Catalan surnames, Y-DNA and the Sayabiga?

An interesting  new study may have some bearing on the theories discussed on this blog on the Sayabiga connection of the Agotes and Cagots of Spain, France and other areas of Western Europe.

The study Y-chromosome diversity in Catalan surname samples: insights into surname origin and frequency examines 50 Catalan surnames chosen based mainly on their current frequency in the region.  While most of the Y-DNA haplogroups discovered from the sample of 1375 men were of expected European origin with a significant number of North African/Middle Eastern examples, two haplogroups are of interest regarding the Agote/Cagot theory.

Three individuals, all from the Girona region, shared the C* haplogroup while a single person from Castells has the K* haplogroup.   All the C* individuals had the surname Llach, which translates to "lake."  The sole K* has the surname Ferrer meaning "smith."

The markers used in the test can be found at http://0-www.nature.com.es.library.du.ac.bd/ejhg/journal/vaop/ncurrent/extref/ejhg201514x11.pdf.  From this table, we can see that the study tested for the M8 (C1a1) and M219 (C2) markers, so the absense of these markers translates to a solid identification of C*. 

From the corresponding Universitat Pompeu Fabra website, we can find an analysis of each of the surnames studies. Here is the entry for "Llach":

 Llach. Cognom poc abundant, típic de la Garrotxa, el Pla de l’Estany, el Gironès i Perpinyà. Se’n troba un exemple entre els immigrants francesos al fogatge de 1637.
Hem pogut obtenir resultats de tots els 26 voluntaris d’aquest cognom, que pertanyen a 8 llinatges diferents (llinatge en el sentit de grup homes descendents d’un avantpassat comú). Es tracta d’una diversitat genètica moderadament  elevada per a un cognom relativament freqüent. Veiem que els Llach de les comarques gironines pertanyen a quatre llinatges diferents (precisament, els anomenats de l’1 al 4), i també són de llinatges particulars els Llach pirinencs (el llinatge 6), del Berguedà (7) i de Castelló (8). Cal remarcar que el fundador del llinatge 1 pertanyia a l’haplogrup C*, que es troba en freqüències elevades a l’Àsia Oriental, i que a Europa difícilment es dóna més enllà d’Europa Oriental. Entre els més de 400 fundadors de llinatges que hem analitzat fins ara, aquest és l’únic C* que hem trobat.

 Here is a translation from the Anthrogenica forum (emphasis added):

Llach. An uncommon surname, typical of la Garrotxa, Pla de l’Estany, Gerona and Perpignan. We find an example among French immigrants in 1637 hearth tax.

We were able to get results from all 26 volunteers for this surname, which belong to eight different lineages (lineage group in the sense of people descended from a common ancestor). This is a moderately high genetic diversity for a relatively common name. We see that the Llachs of the Gironne [?] region belong to four different lineages ... and the individual lineages are Llach Pyrenees ( lineage 6 ) of Berguedá (7) and Castellón ( 8). Importantly, the founder of the lineage 1 belonged to haplogroup C * , which is found in high frequencies in East Asia, and in Europe there is hardly beyond Eastern Europe. Among the more than 400 founding lineages that we have analyzed so far, this is the only one we've found C * .

Children believed to be descendents of the Cagots at La fontaine Saint-Blaise à Bagnères

C* strongly linked with ISEA

In fact, we know from previous studies by Karafet et al. and Delfin et al. that C*, known as C-
RPS4Y* and CRPS4Y respectively, are strongly associated with the Insular Southeast Asian (ISEA) region. 

Karafet et al. shows only 17 out of 581 Mainland Southeast Asian samples with C*, while Western Indonesia has 40 out of 960 in Western Indonesia, 145 out of 957 in Eastern Indonesia and 2 out of 182 in Oceania.  Variance is significantly higher in Eastern Indonesia suggesting that as the place of origin in this study. 

In Delfin et al., 8.9% of Negrito peoples in the Philippines have C*, while the percentage among non-Negrito indigenous and Muslim peoples in the same country is 7.1%.

 K* also connects with ISEA

The single K* individual tested negative for L or the MNOPS groups showing a strong association with the K*, a type that also is found mostly in Insular Southeast Asia and particularly with the Philippines.  Delfin et al. also tests for the subgroups L and MNOPS and finds that 32.2% of Negrito Filipinos and  8.1% of Muslim and indigenous non-Negrito Filipinos are K*. 

Conclusion

The Catalan surname study may suggest that a small percentage of Y-DNA haplogroups are of ISEA origin in one of the main areas associated in this blog with the Sayabiga.  Additionally, it was closely linked with the Agotes and the adjoining region of France was connected with the Cagots.

Indeed, Girona (Gerona) was the location of a particular late study on the Cagots at the turn of the 20th century.

Of course, as the Sayabiga did not appear to be endogamous like the Gitano/Roma, we may expect that some paternal lineages may have already been "switched out" during stays in other areas associated with the Sayabiga including Basra in Iraq.  For comparison, no H1 or H1a lineages, common among the Gitano, were found in this study.

Interestingly, no examples of the O haplogroups that are so common nowadays were found in this research.  Possibly, these groups were not as predominant in certain regions as they are today, however, it is difficult to say with such a small data set. 

Unfortunately, the surnames Borja, Borgia, Borge, etc. were not included in the study as the results would have been interesting to see.  Indeed, this opens up quite a bit of territory for future research to confirm whether these findings do indeed confirm a Sayabiga link.

Tidal Farming and Fishing System

Earlier in this blog, I described the water control system in Pampanga, Philippines. This type of tidal farming practice extends along the coastal borders of old Pampanga, which included the coasts of modern Bulacan, Tondo, and the bay shore side of much of the Bataan peninsula. A much smaller version of this system can also be found in and near Lingayen in Pangasinan to the north. Still smaller remnants are seen rarely here and there in the Philippines mostly on the island of Luzon.

I also have suggested that related systems were used by the Sayabiga in Iraq and the Moors, possibly also through a Sayabiga sub-population, in the Spanish autonomous communities of Valencia and Murcia. There is also something that looks quite the same found in the Halong Bay area of Vietnam. Whether this region is actually directly related to the others is unsure. One would think there is at least some idea stimulus involved. I have wondered if there might be a link with the Chinese notices of Fo-lo-an on the Western Ship Route during the Sung Dynasty. However, historically the Halong Bay area should have been squarely under the control of the Dai Viet empire at that time. So I'll have to leave any possible connections for further research.


View Larger Map
Tidal rice farming on Cat Ba island in Halong Bay, Vietnam.


This system of farming and fishing found in Pampanga and other parts of Luzon, and also in Iraq and southern Spain can be described as a Tidal Farming and Fishing System (TFFS).

As the name suggests, the area of agriculture and fishing is located in a tidal zone, and there is dependence on tidal action. The area will extend all the way to the mouth of rivers at the ocean, and upstream so far as there is still sufficient tidal flow. Here is an outline of some of the important features of this specific TFFS:

• The TFFS utilizes reclaimed land, i.e., marshes, swamps, lakes, etc., so very extensive earth works are involved.
• The intertidal zone is also used and dikes, channels, canals, etc., help to extend the system through irrigation beyond the intertidal zone.
• Tides play an important role in irrigation. The flood tide pushes water into the fields and ponds, and sluice gates keep a certain quantity of the water from flowing back to sea during the ebb tide.
• The tides are also important for local fishing practices.
• In some areas, rains help flush saltwater toward the sea allowing seasonal farming in areas where the water is too salty for farming during the dry season.
• The principle crop is short-grain, wet paddy rice (Oryza sativa var. japonica). Probably the type of Japonica rice grown in these regions has a higher salinity tolerance than more typical rice grown elsewhere.

The fishing techniques in the TFFS often revolve around fish and other aquatic/sea creatures that follow the tides in and out of the irrigation system. One trick is to place traps in narrow canals, for example. Fish caught in tidal pools and ditches could be stunned with fish poison, speared, or simply scooped up by hand. Fish poisons used in the Philippines, known as tuba, were usually either of the Derris or Tephrosia species. In Iraq, Digitalis and Datura species were used, while in southern Spain they used Verbascum species.

Much attention is focused on catching migratory fish and crustaceans. In the Philippines, the main catch was the bangus, which migrated from the sea into brackish water to spawn. Eventually, possibly after observing bangus spawn in their rice field ponds, an aquaculture system was developed that was mainly centered around the bangus. In Iraq, whitefish species -- khatan and shabut -- along with pomfret, shad and shrimp are caught during migration periods. In the Albufera in Valencia, they concentrated on migratory eels, which actually live in inland waters and migrate out to sea to spawn.

