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The Culture of Daegaya
Man comes to act in order to accomplish his inherent ideal.
The process and result of the activity is called culture.
The inherent ideal can be expressed as truth, good and beauty.
These elements appear as diverse forms, including art, morality,
religion (belief) and institution. Accordingly, the culture
of Daegaya people is in all sorts of things and thoughts
that they have left.
Of cultural elements that the Dagaya people have left,
the Gaya harp has been transmitted until nowadays. They
dreamt to realize an ideal society through music, by manufacturing
the Gaya harp, composing tunes and playing it.
Buddhism was introduced in the late Daegaya period. The
lotus flower picture found in the Goa-dong Wall-Painted
Tumulus in Goryeong was painted, hoping that the dead can
go to Sukkavati (Elysium). The lotus flower is a symbolic
flower in Buddhism. There are two views in regard of the
routes that Buddhism was introduced to Daegaya. One is that
Buddhism was introduced from Garakguk in Gimhae and the
other from Baekje.
Another belief of Daegaya people was the mountain belief.
The Gayasan is located in the northwest of the Jisan-dong
Mounded Tomb Group where the ruling social class of Daegaya
was buried. The pose of the Gayasan which is distantly seen
from the mounded tomb group looks to be more sacred. It
would appear that the sacred appearance of the Gayasan called
forth Daegaya people¡¯s worship.
The reason why the myth of Jeonggyeon-moju, who bore the
founder of Daegaya was created, will naturally be understood
from the sacred pose of the mountain. Such a thought of
worship of mountain occupied an important part in Daegaya
people¡¯s belief.
The sun was also an object of worship of Daegaya people.
Since ancient times it has been an object of worship, for
it was one of the most important natural conditions in the
agricultural society. The belief of worship of the sun,
a kind of nature worship, was developed to the thought of
ancestral worship relating to the myth of the founder of
ancient state.
The founder of Daegaya was borne by Jeonggyeon-moju (the
god of the Gayasan) and Yibigaji (the heavenly god) who
responded to Jeonggyeon-moju. There can be little doubt
that the thought of worship of the sun constitutes a base
of the myth.
Also, Daegaya people believed that the present life continues
after death in the next world. Hence, many funerary objects
were buried with corpses and immolated burial was also conducted.
Immolated burial refers to the custom that when a member
of the ruling social class was dead, people of the low social
class are voluntarily or compulsorily buried with the actor.
This custom is a result of the belief of the next world.
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