Indian and Korean Cultures- A few Similarities Observed!

I am living in Seoul, South Korea from last 4 months. Before that also I had lived in Korea for more than 6 months. I have travelled to a number of different places within Korea. During my visits I do interact with many local people and talk about various things. The topics include about knowing their society, culture, religion, life style, food habits, family structure, games, the current politics and many more. During these interactions I observed many similarities between our Indian culture and theirs. No wonder in it as most of the cultures in Asian countries are related to one another, but I will light upon a few things I observed which are worth sharing.

The relationship between India and Korea dates back to mythological age. Not many Indians are aware of this sort of a story (including self before coming to Korea). According to a well know story cordial relationship between the two countries extends back to 48AD, when Queen Suro, or Princess Heo Hwang-ok, travelled from the kingdom of Ayodhya in North India to Korea. According to the Samguk Yusa (folktales relating to three kingdoms of Korea), the princess had a dream about a heavenly king who was awaiting heaven's anointed ride. After Princess Heo had the dream, she asked her parents, the king and queen, for permission to set out and seek the man, which the king and queen urged with the belief that god orchestrated the whole fate. Upon approval, she set out on a boat, carrying gold, silver, a tea plant, and a stone which calmed the waters. Archeologists discovered a stone with two fish kissing each other, a symbol of the Gaya kingdom that is unique to the Mishra royal family in Ayodhya, India. This royal link provides further evidence that there was an active commercial engagement between India and Korea since the queen's arrival to Korea.

The other relationship between India and Korea is by the Buddhism. Before the introduction of Buddhism to Korea, Shamanism was the indigenous practice in the peninsula. Buddhism was originally introduced in Korea in early 3^rd CE by Chinese monks. As Buddhism was not seen to conflict with the rites of nature worship, it was allowed to blend in with Shamanism. Thus, the mountains that were believed to be the residence of spirits in pre-Buddhist times became the sites of Buddhist temples. Korean Buddhism accepted and absorbed three spirits namely the Mountain Spirit, the Recluse and the Spirit of the Seven Stars, the Big Dipper. Even today, special shrines are set aside for them in many temples. The Mountain Spirit receives particular recognition in an attempt to appease the local mountain spirits, on whose land the temple stands. This blend of Buddhism and Shamanism became known as Korean Buddhism, although the fundamental teachings of the Buddha remained. So Buddhism was widely accepted by the people and start adopting as their religion. The Buddhism becomes state religion during three kingdom period. Until recently it enjoyed a relatively good recognition. Currently Korean Buddhism is in a state of slow transition. With the increase in number of churches and domination of missionaries the faith in Buddhism is gradually decreasing amongst the Koreans!

The traditional Korean calendar was based on Lunisolar calendar. Dates are calculated from Korea's meridian, and observances and festivals are rooted in Korean culture. The Korean lunar calendar is divided into 24 turning points, each lasting about 15 days. The lunar calendar was the timetable for the agrarian society in the past. All the festivals of Korea are as per their lunar calendar dates. Older generations still celebrate their birthdays according to the lunar calendar. This is in exactly same way like our Indian Hindu Calendar. Our calendar observes 12 lunar months called “MASA” and each masa is divided into two halves, Krishna paksha for the dark half and Shukla Paksha for the light half lasting 15 days each. All our festivals and traditional activities are as per this calendar. I did not research deep into this topic. I just came to know about Korean calendar structure and just compared with ours to the extent I know. I found these similarities. One more observation is that the lunar calendar of Koreans has 60 years with different names. 60 years marks the completion of one full zodiac cycle. In the olden days many people did not live old age. At that time if a person completes 60 years, it was observed as a special event because he has seen the full Zodiac cycle. It was compulsory for children to celebrate his birthday with a large feast and merrymaking. Many relatives and friends were invited to extend congratulations to the parents. This is exactly similar to our Indian tradition. Even our lunar calendar has 60 ‘Samvatsaras’ with distinct name to each samvatsara. Even in India the 60^th birthday of a man is celebrated with special significance similar to Korean tradition!

 Who knows if someone do a deep study and comparisons between these two calendars we will find many more similarities!

