,
Busan Sanshin or
Sansin () are local mountain-spirits in
Korean Shamanism and folk-beliefs. In South Korea, most
Buddhist temples and major Shamanic-shrines, and some traditionalist villages, have a dedicated shrine called a
sanshin-gak () or an altar called a
sanshin-dan dedicated to the local
sanshin. This nature-deity is typically represented in the enshrined icons (paintings and/or statues) as an elder male (in rare cases, mature female) figure in royal-Confucian clothing, always accompanied by at least one
tiger and a Korean Red Pine tree. There are many other symbols being held by the Sanshin, offered to him by servants or in the backgrounds of the more elaborate paintings, derived from Oriental
Daoism,
Buddhism,
Neo-Confucianism, shamanic-folklore and Korean "spiritual-ethnic nationalism"—making these multi-religious icons unique in the entire world. The
Sanshin faith is interpreted in the folk scene as a belief devoted to the mountain gods. The mountain's beauty, its mystery, and the perceived shape that soars toward the sky are combined to inspire
mountain worship on an emotional level. The upper mountain slopes, cliffs and peaks are seen as is the realm of the spirits and the places to communicate with them and attain visions or enlightenment. The faith that the mountain is believed-in as a mystical body that provides abundance and protection is very ancient in all Korea, and continues today in public or private Sanshin-je (mountain-spirit ceremonies) Seonang-gut (tutelary-deity rituals). When the mountain is located between
Heaven and the earth where human beings live, and serves as a link between those two worlds, it is believed to be a representation of the universal
world mountain, thought by traditional religions like
Hinduism,
Buddhism and
Geomancy to rise at the center of the world. There are particular shamanic-folklore individual Sanshins, such as Eunje-san Seongmo (), who is the wife of
Namhae Yong-wang or Dragon King of the South Sea,
Jiri-san Seongmo Cheonwang () or Exquisite-Wisdom Mountain Holy-Mother Heaven-king, and
Mireuk Sanshin Halmi () or Future-Buddha Mountain-spirit Grandma, to name just a few. ==Japan==