Pungmullori

"Pungmullori" narrowly means "farmers music", or pungmul-gut, which is thought to have begun when people started to grow grains. A farming society needs efficiency of labor, productivity, and cooperation. And pungmullori was started to encourage these. At present, it has become very important performance during various festival days and praying ceremonies.

According to various records, ancestors started to grow grains

before the Three Kingdoms period. During those years, they had rituals and ceremonies offered to heaven for good harvest. At those ceremonies, pungmullori was performed. At first, it was mainly a dance consisting of upper body movements with the primitive instrument of the drum as an accompaniment. Through time, other percussion instruments have been added to pungmullori.

Regarding the origin of pungmullori, there are three arguments: The first one argues that it must be related to farming and praying for a good harvest and peace at home; The second one is related to military music; And the last one is about Buddhist music being the origin of pungmullori. But, none of them has been identified as the origin. As time had gone by, "nongak", another name of pungmullori, had been changed in its style to praying, working, fund-raising, and entertaining.



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