SEOUL - With statues of the Buddha and local gods, candles and incense sticks, Ms Lee Kyoung-hyun's shrine looks similar to those of Korean shamans from centuries past., or “Baby Angel” – reaches her clients in a thoroughly modern way: through social media accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers.
Google Trends shows that searches on YouTube for “shaman” and “fortune-telling” in Korean have nearly doubled over the past five years.The movie depicts well-dressed shamans in their 20s and 30s and director Jang Jae-hyun said he discovered many young shamans while doing his research. Shamans typically answer queries after conducting rituals that may involve ringing bells and tossing grains of rice.
Ms Lee says she has felt physical pain and experienced psychosis since she was a teenager – symptoms that some believe are signs of a deity possessing a budding shaman. The younger generation of shamans who live in the city can connect well with younger clients facing economic challenges that they can't find an answer for, said assistant professor Han Seung-hoon from the Academy of Korean Studies, a research and education institute that operates under the Ministry of Education.A culture ministry agency estimated in 2022 that there were between 300,000 and 400,000 shamans and fortune-tellers in South Korea.