Tala (Glossary)

Tala is the name for the Morning Star, the planet Venus, in various languages of the Philippines.

In Kapampangan myth, Tala descends to earth sent by his grandfather the Sun to save the world from the great flood. He is born in human form and brings the gift of rice agriculture among other things.

Venus coming to earth as a human savior is rather a common theme. In Irian Jaya to the south, Papuan nationalists emblazon the Morning Star on their flag based on a local legend of the descent of Tala as bringer of good.

Dissecting the Kapampangan myth, I have suggested that Tala is associated with a epoch-making volcanic eruption involving the two peaks Pinatubo and Arayat. After this eruption, there is a political change in which one clan network emerges as victorious over another.

Probably due to the eruption itself, and the resulting clan warfare, both clans are dispersed broadly throughout the Nusantao maritime trade network. This dispersion actually acts in their favor and they gain control over vast reaches of this network. Both groups constantly fight over control over important trading routes and their conflict is coded in the mythology of this region and beyond.

Of these clan networks, one establishes itself in the region dominated by the sacred volcanoes. In doing so, it actually displaces the former ruling clan network, which becomes its main adversary.

That clans of the sacred mountain trace the descent of their priest-king lineage to Tala, the culture-bearing prince associated with the Morning Star and whose totemic symbol is the dog.

The idea of the celestial descent of a dog or dog-man is preserved near by in the Tinguian myth of Kimat, the lightning dog, who is sent by the Supreme sky god Kadlakan. Lightning is a common symbol of the descent of heavenly bodies to earth.

Tala may have been the name for a local Nusantao trading prince who helped transmit the knowledge of rice agriculture over vast expanses of the trade network. Whatver the case he is credited with bringing rice culture to the local area.

In many regional mythologies, we find the theme of a dog coming at the time of a great flood bringing knowledge of rice farming.

As the Nusantao greatly expanded their network geographically around this time (4th millennium BCE), I have suggested that these motifs spread also into other cultures.

For example, the dog is associated with Venus in many cultures spread from ancient Egypt to ancient Mesoamerica.

Furthermore the dog is closely linked with royal lineage in most of the same cultures. In Egypt, J. Griffiths suggests that the word anpu from which we get the name of the dog-god Anubis, means both "dog" and "king's son."

During the Pyramid Era, the king was said to have the body of Atum and the face of Anubis. When the king died and united with Ra, the sun god, he was said to take Anubis/Anpu with him on his neck.

In biblical literature, the Morning Star symbolizes both the princes Lucifer, expelled from heaven, and the Messiah.

Among the Dayak, the god-ancestor Mahatala may be related in some sense to Tala of Kapampangan myth. Mahatala actually refers in this case to the hornbill creator god who unites with the female watersnake, Jata. The union of the bird and dragon clans.

Tala is rather the son of the male rooster and the female dawn serpent.

Jata is linked with the Mountain of Gold, while Mahatala with the Mountain of Diamonds.

In comparison, Manalastas, the father of Tala, comes from the Mountain of the Moon, Pinatubo, while Munag Sumalâ, Tala's mother, hails from Arayat, the mount of her father, the sun god Apung Sinukuan.

Dayaks believe that Mahatala created the Sun and Moon from clay, the same clay later used to fashion sacred Dayak jars.

Alternatively, among the Ngaju of Borneo, Mahatala represents the Sun and the sacred spear, while Jata is the Moon and the sacred cloth.

After the union of the two, Mahatala is enthroned on the primeval mountain which is supported on the back of Jata. In the Kapampangan version, Tala, the prince arising from the union of dragon and bird clans, takes the throne over the holy mountains which rest on the back of the great dragon Apung Iru.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Apung Iru

The deity Apung Iru was often visualized as a gigantic crocodile that supported the earth on its back. The crocodile was located under the great World River.

If angry, Apung Iru caused all the rivers to flood, so at Bayung Danum the "New Water," the beginning of the year and the flood season, a fluvial procession was celebrated to propitiate the deity. This festival occured in June like the ancient Egyptian new year which also marked the beginning of the inundation.

Today, the Bayung Danum is celebrated either as a fluvial parade for St. Peter on the Pampanga River or as a time when everyone sprinkles each other with water.


Libad (fluvial procession) of Apung Iru during the Full Moon nearest to the summer solstice

In Sumer, Enki, often portrayed as a part-dragon creature in latter cultures, was known as the Lord of the Abzu and the Illu. The word illu refers to the flood or deep waters i.e., the Lord of the Flood. The flood could also refer to a river or the sea. Thus, when the Hebrews were said to have come from the 'other side of the flood' it probably refers to the rivers of Mesopotamia.

In ancient Egypt, the start of the year and the flood season began with the heliacal rising of the dog star Sirius. This season again was called Akhet, which also was the name of the twin-peaked "Mountain of Light." And, as you may remember, the great eruptions we propose here also would have occured during the month of June near the time of a Venus transit/conjunction and the heliacal rising of Sirius.

It was during a period of flooding and misery when the people cried for help that the sun god Apung Sinukuan sent Tala, the Morning Star, to rescue the world. This motif of a god sending a savior or coming to save in person during times of crisis recurs quite often in Austronesian mythology.

In the great clan war, the king with the title Apung Iru must come to save the day at a time of great decay and despair. This is part of the great cycle. His role is like that of Tala at the start of the cycle.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento