Magadha (Glossary)

Magadha, the ancient state or janapada, located in modern Bihar, East India, was an important location for the development of Indian religion and South Asian urbanization.

Jainism and Buddhism are closely linked with Magadha, and Upanishadic thought in Hinduism flourished in this region and neighboring Videha, the latter location found in modern southern Nepal.

Urbanization is a controversial subject in South Asian studies. The first urbanization phase in the region is found in Harappan civilization of northwestern India and Pakistan. While elements of Harappan culture certainly seemed to have survived into the historic period, the second phase of urbanization at Magadha seems to have evolved separately.

Austric influence on Indian cultural development including urbanization has been studied previously particularly with reference to the Austro-Asiatic peoples. A few scholars like S.K. Chatterji and Waruno Mahdi have also looked at Austronesian contributions.

Urbanization and Buddhism

The history of proto-urban culture in Magadha is found in the writings of the life of the Buddha and the early Sangha, the organized Buddhist community.

The kings of Magadha were able to establish supremacy over other local peoples known as Vajje (Vrjji) by the building of new fortresses and weapons.

In order to understand this we can look at the archaeological picture of the region at the time which consisted of agricultural villages and some modestly-fortified towns. At Rajgir, where Buddhist texts say the first Magadhan capital was erected we indeed find remains of a massive cyclopean wall dating back possibly to the sixth century BCE.


Cyclopean wall of Rajgir, Bihar

Earlier, I suggested that impulses for Magadhan urbanization came from the South rather than from the West as often asserted. This would also agree with Indian tradition.

The Puranas and other historical texts tell us that Manu Vaivasvata, the founder of the historical dynasties of Magadha and other Indian kingdoms came from South India -- from Dravida or the river Kritamala. This tradition of southern origins may even go back to Vedic times as both Yama and the Pitris (ancestors) are associated with the southern direction in Vedic literature.

According to the Mahabharata, one faces south while offering rice balls to the Pitris because that is where Visnu, in the form of a boar, created the ancestors.

South Indian Megalithic

Magadhan urbanization may owe its origin to impulses from the megalithic cultures of Sri Lanka and South India, and the cyclopean masonry of the former.

The cyclopean wall, megalithic burials and rock-cut caves are all represented in the southern megalithic cultures. The polished black ware of the South Indian megalithic may well be related to the Northern Polished Black Ware that characterizes Magadhan urban sites.

Urn burial, the chaitya design, even the brahmi script all have antecedents in the South.

The Sri Lankan site of Anuradhapura extended to 10 hectares by 800 BCE and 50 hectares by 600 BCE. It could very well have been a model for early Rajgir.

Sakadvipa and the South

Some connection of the South with the eastern island of Sakadvipa is also indicated by historical and other texts. Manu Vaivasvata is the son of Vivasvat, a form of the Sun God, often associated with Sakadvipa.

The Maga or priests of Sakadvipa are said to have been formed when the rays of the Sun were pared on Visvakarman's lathe in Sakadvipa. The paring of the Sun here appears as another form of the snaring or shooting of the Sun myth, in which the brightness or heat of the solar orb is reduced.

Maga is the name of the brahmin or priest of Sakadvipa. The Magas seem to have survived as the present-day Sakadwipi brahmins who live mostly around Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and eastern Uttar Pradesh.

The Skandapurana says that the Magas were first brought from Sakadvipa by Dasaratha, the father of the epic hero Rama. Sakadwipi tradition suggests they came indirectly through Sri Lanka. The Skandapurana also states a king named Gaya and his brahmins were afflicted with leprosy and were told by the Sun God to drink water in which Sakadvipa brahmins had washed their feet. They then went to the shores of the Milky Ocean and were cured.

Later the Skandapurana says Krishna brings the Magas of Sakadvipa to India to cure his son Samba of leprosy. The sun priests of Sakadvipa apparently had some talent in treating this disease. Afterward, Krisna persuades the Magas to settle at Sambakhyagram in Magadha.

It may be then this indicates a relationship between the name "Magadha" and "Maga," the name of the priests of Sakadvipa. Magadha is also the name for the kingly caste of Sakadvipa according to classical sources.

The earliest evidence of trade-like contact between South India and Insular Southeast Asia may go back to 1100 BCE-800 BCE when we see perforated ringfoot burial jars in South Indian megaliths. Perforated ringfoot jars are a feature of the Taiwanese Lungshanoid and they are also found in Novaliches, Philippines.

Around the same time we find evidence in Vietnam and the Philippines of agate and carnelian beads, and glass beads that resemble natural South Indian beryl crystals. Radiocarbon dates at the burial urn site of Phu Hoa produced wide-ranging figures of 1408 BCE-38 BCE and 814 BCE-164 BCE. Later around the middle of the sixth century BCE we see a proliferation of tripod vessels and the use of burial urns in Southeast Asia and South India.

Archaeologist Arun Malik and bioanthropologist Pathmanathan Raghavan have studied a massive clay urn burial ground at Adichanallur in South India with 167 urns dated to 2,800 years ago. They found that the osteological evidence suggests the presence of people who resembled Southeast Asian along with peoples resembling the present-day population pointing to an ancient trade or cultural relationship. Some of these jars have undeciphered inscriptions in a script identified as Tamil Brahmi.

Noting these relationships, it may also be that the highly-polished black ware of the South Indian megaliths found in conjunction with the characteristic polished black and red ware, was related to polished black ware further east.

Mainland Lungshanoid culture is characterized by polished black pottery. Musang Cave in northern Luzon (Cagayan Province) has black polished pottery at Layer II dated to 4340 BCE-2530 BCE, and highly-polished black ware is found in some quantites at the Lungshanoid Fengpitou site in Taiwan.

It is also worth noting that the dynasty of Ajatasatru, the king who built the fortress of Rajgir, was known as Saisu-Naga, with "Naga" also appearing as the name of one of the peoples associated with the megalithic/cyclopean works of Sri Lanka. "Naga" appears as a prefix as in Nagadasaka or a suffix as in Sisunaga in the names of Magadhan kings and it may be used as an ethnic indicator.

Saisunaga Dynasty

We can say that the indigenous peoples of Sri Lanka and South India had a black and red pottery tradition that may link either with the north possibly coming ultimately from Africa (Nubia and Upper Egypt), or may come directly from the latter region.

Iron-working traditions of the southern megalithic may have diffused from the Vindhyan region or the neighboring areas of the Ganges River valley. South India also developed a stone and glass bead-making industry.

Sometime before 1000 BCE the southern Dravidian and also possibly Austro-Asiatic peoples came into rather close contact with Nusantao maritime peoples from Insular Southeast Asia (Sakadvipa) carrying Lungshanoid-influenced cultural goods.

The Northern Black Polished Wares may signal the movement of a culturally-mixed group northward into East India including the Magadha region. The black pottery may relate directly to the polished black ware of the South Indian megalithic and even to the Lungshanoid polished black wares.

Puranic tradition vaguely describes these southern migrations in the legendary history of Manu Vaivasvata's journey from Dravida to the Himalayas, and the establishment of the first Magadha dynasty. The newcomers effected the political and cultural climate, but apparently adopted the local languages.

Some of these contacts appear to have persisted until the rise of the Saisunaga Dynasty and possibly some stone workers from the South helped build the fortifications at Rajgir. Thus, we can explain the cyclopean walls, megalithic burials, chaityas, rock-cut caves and urn burials.

Placement of the bones of the deceased in urns, sometimes in underground chambers as in Ajatasatru's tomb, is another point of comparision with the south were stone cist burials were the rule.

