I later learned who was responsible for the candle shrines I described in my previous blog on Wednesday ("Korean Cites Tour: Changwon").
Both nights I stayed in Busan, there were candles in small sand pits and candle-lanterns placed as shrines in the rocks next to the breaking waves outside my hotel window, on Korea's rocky Pacific Coast.
The second night, I came across some women who placed the candles there and witnessed their ceremony offering blessings to the gods/ goddesses of the sea (see photo). Now in their fifties, sixties and seventies, these are the last of Korea's famed shellfish divers preparing for their sunrise dive the next morning.
Using no air tank and risking the elements whenever weather permits, the country has about 5,000 of these brave spirits left, with 3,000 of them on the southern island of Cheju Do, and the other 2,000 on the nation's mainland.
Both nights I stayed in Busan, there were candles in small sand pits and candle-lanterns placed as shrines in the rocks next to the breaking waves outside my hotel window, on Korea's rocky Pacific Coast.
The second night, I came across some women who placed the candles there and witnessed their ceremony offering blessings to the gods/ goddesses of the sea (see photo). Now in their fifties, sixties and seventies, these are the last of Korea's famed shellfish divers preparing for their sunrise dive the next morning.
Using no air tank and risking the elements whenever weather permits, the country has about 5,000 of these brave spirits left, with 3,000 of them on the southern island of Cheju Do, and the other 2,000 on the nation's mainland.
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