Page 37 - The Economist20171214

The Economist December 16th 2017 Asia 37

Banyan Peak patriotism

To understand EastAsian nationalism, climb a mountain
Yet mountain mysticism lives on, on the Korean peninsula.
The rugged peaks amongwhich Koreans live have longbeen cen-
tral to their sense of their homeland: “Over the mountains are
mountains,” runs a Korean saying.
When Japan annexed Korea in the early20th century, the colo-
nial authoritiesunderstood the sacred significance ofmountains.
As Alexis Dudden of the University of Connecticut explains, the
peaks overlooking the city of Seoul determined the layout of
Gyeongbok Palace, home to the ruling dynasty. Its throne room
was aligned with the mountains to channel the spiritual power
of the landscape through the Korean emperor’s veins. In 1911, in
an early act of colonial violence, the Japanese governor ordered
the construction of a massive, neoclassical building to block the
flow and serve as colonial headquarters. In 1945 the naive Ameri-
can liberators understood none of this, lowering the Japanese
flag on the building and raising the Stars and Stripes. The offend-
ingstructure was at last razed in 1996.
Korea’s Japanese rulers had maintained that Koreans were
blood relatives of the Japanese, younger brothers on a winning
racial team. Many Koreans lapped this up. When the North Kore-
an state wasfounded afterthe war, itlacked foundingmyths. So it
HIKOKU, the smallest of Japan’s four main islands, is famous recruited Koreans who had served as propagandists under the
SforitsBuddhistpilgrimage route: a two-month circumambula- Japanese. These, as B.R. Myers of Dongseo University in Busan
tion ifall 88 templesare visited. The route takesyouthrough cities puts it, simply kicked the Japanese offthe winningteam.
and along a rugged coast. But it lingers mainly in the mountains Imperial Japanese symbols came to Kim Il Sung’s aid. First he,
that run inland along forested ridges, like a scene from a Chinese and more recentlyhisgrandson, Kim JongUn, the North’scurrent
scroll painting. dictator, were depicted astride a white charger, just like Emperor
Many of Japan’s Buddhist temples are built high up. The sen- Hirohito. As for Mount Fuji, that was swapped out for Mount
sation as you approach is of climbing almost vertically into the Paektu, anothervolcano, with a pristine craterlake, that straddles
sky. It is as if the point is to arrive out of puff, with your senses the border of North Korea and China. It carried little significance
awry. In the still of the wooded dell, before you swing the huge before. NowPaektuispresented assacred racial symbol: notonly
log against the bell to announce yourself to the gods, the not-un- the birthplace ofDangun, the mythical founderofKorea, butalso
pleasantsensation isoffeelingsmall, in the lap ofgreater powers. of Mr Kim’s late father, Kim Jong Il. (In fact, he was born in grimy
For Buddhists, the mythical mountain kingdom of Sham- Khabarovskin the Soviet Union.)
bhala, described in the earliest Sanskrit texts, has the allure of a By chance, the Manchus who founded China’s last dynasty,
pure, visionary land of bliss. For Mongolian new year in Febru- the Qing, also chose to retrofit their own founding myth onto
ary, a low table in every herder’s ger (yurt) strains under mounds Mount Paektu (Changbaishan in Chinese). That matters because
offood. Next to the prized, fatty sheep’s tail, a pyramid ofbiscuits Chinese nationalists viewthe Qingempire’s maximum extent as
and sweets represents the mountains of Shambhala. In Shikoku, the border that modern China should seek to reimpose. Koreans
pilgrims follow a route once taken by Kukai, the eighth-century fear an assertive China might in future make expansive claims to
monk who brought esoteric Buddhist teachings from China and Korean territory. South Korea, too, has adopted the adoration of
moulded them to a Japanese form. His sect’s headquarters is still Mount Paektu, pictures of which hang in government offices.
high up on Japan’s main island, at Mount Koya. State-sponsored mountain-worship with Japanese imperialist
Importing mountain-veneration to Japan was, admittedly, roots: it ought to make South Korean democrats blush.
preaching to the converted. Japan’s indigenous religion is Shinto,
an animist faith that sees the divine in everything—“8m gods” in- Raising the roof
habiting nature. Ancient Shinto shrines also sit high in montane Yet Korea’s future is more likely to be marked by a cursed moun-
forests—indeed, often sharing a site with a Buddhist temple. Cul- tain than a mystical one. MountMantap in the North, not farfrom
tural criticswho considerthe Japanese unmoored in a materialist the Chinese border, isthe regime’snucleartestsite. Ithas detonat-
world lookto the mountains fora roborant spiritual cure. ed sixnucleardevicesthere since 2006, placed deep in the moun-
In the tumultuous decades following Japan’s Meiji Restora- tain via tunnels quarried by prisoners from the country’s biggest
tion of1868, mountainstookon an ominous, hulkingpurpose ata concentration camp, nearby. Thishastaken a toll on Mantap. Dur-
time when the countrythrewoffitsisolation and launched into a ing the latest explosion, of what was probably a hydrogen bomb
frenzy of industrialisation and militarisation. Notions that in September, satellite pictures showed the contours of the
Shambhala existed somewhere in Asia were seized upon by the mountain visibly shifting.
chauvinist ideologues advocating a new pan-Asian new order, Mantap suffersfrom “tired mountain syndrome”: itisatrisk of
led by Japan. At home snow-capped Mount Fuji, the perfect em- caving in. Chinese scientists are especially concerned. Another
bodiment ofa volcano, was shaped into a symbol ofracial supe- test might blow the top off, leading to devastating leakage of ra-
riority. This nasty idea collapsed with Japan’s defeat in 1945, and dioactive material. Over the mountains are mountains, some
Fuji-san went backto adorningpaintings and postcards. more dauntingthan others. 7