Talchum

What it is

Talchum means mask dance. In everyday use the word covers mask dance dramas from anywhere in Korea, but in a narrower sense it belongs to Hwanghae Province, which lies in North Korea today. Mask dramas of the Seoul and Gyeonggi area go by the name sandae noli. Along the southern coast people call theirs yayu, which translates as field play, or Obangsinjang, the dance of five gods. Over time the Hwanghae word travelled and became the general label. Whatever the regional name, the form is the same: masked performers dance, sing and act out a story together.

Where it came from

Talchum began in Korean villages as part of shamanic ritual and later turned into popular entertainment, according to the usual account. Behind that lie two older arguments. One roots masked theatre in farming life, in rites such as Seonang-gut where masks copied the faces of gods and slowly took on human features. The other follows instrumental music that Mimaji of Baekje learned in China's Southern Dynasties and passed to Japan, where a thirteenth-century text describes a mime said to resemble the Bongsan mask dance. Written traces of masking go back to the end of the ninth century. Goryeo's royal court kept an office, Sandae Togam, to oversee mask drama; Joseon closed it.

Stories and satire

Every mask dance drama shares a frame, yet each region and each group of performers gives it its own shape. The plays take up exorcism, ritual dance and mockery. Monks who have left the path, wealthy men who have lost their manners, and shamans all come in for ridicule from the stage; so does the quarrel between an older wife and a younger woman brought into the house. Village audiences were often poor, and the laughter aimed upwards at the yangban, the educated elite, carried their grievances. Spectators are not silent onlookers. They join in, calling out and crowding near the performers.

Masks and creatures

The masks let actors become more than themselves. Alongside ordinary figures, the plays bring out imaginary beings. Yeongno is a monster with a long red face and a scaly yellow robe who swallows corrupt yangban, and who, in some versions, earns a place in heaven after eating a hundred of them. Bibi, a kind of yeongno, blows a willow pipe to make a threatening sound. Jangjamari are fat water spirits covered in seaweed, who play instruments and are tied to fertility; around Gangneung they appear with the summer planting. Juji, bird-like or lion-like, dance in pairs, and their steps are read as a wish for children or as a way of driving off evil.

Today and change

Mask dance dramas have been handed down all over the peninsula. Roughly thirteen kinds are counted, among them the Haeseo plays of Hwanghae, such as Bongsan and Eunyul; the Yangju and Songpa plays of the Seoul region; the yayu and ogwangdae of the southern coast; the Hahoe byeolsingut talnori of the southeast; the Gangneung gwanno play of Gangwon; and the Namsadang troupe's deotboegi dance. Two are best known now: Bongsan Talchum and Hahoe byeolsingut talnori. In 2022 UNESCO recognised the practice as intangible cultural heritage, a step that underlined its meaning both at home and further afield.

How Talchum is kept

A mask dance drama is played out in seven parts. A ritual dance by the chief opens it, driving out demons. Dances of monks follow; one of them, the beopgonori, has lately fallen out of use. Next come the sadang dance of seven masters, then the veteran's dance, where a tavern woman hails a monk as a living Buddha. A lion arrives to punish the pair, hears their regret and dances with them. Then three yangban brothers are mocked in a contest of poems, and the last part closes the story with an old man, his wife and a shaman's rite.

When and where

Mask dance dramas belong to the festival calendar and to rites rather than to one fixed date. They were performed at the First Full Moon, Buddha's Birthday in the fourth lunar month, the Dano Festival and Chuseok, and occasionally at state celebrations or at ceremonies asking for rain.

Talchum is kept in South Korea, with the Hwanghae tradition it is named for belonging to North Korea today. Styles are spread across the peninsula: Hwanghae, the Seoul and Gyeonggi area, the southern coast, the southeast, Gangwon and the touring Namsadang troupes. Bongsan Talchum and Hahoe byeolsingut talnori are the two most widely known.

What Talchum means

For those who keep it, a mask dance drama is more than a show. It carries a village's wish for good farming, and its opening dance and its exorcism scenes are meant to push misfortune away. The comedy does social work too: it lets ordinary people laugh at the yangban above them, at monks who have gone astray and at men with a second wife. The last act, with its shaman's rite for the dead, holds grief and anger together, and points back to the ritual ground the plays came from.

Days Talchum is marked

Questions people ask about Talchum

See also

Chinese knottingA folk craft of cord tied into lucky shapes, made in China and given as charmsPostpartum confinementA period of rest, nourishment, and seclusion for mothers after giving birth.Water lanternSmall lamps floated on water to honour the dead and ask for good fortuneGutSacred rites of song, dance, and spirit communion performed by Korean shamans

Good reading and sources

• Talchum, mask dance drama in the Republic of KoreaUNESCO, Heritage listing
• Talchum, mask dance drama in the Republic of KoreaUNESCO, Article

• Talchum on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.