A sharman prays at a shrine in Daegwallyeong, Gangwon Province in September. Korea Times photo by Son Young-ha Significant number of shamans operate without business registration, creating tax gaps By KTimes In 2007, the New York Times reported that there are 300,000 shamans in Korea, or roughly one for every 160 people, highlighting a resurgence of shamanism in a country renowned for its cutting-edge technology. The source of this figure was cited as the Korea Worshipers Association, which was likely referring to the country's largest shamanic organization, the Korean Kyungsin Federation (Gyeongcheon Shinmyeonghoe).
The group continues to assert that there are indeed 300,000 shamans in Korea. This would mean that there are more shamans than police officers (around 130,000) or elementary school teachers (about 190,000). However, the problem is that there is no concrete way to verify this widely reported figure of 300,000 shamans.
Not only does the government lack any official statistics on the shaman population, but there is also no formal survey to document the scale of this community. Shamans in Korea are paradoxically both everywhere and nowhere. While their fortune-telling shops are visible across cities, and shamanic rituals appear on social media and television, the government treats them as if they don’t exist.
There is no system in place to manage their activities, and the government has yet to define any formal criteria for recognizing shamanism. Shamans offer a ri.
