Baekho- Korean CreatureCreature · Beast"Guardian of the West"
Also known as: 백호 and 白虎
Description
The White Tiger of the West, painted on the western walls of Goguryeo royal tombs to face the Blue Dragon across the burial chamber. Baekho guards the dead from threats approaching out of autumn's direction, his white fur and bared teeth the last thing an evil spirit sees.
Mythology & Lore
The White Tiger of the West
Baekho holds the western quarter among the four Sasindo, the directional guardian spirits of Korean cosmology. Cheongryong the Blue Dragon guards the east. Jujak the Vermilion Bird guards the south. Hyeonmu the Black Tortoise guards the north. Baekho's direction carries autumn and the metal element, the season and substance of war.
Guardians of the Dead
The tomb murals of the Goguryeo kingdom, dated from the 4th to 7th centuries CE, give Baekho his most vivid surviving form. In the Gangseo Great Tomb, the White Tiger adorns the western wall in a pose of fierce guardianship, painted with flowing lines that convey supernatural movement. Across the chamber on the eastern wall, Cheongryong faces him. The four spirits surround the deceased, each shielding the burial from their direction. More Baekho murals survive in the Tomb of the Four Spirits and the Deokheungri Tomb.
The same directional logic governed the living. In Korean pungsu (geomancy), the terrain to the west of a site is the Baekho position. Geomancers required it to sit lower than the Cheongryong ridge on the east. If the tiger's ridge rose too high, the site became prone to conflict. The tiger's energy had to protect, not overwhelm.
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