The 2018 Winter Olympics: Opening Ceremony. (Intro Class).

On Friday (9/2/18) the Opening Ceremony of 2018 Winter Olympic took place in Pyeongchang in the Republic of Korea (RoK/South).

It is traditional that these ceremonies welcome visitors to the host nation by giving them an introduction to that nation's culture and history. That tradition presents something of a problem for the Republic of Korea. Their recent history is awkward to say the least.

In some form or another there has been a Korean people with a distinct language and culture populating the Korean Peninsula for at least the last 10,000 years.

However in 1910 the Korean Peninsula was invaded and colonised by the Japanese Empire. During their occupation one of the things the Japanese Empire did is what would now be considered the crime against humanity of sexual slavery.

The Japanese Empire took thousands if not tens of thousands of Korean and Chinese women prisoner and forced them to work as prostitutes for the Empires elite and soldiers.

There are differences between the way the Japanese Empire treated these so-called; "Comfort Women" and what the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have been doing to particularly Yezidi women and girls. However those differences are extremely slight and nuanced.

Normally the RoK and Japan are regional allies against the common rival China. However when the issue of the Comfort Women come up those alliances can shift dramatically and the mood darken significantly.

The occupation of the Korean Peninsula by the Japanese Empire was brought an end by the Second World War in which the Japanese Empire sided with Nazi Germany. As with Germany itself the northern part of the Korean Peninsula was liberated by Soviet forces while the southern part was liberated by US forces.

This partition led to the creation of the nations of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North) and the Republic of Korea (RoK). It also led to war between the two Koreas which began in 1950 and despite an armistice in 1953 continues to this day.

The partition and war took a huge toll on the Korean people.

It very literally tore families apart. Husbands and wives and parents and children suddenly found themselves citizens of different nations. The Iron Curtain of the Cold War meant that not only couldn't they visit each other they couldn't even write to each other or call each other on the telephone.

Partition and war even changed something as fundamental as the religion of the Korean people.

Adopting Soviet Communism the DPRK became aggressively atheist. The US tried to combat this by aggressively promoting Christianity in the RoK. As a result it might surprise you to learn that the largest religion in the RoK is actually Christianity.

I think the most famous example of this US strategy is the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon - sometimes known as; "The Moonies." It is also why to this day slightly odd US Evangelical Christians such as Otto Warmbier and Mike Pence continue to travel to try and cause trouble on the Korean Peninsula.

The Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics neatly avoided this by focusing on the shared religion of the Korean people that existed before the annexation by the Japanese Empire.

Traditionally the religion of the Korean people has been the; "Animist" school. If I was being lazy I would describe it simply as Buddhism. However with the Taoist; "Ying/Yang" symbol being at the centre of the RoK's flag I think Taoism and Hmongism also need to be considered.

All animist religions believe in the importance of the natural elements and the balance between them. So for example light balances dark, male balances female etc.

Within Korea this belief system has created a story of creation far more elaborate than the story of Genesis in the Abrahamic religions. It is closer to the mythology of the Greek and Roman gods.

I think that in Cheonjiwang Bonpuri variation the Celestial King - Cheonjiwang - travels to Earth. He marries a woman - Bakiwang - who used to be a bear and they have two sons. The two sons battle it out to become ruler of the human world with the loser being turned into some sort of insect.

Therefore I would like to take a moment to congratulate the director of the Opening Ceremony for deftly coping with a very difficult topic.

I would also like to take a minute to curse them. I've now got to go and read up on animist religions and Korean creation stories in such a way as I can explain them to other people. I'm already a day behind.

However I should say that once you grasp that central theme and do a bit of your own research the rest of the ceremony does fall very neatly into place.

At around 02:10 on 10/2/18 (UK date) this is obviously going to grow and be subject to edits.

Edited at around 15:00 on 10/2/18 (UK date) to add;

Explaining any of the animist religions is extremely difficult.

The Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam believe that there is a single God who lives in another dimension. At various points over history he has sent messengers or prophets to share his rules and teachings with people on Earth.

These various teachings and rules have been codified into books which followers of the religion have to study and learn. Often under threat of being hit by a Nun with a ruler. Although that might just be a Catholic thing.

So if I want to explain to you what Judaism, Christianity or Islam are about I can simply give you a copy of the book and tell you to read. Or I'll hit you with a ruler.

Animist religions do not have a single god and a codified version of his rules and teachings.

Instead they are based on an amalgamation of the written teachings of various philosophers. Confucius probably being the most famous and significant. These written teachings are combined with philosophies passed down through the unwritten oral tradition.

Particularly when it comes to the unwritten teachings there can a very wide variety of belief systems. The largest of the animist religions is Buddhism. However even describing Buddhism as Buddhism significantly down plays the variety of teachings and beliefs its followers subscribe to.

