Culture of Korea
[4][5] The traditional dress known as hanbok (한복; 韓服; alternatively joseonot; 조선옷 in North Korea) has been worn since ancient times.
Some commonly eaten side dishes are: Kimchi, Pickled Radish, Soybean Sprouts, Glass Noodles (Japchae), Cucumber Salad, and Seasoned Spinach.
A distinguishing characteristic of Temple Food is that it does not use the common five strong-flavoured ingredients of Korean cuisine--(garlic, spring onion, wild rocambole, leek, and ginger), and meat.
[citation needed] The lunar calendar was the timetable for the agrarian society in the past, but is vanishing in the modern Korean lifestyle.
[citation needed] In Arts of Korea, Evelyn McCune states, "During the twelfth century, the production of ceramic ware reached its highest refinement.
"[12] William Bowyer Honey of the Victoria and Albert Museum of England after World War II wrote, "The best Corean (Korean) wares were not only original, they are the most gracious and unaffected pottery ever made.
[citation needed] During the Imjin wars in the 16th century, Korean potters were brought back to Japan where they heavily influenced Japanese ceramics.
[citation needed] Traditionally, metal, wood, fabric, lacquerware, and earthenware were the main materials used, but later glass, leather or paper have sporadically been used.
[citation needed] Many sophisticated and elaborate handicrafts have been excavated, including gilt crowns, patterned pottery, pots or ornaments.
Taekkyon, being a complete system of integrated movement, found its core techniques adaptable to mask, dance and other traditional artforms of Korea.
These murals inside many of the tombs are an invaluable insight into the ceremonies, warfare, architecture, and daily life of ancient Goguryeo people.
For example, Han's near-photographic "Break Time at the Ironworks" shows muscular men dripping with sweat and drinking water from tin cups at a sweltering foundry.
[22] Jeong Son's "Peak Chonnyo of Mount Kumgang" is a classical Korean landscape of towering cliffs shrouded by mists.
They have been designated an intangible cultural property in UNESCO's Memory of the world,[24] and Pungmul (풍물) performed by drumming, dancing and singing.
Samul Nori is a type of Korean traditional music based on Pungmul, and Sanjo (산조) that is played without a pause in faster tempos.
During the last days of the Silla kingdom, the king's guests would sit along the watercourse and chat while wine cups were floated during banquets.
[28][29] The main role of the mudang is to perform rituals, or kut, to achieve various means, including healing, divination, and spirit pacification.
[26][28] Simultaneously a religious affair and a visual and auditory spectacle, kut are full of bright colors, elaborate costumes, altars piled high with ritual food and alcohol, various forms of singing and dancing accompanied by traditional instruments, and props including fans, bells, and knives.
[26][31] Despite the social stigma surrounding the performance of a kut even today, there are still many clients who are willing, though potentially ashamed, to pay immense sums to enlist the help of a mansin when in need.
Whether willing to participate in political dissidence or not, under the movement's minjung ("the people") ideology, long-oppressed shamans were painted as the bearers of Korean culture who could also use their spirit-possession kut to give voice to those who had died for social justice causes.
[32] In recent times, Korean shamanism is evolving, with its growing popularity in media today, and the adaptability of its practitioners in a modernized world.
[33] Korean Confucianism was epitomized by the seonbi class, scholars who passed up positions of wealth and power to lead lives of study and integrity.
However, these Buddhist monks did not only put an end to Japanese rule in 1945, but they also asserted their specific and separate religious identity by reforming their traditions and practices.
They laid the foundation for many Buddhist societies, and the younger generation of monks came up with the ideology of Mingung Pulgyo, or "Buddhism for the people."
Changing Economy of South Korea and lifestyles have led to a concentration of population in major cities and depopulation of the rural countryside, with multi-generational households separating into nuclear family living.
Ethnographers, [i.e. people who do qualitative research that involves immersing yourself in a particular community or organisation to observe their behavior and interactions up close], devote much energy to restoring and reintroducing cultural forms that have the proper proletarian, or folk, spirit and that encourage the development of collective consciousness.
Other classes including landlords, petty bourgeoisie, peasants, and lumpenproletariat also exist but are not primary in terms of the dynamics of capitalism.
It reflected in their deeply rooted Confucian values and ideology which includes all participants in communication to save face if possible.
Although most aspects of etiquette are accepted by the country at large, customs can be localized to specific regions or influenced by other cultures, namely China, Japan, and the United States.
Poseokjeong is one of the most famous of these sites, but there is a great number of Korean Buddhist art, sculptures, reliefs, pagodas and remains of temples and palaces mostly built in the 7th and 10th century.
