• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.42
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• pp.419-449
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• 2016

The Russian icon and Korean tangwha (幀畵, altar portrait of Buddha) are based on the similarity of the divine Being. Each has the characteristic index that forms an existential connection with the object and at the same time, implies the symbolic meaning of the scriptures and doctrines of the Russian Orthodox and Buddhists. Russian icon and Korean tangwha with these attributes have origins in the Byzantine, India and China. Unlike most religious art, Russian icon and Korean tangwha clearly reveal profane orientation and mystical elements. This artistic phenomenon has evolved from the mystical religious culture in Russia and tantric rituals of the early Joseon period. Iconostasis, created from historical figures of the Old Testament, Jesus, the New Testament represent the principles of the macrocosm. Each icon of iconostasis has integrity, while each floor has another narrative and a meta-discourse on the entire composition. Three-Platforms of amrtakundalin can also have a huge epic that is directed from the Low-Platform to the High-Platform for the purpose of salvation. While the narrative of iconostasis has a time structure, from the beginning of the universe up to date in chronological time, amrtakundalin have pictorial transitions of time and space that rises from this life to a heavenly world. Despite the different world views of the Russian Orthodox and Buddhists, iconographical format and symbolism of heaven and hell in the Iconostasis, Last Judgment and amrtakundalin are similar. There is a constant antagonism between heaven and hell, light and darkness, water and flame. Iconographical contents include the water of life and nectar, the book of life and 'eoppu', and the scales and mirror of Karma that discriminate between the good and evil before judgment. The dualistic coordinate concept such as light and darkness, life and death, or heaven and hell that appears in the narrative structure of iconostasis, the Last Judgment and amrtakundalin leads the people to spiritual awakening.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.29
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• pp.257-285
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• 2012

The theme of Caucasus in Russian literature stemmed from A. Pushkin's The Prisoner of the Caucasus (1820) became expended when it reached to writer Bestuzhev-Marlinsky. The writer's magnum opus, Allamat-Bek (1832), was based on a real historical event. Being proponent to the side of Russian ideology, this work strongly presents that the primary task the Russian Imperialist government paused in this region at the time was civilization of the Caucasus through diplomatic and humanistic ways. There are three main protagonists in this work, but Berkhovsky and Sultan Akhmet-Khan are the characters who stand for the contradictory views toward the "war between Russia- Caucasus." While the former, Berkhovsky, thinks that the conflict between the two parties might be solved by means of communication and cooperation, the latter, on the other hand, is opposed to any of peaceful completion of this war. Allamat-Bek, the main hero of this work, however, passes away, going back and forth between loyalty and renegation. The author goes on to describe that Berkhovsky considers the Caucasus as Eden, the land of fruits, unlike Russia which appears as the land of labor. Yet, for Berkhovsky the Caucasus is presented as the land which needs enlightenment. This is the transformation of the so-called typical Western Orientalism. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky does not take side of either evil or good between the Russian Orthodoxy and the Islam, that is the conflict between the two opponent parties. The writer, instead, argues that this is just difference between the familiar and the strange, that is, the svoi and the chuzhoi. What is the very picture the writer wants to show the reader, then, is that it is petty and sad to see the unavoidable violent progress which happened and experienced by the indigenous people during the civilization of the Caucasus by the Russian Imperialist government.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.50
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• pp.33-50
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• 2000

A comparative and an analysis of the resemblance and the particularity of the women's headgear which has been developed in accordance with each of climate and historical beck ground of the Eastern Slavs: the Russians the Belarusians and the Ukrainians those are deeply influenced by the culture of costume of the Scythians which is considered as the origin of the Koreans culture of costume is presented in this study. A well-known Russian ethnographer D. K. Jelenin classifies the women's head gear of the Eastern Slavs as a platok a chepetch a shapka and a unmarried women's venetch by its structural figure. Those 4 kinds of head gears are the basic head gears of the Eastern Slavic woman. However the characteristics and the features of the head gears of the Eastern Slavic woman However the characteristics and the features of the head gears of each nations show us that they have been developed differently not only by the climatic and the geological influences but also by the influence of their historical background. Furthermore we could realize that the Eastern Slavs had classified a person's social position and a standing in family members by the head gear. The incantational and the religious meanings of the hair styles and the head gears are shown in this paper. For instance they has been considered that a married woman without a hat is a disgrace and it even affects to the harvest. Even they believed that a corn styled Russian woman's hat named "Roga" protects a mother and her baby from the evil spirit. It seems that such a ethnographical culture is caused by their own faith of Russian orthodox and a non-Christian ancient religious culture of those regions.