestors are sacred and still connected to the living, making proper burial and respect after death essential.
Burial Practices in the Joseon Dynasty
The Joseon dynasty spanned hundreds of years and followed Confucian burial customs. Funeral processions carried the dead in wooden biers decorated with paper ribbons and flowers. Their path took them through fields to a secluded grave site, usually on a hill overlooking the person's farm. The location of a grave was very important and depended on geomancy, or pungsu.[6] Banners, musicians, a photograph of the deceased, and mourning family members accompanied the bier. Each village sang its own burial chant during this procession.
Once a body was in its grave, mourners lit a fire from the boards used to carry it. They then burned the paper decorations of the bier. Families crafted wooden tablets, which held the spirit of the deceased for some time after death. Close relatives wore special hemp clothing as a sign of grief for two years. They made regular offerings and prayers to the dead in a ceremony known as jesa. Children acted modestly and avoided drinking in the wake of a parent's death.[7]
Funerals and Mourning in Modern Korea
Ancestor worship is still widely practiced in South Korea, though it has adapted to the demands of modern life. It is now customary to perform ceremonies for fewer generations than in the past. A large Christian community also practices Western burial rites. Cremation is growing more common as cemeteries run out of space. Many families still own ancestral burial plots in their home villages and bury their dead according to traditions of geomancy. In recent decades, politicians have moved the graves of their ancestors to more favorable locations before important elections.[8]
Bibliography
Sunhwa Rha, Pottery: Korean Traditional Handicrafts, trans. Yoon-jung Cho (Seoul: Ewha Womans University Press, 2006), 13-39.
Michael J. Seth, A History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011), 36-41.
Brian Cumings, Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History (Updated) (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005), 26-34.
Eunsuk Cho and Miai Sung, The World of Bereavement: Cultural Perspectives on Death in Families, ed. Joanne Cacciatore and John DeFrain (Cham: Springer, 2015), 81-97.
Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Coins and Currency: An Historical Encyclopedia (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2007), 428-429.
Clark E. Llewellyn, "Korean Aesthetics, Modern Direction" in Korea Style, Marcia Iwatate and Unsoo Kim, eds. (Boston, MA: Tuttle, 2007), 8-28.
Donald Neil Clark, Culture and Customs of Korea (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000), 100-103.
Choe Sang-Hun, "Quest for Perfect Grave Keeps Korean Feud Alive," The New York Times, July 19, 2006, The New York Times, accessed May 02, 2017.
About TOTA
TOTA.world provides cultural information and sharing across the world to help you explore your Family’s Cultural History and create deep connections with the lives and cultures of your ancestors.