The water buffalo is associated with the TFFS in the Philippines and Iraq, and possibly also in southern Spain during Moorish times. However, there are some differences between the use of the buffalo in the two former regions. In the Philippines, the buffalo is a draft animal, but in Iraq it is used mainly for milk as in India. The marsh arabs do not train their buffalo as work animals. However, the Iraqi buffalo has many types of characteristics that resemble both the Southeast Asian swamp buffalo as well as the Indian river buffalo.

The older water buffalo shown in this region during Sumerian times looked exactly like a swamp buffalo. The modern Marsh Arab buffalo, which was probably reintroduced during medieval times, looks more like a cross between a swamp and river buffalo. However, its habits are mainly that of the swamp buffalo in that they tend to wallow in the marshes.


Water buffalo along the Euphrates near Najaf (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani)

Buffaloes swimming in Iraqi marshes
http://www.toreigeland.com/iraq_marsh-arabs/images/W8688-Iraq-Marshes.jpg


Curious culinary link

One interesting correspondence between the TFFS in Pampanga and that found about a third of the way around the globe in Valencia is the popularity of local rice casserole dishes -- Paella or Arroz Valenciana in Spain, and Bringhe in Pampanga.

Many believe that as Pampanga was colonized by Spain, Bringhe must have been adopted from Paella. However, Corazon S. Alvina and Felice Santa María note there are indications that Bringhe is at least partly indigenous.

Bringhe resembles a native dish found among the Muslims of Mindanao known as Koning, which is usually served during special occasions. Bringhe is also primarily a food served during festivals. Koning consists of the sticky form of glutinous rice (Oryza sativa var. glutinosa) cooked with coconut milk and colored yellow either with turmeric or a type of yellow ginger known as galingale.

Now, Bringhe also is made with glutinous rice, known locally as malagkit, that is always cooked with coconut milk and is tinted in modern times also with turmeric. Previously, a spice known as cachumba or safflower as it is known in the West, was probably used. Cachumba, for example, is mentioned as a condiment by Antonio de Morga in the early 17th century.

However, what about all the other ingredients that are mixed together in both Bringhe and Paella, such as meat, vegetables, legumes, etc.?

Well, in the case of Bringhe, another local type of dish may have been combined with Koning to produce Bringhe. According to Bergano's 18th century Kapampangan dictionary, local people would cook rice together with vegetables to make Quisa. Today, legumes, vegetables, sweet potato, etc., are added to rice while cooking to "extend" the rice especially among the poor. However, a dish that more closely matches Bringhe is known as Binulu.

Binulu is an ancient type of cooking still popular among the Aita of Pinatubo. It is also featured yearly at the Binulu Festival in Porac, Pampanga. However, as Bergano lists this type of cooking in his dictionary, it probably was more popular among Kapampangans of those days. Binulu consists of rice and viands stuffed and cooked together in a thin, hollow, green bamboo known as bulu (Schizostachyum lumampao). The variations of Binulu are just as great as those found among Paella and Bringhe dishes and can include meat, vegetables, beans, legumes, fish/shellfish, fruits, etc.

Quite possibly, Bringhe evolved originally out of a fusion of Koning with Binulu for festive occassions, which was instead cooked in clay pots, or possibly in coconut leaf baskets known as patupat. In modern times, Bringhe is usually prepared in a vessel lined with banana leaves. The modern dish can include the addition of completely foreign elements, but the stable ingredients are glutinous rice, coconut milk, and a tinting condiment, usually turmeric.


Bringhe


Arroz Valenciana
(both images from http://www.nestle.com.ph)



Spain's TFFS and the Grail Myths

I have discussed previously how the Sayabiga could have been the mysterious "Indians" mentioned in the Grail literature, and how they might also be connected with the medieval diplomatic contacts of "Prester John" in Europe.

In Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the author states that his ultimate source for his story was a mystic known as "Flegatanis" who lived in Spain (Toledo). The envoys from India in Parzival -- Cundrie and Malcreatiure -- apparently come directly to Anjou from Spain. Cundrie, for example, recites the names of stars in Hispano-Arabic.

Albrecht von Scharfenberg, about a half century after Wolfram, places the Grail family in northern Spain, probably Galicia, an area that they migrate to after helping with the conquest of Jerusalem.

Valencia, during this time, was an important center of Eastern medicine and alchemy. A number of important medical/alchemical works were translated from Arabic into European languages, especially by the alchemist Arnaldus de Villanova (Arnau de Vilanova) in the 13th century. Another important alchemist during this period was Ramon Llull (Raymond Lull) who hailed from island of Mallorca to the east off the coast of Valencia. The majority of the population of Valencia during Moorish times spoke Arabic as their primary language. Many elements of the Grail legends show "Eastern" and even Tantric influences that may have filtered in from the Persian Gulf traveling along with the Sayabiga and the TFFS.



Flat-bottomed punt-type boats known variously as barquet, barquetot, pastera, etc. in the Albufera rice-growing area in Valencia. (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/14171706)


Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Alvina, Corazón, and Felice Sta. María. Halupi: Essays on Philippine Culture. Quezon City: Capital Pub. House, 1989.

More on Tantric Influence in Grail Legend

Let's take a deeper look at the suggestion of "Tantric" influence on the Holy Grail legend.

Much research exists on the "Oriental" influences in Grail literature. German scholars have long supported the idea that the Grail epic was modeled on one or more Persian tales. Most of the theories involved pre-Islamic influences. One of the champions of direct Islamic influence was P. Ponsoye in his book L'Islam et le Graal.

Various etymologies were suggested, all open to question, for the unusual names in the Grail legend. The 19th century German writer Josef von Gorres suggested that Parzival was derived from Arabic Parsi-fal meaning "Pure Fool," a suggestion later followed by the composer Richard Wagner. Fridrich von Suhtshek explained the true form of the name as Parsi-wal meaning "Persian flower" or "pure, chaste flower."

Suhtshek also offered Persian prototypes for just about every other character in the Grail epic. Max Unger and Theodore Baker suggested that word "grail" was derived from Persian gohar "pearl" compounded with al "coruscating color." The latter also identify the location of the Grail Castle with the Persian fortress of Kou-i Kouadja. Swedish scholar Lars Ivar Ringbom suggested the Takht-i-Suleyman "Throne of Solomon" in Azerbaijan, which closely matched the descriptions given by Albert von Scharfenburg in Jüngere Titurel written around 1270.

Henry Corbin and Pierre Gallais have done an enormous amount of work equating the Grail with the Iranian Xvarenah jewel, and seeking roots of Grail concepts in Persian dervish-inspired Islamic mysticism.

Other Near Eastern influences have been suggested, but possibilities from further East are treated only more rarely. Alfred Nutt in the 19th century explored the possibility that the Holy Grail originates from the Patra, the Buddha's alms dish. Scholars though have generally avoided comparisons of Grail mysticism with Tantric beliefs except to mention such possibilities. There is however a fair amount written on this subject in popular and "New Age" literature.

One though can piece together two different areas of research to construct a framework for such influence. The area of origins and exchange between Islamic mysticism and Tantra is dealt with fairly thoroughly. In the same sense, the links between Shi'ite, Sufi, Ismaili and similar Muslim groups with European culture at the advent of Grail literature and the direct impact on the latter is equally well-studied.


Indian Influence on Dervishes

Many a scholar has suggested that the Persian dervish, rather strange to ancient Iranian religion, originates from the begging ascetic of India.

W. Ivanow suggested that the group known in Islamic literature as Zutt, originally from the Sind in India, helped spread these practices throughout the Middle East. The Zutt are thought to be related to the present-day Jats and are almost always mentioned in the literature together with the Sayabiga, a group thought to have originated in Zabag but to have domiciled in the Sind and along the Persian Gulf.

The Zutt have been linked both with the Islamic underworld group of entertainers, artisans and con artists known as the Banu Sasan, and with the origin of the Dom Gypsies. Ivanow found an element of Dervish jargon words used both among the Banu Sasan and all Middle Eastern Gypsy groups. The Qasida Sasaniyya of Abu Dulaf mentions that the Zutt were members of the Banu Sasan and we see a number of Indian words mixed in with this jargon speech.

Groups of Zutt and Sayabiga were relocated to the region of Antioch by the Islamic Caliphate, just north of the area that would later become the stronghold of the Syrian Assassins. This fact will become important when we examine the time frame of the first Grail stories.

