A
sotdae ( ) is a tall wooden pole or stone pillar with a carved bird on its top,
built for the purpose of folk belief in Korea
. Like
jangseung, wooden
totem poles with a sculptured human face, it was
usually erected near the entrance of a village to ward off evil
spirits as well as to represent villagers' wishes for prosperity
and well-being. Later, it was also built as a celebratory or
commemorative symbol. For instance, when a son of a family passed a
civil service examination called
gwageo, a
sotdae was set up in the
yard. In the case, it was colored in orange and topped with a blue
dragon.
Features
Sotdae were generally set up alone, but sometimes, along
with
jangseung (Korean totem
poles),
doltap (돌탑, a
pagoda built
with stone) or
sinmok (신목, sacred trees). It was worshiped
as a village guardian. The birds may look like wild geese,
crows or ibises in some areas, but
ducks are the most common.
Sotdae have
different names according to regions; soju (소주),
sojutdae (소줏대) in Jeolla
Province, soldae (솔대) in Gangwon Province and Hamhung
district ,
byeolsindae (별신대) in coastal areas of Gyeongsang Province,and sotdaek
(솟댁) in Hwanghae and Pyeongan Province.
Pyojutdae (표줏대),
georitdae (거릿대),
susalmok (수살목) and
seonangdae (선앙대) are other
names.
Nothing precise is known about the sotdae's origin. However,
sotdae was believed to be sanctified as a village guardian
from when people started agriculture and the unit of society formed
based on agricultural villages. Later, as a concept of
feng shui prevailed and values of success and
honour became important, its meaning seemed to be differentiated
from an object of worship to a totem for abundant harvest. Ducks,
as migratory birds, had various religious symbols and made the
meanings of
sotdae more diverse.
Origins of worshipping sotdae
The worship of
sotdae-like objects was commonly found in
North Asia. Figures or patterns on
Bronze Age relics of the that included a
pole with a bird on it were discovered around these areas. As
people began to develop techniques for metalworking and increased
their agriculture production, power differences among tribes
emerged. Dominating class sought a political and religious
foundation needed to maintain their powers from gods in the heaven.
So it was assumed that appearance of sotdae stemmed from the
integration between
"Cosmic
Tree" and
"Sky-Birds".
A similar sacred pole is found among the
Omaha tribe of the central United
States.
Components of sotdae and their meanings
Poles and posts
Poles and posts have religious and symbolic meanings around the
world. Poles of sotdae are related to 'the world-axis'. There are
three cosmic levels in the concept of the universe in Northern
Asian
shamanism ― upper, middle, and lower
level. They are connected to each other by the world-axis. A tree
has roots extending into the earth and also grows toward the sky,
which could be a symbol for the world-axis. So the wooden poles or
posts were possibly considered to be a pathway for spiritual beings
to come down to earth and they became a sacred object to worship by
themselves.
A similar record was found in a book titled
Dongguksesigi (동국세시기, 東國歲時記), which said that 12 wooden
poles were set up to welcome a god on February 2 in Jeju island
. Also
Dangun
's father,
Hwanung, descended from the heaven to the top
of a tree,
Sindansu (신단수, 神壇樹) in Korea's founding myth.
People selected a tree which was beyond the reach of humans and
they conducted ceremonial rites before they cut down the tree. On
top of that, the poles and posts were believed to offer protection
a village against calamities and disasters and also acted like a
mast in a U-shaped land area balancing and making the land
stable.
Birds
Sotdae birds may be wild geese, gulls, ibises, Korean magpies or
crows, but most commonly they are ducks. Ducks give an important
symbolic meaning to sotdae. They are able to travel on water as
well as on land and in the air and also can go under water. Because
of the relation to water, ducks were regarded to have an ability to
control rain and thunder, to survive in the floods and to protect a
village from fire. This belief made people think of ducks as a
guardian in ancient agricultural societies. Relating to this, a
famous scholar, Lee Gyubo (이규보, 李奎報 1168–1241) wrote a following
phrase in his garland called
Dongguk I sangguk jip
(동국이상국집, 東國李相國集: Collected works of Minister Yi of Korea): "Because
of the rain for 7 days in a row, the capital of Songyang was
submerged. The king, Jumong, was riding a duck horse stretching a
reed rope across the river and his people were all holding that
rope." This suggests that people considered a duck as a rescuer
from flood.
Another characteristic of ducks is that they are migratory birds
coming to Korea in autumn. Migratory birds appear and disappear on
a regular basis and it was believed that ducks travel to the world
beyond the Earth and act as a messenger between the physical world
and the realm of the spirits. In agriculture, this periodicity
might be associated with the cycle of monsoon which brings rain.
Also, the fact that ducks are fertile species and lay bigger eggs
than chickens do would be a good reason for ducks to be an idolized
object representing abundance.
Meaning of the number of birds and their
direction
The shape of birds on sotdae was carved as minutely as possible but
it was sometimes simplified to just Y or ㄱ shape. The number of
birds seated on sotdae was different from village to village, from
one to three. Commonly one bird was seated on a pole, but sometimes
two or three birds on a Y-shape branch were found on a pole ―
either facing each other or facing the same direction. Nothing is
exactly known concerning the number of birds but it is assumed that
the number of birds on a pole was decided according to the number
of places which '
qi' should be complemented. The
direction of the bird's heads varies. People made sotdae erected
toward south to wish moderate weather for farming or let it direct
north to bring rain. Sometimes sotdae turned toward the outside of
the village to make sure that ducks take all the evil spirits and
fly away.
See also
References
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