Friday, February 11, 2011

Korean totem


Scenic Sunday


Korean totem poles used to welcome visitors and scare away bad spirits.

Found at the entrance of an old village or in the middle of a mountain path in the countryside, savage-looking wooden poles stare down at visitors. Usually presented as a pair ― a male and female general ― these are “jangseung” or Korean traditional totem poles.
With enlarged eyes, a bulbous nose and buckteeth, most jangseung express exaggerated depictions of the humorous sides of people.


Read more: http://socyberty.com/ethnicity/korea-totem/#ixzz1DmweMmCy

5 comments:

  1. Cool! It's a totem poles of "天下大将軍- the General of ruling the world??"

    ReplyDelete
  2. In India we put up statues of a deity, animal or a warrior at the entry point to a village. The idea is to protect its people from evil spirits.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am familiar with totems of other cultures but these are new to me. Very interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I hadn't realized there were totem poles in Korea. How interesting!

    ReplyDelete