Previously in this blog, it was suggested that the people of Zabag, or Suvarnadvipa as it was known in India, were deeply involved with groups in Tibet and India in the development of the Kalacakra Tantric doctrine. Thus, the Sayabiga along with the Zutt would have played a role in diffusion of Tantric-like ideas in the Middle East.

In India, where the Sind region was the early major stronghold for Islamic mysticism in South Asia, the mingling of Tantrism with both Sufi and Ismaili sects is historical and beyond doubt, but the early story in the Middle East is more fuzzy.

We find that one of the most important elements in Tantric doctrine in India is the importance of the feminine principle as compared to the situation in the previous brahmin-dominated system. In the Mahacinatantra, it states:

According to the Brahmayamalatantra, after meditating for a thousand years on the shore of the ocean Vasistha was visited by Devi who told him "he had adopted an altoghter wrong path; her worship was unknown in the Vedas; it was known only in the country of Mahacina; and that Vasistha would gain his object if he received instruction from Vishnu now residing there as Buddha.

The word "Devi" above refers to the female divinity, which in the Tantric view was not sufficiently recognized in Vedic religion. In Tantrism we also find a more important place for women in ritual, and just an overall better treatment of women in general.

We can see then that the most powerful male Tantric deities, including the supreme Kalacakra Deity, appear in icons embraced together with their female consorts. In addition, there are important independent female deities like Tara and Prajnaparamita, and a host of lesser goddesses like the Dakinis that are considered important for spiritual development. In many places in India associated with Tantrism, the worship of the goddess Sakti prevails especially among the royal families and in the villages.

While the place of women in Tantric religious ritual has declined, due probably to the "shocking" nature of some rites, a few more politically-correct remnants survive. For example, among the Newars of Kathmandu we find the ritual marriage of the specially-chosen goddess-child known as Kumari to the King of Nepal was practiced until very recently. Also found among the Newars is the symbolic marriage of young virgin girls known as Gauris to Suvarna-kumara of Suvarnabhumi (Golden Land), the latter represented by a bel tree fruit or a golden coin.

While there was no universal dictate against the disabilities that existed for women at the time, in many areas women achieved rights nearly equal to men in areas where Tantrism dominated. However, in some other areas, only marginal changes were made despite the increased stature of women in religious life in which all areas of initiation and worship were open to them.

Further to the West, we find that the Sufi mystics focused much more attention on the feminine principle in theology than was previously the case. Sufism produced great women saints like Rabia, a tradition that continued for centuries. The importance of marriage for both men and women was stressed less than in orthodox Islam. However, it was among the Ismaili sects that we witness some of the most marked developments in divine feminine thinking. Here we see the recognition of the dual principles -- the Kuni as the female and the Qadar as the male principle. Kuni was predominant and she is said to actually create Qadar from her own light. Ismaili women in many areas can lead prayers and religious ceremonies, and they pray and worship alongside their men.

Now even farther to the West, with the advent of the romance cycles we find that the Holy Grail, that was seen by some as a relic of Christ or as a manifestation of Divine Grace, was tended by Grail Maidens and borne in procession by a female Grail Bearer. Even the Grail itself as a cup, chalice, bowl, platter or stone had a decided female imagery. Even more important may be the identity of Cundrie, the woman from the East Indian kingdom of Tribalibot, as the Grail Messenger. Cundrie teaches, chastises, guides and even at times sustains not only the quester Parzival but also the entire Grail company.

Although this outlook as found in Grail literature had little impact on the role of women in the Catholic Church, the rise of "courtly love" and chivalry as present in medieval epics did signal a generally more favorable position and better treatment at least for women of the noble classes.


Human Body as Microcosm of Cosmos

Earlier in this blog, the Kalacakra belief that cosmic time cycles were mirrored in the human body was discussed. This is part of a strong Tantric belief that the human body represents the universe in microcosm.

We find the same sentiments in Islamic mystic tradition. Corbin discusses various beliefs that can be categorized as pantheistic, panentheistic, monist, etc. among the Dervish-inspired sects. Self-realization can be described as discovering one's own Oneness with the Cosmos and even with the Deity.

Among the Ismaili we find a belief in a pattern of history that is both cyclic and linear. There are seven Ismaili eras, each inaugurated by a prophet known as Natiq. Each era was further subdivided into periods related to a Samit "Silent One" and seven Imams, the last of which becomes the Natiq of the new Era. The seventh Imam of the seventh Era is the Mahdi or Qa'im who ushers in the Resurrection. The six previous Natiqs are Adam, Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa, 'Isa, and Muhammad.

In Kalacakra Tantrism, although there is an underlying belief in infinitely repeating time cycles as found in classic Buddhism and Hinduism, the predominant focus is in the progression of Kulika Kings each connected with a century long period. The final Kulika King or "Rigden" conquers the evil forces of the world bringing in a new Golden Age.

Both the Kalacakra and Ismaili cycles are rife with astrological linkages. In Kalacakra thinking, the planetary cycles are further mirrored within the human body. The Muslim astrologer Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi, known in Europe as Albumasar, developed a concept of world ages based on conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter. These ideas were translated into European languages from Muslim Spain beginning in the mid-12th century with the works of John of Seville, not long before the first Grail stories appeared.

In Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, one of the most highly-lauded scenes occurs when Cundrie relates Parzival's destiny through the seven planets using Latino-Arabic nomenclature.

"Mark now, Parzival:
The highest of the planets, Zval,
And the swiftly moving Almustri,
Almaret, and the bright Samsi,
All show good fortune for you here.

The fifth is named Alligafir.
Under there the sixth is Alkiter,
And nearest us is Alkamer.

I do not speak this out of any dream. These are the bridle of the firmament and they check its speed; their opposition has ever contended against its sweep.

"For you, Care now is an orphan. Whatever the planets' orbits bound, upon whatever their light is shed, that is destined as your goal to reach and to achieve. Your sorrow must now perish. Insatiety alone will exclude you from that community, for the Grail and the Grail's power forbid false friendship. When young, you fostered Sorrow; but Joy, approaching, has robbed her of you. You have achieved the soul's peace and waited amid sorrow for the joys of the flesh.

These verses have been interpreted widely as applying to everything from the announcement of a new age marked by the World Year to the declaration of world dominion for the new Grail King. More to the point for this work, Cundrie's words are thought by some to imply that Parzival's destiny represents a microcosm of events in the greater cosmos. Whatever the case, given that Wolfram admits his use of an Oriental source from Toledo, it seems likely that at least there are some connections with the ideas of Albumasar if not with those of the Ismailis.

Now is a good time to return to the theory offered here for the transmission of the Grail legend, or at least the related source materials, from East to West.


Sources for the Grail Epics

Three authors are connected with the beginning of the Grail literature -- Chretien de Troyes, Robert de Boron and Wolfram von Eschenbach.

All three appear to have been contemporaries to some extent as they all wrote their works around the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. Chretien's work is generally thought to be the oldest, and Wolfram mentions it in his own book. However, some scholars have suggested that Boron had no knowledge of Chretien and he does not mention either of the other two authors.

All three attribute their works to external sources. Chretien states that he based his version on a book given to him by Philip, Count of Flanders. Boron states that he received a "great book" from "great clerics." Wolfram mentions the bard Kyot who obtained the story from Flegatanis, a "heathen" from Toledo. He also claims to have researched the archives of the House of Anjou.

There is some linkage between Chretien's source and Wolfram's research in Anjou. Earlier it was already suggested that von Eschenbach's tale contained veiled references to the House of Anjou with Gahmuret representing Geoffrey Plantagenet with Parzival as his son Henry II. Gahmuret was an Angevin not in the line of succession who becomes a king through his marriage to the emperor's widow.

There was of course one historical Angevin who fits this description -- Geoffrey Plantagenet.

As it turns out, Philip the Count of Flanders was the son of Sibylla de Anjou, Geoffrey's sister. Philip ventured to Jerusalem to visit his first cousin, Baldwin IV, the last King of Jerusalem from the House of Anjou, a leper with no male heir. He came with the express purpose of marrying his vassals to Baldwin IV's daughter but was rejected and insulted by competitors among the nobility of Jerusalem. He left the city to fight the Muslim enemy in the principality of Antioch instead.

