Effects of Iranian Ancient Religious Philosophy Spread to the Korean Peninsula Shown in Literary Works and Tales

Abstract

The historical and cultural records prove that Iran and the Korean Peninsula exchanged with each other for about 2,000 years by sea and land through Silk Road. In most cases, both countries traded with each other for a long time through Central Asia and China while they also traded with each other directly in rare cases. This exchange had remarkable effects on economy, arts, literature, and religion. The effects of exchanges between Iran and Korea are huge and deep enough to be able to handle each area mentioned earlier as a separate research theme. However, there have been only a few researches related to this so far. Among them, this study examines the thought of Iranian Mithraism spread to Korea. The appearance of Mahayana Buddhism influenced by Iranian ancient religion established a chance to spreading the thought of Mithraism to Korea. The thought of Mithraism that has influenced the religious culture of Korea is ‘Maitreya’ which is another name of Mithra. In the Silla Dynasty, an elite training group called ‘Hwarang’ deeply related to Maitreya was also organized. This study comparatively researches ‘Hwarang’ of Silla and ‘Mire’ organized by Iranian Mithraism focusing on historical literature and literary works.