Pơtao Apui refers to the joining of the Fire Lord (Lord of the East) with the Water Lord (Lord of the West)—the two highest-ranking lords of the minority peoples’ earliest religious system in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. The lords have supernatural powers, particularly the ability to change drought into rain, bringing about water for the maintenance of the lives of all beings, thanks to the power of their mystical sword, ơi Tha (“old man”). This rain ritual is one of the most iconic rituals of Pơtao Apui, who is the only being who can communicate with the lords to ask for rain, using the mystical sword as a medium.

The annual Gangneung Danoje Festival takes place in the town of Gangneung and its surroundings, situated east of the Taebaek Mountain Range on the Korean peninsula.The festival includes a shamanistic ritual on the Daegwallyeong Ridge, which pays tribute to the mountain deity and male and female tutelary deities. It encompasses traditional music and Odokddegi folk songs, the Gwanno mask drama, oral narrative poetry, and various popular pastimes. The Nanjang market, Korea’s largest outdoor marketplace, is today a major element of the festival, where local products and handicrafts are sold and contests, games and circus performances take place. The four-week long festival begins with the brewing of a sacred liquor and the Dano shamanistic rituals, in which a central role is played by a sacred tree, the sinmok, and the hwagae, a ritual object made of feathers, bells and bamboo wood. One of the specific features of the festival is the coexistence of Confucian, shamanistic and Buddhist rituals. Through the rituals devoted to the deities, the region is believed to remain unaffected by natural disasters, allowing all its residents to live in peace and prosperity.