When Philip returned to Europe, he employed Chretien to render his mysterious source book into verse. Using the hypothesis offered here, Wolfram's Anfortas, the Grail King of Montsalvat (Jerusalem) would be Baldwin IV's father, Amalric I of Jerusalem. Baldwin IV, the heir-less king and last Angevin to rule the city would then be represented symbolically by the wounded leg of Anfortas. Wolfram probably threw in some inconsistencies as to maintain a degree of deniability that his story applied to real people. Thus, it is Gahmuret rather than his wife who is a sibling of Anfortas.

Parzival states that the celibate knights who guarded the Grail are Templars and that the first Grail King Titurel established the order. Thus it would have been Baldwin II of Jerusalem, who first accepted the Knights Templar, who answers to Titurel. The latter's son Frimutel is Fulk V, who in reality was the son-in-law of Baldwin II becoming the Angevin King of Jerusalem through his marriage to Melisende.

When Chretien wrote his Grail work between 1180 and 1191, Baldwin IV may have already died and Jerusalem may have fallen to Saladin (1187), although the fall of the city is never hinted at in any of the three early Grail books. Instead we find the development of a cycle of literature that introduces a new concept -- that of the Holy Grail.

Grail kingship is linked originally with the title of King of Montsalvat-Jerusalem, and King of the Grail Temple/Palace in the same location. The Grail was guarded by Templars and previously in this blog it was noted that the object had some of the same characteristics of the pusaka or sacred heirlooms of Southeast Asia tied to the succession of royalty, chiefs and clan leaders. The Grail kingship had hereditary components but was not entirely linked to male primogeniture. One fascinating similarity is the animistic character of both the Grail and the pusaka heirlooms.

Like the talking jars of the sultans and datus of Insular Southeast Asia, the Grail communicated with and guided those in the Grail company. This is one facet that did take hold as much in South Asia or the Middle East. However, it may be that such ideas were retained by the Sayabiga who along with the Zutt were relocated to Antioch. These Sayabiga may have maintained some contact through the trade routes with their former home of Zabag. The Templars appear to have borrowed much in terms of their own organization and structure from the Ismaili Assassins of Syria located directly to the south of Antioch principality. They also maintained unusually close political relations with the Assassins. In 1165, emissaries from Prester John, who is linked here with the King of Zabag, delivered a letter from the latter king to the Pope and Christian emperors. Parzival and other Grail legend authors closely connect Prester John with the Holy Grail, albeit anachronistically.

Even Chretien seems to have borrowed from Prester John's letter, which mentions a table in the king's palace with legs of ivory. Parzival and Jüngere Titurel describe the table bearing the Holy Grail in the Grail Castle as having ivory legs. Chretien says the same table has ebony legs and an ivory top. The palace of Prester John, like that of the King of Shambhala and the Grail Castle, have strong mystical links.

The round churches of the Templars were said to have been modeled on the Dome of the Rock, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, sometimes referred to as the 'Temple of Solomon.' The Templar headquarters was originally located in or next to this mosque in Jerusalem. Ringbom has shown, quite conclusively I think, that the Grail Temple as described in Titurel was inspired by the Takht-i-Suleyman, the "Throne of Solomon" in Azerbaijan. In both cases, we find round, domed and lavish buildings with the stars, marked by rubies in the Takht and red jewels in Titurel, and heavens displayed on the domed ceiling. In both cases, the buildings have only three entrances, and the outer circle of the building is divided into 22 parts each marked by an ornamental tree. The temple described in Titurel was probably inspired by the Takht as partially rebuilt by the Shi'ite and heavily Sufi-influenced Ilkhanate dynasty in the 13th century.

Ringbom has also shown that both the Grail Temple and the Takht are types of mandalas. A mandala is a representation of the universe used in Tantric ritual. It usually consists of a circular design on the outside with usually a square design within, but also at times another circle. There usually is at least one instance in a mandala where an outer design is replicated in smaller form within the mandala, an example of the macrocosm-microcosm principle.



Grail Temple plan after Ringbom (A. A. Barb, 1956: 34) following descriptions in Titurel. Note mandala-like replica of building structure at central sanctum where Holy Grail was kept. The domed ceiling was said to display the celestial vault further giving the idea of a cosmic representation. Ringbom also found mandala-like features in the sanctuary of the Ismaili "Old Man of the Mountain," the leader of the Assassins at Alamut.

Now with the Grail acting as the token of the holy kingship, even the looming loss of Jerusalem would allow a 'sacred lineage' to prevail at least in the eyes of those closely connected with the House of Anjou. Thus, it may not be entirely by coincidence that Henry II's son and heir (by force) Richard I would lead the efforts of the Third Crusade to retake Jerusalem, although he was forced by election to accept Conrad of Montferrat as King of Jerusalem. When the latter was killed by Assassins before his coronation, Richard was widely suspected in the plot. He married his nephew Henry II of Champagne to the widow Isabella eight days after the death making Henry II the pretender King of Jerusalem. Angevin hopes for the Holy City though ended as they could not persevere against Saladin's forces.

Quite likely some type of Holy Grail really existed, maybe first among the Templars who had shown they were quite amenable toward Eastern mysticism. However, such ideas may not have been strange either to the House of Anjou.

Robert de Boron's "great clerics" who authored the source of his Grail book may very well have been Templar clerics. The Templar bond with the House of Anjou in Jerusalem was natural. The sources found by Wolfram at the county seat in Anjou may have consisted of the same or similar works as found with Boron. Philip, Count of Flanders, who gave Chretien his source book had obvious enough ties with Anjou through his mother Sibylla. He also helped mediate disputes between Henry II, on the one hand, and Louis VII of France and Thomas Beckett on the other. Henry II of course in addition to being the English king was also the Count of Anjou at the time.

Philip had shown keen interest in establishing marital ties with the Angevins in Jerusalem, at which time he could have easily come across the same source materials as Boron and Wolfram. It might be worth noting also that Henry II had close relations with the Templars and was the first to grant them land in England, and that Guy de Lusignan, the king who succeeded Baldwin IV in Jerusalem was Henry II's vassal.

From the Angevin and Templar connections, we can suggest that the eastern links of the Grail literature are quite likely. The Tantric influences would have come from the same sources that influenced Ismaili and other Islamic mystic traditions.




Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Barb, A. A. "Mensa Sacra: The Round Table and the Holy Grail," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 19, No. 1/2. (Jan. - Jun., 1956), pp. 40-67.

Bosworth, C. E. The Mediaeval Islamic Underworld: The Banu Sasan in Arabic Society and Literature, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1976.

Corbin, Henry. Temple and Contemplation, translated by Philip Sherrad & Liadain Sherrad, London: KPI & Islamic Publications, 1986.

__, The Voyage and the Messenger, translated by Joseph Rowe, Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 1998.

Daftary, F. The Ismailis. Their History and Doctrines, Cambridge, 1989.

Galais, Pierre. Perceval et l'Initiation, Paris: Editions Sirac, 1972.

Ivanow, Wladimir. "On the Language of the Gypsies of Qainat (in Eastern Persia)," J(R)ASB, N.S. 10/11, 1914, 439-55. Idem. "Further Notes on the Gypsies in Persia," J(R)ASB, N.S. 16, 1920, 281-91. Idem, "An Old Gypsy-Darwish Jargon," J(R)ASB, N.S. 18, 1922, 375-83. Idem, "Jargon of Persian Mendicant Darwishes," J(R)ASB, N.S. 23/1, 1927, 243-45.

Nutt, Alfred. "The Legend of the Buddha's Alms Dish and the Legend of the Holy Grail," Archaeological Review 3 (1889), 267-71.

Ponsoye, Pierre. L'Islam et le Graal étude sur l'ésotérisme du Parzival de Wolfram von Eschenbach, Éditions Arché, 1976

Ringbom, L. A. Graltempel und Paradies. Beziehungen zwischen Iran und Europa im Mittelalter, Stockholm, 1951.

Suhtshek, F. von. La Traduction du Parsiwalnama par Wolfram d'Eschenbach," Forschungen und Fortschritt, nr. 10, Berlin, 1931.

Woodroffe, John. Shakti and Shakta, Madras: Ganesh & Co., 1975.

Menzies' maps explained

Below is a copy of a recently sent press article

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
---

Meet Menzies' real mystery map-makers

Gavin Menzies went off-course when he failed to consider Southeast Asia's influence on the age of discovery, contends researcher and sambali.blogspot.com blogger Paul Kekai Manansala.

He is referring to Menzies million-selling book, _1421: The Year China Discovered the World_, that asserts a Chinese fleet led by Admiral Zheng He circumnavigated the globe about a century before Magellan.