These cist burials have sometimes been compared to those of West Asia because a few have porthole openings, but they also show some interesting correspondence with stone cist graves to the East. At Peinan in southern Taiwan, we have the oldest scientifically datable megaliths in tropical eastern Asia dating to about 3000 BCE.

Here more than 1500 stone cist graves have been uncovered, most under the slate slab floors of houses. These houses were often built with corbeled slab walls and stone courtyards. Urn burials in stone cists are also found under house floors in the South Indian megalithic.


Kalamba urn in Sulawesi, source: http://www.moxon.net/indonesia/bada_valley.html


Plain of Jars, Laos, heavily-bombed during Vietnam War, source: http://www.bugbog.com/gallery/laos_pictures/laos_pictures_15.html


Urn field, Sulawesi, source: http://infokom-sulteng.go.id/english/fotos.php?id=8


Burial urns from Adichanallur, South India, source: http://infokom-sulteng.go.id/english/fotos.php?id=8


Burial urns from Univ. of San Carlos Museum, Philippines, click to enlarge, source: http://museum.usc.edu.ph

The raising of the mound or stupa over the cist seems to blend an eastern with a southern practice. According to the Satapatha Brahmana, the Asuras and Easterners built round burial mounds, as compared to Vedic people who built four-cornered mounds.

Sangha and state

Magadha used its new-found power quickly. Rice agriculture, which dominated in this area, was effectively utilized to support the economy.

The Saisunaga rulers forged a close relationship with the new Buddhist religion and its governing councils. The development of the monastic system, first based in rock-cut cave monasteries, necessitated the need for a governmental support system. The kings gladly exchanged their patronage for the endorsement of the Buddhist religious leaders.

Because of the interdependence between sangha and state, the expansion of Buddhism naturally meant the expansion of the state. And with the growth of the state, new techniques of government and management were needed. The resulting requirements for centralization, transporation, irrigation, drainage, etc. lead to the development of urbanizaton.

Thus, the Magadhan urbanization developed independently based on local needs tied to the expansion of a history-making new religion.

Magas and Sakadwipis

Various explanations are given for the name "Maga" describing the caste of brahmins from Sakadvipa. Often it is explained as related to the "Magi" of Persia. It is said that the Maga may have practiced Mithraism since they emphasized worship of the Sun.

However, no formal Mithraic or Zoroastrian doctrine is evident in the historical accounts of the Magas, or the Sakadwipi brahmins. Other than a few modifications of what may have been existing practices in India, the Magas were totally Hinduized.

All their gods and doctrines appear basically as Indian. Their main religious thrust again was to stress Sun worship, but even here they used the Indian sun gods like Surya. Among the present-day Sakadwipi brahmins even Sun worship is no longer of prime importance and many have become Saktas, Tantrics, or worshippers of Rama, Krisna, Radha, etc.

The other castes of Sakadvipa are generally given as Magadha for the Kshatriya caste of India, Manasa for the Vaisya caste and Mandaga for the Sudra caste. Other sources give caste names like Marga, Masaka, Manga, Mansa, Mriga, etc.

It is evident that these caste names are based on the initial syllable "ma." There is something similar in the names of the four Kumaras, Sanaka, Sananda and Sanat and Sanatana where the "sa" syllable is found in the initial position.

Sometimes one hears that the "saka" in Sakadvipa is related to the ethnonym "Saka" meaning "Scythian" which is given as another argument for the Magas as Persian Magi. However, like the continents Jambu (Rose Apple), Kusa (a grass species), Plaksa (fig tree), Salmali (Silk Cotton tree) and Puskara (lotus), the name Saka refers to a plant, in this case the teak tree.

Sakadvipa was located to the East in the tropical Milky Ocean. Svetadvipa, placed on the northern shores of this ocean, appears as a sub-region of Sakadvipa. It may be that the Magas helped promote the importance of Svetadvipa among worshippers of Narayana, a form of Visnu, in early India.

The Kumaras are said to have visited Svetadvipa, which according to the epics was an important place of pilgrimage to meet Narayana himself.

In Kalacakra Buddhism, the extra-South Asian destination of pilgrims to the East is Suvarnadvipa (Shambhala), and this may simply be a continuation of the efforts of the earlier Magas to highlight the spiritual importance of the region. Like the Magas, the kings of Suvarnadvipa had special relations with East India. They were also strongly present in South India and Sri Lanka, and this may also be the case of the Magas given a southern route into East India as discussed above.

The Mahabharata comments that the people of Sakadvipa were known for their egalitarianism:

In these provinces [of Sakadvipa], O monarch, there is no king, no punishment, no person that deserves to be punished. Conversant with the dictates of duty they are all engaged in the practice of their respective duties and protect one another. This much is capable of being said of the island called Saka. This much also should be listened to about that island endued with great energy."

-- Mahabharata, Bhima Parva, 11

It may be of interest to study the relationship of the Vajje (Vrjji) confederacy in Magadha and Kosala during the Buddha's time to see if there could be some Maga influence on regional political relationships. On the whole, Maga influence on religious thinking appears to have been less than the East-West exchange that occured during the formation of Tantric doctrine in East and South India, and eastern and southeastern Asia.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Peregrine, Peter N. (EDT) and Melvin (EDT) Ember. Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Springer, 2001, p. 306.

Tarling, Nicholas. The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia,Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Lungshanoid (Glossary)

One major assertion in this work is that a volcanic eruption on Luzon during the 4th millennium BCE caused upheavels resulting in expanded Nusantao migration and trading clan wars.

The dispersion of Lungshanoid culture, where ever it originates, is one signature of the resulting activity in the region.

Hoabinhian background

Understanding the Neolithic situation in Southeast Asia starts with the Mesolithic Hoabinhian culture and also takes into account Wilhelm Solheim's latest theories on the Nusantao.

Solheim now proposes that "Pre-Austronesian" culture begins in the Bismarck Islands off northwestern Papua New Guinea beginning around 13,000 to 10,000 BP. He cites specifically the appearance of arboriculture and shell artifacts at this time.

He proposes that by at least 10,000 BP interaction networks had been established from the Bismarcks to Indochina and South China. Here they came into contact with Hoabinhian culture. Previously, Solheim has suggested that tool edge-grinding in northern Australia radiocarbon dated to about 20,000 BCE was of Hoabinhian provenance.

Carl Sauer and Solheim have suggested that simple agriculture may have begun as early as 15,000 BCE or even 20,000 BCE in mainland Southeast Asia based on Hoabinhian finds. Although the oldest radiocarbon dates for plant remains go back only to 9700 BCE, other evidence is found in successively deeper layers with no radiometric dating. Solheim has suggested a time scenario based on the depth of these layers.

Hoabinhian culture utilized chipped pebble tools, a "pebble" referring to a gravel stone of certain diameter. They appear to have used a simple hoe, one of the oldest known farming artifacts, consisting of a transversly-hafted adze, and to have made cord-marked pottery.

The cords used by the Hoabinhian and the roughly contemporary Jomon to the north provide some of the earliest evidence of hand-spinning in the world. We also find evidence of mat-making from mat impressions in the pottery.

Some early long-range dispersions of the Pre- or Proto-Austronesians appear to have been caused by sea flooding in Southeast Asia, and these could account, for example, in cultural changes seen at places like Spirit Cave in 6600 BCE.

Shell culture

In the region of the Philippines and eastern Indonesia, a culture based on shell tools and shellfish gathering emerged sometime around 7000 BCE.

Wilfredo Ronquillo has documented some early phases of this shell mound culture including stone-flaking and shell-working at Balobok Rockshelter in the southern Philippines starting in the period 6810-6050 BCE. By 5340 BCE, we see shell and stone tools, together with some polished tools and earthenware pottery (still not classified).


