Tan'gun

Tan'gun (Korean: 단군; Hanja: 檀君; pronounced [tan.ɡun]), also known as Tan'gun Wanggŏm (단군왕검; 檀君王儉; [tan.ɡun waŋ.ɡʌm]), was the legendary founder and first king of Gojoseon, the first Korean kingdom. He founded the first kingdom around the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. He is said to be the "grandson of heaven", "son of a bear", and to have founded the first kingdom in 2333 BC, whose descendants have the surname Park or Pai. The earliest recorded version of the Tan'gun legend appears in the 13th-century Samguk yusa, which purportedly cites Korea's lost historical record, Gogi (고기; 古記; lit. 'Ancient Record') and China's Book of Wei. However, there are no records related to Tan'gun in the current surviving version of the Book of Wei. Koreans celebrate Tan'gun's founding of Gojoseon, Korea's first dynasty, on 3 October as a national holiday known as National Foundation Day (Gaecheonjeol). It is a religious anniversary started by Daejongism (대종교; 大倧教), worshipping Tan'gun. Many Korean historians regard Tan'gun and Tengri as being etymologically identical.