"Menzies' book, while filled with much easily-debunked material, makes valid and important points about the appearance of revolutionary maps in the fifteenth century.
The map revolution, in fact, started about a century earlier with the appearance of the portolan maps in the 14th century -- charts used by mariners to navigate the seas," Manansala said.

Zheng He's treasure voyages were impressive and he may well have traveled further than he is normally given credit for, Manansala notes. "Menzies' assertion that the 1420 voyage past the Cape of Good Hope, mentioned by the Venetian cartographer Fra Mauro, refers to Zheng's fleet is not without merit." The vessel involved in the voyage is described as a 'ship or junk' and the Chinese admiral was sailing in the Indian Ocean at the time.

"Menzies though has ignored in his research the influence of Southeast Asia in the appearance of new navigational charts, and in particular Southeast Asia's influence in transmitting these maps to Europe."

Spice trade

The story starts many centuries before the time of Zheng He with the establishment of the spice trade, especially the Cinnamon Route from Southeast Asia to the coast of Southern Africa.

"Trade in spices dates back to ancient times, and Muslim writers mention ships traveling back and forth between Southeast Asia and Africa after the rise of Islam. They were simply confirming what had been written centuries before by Greek authors about the same Indian Ocean trade."

Aloeswood, cinnamon, cassia and other aromatics made their way from Southeast Asia to African ports and then went north to North Africa and the Middle East, and eventually to Europe.

Manansala contends that with the rise of Islam these ancient trade routes were seriously threatened for the first time by Muslim military and economic expansion.

"Sea empires known as thalassocracies in Southeast Asia decided to take a proactive stance against the new development. They attempted to recruit other political allies to help curb Muslim influence in the Indian Ocean, and they often made their appeals on the basis of common religion."

The Southeast Asian kings involved, Manansala says, were patrons of many religions, a situation not uncommon in the region during that period. "They basically became extreme examples of realpolitik and didn't hesitate to alternately represent themselves and their kingdoms as belonging to one religion when talking to one group, but to another religion when approaching someone else."

For example, he says that when the Insular Southeast Asian thalassocracy approached the Tantric Buddhist kingdoms of Tibet and Eastern India they sent Tantric Buddhist emissaries. These emissaries brought a messianic philosophy that placed the Hijra, the date on which Muhammad and his followers fled to Medina, as the beginning of the decline of the ages.

"Basically to the spice trade empire, the loss of their trade routes may have been viewed as apocalyptic in character. To Christian Europe, the Eastern king that controlled the spice trade was known as Prester John, and the latter king portrayed himself and his empire as Nestorian Christians based in a location known to Nestorians as Dabag."

Letters of Prester John

The original Prester John was from the East Indies, but in latter times the emperor of Ethiopia is also considered as "Prester John," Manansala said. However, only the Ethiopian Prester John is usually considered historical while many Western historians dismiss Prester John of the Indies as a hoax.

"Actually, the eastern Prester John sent envoys to the Vatican and to Christian emperors and kings, just like the Negus of Ethiopia, and for many centuries. While many fradulent letters did pop up during this time, most of the hoaxes appeared in published form only. It would have been dangerous to have presented oneself at the court of a medieval Christian potentate with a faked letter."

Emissaries and correspondence from the eastern Prester John were the first part of a strategy to attract Christian kingdoms into the Indian Ocean with the aim of countering Muslim influence. Eventually this evolved into the transmission of geographical and navigational knowledge, including maps.

Prester John's first letter to Europe appeared in the 12th century, but it wasn't until centuries later after Mongol conquests enabled European voyages to the Indian Ocean that we see the start of a map revolution.

The Portolan maps

In the early fourteenth century, a Venetian named Marino Sanuto submitted a book entitled "Secretum Fidelium Crucis" to the Pope outlining a plan for a crusade to capture the Indian Ocean trade routes. In this book was contained a world map by Pietro Vesconte, whose mariner's charts are the oldest surviving examples of portolan map-making.

"The historian Joseph Needham in his massive work on Chinese science has suggested that the portolan chart came as part of a package along with the magnetic compass, sand clock, stern rudder, zig-zag tables known as marteloio and other nautical inventions. The Chinese do appear to have invented many of these technologies but that doesn't mean they were necessarily the ones that transmitted them elsewhere. And the Chinese never used portolan marine charts."

The portolan is distinguished from modern maps, with their orderly grid arrangement of longitude and latitude, by a hodgepodge of crisscrossing directions known as rhumb lines. The rhumb lines radiate from circular wind compasses dispersed at various locations on the chart. They were the first European maps widely used as mariner's charts.

"Wind compasses were used by indigenous navigators in both Insular Southeast Asia and the Pacific in a manner similar to rhumb sailing using portolans. They were used by Pacific islanders -- the Melanesians, Micronesians and Polynesians -- to explore and settle the Pacific. In both Southeast Asia and the Pacific, wind compasses have survived until modern times."

Needham had suggested that Chinese maps showing directional instructions in text form near map destinations later involved into rhumb lines.

But were mariner's charts marked with rhumb lines ever used in the East? According to Manansala, such maps were mentioned and at least one with rhumb lines occurs in a 16th century Portuguese account.

"Marco Polo twice mentions the use of mariner's charts in the Indian Ocean in his famous travel journal. Marco Polo was a contemporary of Sanuto and Vesconte -- the two people linked with the earliest portolan maps."

When Portuguese explorers began plying the waters of the Indian Ocean nearly two centuries after Polo's account, they came upon a few important indigenous mariner's charts.

"Three charts encountered by the early Portuguese were deemed worthy of mention. One each from India and Brunei or Buru in the East Indies had rectangular grid systems similar to modern maps. The other was from a Javanese pilot written in the Javanese language which was covered with rhumb lines," Manansala said.

Some years after the Javanese world map was discovered by the Portuguese pilot Francisco Rodrigues, he notes, an exceptional portolan map of the world was presented by the Turkish cartographer Piri Reis to Sultan Selim I in Cairo. According to Reis, his new chart was constructed using many different maps including "four new Portuguese maps drawn using the geometric methods of the Indies and China."

The borrowed "geometric methods" mentioned by Reis would include, according to Manansala, the rhumb lines as shown on the Javanese chart.

Maps drawn mainly for foreigners?

Pilots in Southeast Asia during that time did not normally use charts as they had more ancient methods that were effective and not so costly, Manansala avers. "It's possible that some of these maps were drawn specifically to present to Europeans and others they wanted to attract to the region."

"When the British cartographer Alexander Dalrymple came to chart these regions centuries later for the British crown, he encountered suddenly many maps, and informants willing to draw maps. This occurs though after voyager after voyager before him reported that local pilots in the region used neither chart or compass. So, basically it was only during the periods when the Portuguese, and later the British, first appeared on the scene looking for assistance that we see these indigenous maps crawl out of the woodwork."

"Unfortunately, the lack of practical map use in the region may be why none of the early Insular Southeast Asian charts have survived into the present. The map discovered by Francisco Rodrigues, though, can be partially reconstructed using the book of rutters, or sailing directions, written by Rodrigues."

When the Portuguese first began their explorations on the sea, they apparently uncovered some hidden and very revealing maps. These charts mentioned by Antonio Galvão in the 16th century form part of the basis of Menzies claims on the circumnavigation of Zheng He.

Some scholars have claimed that Galvão's account of a world map in the possession of Dom Pedro, the brother of Prince Henry the Navigator, is confirmed by an official document of King Alfonso V of Portugal.

"The problem with Menzies claim is that the Galvão maps are dated to 1408 and 1428 and could not have been delivered to Dom Pedro by Nicolo de Conti as claimed by Menzies. De Conti was still traveling in Asia in 1428 according to all accounts," Manansala said.

He believes the maps may have actually been Templar charts that they obtained through Prester John before the Templar order was destroyed in the early 14th century. The Templars are closely associated with Prester John in medieval literature.

"There was a group known in Muslim writings as the Sayabiga, who are believed to have come from Insular Southeast Asia. Many of the Sayabiga became Shi'ites in the Middel Eastern region, and I think it is through them that Prester John of the Indies made contact with the Templars. Some Sayabiga may have penetrated into order of Assassins who were known to have direct relations with the Templars."

"When the Templar order was banned, many Templars along with their possessions took refuge in Cistercian monasteries. The 1408 map mentioned by Galvão was found in the archives of the Alcobaza, a Cistercian abbey where they also discovered a copy of the Templar oath."

In Portugal, the local Templars were found free of guilt after the banning of the order and the group was renamed the Order of Christ, which inherited all the Templar possessions. Later, the monarchy of Portugal was invested with the Grand Mastery of the Order of Christ, and Prince Henry the Navigator himself became a Grand Master. Dom Pedro, Henry's brother who discovered the other Galvão map in Italy was also a member of the Order of Christ.

New view of the world

The maps mentioned by Galvão were said to show a world much different than that of previous European maps.

The Cape of Good Hope was shown as passable, and even the Strait of Magellan in the "New World" was supposedly displayed a century before Magellan. "Up until that time, Europeans did not believe one could pass into the Indian Ocean by sea."

However, in the East, the Mongol Atlas and the still-surviving Kangnido Map from Korea do show a very accurate and passable continent of Africa. They don't display anything though that would correspond to the "Western hemisphere."

The first Asian map to show something from the Western hemisphere was the afore-mentioned Javanese map of Francisco Rodrigues. Alfonso de Albuquerque said the Javanese map 'was the finest thing he had ever seen' and apparently the chart contained much information unfamiliar to the Portuguese in 1512.

"Many scholars have interpreted the Javanese map as an example of how the news of European discoveries was penetrating even to far-off Java, but the chart might instead explain the earlier mysterious Galvão charts," Manansala said. "Those charts were said to contain navigational information for sailing the Indies, that is, they were mariner's charts, just like the Javanese map. They may have been marked with rhumb lines like the Javanese chart."

The 1428 map of Dom Pedro may have helped encourage the early Portuguese navigations, but those voyates proceeded only with extreme caution. The maps were dusty and disconnected from reality according to Manansala. The Portuguese apparently interpreted notes on Prester John as relating to Ethiopia rather than the Indies.

It was not until a European witness returned from traveling in the Indian Ocean had confirmed this earlier information that the most daring voyages occured. This European witness was Nicolo de Conti.

"After de Conti returned to Europe you began to see maps and globes appearing reguarly showing the Western Hemisphere. This information probably did not come out of nowhere. Fra Mauro mentions a journey by a ship or junk from the Indies through the Cape of Good Hope around 1420. Supposedly that voyage covered a total of 32,000 kilometers. There probably were other similar journeys around the same time, if not well before."

One of the key pieces of evidence used by Menzies to prove that Zheng He sailed around the world is a stash of artifacts known as metates and manos found in a ship wreck off the coast of the southern Philippines. Menzies claims the metates and manos were exclusive to the Americas.

"Menzies' critics often respond that metates and manos were also found in very ancient Paleolithic and Neolithic China, but these arguments are really out-of-sync. The appearance of these artifacts in the Pandanan wreck is very unusual and definitely worthy of investigation. As evidence, they are really the only hard artifacts that Menzies offers presumbly from the New World but located in the Old World."

The location of the Pandanan wreck is telling according to Manansala because it was near his suggested base of operations of Prester John during the Ming dynasty.

"Yes, Prester John was still active at that time and Nicolo de Conti claimed not only to have met him but that he was married to a woman of that country by the king! During the Ming dynasty, Prester John kingdom was known as Lusung, from which we get the name of the modern island of Luzon in the Philippines."

More Romanesque motifs: Tree of Jesse and the Tree of Life

The Tree of Jesse is another Romanesque-Gothic motif worth examining for evidence for the eastern influence that I have suggested was largely brought by Sayabiga settlers -- a segment of which may have become or fused with the people known as Agotes.

In 1929, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy had suggested that the theme of the reclining, sleeping Visnu giving birth to the creator god Brahma through a lotus sprouting from his navel, a form of Visnu also known as Padmanabha or  Anantasayana, was the probable source of the Tree of Jesse motif.  I would add that not only was the Padmanabha a source but also the Tree of Life theme from Southeast Asia, and the related motifs found on totem poles and textiles from the same region.



Visnu reclining and sleeping on a bed of serpents (Anantasesa) in the Milky Ocean gives rise to the creator deity Brahma via a lotus that sprouts from his navel.  The relief above is from Ellora Cave 15 and dates to the late 8th century.  (Source: elloracaves.org)



The oldest complete Tree of Jesse depiction from the Chartres Cathedral in France dating to 1145.  Based on Isaiah's prophecy: "there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots" (Isaiah 11:1), the window shows Jesse at the bottom with the tree rising out of his "navel."  (Source: Sacred Destinations)




The full Tree of Jesse from Chartres showing the lineage of Jesus from Jesse. (Source: Tree of Jesse, Wikipedia) 



Padmanabha image from Hampi, India. (Source: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-photo/lraleigh/youarehere./1175963580/img_2579.jpg/tpod.html)


The prototype of the Visnu-Padmanabha motif is found in the Atharvaveda, generally dated to at least the 6th century BCE, which mentions a Great Yaksa, or tree spirit, that sleeps on the cosmic ocean.  Periodically, a lotus springs from the Yaksa's navel giving birth to the creator Prajapati.  When the worship of Visnu began to come to the fore, that deity took the place of the Yaksa in Vaisnava lore.

Visnu-Padmanabha in more or less full form first appears at the 6th century CE Deogarh Temple in central India although in this case the lotus emerges from in back of Visnu from the ocean rather than from his navel.  The example above from Ellora is an early example of the motif with the lotus and Brahma arising from Visnu's navel.  In many cases, the Tree of Jesse springs from in back of the patriarch rather than from his navel, probably for reasons of artistic preference since the tree trunk must taper to a very small diameter when coming from the navel, and looks like it is coming from the belly when the trunk is depicted in a more realistic proportion.

In some cases, the Tree of Jesse is also shown specifically coming from the navel as in the early13th century Bavarian ivory panel shown below.



Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tree_of_Jesse_Louvre_OA10428.jpg


An example of the Visnu-Padmanabha theme that overlaps with the Romanesque period is the giant bronze statue from Angkor in Cambodia dated to the 11th century.  The surviving fragment of this statue is eight feet long and according to some estimates the entire artifact would exceed 20 feet in length making it the largest bronze statue of the ancient or medieval period still extant, if only partially so. 

While the motif of humans or deities arising from vegetation that springs from the navel of a sleeping, reclining male progenitor seems certainly to come from an Indic source, the specific "family tree" motif seems to have Southeast Asian connections.

Firstly, the form of the "tree" is not the classic "family tree" of modern genealogies.  The tree has a vertical orientation similar to pedigree poles and pedigree lineages displayed in Southeast Asian textiles.  In the case of the Tree of Jesse, the older ancestors are at the bottom starting with Jesse and the lineage is shown in order as one goes higher all the way up to Mary, the mother of Jesus, who appears just below her son.

In a similar sense, the totemic pedigree pole generally shows ancestors in order in a vertical fashion.  And in Southeast textiles, ancestor figures, either anthropomorphic or symbolic, are often shown connected, interlocked or overlapping in a vertical fashion based on order of descent.




Maori totem pole, Mt. Victoria, New Zealand (Source: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dNAo2GzCDCTMiixEzAVvOA)




Maori totem pole (Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robdickson/370674999/)


Totem pole from Borneo (Source: http://www.taicollection.com/files/index.htm)



Ikat hinggi from Sumba, Indonesia. (Source: http://www.trocadero.com/stores/cranegallery/items/946080/item946080.html)




Mandaya ikat from Mindanao, Philippines with anthropomorphic figures. (Source: http://www.trocadero.com/bundok48/items/930832/en1.html)



Moai or stone statues from Easter Island are found in ceremonial plots known as ahu, which is also the name of the descent group associated with each group of moai.  The statues, the earliest dating back to about 1000-1100 CE, are believed to be those of prominent ancestors and they face towards the lineage's community.  The arrangement in neat rows could possibly show order of descent as in the totem pole, although for practical reasons the moai could not be arranged vertically. (Source: http://www.world-mysteries.com/easter_island.htm)

If one looks closely at the Tree of Jesse images above (click on source links for full size options) from Chartres Cathedral, the figures are not clearly seated (although they could be leaning on the tree trunk) and have their arms outstretched holding the branches of the tree.  One could interpret this as a variation of the squatting figure motif mentioned in the post "More on "Tantric" influence on Romanesque art," with the hands raised up. As mentioned in that article, the squatting figure motif often has ancestral significations.  A similar type of positioning is seen at York Minster dating to 1150, and from Canterbury Cathedral from the late 12th to early 13th century, although in the latter case the figures are seated on throne-like chairs.