A Tridacna shell adze from Palau. Source: http://www.pacificworlds.com/palau/sea/reef.cfm

The Southeast Asian and coastal East Asian tradition of polished tools is different from that of areas of inner and northern eastern Asia. In the southern areas, they continued to chip pebbles, only grinding and polishing to finish the product. This practice often continued well into the Neolithic unlike other areas where grinding and pecking displaced the chipping process.

The Insular Southeast Asian and coastal East Asian polished tools also differed from those of mainland Southeast Asia and non-coastal East Asia in that stepped adzes of quadrangular cross-section were mostly used by the former, while the latter mostly used shouldered adzes.

Balobok culture fashioned tools from the giant clam Tridacna giga, and we find this and similiar shell artifacts moving northward during the sixth millennium BCE. Shell tools pop up in Dapenkeng culture in Taiwan and in the Neolithic cultures around Hong Kong around 5000 BCE. It appears that the early shell-working in the Bismarcks was significantly enhanced in the region of the Philippines and eastern Indonesia and then taken northward by the Nusantao.

The stone and shell tool tradition in this area may be related to the earlier edge-grinding tradition in northern Australia. Most of the tools during this early period were still only edge-ground although some others like the rectangular stepped adze, found also at Dapenkeng and in the Hong Kong Neolithic sites, were more fully-polished.

At about his time we also see the appearance of the semilunar stone or shell reaping knife. It is difficult to say where this came from, but it eventually gets strongly associated with rice agriculture and becomes an important marker of Lungshanoid culture.

North-South interaction

After 5000 BCE, trade networks extending as far north as Shandong appear established. A two-way diffusion of culture begins to take place.

The Nusantao cultural kit by this time included items like the stepped adze/axe of rectangular cross-section, the semilunar reaping knife, the spindle whorl probably borrowed from the north, clay/stone net sinkers, perforated discs that may have been indigenous spindle whorls and/or net sinkers, shell tools and beads.


The image shows the process of reducing stone into the semilunar knive of the Korean Neolithic. Source: Pusan National University Museum, http://pnu-museum.org

Lungshanoid culture develops with the appearance of rice agriculture and is marked by the mainland tripod and ringfoot pottery tradition, the semilunar knives and the stepped adze. Otherwise the Lungshanoid is typically Nusantao especially in the southern locations of Fujian and Taiwan.

R. Ferrell believes the Yuanshan culture of Taiwan was "Proto-Lungshanoid" while KC Chang thought the culture may have originated in China. Whatever the case, there was a lot of exchange going on.

We also know that the Taiwanese Neolithic cultures were closely related with those in the Philippines. The red-slipped Philippine wares were very closely associated along with other artifacts to the Yuanshan wares and culture. Even the Dapenkeng sees it closest correspondence with Philippine sites. A comparison of the pottery at Balobok with that of Dapenkeng could be very revealing.

In both cases the pottery traditions are probably related to the Hoabinhian methods that filtered into the islands during the early Pre-Austronesian interactions with the Hoabinhian culture, the latter seems to be categorized by Solheim as consisting largely of Proto-Austro-Tai speakers.

Interactions between Taiwan and the Philippines continued through the Lungshanoid as rice agriculture appears to enter the islands at this time by at least 3000 BCE. Lungshanoid tripod and ringfoot pottery may also radiate into Insular Southeast Asia through the Philippines. Examples of such pottery are found at Novaliches in the Philippines and Leang Buidane in Sulawesi.

Tripod and ringfoot pottery together with the practice of jar burial also eventually moves westward into South India during the megalithic period, and apparently creeps northward into eastern India, where we hear of the practice of jar burial in Buddhist literature.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Ronquillo, Wilfredo. "The 1992 Archaeological Reexcavation of the Balobok Rockshelter, Sanga Sanga, Tawi Tawi Province, Philippines: A Preliminary Report. With Mr. Rey A. Santiago, Mr. Shijun Asato and Mr. Kazuhiko Tanaka," Journal of Historiographical Institute, Okinawa Prefectural Library. No. 18, March, 1993. Okinawa, Japan pp. 1-40. 1993.

Solheim, Wilhelm, Archaeology and Culture in Southeast Asia: Unraveling the Nusantao, with contribution from David Bulbeck and Ambika Flavel, University of the Philippines Press, ND.

__, "Origins of the Filipinos and their languages," Paper presented at 9th Philippine Linguistics Congress (25-27 January 2006), University of the Philippines.

Article: Dog reverence in Southeast Asia and Pacific

The first dog remains confidently dated in Southeast Asia go back 14,000 years, but the identification is not that firm. Otherwise, clearly-identified and dated remains go back to 9000 BP. In China, the oldest confident dates go back to 9,500 BP.

Maria Isabel Ongpin excavated four successive layers at Lemery, Batangas in the Philippines including a Neolithic level (8000 BCE-4000 BCE) with dog and horse bones.

These are the oldest remains of both animals in Insular Southeast Asia (ISEA) during the present Holocene period. Interestingly, this site is associated with obsidian microliths.

Obsidian sources in ISEA have been elusive and obsidian found at Bukit Tengkorak in southeastern Sabah (Borneo), and dated to the 5th millennium BCE, is believed to come from the far-off New Hebrides in Melanesia. This indicates long distance trade, the same trade that plausibly could account for the horse and dog bones at Lemery.

Recent research has shown that the dingo of Australia is a species of domesticated dog gone wild again. Some think that the dingo was brought to Australia during the Pleistocene although others assert it was the Proto-Austronesians or Austronesians who transferred the canine species. Either way, it indicates the dog's wild ancestors must have been domesticated much earlier than the dingo's arrival. With this in mind, LV Hayes has reconstructed a Proto-Austric word for "dog" in *asu and *atsu.

As the dog and dingo descend from the wolf, it is likely that either the Chinese Wolf, Canis lupus chanco, or the Indian Wolf, Canis lupus pallipes, is involved. Canis lupus chanco, can be found as far south as Yunnan, while the Indian Wolf ranges eastward to West Bengal and Orissa.

It would seem that one of these species being well-adapted to warmer, humid climates would give rise to the dingo. Dingo-like dogs can be found throughout mainland and insular Southeast Asia, as well as Australia, Papua New Guinea and other parts of Oceania.

Sacred Dogs

In the earliest layers at Non Nok Tha in Thailand, radiocarbon dated to 5000 BCE - 4500 BCE, a full dog skeleton is found at the feet of a buried child with pig leg and jaw bones on the child's chest. This indicates a ritual significance to these animals.

Non Nok Tha and Phu Wiang also show evidence of butchering of dogs although it cannot be said whether this involved dog sacrifice.

Later at Ban Chiang, radiocarbon dated to start around 3600 BCE, we also see this continued use of the dog in burials, and at Nong Nor in central Thailand during the third millennium BCE, dog skulls were interred together with humans.

At roughly the same time as Non Nok Tha, male burials of the Dawenkou culture of Shandong in eastern China are also found together with dog remains.

After this period, dog images turn up frequently on bronze weapons of the Dongson culture, and later we find a child-dog burial at Santa Ana, Philippines during the Sung dynasty period.

The limited archaeological evidence, however, masks widespread significance of the dog in the region of Southeast Asia, and spreading into the Pacific. Indeed, there is evidence of a strong circum-Pacific distribution of dog ancestry myths. Such myths for example, are more strongly concentrated on or near the Pacific coast of the Western hemisphere than elsewhere in the Americas.

Dog ancestry

In the Southeast Asia/Pacific region, myths of dog ancestry can be found throughout South China and Indochina, in Burma, among the Nagas of Assam, in the Nicobar and Andaman islands, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, the Philippines, Celebes, Hainan, Taiwan, New Guinea and New Zealand.

Dog-man myths are spread out as far as Hawai'i.

Chungshee Hsien Liu asserted that the dog ancestry myths in South China were of "proto-Malay" origin. S.I. Rudenko analyzed these beliefs and linked them with early Austronesian or Proto-Austronesian core myths of a people's descent from a goddess that married a dog.

From these core beliefs, different regional branches developed divergent themes and motifs.

Chinese traditions tell of a "Dog Fief" or "Dog Altar/Tumulus" country known as Quan-feng-kuo somewhere in the ocean off Kuai-chi on China's southeast coast. The earliest mention of Quan-feng-kuo in the Shanhaijing says that is the same as a place known as Dog Jung Country (Quan-jung-kuo) in the region of Shanxi and Shaanxi.

However, in his commentary on the Shanhaijing, Guo Pu says that the authors have confused the sounds of feng and jung, and that the Dog Fief/Altar Country is really somewhere off the Southeastern Sea.

Probably Guo Pu is thinking that another place mentioned in the Shanhaijing, the same location as the Fusang Tree is identifiable with Quan-feng-kuo. It is mentioned that in this area is the mountain Yeh-yao-kiun-ti, upon which the Fusang Tree stood, and also where the corpse of the god She-pi was located. The latter god is described as having a human face, with large dog ears and an animal body. He has two green serpents as ear onraments.

It was here that Di Jun, the father of the Ten Suns, became friends with "two birds" who ruled "two sacrificial mounds" that later became associated with the rites of Di Jun (Shun).

She-pi reminds us of the deity known as Hundun mentioned by Zhuang-zi, the earliest form of the pantheistic deity in China. The name Hundun contains the water radical and refers to something rolling or bobbing about in the water. It is related to the word wonton "dumpling." Zhuang-zi's relation places Hundun in the central, possibly equatorial, ocean where he is visited by the gods of the northern and southern seas. They are said to accidently kill Hundun when attempting to create orifices for the deity, which had no eyes, ears or other openings.

Hundun is a form of the cosmic egg, calabash, gourd, etc. floating on the ocean or connected with a great flood that is found in numerous myths especially in southern Asia and the Pacific.

In latter myths of Pangu, that god is said to spring from the corpse of Hundun, which was shaped like a dog. As noted before, the name Pangu is interchangeable with that of Panhu, the dog ancestor of the southern barbarian peoples in China. The "hu" character in Panhu's name means "gourd," thus strengthening the connection with Hundun, the cosmic gourd/egg/calabash. A seventh-century text says that when Panhu died his family was led to the corpse by the sound of crows, which might allude to the sun birds of Fusang. During the funeral, a piercing ritual is mentioned that recalls the piercing of Hundun by the gods of the northern and southern seas.

We have also seen that the name of the Dongyi leader Fu Hsi of Shandong, has characters indicating the dog-man theme combined with that of "sacrifice" or "sacrificer." This sage instituted the feng or mound/tumulus sacrifice at Mount Tai with Heaven facing to the South in the mound ritual. Here we can see a possible relationship with the feng of Quan-feng-kuo the Dog Altar Country, or the Dog Tumulus Country. Thus, the act of facing toward the south during the feng sacrifce at Mount Tai may equate to facing toward the Dog Feng Country.

Quite notable here is the lei sacrifice of the Qin and Han periods in which dog's flesh and rice are offered in a ritual involving a dismembered Shang-ti. The latter god is now fused with Tien, the god of Heaven always followed by his companion the Dog of Heaven, and in the ritual his dismembered body is regenerated. The dismemberment here recalls the disintegration of Hundun and/or Pangu, bringing about the creation of the world.

It was Di Jun who is said to have originated the lei sacrifice to Shang-ti, which we can connect also with the two sacrificial mounds mentioned by the Shanhaijing as located on the Fusang Tree mountain.

Also with reference to rice, we know that the dog ancestor Panhu was credited with the spread of rice agriculture, and this would agree with the south-to-north movement of rice agriculture from tropical Asia along the eastern coast of China with the Lungshanoid-Dongyi culture.

Although the Lungshanoid did not apparently practice dog burial like the Dawenkou before them, the Shang dynasty returned to this ritual. The oldest royal tomb in China, that of Shang Queen Fu Hao, contains ceremonial dog burials.

Kingdom of Women

The first mention of a kingdom of women in the Southeastern Sea occurs in the Huainanzi. Guo Pu, the Shanhaijing commentator, states that Panhu and his wife swam to a land across the sea and their progeny flourished there. Whenever a male is born in that kingdom, Guo Pu says, it is a dog, and every female is born as a woman.

Here starts a long series of Asian legends about a land of women and dog-men.

The account of the Buddhist monk Hui-Shen, despite its geographical divergence with other texts, states that the land of Fusang was inhabited by women "like those of China," and men with "human bodies, but dog's heads and barking voice."

In the many legends of the Kingdom of Women we often hear that they are impregnated by the wind or by bathing in a well or river. The wind theme brings us back to the name of the East Wind in the Dahuangjing which is "Jun," the same name as the progenitor of the Ten Suns in the Fusang Tree myth.

Pangu of Chinese mythology would equate to the Purusa or Prajapati of Indian belief. In each case we have a primordial deity who dies or is sacrificed and the dismembered body parts become hills, rivers, humans, animals, etc. i.e. the world.

While Pangu is linked with the dog in Chinese tradition, Indians equated Prajapati with the horse. The Asvamedha sacrifice, in which the horse is dismembered, is frequently compared to the cosmic sacrifice and disintegration of Purusa/Prajapati. The horse and horse-headed men/gods in India then are comparable to dogs and dog-headed men/gods in China.

If Pangu/Panhu can be linked with the Fusang Tree and the Ten Suns, then there is another point of comparison as the Vedic horse-headed deities, the Asvins, are the sons of the Sun. The Sun is even said to have taken the form of a horse in begetting the Maga people of Sakadvipa in the Milky Ocean.

The horse form is particularly associated with the East in Indian myth. The submarine horse's head is found in eastern oceans, and Visnu's form in the East is equine:

In Bhadrasva [eastern quarter] Lord Visnu is present in horse-headed form, O brahmin; in Ketumala [western quarter] as a boar, and in Bharata [India] he has the form of a tortoise; as Govinda in fish form Janardana is present among the Kurus [northern quarter].

-- Visnu Purana 2.2.50-1

The oldest sources, the Puranas and Varahamihira place Asvamukhadesa, or the Land of Horse-faced People in the Eastern Quarter, although a few latter sources place the land in the Himalayas or elsewhere.

The Asvamedha horse sacrifice appears to have originated from an earlier water buffalo sacrifice indicated in Harappan and Akkadian seal artifacts, but both may find their source in an earlier dog ritual.

At the beginning of the Asvamedha ceremony, the horse is led into a pond for ritual bathing, and a dog is also brought and forced to swim in the water at which time it is killed. The horse is envisioned in the Vedas as originating in the water or sea, and the swimming dog may allude to the canine's earlier position in the ritual.

A black "four-eyed" dog is used, which reminds us of the four-eyed dogs of Yama. The first horse used in an Asvamedha sacrifice was characterized as 'Yama's horse,' seemingly an allusion to a dog (or a buffalo). The sacrifical dog is also called in the Taitiriya Brahmana, the 'fraternal enemy' indicating some kinship between the dog and horse that eventually resulted in confrontation and the ascendancy of the latter in the brahminized system.

Dog rituals and magic

Chinese ethnologist Ling Shun-sheng found many comparable instances of dog sacrifice in the Pacific and in China.

In ancient Hawai'i, as in ancient China, the dog was associated with the male gender. Dog flesh was generally kapu (taboo) for women in Hawai'i, where it was classified as a male species. In the Dawenkou culture, dogs appear mainly in male burials, just as spindle whorls are associated with female burials.

Ancient Hawaiians often chose a puppy to raise together with a child, both suckled by the mother of the child. If the dog died, the child wore the teeth of the dog to protect against evil, if the child died first, the dog was sacrificed and buried with the child as a protector in the afterlife.

The use of dog teeth as protective (apotropaic) amulets usually worn as necklaces is attested to in numerous Pacific and Southeast Asian cultures. Such necklaces are particularly worn by children to protect against evil, sickness and ghosts.

Dog's teeth also served as a sort of currency and was especially used for bride-price purposes. In the Solomon Islands, for example, dog's teeth were the gold standard with one dog tooth equivalent to five dolphin teeth according to one source.

In the Philippines, a type of sorcerer-priest known as Asuang, Osuang, Aswang, etc. existed in pre-Hispanic times. The name of the sorcerer-priest is apparently derived from the native word asu "dog." Some have suggested it is a contraction of asu-asuan "one with dog characteristics" or "one with a dog-double."

The Asuang are often said to be able to change at will into animals, bats and birds, but most commonly dogs. Although "asuang" among Christianized Filipinos now denotes a type of witch, the early commentators usually describe the Asuang as male sorcerers. Jagor et al. and other sources state that the Asuang are found in Asuang families, probably indicating that the sorcerer-priethood was once hereditary with the priests having the 'blood of the asuang' or the 'blood of the asu.'

These sorcerers were closely connected with the tictic bird, which acted as a spy, helper and friend. The Asuang are also linked with the afterlife where they are said to dwell with the spirits of the ancestors. In some areas, the Asuang were propitiated to protect the ancestral spirits.

Children of Tala

In the Kapampangan legend of Tala as preserved by Mike Pangilinan, the culture hero-god can be seen as the progenitor of the dog-line, as I have suggested using local sources.

Dog messengers of the supreme god are found also in other regional myths. The barking of the dog Kimat in the form of thunder is said to relay the messages of the supreme Tinguian deity Kadaklan to the people. Kadaklan is also said to send Kimat in the form of lightning to strike evildoers.

One myth tells of how Kadaklan sends a spirit, almost certainly Kimat, to a woman for instruction on how to grow the rice plant. This mirrors the legend of Tala bringing rice agriculture to the people after a great flood.

An Igorot myth states that the god Lumauig sends his dog, or his dog and his deer, to bring fire to a boy and girl who have survived the great world flood.

These myths relate to a widespread Southeast Asian theme linking a dog with the great flood and the bringing of rice-planting and other cultural items.

In Bicol to the south of the Pampanga region, a local version of the dueling volcanoes myth pits the deity Gugurang of the Mayon volcano against his brother Asuang, the god of Mount Molinao, in the latter's attempt to steal Gugurang's volcanic fire.

Tala, the son of the rooster of Pinatubo and the serpent of Arayat, marries Mingan, whose name alludes to the newly-discovered rice agriculture, and begets the lineage of the dog -- the asu-asuan.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Related links

Dog as deity, ancestor and royal animal

Deluge, Gourd, Dog Husband

Interpretations of the Dog Husband Theme

Rajasuya , Sunahsepa and the Royal Dog

Single origin for domesticated dog in Southeast Asia and South China

References


Doniger, Wendy. Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism, University of Chicago Press, 1990, p. 15.

Isabel Ongpin, Maria. Bone recoveries from the Obsidian Non Geometric Microlith Cultural Level, Lemery Archaeological Site, Manila: Ateneo de Manila University, 1981.

Liu, Chungshee Hsien. "The Dog-Ancestor Story of the Aboriginal Tribes of Southern China," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 62:361-368, 1932.

Raisor, Michelle Jeanette. Determining the antiquity of dog origins, http://txspace.tamu.edu/bitstream/1969.1/1214/1/etd-tamu-2003C-ANTH-Raisor-2.pdf, 2004.

Service, Robert F. "Pacific Archaeology: Rock Chemistry Traces Ancient Traders," Science 20 December 1996:Vol. 274. no. 5295, pp. 2012 - 2013.

Xihe (Glossary)

According to the Mulberry Tree Tradition written during the Zhou Dynasty, Xihe is the wife of Jun, and the mother of the Ten Suns of the Fusang Tree.

The Yaodian section of the Shangshu also recorded during the Zhou Dynasty splits Xihe into four persons, the younger brothers of Emperor Yao all known as Xi and He (Xi Zhong, Xi Shu, He Zhong and He Shu).

The brothers are asked to venture to the four quadrants of the earth to 'calculate and delineate' the movement of the Sun and other astronomical bodies, and the times of the seasons. In latter tradition, Xihe is sometimes said to be the mother of the four brothers. Xi Zhong is sent to Yanggu "Valley of the Sun," which is the same place known as Tanggu "Hot Water Valley" where the Fusang Tree is found.

Xihe here is then associated with the delineation of the seasons starting in the region of the Fusang Tree. This legend probably explains the origin of the latter concept of the four seasonal palaces of the Chinese zodiac: the Blue Dragon of the East (beginning with Spica), the Vermillion Bird of the South, the White Tiger of the West and the Black Turtle of the North.

Yu the Great was also said to have marked the seasons starting with the Sun's journey from the Fusang Tree in the East to the Ruo Tree in the West and back again through an underground passage, in the Huainanzi, written during the Han Dynasty.

Spica

The role of Spica, or the "Horn," as marking the start of spring is explained in the "Heavenly Questions" from the Huainanzi:

Dark as it closes, bright when it opens [what is it?]
Before the Horn rises, the Great Light hides [where?]

The verses indicate that the Full Moon when the Sun was opposite Spica, which was thus conjunct with the Moon, indicated the start of spring. Mid-spring according to the Yaodian was when the vernal equinox occurred and this was signified by the star Alphard (alpha Hydrae) known as Niao meaning "Bird." The Oracle Bone Inscriptions mention both the star Niao and Huo (Antares), the determining star for the Vermilion Bird Palace.

The Shang Dynasty, as we have seen in previous blog entries, was closely connected with birds, as were the Dongyi or "Eastern Yi." The Zhou Dynasty knew the Shang as Dongyi people. It has been suggested that some of the earliest examples of pictographic writing in China are found in combined solar and bird motifs on Liangzhu jades that could read Yang Niao "Sun Bird," the name of a Dongyi tribe that settled in the Lower Yangtze region according to early texts.


Bird and sun-moon motif on jade ring from Liangzhu Culture (3500 BCE-2250 BCE), left, bird on cartouche and sun-moon on bi disc, Liangzhu. The sun-moon motif, in one case combined with what could be a 'fire mountain' motif appear also on Ling-yang-ho vases (4300 BCE-1900 BCE) from Shangdong, source: Wu Hung, "Bird Motifs in Eastern Yi Art."

Given Xihe's connection with the birth of the Suns, bathing and hanging of the Suns in the Fusang Tree, and the four quadrants, it would be reasonable to think that Xihe has some celestial form herself. Some verses appear to portray here as rising over the horizon like a star.

The Ruo Tree shines before Xihe has risen [how?]

--- Huananzi

As such it would be reasonable to think of her as represented by the star that stands in the zenith of the Fusang Tree. Spica, the Horn, would certainly be one prime candidate as it delineates the start of spring and the Sun's yearly journey.

This leads us again to the location of the Fusang Tree. According to the Shanhaijing, attributed to Yu (3rd millennium BCE) and definitely not later than the Han Dynasty, the Fusang Tree was located near and north of the "Black Teeth Country." The History of the Eastern Barbarians, dating to the Eastern Han Dynasty, locates this country southeast of Japan, the journey taking one year by ship.

Sung Dynasty ethnographer Ma Tuan-lin mentions in connection with these countries an archipelago of 2,000 kingdoms called Tong ti-jin (Eastern Fish People) located beyond the Sea of Kwei-ki, which is another name for the Southeastern Sea extending from the mouth of the Yangtze to the Strait of Formosa. He relates that this was the same area where explorers searched for the fabled Penglai.

Although he gives conflicting accounts, in one instance he suggests the Black Teeth Kingdom and Naked People Kingdom are located 4,000 leagues (li) to the south of Japan. The Pygmy Kingdom, where people stand only three of four Chinese feet tall, is located south of the Black Teeth Kingdom and is said to be one year's ship journey to the southwest of Japan. In another instance, the author states the Black Teeth Country was another year's journey by ship to the southeast of the Naked People Kingdom.

The Shanhaijing places the Wugao Mountain more than 1600 li (3 li is about 1 mile) south of Shaanxi, and to the east of Wugao is the Fusang Tree. It describes the people of Black Teeth Country as black, or having black teeth or hands. The practice of blackening the teeth was, at one time, quite common in Southeast Asia. Other peoples nearby are also described as black or having black hips, thighs or lower bodies. Some are said to go around naked, so there is a general sense that the climate was warm. Pygmies called "Yao" are also mentioned as living in the country. The people in the region eat rice, and those of the valley where the Sun rises are said to be inclined toward piracy.

The countries around the Fusang Tree are described many times in early works to be approached by sailing in a southerly direction from Japan. Furthermore, the land is repeatedly said to be located in or beyond the "Southeastern Sea" i.e. off the southeast coast of China.

Connecting the mountain of the Fusang Tree, the home and resting-place of the Suns, with the volcanoes of Pinatubo and Arayat, the Sun would set nearly directly to the West, with the Full Moon nearly directly to the East when the Moon conjoined Spica. This would apply to the traditional dates of Yao and Yu, when Spica stood nearly directly over Pinatubo and Arayat when passing near the zenith.

Babylonian echoes

The clay astronomical tablet known as the Mulapin dating to about 700 BCE appears to use Spica (Nebiru station) to delineate the heavens into bands of declination from the celestial equator.

It's difficult to date this practice of using Spica to map the heavens. The Akkadian goddess Sala, wife of the weather god Adad, began taking on some aspects of the constellation Virgo, which is determined by Spica, around the second half of the second millennium. She is portrayed as nude with a ear of barley over her shoulder. By the second half of the first millennium, she becomes the fully-dressed constellation with Spica shown as a "spike" of corn in her hand.

I have suggested earlier that Spica can be identified with the station of Nebiru that was used to determine the bands of declination in Mesopotamian star charts. This star was linked with a celestial "crossing," a divine boatman and a ferry. These can be interpreted as indicating that this star was used as a zenith and bearing star. It was suggested earlier that it provided the latitude and bearing for Dilmun and Mt. Mashu of Sumerian lore.

In India, the constellation Virgo was portrayed by the astronomer Varahamihira as a woman or girl with a grain of corn in one hand and a lamp in the other standing in a boat. The lamp or a pearl of light is also suggested by the Indian name of Virgo's determining star Chitra (Spica).

As in legendary China, the new year in India was also determined by the Full Moon closest to the Sun's opposition to Chitra.

The image of a woman with a lamp standing in a boat is one of a seafarer's goddess. The "spike" of grain also matches well with the "Horn" of the Chinese Spica.

The constellation Virgo became associated with Isis Pelagia, a goddess of seafarers and the sea in Greco-Egyptian religion who later gets absorbed into the Virgin Mary cult as Stella Maria or Stella Maris.

Isis is the mother of Horus, who is a patron god of the Sun, and fused with the Sun god Ra becomes the patron deity of Egyptian royalty. He also had many other forms associated with the winged Sun disk, the morning Sun, the noon Sun, etc.

Whether it is coincidence or not is impossible to say, but Isis Pelagia and by association Maria Stella become mothers of a bird, Horus is a falcon god, that is associated with the Sun, which resembles the myths of Xihe as the mother of the Ten Suns or Sun Crows.

Southern Interaction Sphere

The eastern coastal peoples of northern China known as Dongyi were one of the Yi peoples often described as "maritime" and as having large ships ('tower boats').

Coastal Yi people inhabited the area southward to the mouth of the Yangtze and had trade relations extending further south. K.C. Chang used the term "interaction sphere" to describe these relations which often involved direct or indirect trade.

Dongyi culture is associated archaeologically most often with the Lungshanoid horizon and also to some extent with the earlier Dawenkou culture of Shandong. A relationship has been shown to exist between these traditions and the Liangzhu to the south, and even further south to the Neolithic coastal traditions near Hong Kong, which Solheim links directly with the Nusantao.

Shang civilization brought trade contacts with the South to a new high. So famed where the Shang as traders that in latter times the word "shang" came to mean "trader, merchant." The term "yi shang" combining the words "Yi" (as in Dong-Yi) and "Shang" came to mean "Barbarian Trader."

Copper, tin and lead used to fuel the Shang bronze industry came from the South, from Yunnan and probably from countries further south like Thailand and Malaysia. Tortoise shell, including that from sea turtles, used for divination and other purposes often came from tropical species.

Cowries used as money came at least from the South China Sea, and some cowries and other shells may have originated in the Indian Ocean. Elephant ivory and rhinoceros were imported from the Southeast Asian rainforests.

Cinnabar dye came mostly from Szechwan and other southern locations, and jade may have come from as far as Burma. Whalebone, on the other hand, likely originated in the northern seas. Nephrite could have come from Vietnam, Taiwan or Lanyu Island, or even from the Tarim Basin.

Generally though, the Shang and Dongyi operated in the eastern coastal and southern interaction spheres. It was the Lungshanoid-Dongyi who first begin exploring rice agriculture to a full extent for example.

These southern impulses verified by archaeology may explain the legends of Xihe of the Southeastern Ocean and the Hot Water Valley associated closely with the founding of the Shang clan and dynasty.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Chang, K.C. "Chinese prehistory in the Pacific perspective: Some hypotheses and problems," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, No. 22, 1959, 100-149

Major, John S. Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought: : Chapters Three, Four, and Five of the Huainanzi, SUNY Press, 1993.

Senner, Wayne M. The Origins of Writing, U of Nebraska Press, 1991, pgs. 192, 198.

Vining, E. P. An Inglorious Columbus, D. Appleton and Co., 1885, pp. 681-683.

Wu Hung. "Bird Motifs in Eastern Yi Art," Orientations, 16.10 (Oct. 1985), 34-36.

Fusang (Glossary)

In the earliest Chinese literature, "Fu Sang" describes a legendary solar tree on which Xihe hangs the Ten Suns to dry after their diurnal journeys. In latter literatures, it is a place where Buddhism is brought in the fifth century.

This latter location has been variously identified by different researchers as North America, Mexico, Peru, Hokkaido, Siberia, southeastern Japan and Taiwan to name a few suggestions. It may be that this place is related to the solar Fusang Tree of earlier legendary history.

"Sang" 桑 refers to the mulberry tree, and "fu" 扶 means "supporting," referring apparently to the large size and interwining and thus self-supporting branches of the Fusang Tree.

Located in the "Southeastern Sea" at the top of a mountain, I believe it should be placed either in Taiwan or Luzon, probably the latter as it appears to be associated with the cosmic mountain where the Suns are born (in other mythologies).

The reference to the mulberry tree has generally been taken as meaning that the Fusang resembled the mulberry or was related to that tree. The word "sang" though may simply refer to any tree that provided fiber used in making cloth or paper, the manufacture of which is mentioned in latter descriptions of the place called Fusang.

The Paper Mulberry appears indigenous to Taiwan and this species was carried out into the Pacific where it was extensively used to make tapa or bark cloth.

However, the descriptions of the Fusang indicate a huge tree, and in the latter works it is described as having purplish-red fruits and oval leaves. In the Philippines, the Balete Tree, a name for various types of Ficus, was most commonly used to make bark cloth.

The Balete is a massive tree with intertwining roots, branches and trunks, which may related to the "supporting" and "hanging" descriptions of the Fusang. Balete species tend to have ovate leaves and some like the Ficus benjamina have purple fruits when ripe.





Balete trees


The Balete was considered sacred in the Philippines when the Spanish came, a dwelling of spirits and anitos (ancestors), indicating it was associated with the Cosmic Tree. The crow and raven were also considered sacred and were called Meilupa, a title indicating "Lord of the Earth (Soil)".

Of course, giant figs like the Balete and the Banyan are famed as bases for crows and ravens, appearing as such repeatedly in folklore throughout South and Southeast Asia. The Fusang Tree, again, was the place where the Ten Suns, in the form of ravens, rested after their journeys.

Some explicit myths of human descent from birds also survive in the region. The Mandaya believe the first man and woman came from two eggs of the Limokon or dove. Among the Paiwan, there is a myth of the first couple coming from two eggs of the Sun hatched by a serpent. There are also legends in the Philippines of the first couple found in one or two bamboos rather than eggs, pecked open by a bird, usually a hawk or kite.

Myths of two birds created by a Supreme Deity and then going on to create the world are also found among many peoples in Insular Southeast Asia. In the Philippines, for example, we find such beliefs connected with the gods Lumawig and Batala. These two birds may represent the dual creative forces of the Sun and Moon.

The Sun is linked with the raven and crow also in Philippines folktales that explain the darkness of the raven/crow as occuring after the latter raced another bird, usually a kite, and flew too close to the Sun, scorching its wings. In ancient Chinese legends, sunspots were viewed as created by a three-legged sun crow.

Worth mentioning with reference to bird descent also is the widespread Insular Southeast Asian concept of the bird-soul, or more importantly the bird-double. The latter is the person's second self that escapes from the body usually at night when sleeping. The bird double flies about on its own adventures returning before the person awakes. In some cases, spiritual adepts claim to be able to send their bird doubles on journeys while awake and active. A giant crow or raven called Wak-wak appears in folktales of the Bisayas and is especially said to be a form taken by witches when they fly around at night. The bird cries "wak-wak" as it nears human habitations.




Ficus trees with intertwining trunks/branches clearly visible


Image of Fusang Tree with intertwining trunk and branches from Wu Liang Shrine, Shangdong, 2nd century CE. The archer Yi can be seen shooting the Sun-Crows.

The shooting of the Suns theme is very diverse among the indigenous peoples in Taiwan. In Borneo, a blowpipe takes the place of the archer's bow. These myths refer more to the diurnal movement of the Sun during daylight rather than to the tropical year. Themes of the snaring of the Sun, of the descent of the Sun down toward the horizon on a ladder, and of the Sun moving into different tiers of a multi-tiered house or building are clearly related and involve the cooling of the day as the Sun moves to lower positions in the sky.

The idea of the Sun rising from the Fusang Tree would logically imply its location in the tropical latitudes.

As the Sun is said to rise from the Fusang Tree specifically at the beginning of the year, this latitude could be that of the equator or also possibly that latitude marked by the star Spica. Spica represented the horn of the "Dragon of Spring" in Chinese astronomy, and was seen as marking the beginning of spring and the seasons.

The emperor Yu was said to have used the Fusang Tree to mark off the beginning of the solar year.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Sea Gods/Messengers (Glossary)

Stephen Oppenheimer has suggested that the "amphibious" nature of certain ancient mythical sea gods and sages might be linked to the extreme maritime adaptation of migrating Nusantao.

The Nusantao themselves could certainly have envisioned themselves as fish-like in nature, which when combined with totemic beliefs may have given rise to the composite theo-zoomorphic (god-animal) and anthropo-zoomorphic (man-animal) imagery found in the related myths.

In China, the pantheistic and totemic Pangu takes the form of a dog in many myths associated especially with the South. "Earlier than nearly all of these traditions are Chinese accounts of eastern seas, or more properly speaking, southeastern seas," says David Gordon White referring to Central Asian and Siberian myths of a land of dog-men, Amazons and the "Kingdom of Women."

"This third center for Chinese Dog-Man/Amazon traditions points to China's southern barbarians, as well as to related peoples from Indochina."

(White, p. 138)

...the location of this land off a southeastern coastline corresponds to that of a certain Dog Fief Country to which P'an Hu, the canine ancestor of the southern Man Barbarians, was sent together with his wife."

White notes that across the seas from southern China one also finds myths of dog ancestry.

Fishy sages

Fu Hsi and his consort Nu Gua are commonly represented with fish/serpent lower bodies and human upper bodies. A similar representation is found far away in India, Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean.

The ancient Mulberry Tree Tradition of the Zhou period tells of Xihe of the "Southeastern Sea" who bears the Ten Suns through the god Jun Di the "East Wind. The Ten Suns, portrayed also as ravens, are born at the location of the Fu-sang or Mulberry Tree (from which bark cloth is made) and the Boiling Water Valley.

Jun Di is probably the same as the "Black Bird" of the Shang Origin Myth who gives rise to the Shang clan through Jian Di. According to Sarah Allan, the name "Jun" may be related to the Phoenix bird.

In the Oracle Bone Inscriptions, it is Wang Hai who is the ancestor of the Shang, and the name is written in the inscriptions accompanied by the pictograph of a bird. In the historical tradition Jun equates with Emperor Shun and the Ten Suns with the Dan Zhu (Ten Sons).

Boiling Water Valley or Tang-gu, is related by the Zhou with Tang, the founder of the Shang dynasty whose name is written with the same water radical as "Tang-gu."

Sang-lin, the "Country of Mulberry Trees" appears at times, as in the myths of Emperor Yu, to speak of the same place where Xihe gives birth to the Ten Suns. It is at Sang-lin, that suns are born and rise at morning. Yu's unnamed mother and his wife Tu-shan ("Earth Mountain") come from Sang-lin and a state called Sung.

Sang-lin is also located in the South. The southern love songs were composed in Sang-lin and Sung, considered excessively bold by the Confucians.

Southern influence

That the Shang should claim southern ties is not surprising in light of the archaeological record. Many southern items start turning up at northern sites in the Dawenkou and Lungshan periods that were ancestral to the Shang dynasty.

Some have attempted to explain the presence of elephant, rhinoceros, sea turtle, Indo-Pacific shells, whale bones and other similar items as evidence of warmer climates in northern China during early times. However, research suggests that the region was only slighter warmer in the Neolithic, not nearly enough to support these tropical species.

Also the spotty record before the Shang suggests the tropical items were imported. For example, there is some evidence of elephant remains in Dawenkou sites, but these disappear from the same region during the Lungshanoid period.

The Shang, carrying on from the previous Lungshan culture, established the dominance of rice agriculture in northern China.

Dawenkou and Lungshan culture are linked archaeologically at least to some extent by Solheim's theory to Nusantao presence in coastal and riverine Shandong during the Neolithic. The trading contacts seemed to have intensified during the Shang dynasty with large hoards of southern trade artifacts found in Shang burials.

