Encyclopedia of Gods & Deities - Korean & Southeast Asian Mythology: An Illustrated Guide to Shamani

Unveil the Sacred Powers of Korea & Southeast Asia

Step into a world where heavenly rulers descend to establish kingdoms, sacrificed maidens become the first rice, warrior spirits defend cities and royal dynasties, serpent-born ancestors emerge from rivers and seas, mountain guardians watch over villages, and divine powers govern fertility, storms, healing, birth, death, fortune, and the changing seasons. Encyclopedia of Gods & Deities - Korean & Southeast Asian Mythology invites you into the sacred imagination of nine interconnected traditions-a vast mythic world shaped by Korean shamanism, Vietnamese Mother Goddess worship, Thai and Cambodian religious devotion, Lao foundation legends, Burmese nat cults, Malaysian ancestral belief, Indonesian cosmology, and the diverse indigenous traditions of the Philippines.

From Dangun, Hwanung, Bari Gongju, Jacheongbi, and the household gods of Korea to Liễu Hạnh, Thánh Gióng, Mae Phosop, Thao Wessuwan, Lokeshvara, Khun Borom, Thagyamin, Dewi Sri, Nyai Roro Kidul, Bathala, Apolaki, and Mayari, this richly illustrated volume explores how sacred traditions across the region imagined creation, divine ancestry, rulership, protection, fertility, sacrifice, prosperity, justice, death, and cosmic order.

Rather than offering disconnected summaries, this encyclopedia enters the internal logic of each tradition. It reveals how divine power was connected to sacred mountains, royal foundation myths, rice cultivation, monsoon rains, rivers and oceans, village boundaries, household hearths, ancestral descent, spirit possession, fertility rites, temple worship, agricultural festivals, journeys to the underworld, and the continuing relationship between human communities and the unseen beings surrounding them.

These stories show how creator gods, celestial rulers, rice goddesses, water mothers, guardian nats, mountain spirits, ancestral founders, bodhisattvas, deified warriors, culture heroes, household protectors, and underworld judges shaped ideas of kingship, agriculture, warfare, healing, childbirth, travel, morality, death, renewal, and communal survival. From Korea's shamans and Jeju goddesses to Myanmar's flamboyant nat spirits, Bali's water temples, Java's divine wayang figures, Borneo's omen birds, and the ancestral powers of the Philippine highlands, mythology transformed fields, forests, mountains, rivers, palaces, shrines, homes, and entire kingdoms into landscapes alive with sacred presence.