Tree of Life motif in Southeast Asian pedigree representations

The burial poles of indigenous peoples of Borneo like the Iban and Kenyah and known by names like pantar and sanggaran are decorated with mythical motifs like the hornbill, the serpent or dragon, spears, swords, and jars.  In the local belief system, these burial poles are seen as symbols of the Tree of Life.



Totem burial pole at the Sarawak Museum. These poles are seen as representing the Tree of Life. (Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32734523@N08/3060638554)

The vegetative motifs and the birds and serpents often displayed on Maori totem poles indicate that a similar belief system may have also operated at one time with these memorial carvings.

In a similar system, representations of ancestors and totems on Southeast Asian textiles are often shown together with representations of the Tree of Life.



A ba baby carrier from Borneo showing a squatting guardian figure clutching a stylized Tree of Life. (Source: http://www.lelong.com.my/Auc/List/2010-04DeStd58768938_AUCTION_-Traditional-BABY-CARRIER-beads-craft-art-antiques-Dayak.htm)


Tree of Life in Southeast Asia and Oceania

Waruno Mahdi and Stephen Oppenheimer have studied the importance of the Tree of Life theme in the regions of Southeast Asia and Oceania.  Mahdi compared beliefs in this region to those in South Asia, while Oppenheimer studied the Tree of Life myths worldwide.

According to Mahdi, the Tree of Life in Southeast Asia, Oceania and South Asia was predominantly associated with Ficus species due to the characteristic of having aerial roots.



Aerial roots at Ta Promh, Cambodia (Source: http://www.myseveralworlds.com/2007/11/09/the-banyans-of-ta-prohm/)


Aerial roots (Source: http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1131080103044331310ksDLmg)

Aerial roots extending from the branches to the ground were seen as representing the connection between sky and earth, between the upper and lower worlds in many Austronesian cultures and also in other regional mythologies.  The important of the aerial roots relates not only to the mythology, ritual and folklore, but also apparently to shamanic practices, for example, the Tree of Life motif appears on textiles used in regional shamanic ritual.

However, it was not simply symbols of the Tree of Life that were used. More commonly actual Banyan or Benjamin type trees were placed on temples or ceremonial platforms, or such structures to include meetings houses were located adjacent to particularly significant trees.  Also, ritual ceremony and dance grounds were often marked off by perimeters that corresponded to the shadow cast by a great Ficus with aerial branches. In some cases, the ritual center was carved out of the tree itself.



The Hindu-Buddhist Kalpataru Tree at the Borobudur stupa in Java. Geese and possibly half-geese kinnaras-kinnaris are shown under the tree. (Source: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=225953707&albumID=495816&imageID=3808997)



Stylized Orang Ulu Tree of Life from Sarawak with aerial roots spiraling to ground.  (Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/3877832454/)




Tree of Life at the Wat Xieng Thong Temple built in 1560,  Luang Prabang, Laos. (Source: Luang Prabang)



Some Romanesque trumeaus and the Tree of Life

Both Mahdi and Oppenheimer note in their studies the close linkage between the Tree of Life and the bird and serpent/dragon motif.  The bird and serpent can be seen as types of opposites that represent both conflict and also the creative aspect of union. The Tree of Life itself covers many aspects of duality including the opposition of sky and earth, male and female, and death and resurrection, along with related themes involving warring brothers, jealousy, greed, and fertility.

The trumeau, or tympanum column, below is from Sainte-Marie, Souillac, France dating to 1120-35.


Source: http://www.wga.hu/html/zgothic/1romanes/po-12c11/12f_1100.html

For the full size image of the trumeau, click here.

You can see that from three corners of the capital there appear to be what could be interpreted as aerial roots curving down all the way to the base of the trumeau. The claws of the topmost bird figure can be seen clutching one of these roots or branches.

While the scenes involving various creatures gnawing at each other have been interpreted as "hellish," there are obvious Biblical references included on the column such as the Sacrifice of Isaac.

The Sacrifice of Isaac might be appropriate here for it is viewed a symbol of the death and resurrection of Christ, which in turn is a model of the dying and rising tree i.e., the Tree of Life. The gnawing beasts -- griffins, dragons, reptiles, lions -- might represent the conflict associated with the journey from birth to death.  Scenes of violence, hunting, biting, etc. are also often also displayed in Southeast Asian depictions of the Tree of Life.

In trumeaus from Moissac that are believed related to the Souillac one, the bodies of human figures (St. Paul and Prophet Jeremiah) are shown elongated with especially the legs looking like the aerial roots or branches as shown in the Souillac trumeau.



Note the long, root-like legs.  Source: http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/Images/arth212images/Romanesque/Moissac/trumeau.jpg




Source: http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/Images/ARTH212images/Romanesque/Moissac/trumeau_paul.jpg


One can also view the scrolling branches and the scrolls held by the prophets to side of each ancestor in the Chartres Jesse Tree above as representing aerial roots.  The scrolls held by the prophets flanking Jesse seem to fall down from above their heads and reach all the way to the ground.

Tightly-interlocked animals and humans on the Souillac and Moissac trumeaus might also be seen as similar to a mass of intertwined aerial roots.  The practice of closely interlocking or compressing animals in totemic designs can be found in both Southeast Asia and the Pacific as seen in some of the examples below.





Maori totem pole with highly stylized representations of birds (beaks) and other creatures. (Source: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/wQbwaprEGJRy7xRciJK0Gw)





Maori totem pole (Source: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/xzN3UmPwlz4vCFNG350lAQ)

From Oppenheimer, illustration 32, depicting spirit brothers Lawena and Dawena with one of the cockatoos holding a severed head in its beak, from incised bamboo, Kambot, Papua New Guinea.

From Oppenheimer, illustration 16, Wain and followers showing images tightly compressed in space with many of the creatures biting at the genital areas of others, from incised bamboo, Kambot, Papua New Guinea.



Totem pole from Borneo with stylized hornbill and other creatures. (Source: http://mykambatikworld.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post.html)


A modern Maori totem pole designed for tourists.  Here the stylized animals are transformed in to realistic Western-style representations. (Source: http://www.fly-to-neverland.com/nz/nz7.html)


Sets of motifs

The suggested cognates in motifs between the Visnu-Padmanabha theme from India and the Tree of Jesse are:

• Male ancestor or primordial deity is shown reclining with vegetation rising out of navel.
• The said figure is usually shown as sleeping with eyes closed.
• The head is often resting on or propped up by hand.
• The said figure is usually reclining on right side with head on right hand.
• The vegetation can sprout either out of the navel or from the rear of the said figure, in the case of the Tree of Jesse sometimes from his side.
• Humans or deities are sitting, standing or squatting on the vegetation rising out of the navel.

Tree of Jesse (Capuchin's Bible, c. 1180) showing the patriarch reclining on his right side with eyes closed and head resting on right hand, compare with images of Visnu above.  (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JesseTree.JPG)



 Tree of Jesse (Scherenberg Psalter, c.1260), with head propped on right hand and eyes closed. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cod_St_Peter_perg_139_Scherenberg-Psalter_7v_.jpg)


The Southeast Asian Tree of Life motifs found in common with the Tree of Jesse motif are:

• Vertical arrangement of ancestors in order of descent.
• Ancestors are placed in or around tree.
• Ancestors may be framed in branches/aerial roots of tree, and may be grasping these branches/aerial roots.
• Ancestors may be shown in variation of squatting figure motif -- front-facing with arms outstretched to the side and hands raised.
• The ancestor figures are often connected -- by the trunk of the tree, a root/vine, a line, etc. 
• The Souillac and Moissac trumeaus appear to have representations or stylized representations of aerial roots and the depiction of animals on the columns is similar to that seen on totem poles and other indigenous art in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Dating of the motifs in Southeast Asia and the Pacific can be difficult.  For example, squatting figures may be found arranged in either vertical or horizontal lines, and may be connected together, but we cannot say for sure that this represents an ancestral lineage.

Also, in modern times, something as simple as a triangle can represent the Tree of Life to one set of textile weavers, the Cosmic Mountain to another, and both motifs to yet another group of weavers.  However, we do not know for sure that such simple symbols had the same meaning long ago.

However, the combination of South Asian and Southeast Asian motifs fits in nicely with the idea of Sayabiga transmission during the Romanesque period.  The kingdom of Zabag (Sabag) was highly influenced by Tantric Buddhism and other cultural streams from India, and of course, they would have been very familiar with Southeast Asian symbolism.


Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. "The Tree of Jesse and Indian Parallels or Sources," The Art Bulletin, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Jun., 1929), pp. 216-220.

