Thus, for centuries, Koreans hung Choyong’s picture on their city gates, believing that it possessed a kind of shamanistic power to ward off the spirits of plague and other diseases.  Eventually, Choyong took his place as the gate god in the pantheon of popular Korean deities.

                                                                                                                           -The Editor

Jong Yil Ra is dean of the Graduate School of Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea.