Voted the No. 1 festival in Korea, the Andong Mask Dance Festival will celebrate its 35th year. Korea Times Photos by Rebbecca McKenzie

Voted the number one festival in Korea for four years running by the ministry of culture and tourism and up for UNESCO World Heritage status, the festival is having its 35^th annual celebration this year.

Derived from the traditional folk mask dance in the Choson Kingdom, the spirit of the mask dance has not been quashed despite its relatively recent publicity over the past decades.

Over 750,000 visitors come to this spot every year, 22,620 of them international travelers, according to Andong Tourist Center representative Kim Eun-soo.

The festival is a favorite event for visiting diplomats and foreign officials. Queen Elizabeth II stopped there in 1999 during her four-day Korean tour to celebrate her 73^rd birthday.

The mask dance takes place in the Hahoe folk village just outside Andong. Still an active household under the Ryu family, the village and surrounding area appear almost untouched by the centuries.

Located in a supremely beautiful spot, Hahoe village is surrounded on three sides by the Nakdong River and framed by the mountains. While tourism is the main industry here, it retains a natural feel and lacks the usual headaches of a popular tourist destination. Walking along the village path, one can easily imagine what rural Korean life must have been like centuries ago.

Andong and the surrounding area have been protected from the hands of time by its remote mountainous location. Consequently, this place is a treasure trove of Korean culture, with historic sites spanning the past 2,000 years. Thus, many ancient arts and customs have also been preserved here.

Lee Pyeong-seob is the vice president of the Andong traditional paper factory. There, he oversees a papermaking process that looks as if it hasn\'t changed much in the past 600 years. The paper is all made from mulberry bark, picked and turned into paper all by hand.

While the paper factory makes traditional paper products such as plates, window coverings and calligraphy paper, Lee says 80 percent of paper you see in Insa-dong comes from China because of the country\'s cheaper labor costs.

However, the Andong Mask Dance Festival is the real highlight. Not quite a theater production, not quite a comedy show and not quite a shamanic ritual, the mask dance takes place outside in a circular amphitheater.

The use of masks is a Korean custom dating back to prehistoric times. Traditionally, the dance was performed as a shamanic ritual to please local deities and cleanse the audience and village of evil spirits. However, the ancient mask rituals were transformed in the Choson Kingdom into a highly satirical dance drama.

According to myth, the mask dance was first invented after the Hahoe folk village suffered from a natural disaster. ``A deity appeared to a man, Hoe, and instructed him to `make masks and dance for God.\'\'\' says Kim Eui-soon. By divine decree, no one could witness the secret process of mask making, which is still true today.

Hoe then made the first masks, a collection of 12 archetypical personalities of which nine survived; a concubine, a yang-ban scholar, and a goddess are among them. When they get together on stage, hilarious human drama ensues.

These nine characters, usually played by men, are traditionally Choson figures. However, it is not a far leap to imagine who their modern day counterparts might be and the dramas they enact are still quite relevant to today\'s world.

Invented by common people, the mask dance was used to express the underlying feelings of frustration towards existing social classes, morays and their own human weaknesses.

It pokes fun at people from all walks of life. The corrupt Buddhist monk who seduces the young concubine is a favorite theme, as well as a butcher attempting to sell a pair of bull\'s testicles to the audience, challenging sexual taboos of the time.

The characters that dance to the hypnotic music of a traditional Nong-ak orchestra have a special power in their exaggerated gestures.

A dancer of 10 years, Ryu Pil-gi explained that the reason for the popularity of the mask dance is that the masks themselves have a life all their own.

Thus, while the mask dance still holds true to the original Choson themes, the performance is closer to a shamanic rite than a theater production, depending on the maturity of the dancer.

All foreigners attending the mask festival should be forewarned that the audience could become a part of the performance. Sitting quietly minding my own business in the crowd, I was approached by Halmi Tal, the old widow character, who was more like a vision out of a nightmare than a human inside a mask.

At one point, a visitor from Holland and I were pulled up out of our seats by the drunken fool character, and forcibly persuaded to dance. The masks apparently are known to pick on foreign visitors, to the delight of the audience.

Whether or not the festival serves to cleanse people of evil spirits or not, everyone seemed to feel uplifted and joyful after the completion of the dance. The children especially love the characters, interacting with them in their imaginary world.

The engaged expressions on the faces of kids and adults alike, as well as the enthusiasm with which the dancers embody their mask\'s personality, makes this a living cultural experience.

In addition, the Korean Folk Festival coincides with the Mask Dance Festival in which people can expect to see many traditional displays, such as folk games, tea ceremonies, local handicrafts and various shamanic rituals.

This year the festival runs for 10 days, from Sept. 30 to Oct. 9. Located in North Kyongsang Province, Andong can be reached by train or bus. From there, Hahoe village is a 40-minute bus ride away.