Songdang Bonhyangdang

Shrine · Jeju

Protection & Safety

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In short

The shrine of the parent gods of Jeju’s village guardian deities, whose children, the myth says, scattered across the island and became its shrine gods.

A watercolour of a village shrine enclosure on Jeju: a low basalt wall around an old hackberry tree hung with strips of white cloth. — AI-generated illustration

Quick facts

Address: 2218-3 Jungsangandong-ro, Gujwa-eup, Jeju-si, Jeju

About this place

Songdang Bonhyangdang stands in Songdang-ri, Gujwa-eup, Jeju City, and enshrines the bonhyang deity who protects the people of the village. The village was originally divided into three settlements — Utsondang, Saetsondang and Alsondang — whose deities are named as Geumbaekju, Semyeongju and Socheonguk. According to the shrine’s bonpuri, Socheonguk sprang up from the Gobuni spring at Alsondang and Geumbaekju sprang up in the land of Gangnam Cheonja; Geumbaekju came to Socheonguk, they became husband and wife, and they bore eighteen sons and twenty-eight daughters, whose grandchildren flourished after them. These descendants, it is said, scattered to the villages of Jeju and each became a village guardian deity. The rite days are the thirteenth of the first lunar month for the great rite, the thirteenth of the second for the Yeongdeung welcome, the thirteenth of the seventh for the Mabullim rite and the thirteenth of the tenth for the Simanguk great rite; on these days the divine cloths are hung out and a gut is performed. It was designated a folk cultural heritage of Jeju Province on 6 April 2005.

Origin and history

Songdang-ri was originally divided into three settlements, Utsondang, Saetsondang and Alsondang. Their deities are named as Geumbaekju, Semyeongju and Socheonguk.

According to the shrine’s bonpuri, Socheonguk sprang up from the Gobuni spring at Alsondang and Geumbaekju sprang up in the land of Gangnam Cheonja. Geumbaekju came to Socheonguk and they became husband and wife, bearing many children — eighteen sons and twenty-eight daughters — and their grandchildren flourished after them. These descendants, it is said, scattered to the villages of Jeju and each became a village guardian deity.

The rite days are the thirteenth of the first lunar month for the great rite, the thirteenth of the second for the Yeongdeung welcome, the thirteenth of the seventh for the Mabullim rite, and the thirteenth of the tenth for the Simanguk great rite. On these days the divine cloths are hung out and a gut is performed.

It was designated a folk cultural heritage of Jeju Province on 6 April 2005.

What it is locally associated with

Origin
Eighteen sons and twenty-eight daughters
The children of Socheonguk and Geumbaekju scattered to the villages of Jeju, it is said, and each became a village guardian deity.
folk tradition
Power spotProtection & Safety
The deity who protects the village
Songdang Bonhyangdang enshrines the bonhyang deity who protects the people of the village.
folk tradition
What people do here
Four rite days, all on a thirteenth
The great rite falls on the thirteenth of the first lunar month, with further rites on the thirteenth of the second, seventh and tenth.
documented history

Every village on Jeju has its bonhyangdang. What sets this one apart is that its own bonpuri says where the others came from. Socheonguk and Geumbaekju bore eighteen sons and twenty-eight daughters, and their descendants scattered to the villages of the island and each became a guardian deity there. Jeju’s shrines are not a scattered many but one family.

Two of those children are on this site. Gwenegitdang in Gimnyeong-ri is the shrine of the sixth son; Waheul Bonhyangdang in Jocheon-eup is the shrine of the eleventh. The relation between the three is not a grouping this site invented — it is a genealogy the myth states directly.

The directions the gods came from are recorded too. Socheonguk sprang up from the Gobuni spring in this village’s own Alsondang; Geumbaekju sprang up in the land of Gangnam Cheonja. One came out of this ground and one came from across the sea.

There are four rite days and every one falls on a thirteenth: the great rite in the first month, the Yeongdeung welcome in the second, the Mabullim rite in the seventh, the Simanguk great rite in the tenth. The year returns to this shrine four times.

Claims and evidence levels 2

The bonpuri holds that Socheonguk and Geumbaekju bore eighteen sons and twenty-eight daughters, whose descendants scattered to the villages of Jeju and became their guardian deities. folk tradition
The shrine was designated a folk cultural heritage of Jeju Province on 6 April 2005. documented history