To make matters even more complicated many of the variations are defined by geographic location. As determined by human migration patterns in a time when walking or riding on horseback were the only ways to travel.

The central belief of animist religions though is not a particularly controversial one. It is that we physically exist. We exist within a physical world which also exists.

Both we as humans and the natural environment we exist in are made up of core elements. There is some differences over exactly how many of these elements there are and what they are. However the all exist in unity with each other.

The objective of life is to keep these essential elements in balance with each other. Both within ourselves an within our physical environment.

As a result circles - as an unbroken line - are very big within the imagery of animist religions. For example many Buddhists particularly Indian Buddhists write their prayers in the form of a wheel or cylinder. Some Hindus also use this tradition.

Probably the most famous animist symbol is the Taoist "Yin,Yang."  This is unbroken circle containing the negative/positive, light/dark forces in perfect balance.

It is perhaps easier to understand animist religions if you first understand the Druze religion. This is particularly popular in the middle-east in nations such as Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

However I do remember recently saying something like; "The Druze religion is much easier to understand if you first understand the Unified Field Theory of Quantum Physics." 

The human story of how families were divided by the partition of Korea at the end of the Second World War is much easier to understand.

Being near universal it is almost exactly the same as the story of how Syrian and Israel Druze families were divided by the partition of the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six Day War.

While I was writing the above in technically the very early hours of this morning Israel and Syrian were examining these similarities amongst themselves.

Israel claims that a Syrian drone - like the ones which featured heavily in the Opening Ceremony - crossed into the Israel occupied Golan Heights. After shooting down the drone Israel then responded by conducting airstrikes within Syria.

With the two nations technically still being at war this is a common thing for Israel to do. However on this occasion Syrian air defences shot down one of the F-16 jets badly injuring one of the aircrew. This set off air raid sirens and dumped wreckage across not only the Golan Heights but also Jordan.

With Indian Hindus, Pakistani Muslims and Chinese atheists now all seeming to get involved things have escalated rapidly. To the point I may have to forget about this to deal with that directly. Although I'm not sure how much if any of that I could actually publish on the Internet.

I'm just grateful Vietnamese Hmongs have yet to get involved. After all we've clearly got to save them for the Para-Olympics.

Beyond the physical dimension in which we exist animists believe that there are many other dimensions. Certainly particularly spiritual beings can travel between these dimensions.

This notion of spiritual beings or gods travelling between dimensions has given rise to a number of what are termed; "Creation Myths."

However I should point out that they're described as myths not because they aren't believed. It's because they exist as part of the mythological oral tradition similar to Roman Mythology or Greek Mythology.

So there is no God writing ten rules on tablets of stone and then handing them to Moses atop of Mount Sinai. Instead the stories are slightly different depending on who you ask, when you ask them and why you are asking them.

According to Wikipedia there are four main Korean Creation Myths; Changsega, Cheonjiwang Bonpuri, Magohalmi and Sirumal. 

Between 57 B.C and 668 A.D there were the Three Kingdoms of Korea; Silla, Baekje and Goguryeo. They all followed slightly different animist religions and slightly different creation myths.

Through an alliance with Chinese Tang dynasty the Kingdom of Silla joined the three kingdoms under the Silla belief system.

I gather this included the Cheonjiwang Bonpuri creation myth. However I am not happy to be quoted on the details of any of this and apologise if I have made a mistake and caused offence.

With the Three Kingdoms joined as one the Chinese Tang dynasty was expelled in roughly 676 A.D. This created really the first example of a unified Korea.

In 698 A.D this unified Korea under the leadership of former Goguryeo General Dae Joyeong expanded into an area which includes what are now the Chinese cities of Changchun, Jiamusi and even the Russian city of Khabarovsk. Dae Joyeong named this area; "Balhae."

Falling under Soviet control at the end of the Second World War the new northern kingdom of the Korean Peninsula - the DPRK - banned religion and became aggressively atheist.

However religion is a powerful thing that it is almost impossible to ban completely.

So in order to sate the public's religious impulses and consolidate their power the North Korean government of Kim Il-sung invented a new creation myth built around the ruling Kim family.

Particularly around the Mount Paektu Bloodline. Of which Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un and Kim Yo-jong are all part.

Despite his death in 1994 Kim Il-sung is still considered the President of the DPRK. Rather like Sobyeolwang (Small Star King) is considered the eternal ruler of the human dimension in the Cheonjiwang Bonpuri creation myth.

The list of things that Kim Il-Sung created include the sun, the entire earth and the weather.

Although I am trying to be polite is hard to describe the Mount Paektu Bloodline creation myth without it sounding like I'm mocking North Korea. Which is probably why the South Koreans have chosen creation myths as such a big theme of the Opening Ceremony.

The North Korean people aren't being allowed to watch this. 

16:50 on 10/2/18 (UK date).