Tag Archives: creation myth

The Myth of Dangun

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 27
Occupation: PHD Student, Electrical Engineering
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Language: English

Informant: “This is a myth about how our nation was created. Our nation was first called Chosun. There was a god (Hwanin) and his son (Hwanung). Hwanung loved the people, humans, so he wanted to live with people in the city instead of the sky world with the gods. So, he brings some sky people to the earth and rules over the people. He then saw there was a bear and tiger who were friends and wanted to be human. So, he gave them garlic and herbs and told them: If you eat these things for 100 days and live in a cave without seeing the sun, then I will let you become human. The tiger gives up, but the bear does not. So, the bear becomes a human woman. However, there is no one to marry her, and she really wants to marry someone. She prays to god: Please let me marry someone. The son of the god hears that voice and takes her as his wife, and they marry.”

Me: So how did this result in the creation of Korea?

Informant: “Ah, not Korea, but the dynasty. We think they are the first dynasty in this myth. The bear turned to a woman, and the son of god were the leaders of this first dynasty, which led to our nation.”

Context: The informant is from South Korea and heard this myth from his parents. He had to look some things up to refresh his memory, but says that it is a very well-known myth in Korea. He says that he, “of course”, does not believe that any of that really happened, but still finds it to be an interesting and important part of his nation’s story.

Analysis: I think that this story is meant to make the people of Korea feel some kind of importance and significance towards the origins of their nation. The story seems to paint the origins of Korea, or at least this specific dynasty, as being divine. A long time ago, I imagine the story served to prop up that dynasty, like propaganda of sorts. However, as time moved on and the dynasty dissipated, the story became integrated with the birth of subsequent nations, giving the citizens a hopeful story that their nation could trace its lineage back to the son of god. As for the bear turning into a woman, I think there may be some symbolism of these gods coming down and civilizing people. As if to say that Korea, as a nation, turned animals into people, metaphorically.

Malakas and Maganda – Filipino Creation Story

Age: 19
  1. Text: Filipino Creation Story – Malakas and Maganda

Context: “The creation story that I was told is pretty long and in-depth, but I’ll give you a general summary of it. I have been taught this same creation story since before I can remember. Although I was sent to a Catholic school where we learned about Adam and Eve, my parents engrained this version in my mind, because it is what is believed in Filipino culture.

Basically, to summarize, our god, Bathala, watched over the world, before there was any life. One day, Bathala sent a bird to fly over the water. The bird wanted to find somewhere to land, but everything around it was sea. The bird was angry, so it started to flap its wings, which caused waves to crash. In response, lightning was formed which crashed at the sea, and that’s what caused the first island to be created, the Philippines. Then, Bathala grew a bamboo stalk on the new island. The bird pecked at it and when it opened, a man and woman emerged, Malakas and Maganda. They were the first Tagalog people, created from nature, and our ancestors came from them. They started our world, and we are all the children of them. We express this as, “anak nina Malakas at Maganda” (a child of the first man and woman).

After I heard this story, I started to say “anak nina Malakas at Maganda” and realized how my friends whose parents were also born in the Philippines said this too. I remember that this connection made me feel a strong attachment to my culture. Even if I didn’t remember every detail of the story, I knew the importance of my origins. I always resonated with the bamboo stalk after this, as I thought it was inspiring how life could be created from something as simple as bamboo. To this day, it is a symbol that represents strength and flexibility.”

Analysis: The creation story of Malakas and Maganda is an example of a myth. It explains the beginning of the world and humanity. It also has a sacred value to it; it has a non-literary truth. Myths are fundamental to cultures and they address big questions. Science doesn’t have a clear answer for how our world began, but creation stories can offer one. This Filipino creation story has ties to nature mythology and solar mythology, as theorized by Max Muller. It shows how nature, specifically the sea and sky, as well as the Sun, produces the land, and how life also emerges from nature, specifically bamboos.

This myth has very deep cultural values. Malakas, the male counterpart of the bamboo stalk, represents strength and Maganda, the female counterpart, represents beauty. This reflects the balance of power and grace, which are often associated with male and female genders, respectively. These principles work together to balance the earth. As a result, this story functions as a foundational narrative: it sets up cultural expectations about gender, society, and origin. This can influence how people think about things like marriage, gender roles, and morality.

The bamboo stalk itself is a sacred object. This connects to the idea of naturalizing culture, where the environment becomes sacred and fundamental to who people are. As the interviewee mentioned, to be “anak nina Malakas at Maganda” is not just a poetic phrase but rather a folk phrase of identity.

Her version of the story also expresses the idea of oral tradition. She says that the full story is long and in-depth meaning there are many versions. Myths like this don’t change rapidly, but are adapted in small ways to meet the values of each generation. This reflects how folklore is not canonized, and instead, slight adaptations can be made over time. There are also different oicotypes and variations of this story that exist in different cultures. For example, Adam and Eve are the male and female versions in Christianity. The idea of a man and woman emerging together shows the universal value of balance in creation stories.

This story also has a very strong folk concept of identity. People believe in this myth because it ties people’s identities to their ancestry, land, and place in the world. This shows how ethnonationalist ideas form, as these narratives give people a sense of ethnic identity.

