The Review of Snake and Dragon Worship among Indigenous Tribes of the Far East

Kulin(~kula~kola, snake/ tungusic language) and kylang(snake/ nivh language), which are words for snakes among the indigenous tribes of the far east, and the gureongi of the korean peninsula, the orochi's snake god uguma(ezeni), and the upgureongi of the korean peninsula is phonetically and semantically similar. Therefore, the snake worship of the indigenous tribes of the far east is connected to the snake worship of the Korean Peninsula. In the mythological concept of the indigenous tribes of the far east, the snake is the creator of the earth and rivers, and in religious concepts, it is the shaman's assistant spirit, the connector of the three worlds of the universe, the god of lightning and thunder, and the progenitor god of races and clans. The dragon is an imaginary animal that was given the highest authority among animals by transforming the shape of a real animal, a snake, and then sanctifying it. Mudur, which refers to a dragon among indigenous tribes in the far east, is phonetically similar to ‘mir’, which is written in the native korean language for dragon, so there were cultural groups in the southern far east and the korean peninsula who shared the worship of dragons (mudur~mir). However, as they accepted different social systems, their dragon worship went through different transformations and development processes. In the korean peninsula and china, dragon worship developed in the following order: snake totem → dragon totem → dragon god → dragon king. The far eastern indigenous tribes did not experience a national society, nor did they have kings or emperors, so they did not develop dragons to the level of dragon kings. In other words, for them, dragons were not gods or objects of worship with the same status as those in the korean peninsula or china, and the development of dragon worship was limited compared to the korean peninsula or china.