The dancer seen here is portraying Mokjung, another Buddhist priest character. Mokjung has the power to drive away evil spirits and bad luck. He performs a whirling, stomping dance each Lunar New Year to guarantee good luck for the next twelve months.
There are several different regional variants on Mokjung. This particular mask is from the Bonsang region, now in North Korea. Traditionally, Bonsang was a meeting point and trading hub for people from the northern and southern halves of the peninsula.
Musical Accompaniment for Talchum
You can't have a dance without music. Unsurprisingly, each regional version of mask-dancing also has a particular type of music to accompany the dancers.
Most use some combination of these instruments:
The haegum, a two-string bowed instrument;
The chottae, a transverse bamboo flute;
The piri, a double-reed instrument similar to an oboe;
The changgu, an hourglass-shaped drum;
And the kkwaenggwari, a small gong.
Some talchum orchestras also use the puk, a shallow bowl-shaped drum.
