Bulgasari (creature)

The Bulgasari or Pulgasari (Korean: 불가사리; RR: Bulgasari; MR: Pulgasari) is a metal-eating legendary creature that appears in Korean mythology and folklore.^[1] The creature is a composite creature with the body of a bear, the trunk of an elephant, the eyes of a rhinoceros, the claws of a tiger, and the tail of a bull.^[2]

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Italian. (July 2025) Click [show] for important translation instructions.

Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Italian Wikipedia article at [[:it:Bulgasari]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|it|Bulgasari}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Quick facts Korean name, Hangul ...

Bulgasari

Korean name
Hangul	불가사리
Revised Romanization	Bulgasari
McCune–Reischauer	Pulgasari

In Korean, the name "Bulgasari" translates to "something impossible to kill"; however, swapping the first Chinese character for a Korean character of the same pronunciation and choosing the corresponding Chinese character to that Korean character results in a spelling that translates to "something that can be killed by fire".^[3]

Unlike many Western monsters, the Bulgasari is often portrayed as heroic as it causes destruction, punishing evil in society, although negative folktales about it also exist.^[3]

The legend of the Bulgasari originated in the late 14th century.^[3]

According to legend, the Bulgasari is a bloodthirsty beast that grows in size the more metal it eats. Myth states that it was created by a Buddhist monk who was fleeing persecution because Buddhism was illegal in Goryeo-era Korea. He created a small figure out of rice grains, which he fed needles, and it began to grow. Soon enough it was massive, and the government sent soldiers to kill it with arrows and swords, but it simply ate the metal weapons and became stronger. Finally, they decided to kill it with fire, but this had no effect on it, and the Bulgasari carried the fire to burn down a local village. Myths differ on the fate of the Bulgasari; some say that it still lives to this day, while others say that it was defeated by monks.^[4]

According to legend, it can defeat nightmares and evil spirits; protect against incubi; and prevent plagues and natural disasters.^[3] As a result, it was sculpted as a sentry on walls, chimneys, railings, and pillars.^[3]

Bulgasari (creature)

Mythology

See also

References

Wikiwand - on