Cheonji-wang

Jeju Island shamanism · deity · Jeju Island shamanism traditional religion; continuing · deity

Cheonji-wang, the King of Heaven and Earth, opens the Cheonji-wang bon-puri, the origin chant sung at the outset of the great Jeju kut to establish the order of the cosmos. In the beginning sky and earth were fused; when they parted, two suns and two moons scorched and froze the world by turns. Cheonji-wang descends to the human realm, where he punishes the arrogant tyrant Sumyeong-jangja with fire and lightning, and lies one night with the earthly woman Chongmyeong-buin. Departing, he gives her gourd seeds and foretells the birth of twin sons. Those sons, Daebyeol-wang and Sobyeol-wang, later climb the gourd vines to his heavenly court, where he sets them the contests that divide the worlds of the living and the dead.

Children

Domains

Powers

Epithets

Relations

Sources

Open in the interactive app →