Mahdi, Waruno. "Linguisitc and philogical data towards a chronology of Austronesian activity in India and Sri Lanka," IN: Roger Blench, Matthew Spriggs. Archaeology and Language IV: Language Change and Cultural Transformation, Routledge (UK), 1999.

Stephen Oppenheimer. Eden in the East: The Drowned Continent of Southeast Asia, Phoenix, 1999.

Mandalas, Wheel Windows and Rose Windows

Following up on my posts on the evidence of "Tantric" eastern influences in Romanesque Europe, one very interesting element that pops up in Romanesque churches is the wheel window.

The wheel window generally adorns the west fronts of these churches staring in about the 12th century.  The subsequent rose window is widely believed to have been derived from the wheel window.  Most scholars see the wheel window as a development of the earlier Roman oculi, a circular opening in structures for ventilation and lighting.

However, most do admit that the designs of the wheel and rose window may indicate foreign influences. For example, some have suggested that the designs may have come from the six-petaled rosettes of the Khirbat al-Mafjar in Jordan.

A stronger argument exists, I think, linking the wheel window with the dharma cakra (wheel of law), and the initial rose window designs with the mandala.  These cultural elements could have been brought over, again, by the Sayabiga and related peoples.

Firstly, many of the earliest wheel windows have eight "spokes" as in these examples from 12th century Norman England:


Patrixbourne


Barfreston 



Castle Hedingham


(Source for photos:  Mary Berg at the Kent Archaeology Page)


The dharma cakra appears very early in Indian art, for example, in the Asokan architecture, but the spoke number can vary.  By the late ancient period though, the eight-spoked dharma chakra becomes well-established and it is the classical type used in Tibetan Buddhism.  At churches with eight-spoked wheel windows, we often see that many motifs also occur in groups of eight.

Another noteworthy similarity found in many early wheel windows is the use of the column motif for the "spokes."  In the Barfreston and Patrixbourne examples above, these column-spokes form a likeness of a trefoil arch between each spoke.

A traditional widespread form of the dharma chakra displays trefoil-like "knobs" that appear to protrude from each "spoke" through the "rim" of the dharma wheel as in the examples below:


 A dharmacakra on the flag of Sikkim.  Note the trefoil-like knob at each quadrant. (Source: Wikipedia)


A dharma cakra manufactured in Xining, China with large trefoil designs, one for each spoke. (Source: Wikipedia)


Another similarity is that the "rim" in both the dharma chakra and the window wheel is wide and often very ornately decorated, for example, with vegetative motifs.

A very striking comparison can be made between the wheel window of Barfrestron and the dharma cakras found on the Sun Temple of Konark, eastern India, which dates to the 13th century.  In both cases, the rims are decorated with the respective bestiaries of each culture.

Bestiary on rim of Barfreston wheel window includes griffins, winged lions, harpies, crabs and other creatures both real and fabulous. (Source: http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/bestiary_arches.pdf)

Rim of dharma wheel at Sun Temple of Konarak has elephants, swans, deer, deities, mythical creatures and sensuous couples displayed in a circular vine motif.


Rose windows

The early rose windows were obviously similar to the wheel windows that came before.  For example, the following window from the cathedral at Chartres dating to the late 12th century is sometimes called a rose window and sometimes a wheel window.



Wheel window at Chartres Cathedral (Source:  http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/chartres-cathedral-photos/)


Here there are twelve column-like spokes in the central figure creating arch-like "petals."  The design is very much like the mandalas of Tibet.

While Tibetan tradition states that mandalas were originally taught by the Buddha, the first mandalas to appear on murals date from about the 10th century.  By the 11th century, highly-sophisticated textile mandalas were made.  While the word "mandala" can refer to any circular type of design, but in Tibetan art it generally referred to a representation of the cosmos that was concentric in nature.

The concentric design of mandalas often resulted in fractal patterns. For example, many Buddhist mandalas  display the fractal plane known as the Sierpinski Carpet.  Even a simple design of concentric circles is fractal in a way -- the outer circle surrounds a circle that in turn surrounds a circle surrounding a circle.

More complex fractal patterns can include, for example, a circle of Buddhas encircled by smaller circles of Buddhas.



The Mandala of the Six Cakravartins dates at least to the 11th-12th century Vajravali text, although it is based on an earlier prototype.  The mandala above was created in the 19th century.  In this mandala, a Cakravartin, or World Emperor, is enclosed in a circle surrounded by eight deities in lotus petal-like containers. The lotus is encircled and placed in a square with cruciform "gates."  Five other Cakravartins in similar presentation surround the central figure. (Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mandala_of_the_Six_Chakravartins.JPG)




A 14th century Vajravarahi Awakening Mandala shows a central eight-petaled lotus or rosette with deity figures surrounded by smaller six-petaled lotuses. (Source: http://www.asianart.com/mandalas/page14.html)


In the wheel window of Chartres Cathedral the central lotus or rose-like figure has twelve "petals" and has a rosette-like figure at its center with twelve apses.  The rose is surrounded by smaller circles with eight apses.

These figures with the apses may possibly be related to the description giving in Titurel during the 13th century of the Grail Temple:




Grail Temple plan after Ringbom (A. A. Barb, 1956: 34) following descriptions in Titurel. 


In the following sand painting of a Mandala Palace, the outermost lotus figure has 22 petals, which can be compared to the 22 apses of Titurel's Grail Temple.  The number 22 in Tibetan Buddhism can represent the 22 deities of the Kalacakra Deity's Palace, the 22 Bodhisattvas, etc.



Source: http://buddhistsymbols.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/mandala.jpg


  
Architectural changes during the Romanesque period

Changes in design and orientation are also supportive of the idea of eastern influences in line with those already described in this and previous posts.

For example, we see the rise of cruciform churches during this period.  The new architecture is generally seen as a fusion of the Visigothic cruciform church and Mozarabic design elements.  However, one interesting feature is the idea of the church representing Paradise -- something that is carried on into the Gothic period.

The churches now have gates or portals that can be viewed as entrances into a representation of either the divine or the terrestrial paradise.  One interpretation of the trees, vegetation and rivers represented in Romanesque and Gothic churches is that they are intended to represent the Garden of Eden. The palm tree, in particular, is represented as the Tree of Paradise.  In a similar sense, the terraced pyramid temple of Southeast Asia, which also had a cruciform building plan, represented the cosmic mountain, the axis mundi.

Additionally, during this period the churches began to be pointed in an eastward direction.  The high altar was placed at the "top" of the cross in the easternmost part of the church.  However, the churches were not oriented directly at the rising Sun during the equinoxes.  They usually diverged from a few degrees to 15 or more degrees from true East.  Previously Christian churches had no particular orientation and could be facing in any direction.

Now the great majority of temples in South and Southeast Asia traditionally had the same orientation -- toward the East but rarely toward true East.

Various explanations have been given for the orientation of Romanesque churches including the idea that they faced the Sun on first day of building or on the patron saint's day.  Some have also suggested that compasses were used for orientation and that they were thrown off by magnetic declination.

One possibility that could be tested is whether the churches or a subset of them were oriented toward a fixed geographical location like the mosque was oriented toward Mecca.  Giving the paradisaical themes of Romanesque churches, they may, for example, have been pointed toward the perceived location of the Garden of Eden in the East.  If this were the case, then we should see that the churches tend to face more southward as the church's location is more eastward in longitude and northward in latitude.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Abrahamsen, Niels. Orientation of Romanesque Churches and Magnetic Declination in the 12th Century in Denmark. GeoSkrifter, 23. Aarhus: Geologisk Institut Aarhus Universitet, 1985.

Brunius, Teddy. "Old nordic churches and the points of compass" Konsthistorisk Tidskrift/Journal of Art History 66.4 (1997). 03 May. 2010.

Cowen, Painton.  The Rose Window, London and New York, 2005

Grabar, Oleg. Constructing the Study of Islamic Art 2 Islamic Visual Culture, 1100 - 1800. Aldershot [u.a.]: Ashgate Variorum, 2006, 387.

Graham, Robert Maxtone. The Sculptures at the Church of St Nicholas, Barfreston, http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/bestiary_arches.pdf, 2008.

Hoare, Peter G., Caroline S Sweet, "The orientation of early medieval churches in England," Journal of Historical Geography, Volume 26, Issue 2, April 2000. 

Hughes, Robert. Heaven and Hell in Western Art. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968.


Kubach, Hans Erich. Romanesque Architecture. History of world architecture. New York: Abrams, 1975.