Anseong Matchum Namsadang Baudeogi Festival

Anseong Matchum Namsadang Baudeogi Festival

Korea has a rich history of performing arts. Korean festivals of various provinces explore these traditional arts at a global scale. Korean festivals represent Korea itself. One such festival is the Anseong Namsadang Baudeogi that commemorates the oldest performance troupe of Korea, Namsadang. The festival is called Baudeogi festival as a tribute to Korea’s first popular entertainer, Baudeogi.

History of Namsadang

Namsadang nori or performance is a sort of acrobatic theater considered to be the voice of the common people until the 1920s (Kim Young Ja: 1981:9, 16). Nam means male and sadang stands for entertainer or acrobat, indicating that it was mainly men who were performers of this art. Nori literally means games and their performance comprises six games/performances: pungmul nori (풍물, Korean spinning hat dance), beona nori (버나놀이, spinning hoops and dishes), salpan (살판, tumbling), eoreum (어름, tightrope dancing), deotboegi (덧뵈기, mask dance drama), and deolmi (덜미, puppet play). They are all connected to each other and bring together a melange of stunts and activities like music, play, mask dance, acrobatic stunts. Namsadang, the traveling troupe sang, danced, and performed acrobatics in public spaces like the markets and around villages during the late Joseon period. Their origin is from the Cheongnyongsa temple in Cheongnyong-ri, Seoun-myeon, Anseong wherefrom it got its name AnseongNamsadang. They were exquisite performance artists and can be hailed as the first popular culture group of Korea. They were also considered to be practitioners of shamanism. Many scholars and performer accounts say how this performance community was a gay community and that its audience had no issues with it. Practices of shamanism also have connections with homosexuality. The troupe was however considered among the lowest classes in society and few archival records remain of them. Their significance lies precisely in the fact that their performance was meant for the poor and working-class people and they were thus extremely popular with the general populace of the country as they catered to the joys of the public.

Baudeogi

Baudeogi was a skilled performer belonging to the Namsadang troupe. She lived during the era of King Gojong of Joseon. She excelled in her troupe and was considered the lead entertainer, a star. She was promoted as the Kkokduseo or the lead when she was 15 years old. When Prince Heungseon was reconstructing the Gyeongbokgung palace, AnseongNamsadangpae gave the best performance and was led by Baudeogi. As a token of his appreciation, the prince gave Baudeogi a jade hat that only officials of high ranks could own at the time. Her nationwide fame is regarded as the inception of the Korean entertainment business and she is the first popular Korean entertainer.

Anseong Matchum Namsadang Baudeogi Festival

The festival originated post the restoration of Namsadang in Anseong where the troupe was re-established. It is a huge festival that upholds this Korean traditional legacy on a global scale. It is held at Anseong-si in the Gyeonggi-do province of Korea in the month of September. It was started in 2001 to promote Baudeogi’s spirit of art. Namsadang Nori was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.

Anseong Matchum Namsadang Baudeogi Festival

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