The Dangun myth

Cheonje-dan altar on Taebaeksan in South-Korea, which became a substitute for North-Korean Baekdu Mountain.

The Korean sky god Haneullim (하늘님 "Heavenly King") had a son called Hwanung ("Heavenly Prince") who became interested in the earth with its mountains and valleys. He was allowed to descend to Baekdu Mountain in current North-Korea, then called Taebaeksan (great white mountain). A bear and a tiger came to visit Hwanung every day to pray. Hwanung promised to make them human if they ate only garlic and mugwort and stayed in the cave out of the sunlight for one hundred days. Only the bear succeeded in this task and Hwanung made the bear into a beautiful woman. But she grew lonely, so Hwanung gave her a male child: Dangun (“Sandalwood King").

According to myth Dangun founded the first Korean kingdom Gojosean (2333BC?–108 BC). The earliest record of the Dangun legend is found in Samguk yusa with the earliest extant publication of the text from 1512.

Inaccessible to South-Koreans: The summit caldera of Paektu Mountain, with Heaven Lake.

Dangun is often depicted with a robe made of leaves.

Dangun is worshipped with mountain spirit sanshin in the Samshingak of Manggyeong-sa 'All-encompassing-View Temple'.

Cheonje-dan altar on Taebaeksan in rainy clouds.