Ungnyeo

Text:

A long time ago, a bear and a tiger wished to become human. They prayed fervently, and the god Hwanung decided to fulfill their wish. He gave them each many cloves of garlic and mugwort, and told them to eat these everyday while staying out of the sun for 100 days, then they will turn human. At first, the tiger and bear obediently ate the garlic and mugwort daily, and stayed in a dark cave, but soon the tiger became frustrated and gave up, leaving the cave. However, the bear persisted, and after a 100 days, she turned into a woman named Ungnyeo. She then prayed to Hwanung to become a mother, and her wish was granted–she gave birth to a son named Tangun, who became the first king of the first Korean kingdom, Gojoseon.

Context:

The informant heard this story from their parents, but because it is a creation myth and widely known, they’ve heard it multiple times from multiple people over the years.

Analysis:

This creation story follows the trend among many cultures of giving their rulers a sense of divinity, whether they’re a descendant of the gods, or chosen by. one, or actually a deity. This myth highlights key Confucian and cultural virtues such as patience, endurance, humility, and devotion. The bear’s perseverance is celebrated, positioning these qualities as foundational to Korean identity and societal ideals. There is a huge spiritual meaning behind this myth: the divine connection between the heavens(the god) and the earth(the bear) results in a ruler that symbolizes harmony and is the literal union of the divine and the earthly. It also subtly elevates maternal strength and the feminine role in nation-building, as the bear-woman becomes the literal mother of the Korean people.

“How the Stars Came to Be”

Age: 20

Date: 03/27/2025

Language: English

Nationality: Taiwanese/ Chilean

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: United States


1. Text:

“My grandpa used to tell me this story when I was little. He said that a long time ago, the night sky was completely dark — no stars, just blackness. People didn’t know when it was safe to travel, and they were always afraid of getting lost. But there was this girl — young, maybe my age at the time — and she decided to do something about it. She climbed up a mountain, carrying this big clay pot full of glowing stones. It was heavy, but she didn’t stop. When she finally reached the top, she threw the stones up into the sky, and they scattered and became stars. That’s why we can travel at night now. And the gods were so impressed that they gave her a star too — so she could keep watch over everyone from above.”

2. Context:

Told by J, who heard this myth from her grandfather when visiting her family in Chile. It was told as a creation story, and Jessica says she loved how it centered a girl as the hero. She said the myth helped her feel proud of being brave and of her cultural roots.

3. My Interpretation:

This myth beautifully blends cosmology with gendered heroism. Many creation myths center men, but this one presents a girl as the bringer of light — literally and symbolically. It reinforces the idea that girlhood and courage are not separate, and that folklore can reflect deep cultural values through simple stories.

Jinns

Text:
“Jinns are in the Quran and they are creatures made by Allah and they can’t be seen by the human eye. They were created before mankind was created. Unlike ghosts or spirits they are a separate entity, just like cats and dogs and birds and other species, and human beings can’t really see them and they were created from a smokeless flame or something like that, like how God created humans from dust and dirt. When God made Adam, jinns were made before Adam, God asked all the jinns to bow down to Adam and one jinn did not. This jinn refused to bow down to Adam which earned him the wrath of Adam. This jinn became Shaitan, or Satan. There are good and bad jinns though.Growing up in Pakistan it was a very inherent factor of our culture to believe in jinns, my mom was a big believer and my dad was very pragmatic. My mom used to hide it from my dad and go to this shaman or preacher who would read from the Quran to get the bad jinns away from my mom. My mom had a very troubled life and her mother believed it was the jinns causing this trouble so they went to this person. Fast forward many years and my sister was unwell so the religious person came to my house, and my dad had a garden he loved. The garden had this wooden statue, and the woman came over and said that a jinn was in this statue. I was a bit naive, and I went to that statue and threw it out so my sister would be better. It didn’t work though, I just got in a lot of trouble with my dad. They say some people could see them and they could take the shape of different things, like they could be this chair. There was actually a second hand belt I had got somewhere and in my mind I was so convinced it was a jinn. So eventually I drove it outside and I pulled out my zippo lighter and I burned the belt. And I was kind of susceptible at the time, a lot was going on in my life at the time. I’ve become more pragmatic now but there’s a part of me I can’t shake off. I was convinced i got rid of the jinn after burning it. Even if I didn’t really get rid of it, I got rid of one element, one thing that was bothering me, now I can move on. 

Context

J is a 47-year-old woman who grew up in Pakistan until she was in her mid-twenties. Her family is Muslim, though she’s currently no longer actively practices the religion. 

Analysis

Jinns seem to be a part of the Muslim religion’s sacred creation story, part of the myth of how the earth was created. They were created before man and there is myth surrounding their own creation, they are believed to have existed way before humans and continue to exist in the world. The speaker mentioned how Disney has turned these religious figures into a mythical, magical version of a blue “genie” in a lamp. This is another example of how Disney has taken folklore through tales and myths and turned them into caricature versions of themselves. Because of Disney’s prominence, this is the idea we first get when we think of jinns, even though it’s very far removed from the actual beliefs surrounding jinns. Through her information I can see the connection between the jinn and the genie lamp, because jinns are able to transform into objects. jinns aren’t actually a magical blue creature as Disney has sold us though, they seem akin to angels to me. Islam is an Abrahamic religion, so it has similar roots and stories to Christianity. The story of Shaitan is extremely similar to Satan and the story of Lucifer being cast from heaven and turned into the devil for not bowing to Adam. The speaker then shares her personal experiences with jinns. Her last story highlights the importance of ritual. She says even if there wasn’t really a jinn in the belt, that ritualistic burning helped her move forward and release trouble that was going on in her life. This exemplifies how even when folklore isn’t supported by science, it doesn’t mean that it is false. These rituals and creatures can provide real experiences for people that are very meaningful and impactful.