I visited Korean Folk museum, where I happened to see many pictures, texts related to Korean culture. I noticed few similarities between ours and Korean way of daily routines. Regarding Korean traditional marriage, the explanation was as follows: “In ancient times, weddings were held in the bride's yard or house. The groom traveled by horse to the bride's house and after the wedding ceremony took his wife in a palanquin (sedan chair) to his parents' house to live. The bride and groom wore formal court costumes for the wedding ceremony. Ordinary people were permitted to wear the luxurious clothes only on their wedding day. Hand lanterns are used for lighting the way from the groom's home to the bride's home on the night before the wedding. Traditionally, the groom's family would carry a wedding chest filled with gifts for the bride's family”.  This is exactly similar to India way of wedding. Even in our custom usually the marriage will take place at the brides place. On the day before the marriage, groom travelled to brides place in a procession. After the marriage ceremony got over groom returns back to his place along with bride in a similar palanquin. So much common. Though these days this tradition is almost no more exists in Korea, in India still exists with some modification!

One more interesting fact is about the family names in Korea. The name of every individual consists of three syllable. First is the family name followed by two syllable of given name.  Everyone has a family name. The famous family names found in Korea are Kim, Lee, Park, Kang, Choi, Yu etc… The very interesting fact of this tradition is that in the past it was generally considered a taboo for a man and a woman to marry if they both have the same family name from the same ancestor. This tradition is still been followed my majority of Koreans though there may be some exception. Again this is in a very similar way to our Indian tradition. The family name in Korean can be compared to ‘Gotra’ of an Indian equivalent. In our tradition also boy and girl belong to the same Gotra are not supposed to marry each other as they are from the same blood line and are of the same family. What a coincidence!

A few days back I had been to Busan, second largest city of South Korea. In Busan I visited famous Beomusa Temple of Buddha which is more than 800 years old. At the temple information centre I met two Korean middle aged women. They were very kind enough and told me the story of that famous temple, its importance, its tradition and so on. After this we casually talk about the Indian and Korean culture, in particular about the family structure. In olden days even in Korea the family structure was nuclear. Every member of the family used to live under the same roof. Father is the head of the family and he is the supreme authority. It is mandatory for him to look after his aged parents. He is the earning member of the family. Wife usually takes care of inner administration of the house. Usually in olden days there used to be many children in every house and in those day’s first daughter used to look after her young siblings. She used to be like a mother to her young siblings, even though a real mother is alive. A close bonding used to exist. Korean society teaches how to give respect to elders and other people to their children. Even today the custom is very much followed. Historically, the Korean family has been patrilineal. The most important concern for the family group was producing a male heir to carry on the family line and to perform ancestor rituals in the household and at the family gravesite. The first son customarily assumed leadership of the family after his father's death and inherited his father's house and a greater portion of land than his younger brothers. This inheritance enabled him to carry out the ritually prescribed obligations to his ancestors. The family structure is so much developed that the relationships are well defined. Unlike in the Western culture where irrespective of whether your fathers elder brother or younger brother he is called just as an uncle, in Korean society every relationship has a particular name. All these are just equivalent to Indian society and family structure. Even in India it was everyone dream to have at least one son even though he may have number of daughters.  We also do have a well defined nomenclature for relationships within the family. Even in our culture we teach how to behave and give respect to others to our children from a very young age. These are a very few things which I got to know from them and compared later. A more detailed study will reveal many more similarities!

Korean Language is having a history of more than 3000 years. The Korean language is not grouped under any particular language classification; in fact it cannot be grouped with any other language and termed as “Language Isolation”. Korean words for mother is “Amma” and that of father is”Appa”. What a strange, these are the same words for father and mother in my mother tongue “Kannada”. Korea and Karnataka are separated by a distance of more than 6000 km, yet the very basic words which probably are the first words spell out of mouth are the same in both languages! There are many more words which are common in both the languages. Also the grammar structure of Indian languages and Korean Language is quite similar!

In the past Korean society was mainly agrarian. The main crop they used to grow was rice. Rice was and still is their staple food. Even in South India rice is the staple food. The agricultural practice was similar to that of ours. In the sowing season, farmers used to help each other to planting the rice paddies. The plowing or sowing was carried out singing traditional songs, telling folktales etc… The same thing would be repeated even during the harvesting time. After the crop is harvested, before consuming that farmers used to offer the crop to the divine nature and gods, pray for the good crop and then used to consume it. This is in close relation to ours. Even our farmers help each other in cultivation, pray god once the crop is harvested and then consume it. Many of our agricultural tools and that of Koreans are similar in structure.

Finally to end the biggest co-incidence is in the Independence Day. India got Independence from Great Britain on august 15^th 1947. Similarly Korea got liberated from Japans colonial rule on 15^th august 1945. Both the countries celebrate their Independence day every year on August 15^th!

The above mentioned are a few observations I made between these two countries and their cultures. My understanding is that there must be much more similarities between them.

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