Chinese zodiac · culture
Korean zodiac and tti
Korean tti identifies a person’s animal birth year. The same twelve-animal order also appears in guardian figures associated with directions, calendar days and two-hour periods.
Korean animal names in order
These Hangul words name the animals. Tti (띠) refers to a birth-year animal; the Earthly Branch characters shown in guardian sets are a separate calendar notation.
| Order | Native name | Romanization | Animal label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 쥐 | jwi | Rat |
| 2 | 소 | so | Ox |
| 3 | 호랑이 | horangi | Tiger |
| 4 | 토끼 | tokki | Rabbit |
| 5 | 용 | yong | Dragon |
| 6 | 뱀 | baem | Snake |
| 7 | 말 | mal | Horse |
| 8 | 양 | yang | Sheep |
| 9 | 원숭이 | wonsungi | Monkey |
| 10 | 닭 | dak | Rooster |
| 11 | 개 | gae | Dog |
| 12 | 돼지 | dwaeji | Pig |
Twelve animals in fixed order
Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig form the sequence. A full birth date matters near Seollal, the lunar New Year.
Guardian animals in art
Unified Silla tombs used animal figures as protectors of twelve directions. Animal-headed human figures express the same calendar positions as a sculptural set.
A year and a day are different
The National Folk Museum describes twelve zodiac days around New Year. The animal of an individual day need not match the animal of its year. An hour branch adds another independent coordinate.