Sea Dragons

The sea dragon/serpent theme also has negative aspects opposite those of the beneficient deity/sage.

In the Avesta, Atar, the god of fire, banishes Ahi Dahaka, the three-headed serpent to the bottom of the Vourukasha Sea where it remains until the final cosmic battle when it will return to fight the forces of light.

In latter Persian literature, it is Thraetaona who battles the three-headed serpent. In Vedic lore, including the Rgveda, Trita slays the three-headed dragon Visvarupa. Trita and Thraetaona have some common motifs in their myths:

* In their names is the root for the number three
* Each is the third of three brothers
* The brothers undertake a quest to a far-off land apparently in search of elixir
* Both Trita and Thraetaona are betrayed by the other two brothers
* Both become trapped in a well or pit
* Both slay a three-headed serpent/dragon in the subterranean location

Trita has been analyzed by some as a god of the sea, and the entire theme is similar in some respects to the Mesopotamian myths of Tiamat.

In the Mahabharata, the Rgvedic tale of Trita and his brothers journey to a far-off land becomes specifically a voyage to Svetadvipa and the Milky Ocean. These lands as noted earlier in this blog were envisioned as located in the East and in the tropical clime.

Such geography is reinforced by the Shahnameh where Trita/Thraetaona become known as Feridun and the serpent Azhi Dahaka is named Zohak. The Vourukasha Sea in this work is equated with the "Sea of Chin" i.e., the seas off the coast of South China, or the present-day northeastern Sea of China.

This is not surprising as we have already seen that the medieval Persians and Muslim Indians had located the mythical messianic fortress of Kangdez in the same general area of the far East Indies.

The quest of Trita and his brothers to Svetadvipa and the Milky Ocean should be seen in the light of the pilgrimage journeys of the rsis (rishis) and also the epic heroes to the same region to visit Narayana, the quintessential sea deity who spends much of his time floating on a bed of snakes in the Milky Ocean, according to classical tradition. This Narayana is directly related to the Rgvedic Purusa, the pantheistic being from which the world is created.

Sea Bull

The sea bull theme also appears widely in ancient times from East Asia to Sumer to the Mediterranean and beyond. It seems that the sea bull mutates also into the sea goat from which we obtain the modern image in Western astrology of Capricorn.

In the Classic of the Mountains and Seas, traditionally credited to the legendary emperor Yu, a buffalo or ox name Kui is described that lives in the Eastern Ocean. Kui appears related to a mountain spirit known as Hui, that is shaped like a drum. Kui is sometimes said to have a belly shaped like a drum which he beats to make thunder-like sound. The Yellow Thearch slays Kui and uses his hide to make a drum:

In the East Sea is the Flowing Wave Mountain. It is submerged in the sea to a depth of 7,000 leagues. At its summit is a bovine animal with a bright blue body, but no horns and only one foot. When it comes in and out of the water there is always wind and rain, and its glare is like that of the Sun and Moon. This animal makes thunder sounds and its name is Awestruck (Kui). The Yellow Thearch captured Kui and made a drum from its hide. For a drumstick the great god used a bone from the Thunder Beast. The sound of the god's drumming could be heard for 500 leagues and so it frightened all beneath the sky.

Although the setting is different, the story of Kui reminds us also of the Indian legend of great buffalo demon Dundubhi ("Kettledrum") slain by Valin. Dundubhi was said to resemble Mount Kailasa and his bones were also said to have formed a mountain. Also, like Kui, Dundubhi makes drumming sounds, but in his case a drum-like roar.

In the buffalo sacrifices of South India, drumming and dancing to drums plays an important role. The buffalo sacrifice has much in common with the Rgvedic horse sacrifice, which may itself have originated from an earlier ritual involving water buffaloes.

After the South Indian sacrifices, the goddess analogous to Kali, is said to be widowed. The allusion here is that the buffalo represents a form of Siva, the husband of the goddess. In Indian myth, Kali kills the buffalo demon Mahishasura, which may be seen as a form of the common Indian theme of the "murderous bride."

In the Rgvedic horse sacrifice, the chief queen is known as Mahisi "Water Buffalo Cow" and takes part in a ritual with the sacrificed horse, the latter playing the part of her consort.

Both the buffalo and horse sacrifices had royal connections even when the former were conducted by lower castes or tribes. In both cases, a goat or sheep was also sacrificed, usually before the main sacrifice. The goat was identified as the "younger (royal) brother" of the buffalo (king).

Trita in the Rgveda is involved in the first horse sacrifice, which involves the horse of Yama, said to come from the sea. This horse with 17 rib-pairs, a tropical breed, was first harnessed by Trita and first mounted by Indra according to the Rgveda. Interestingly, in Greece, Poseidon, the sea god, is credited with first taming horses. These connections of the horse sacrifice with the sea may also extend to the buffalo sacrifice.

In ancient Sumer and Akkad, Alf Hiltebeitel has linked the sacrifice of the Bull of Heaven with the loss of the sacred mikku and pukku (drumstick and drum), both of which, in different traditions, precede the death of the hero Enkidu.

According to Akkadian texts, in a rite similar to that of the Indian buffalo/horse sacrifice, temple drums were made from the hide of a black bull that was sacrificed in conjunction with a sheep!

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Hiltebeitel, Alf. "Rama and Gilgamesh: The Sacrifices of the Water Buffalo and the Bull of Heaven," History of Religions, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Feb., 1980), pp. 187-223.

Von Glahn, Richard. The Sinister Way: the divine and the demonic in Chinese religious culture, University of California Press, 2004, p. 90.

White, David Gordon. Myths of the Dog-Man, University of Chicago Press, 1991.

Alim, Rimu, Reem (Glossary)

The Sumerian word alim appears to describe the water buffalo depicted in various seals, although the word is often translated also as "bison."

Akkadian rimu may be directly derived from alim "powerful," although the former is also thought to have Semitic roots from a word meaning "to be high" and thought to refer to the animals sweeping horns. Rimu is often used to translate Sumerian am "bull, wild bull."

Sumerian apzaza (Akkadian apsasu) is also thought to refer to the water buffalo.

From rimu in Akkadian, we also derive the Assyrian remu, Ugaritic r'm and Hebrew reem.

In Canaanite myth, the son and daughter of the sea god Dagon (El) give birth to the buffalo named Math. El himself is known as the "Bull God" and is depicted with horns.

Asherah "the Lady of the Sea" has handmaidens who give birth to the buffalo of the forest that distract Baal.

Swamp buffalo

The Sumerian alim is shown with massive notched horns curved widely, wrinkled hide and distinctive body/head shape clearly identifying it as the water buffalo and specifically as the swamp buffalo (Bubalis bubalis).

An, the patriarch of the gods, is called a wild bull (gud-dama) and his animal is the Bull of Heaven (gud-anna).

The buffalo head is the standard of Utu, the Sun God. Utu or one of his servants is often depicted as a buffalo with a human head.

The buffalo-man is known as Gud-alim, Gud-dumu-Utu or sometimes Gud-dumu-anna "Buffalo-Man of Heaven," the latter name perhaps related to the Gud-anna "Bull of Heaven."


Akkadian seal dating to 2200 BCE possibly showing Enki fighting the Bull of Heaven depicted as a gud-alim "buffalo." The horned bull-man may be Enkidu fighting a lion/dog.

The name Marduk or AMAR-UTUK means "young bull of the Sun Utu."

Among the Canaanites, the god El is known as the "Bull God" and we find here an association with buffaloes who descend from his wife's handmaidens, and also from the union of Baal and Anath, his children.

These buffaloes known as r'm figure also in Hebrew myth.

When El brings the tribes of Israel out of Egypt, the image is of a strong buffalo carrying the people on his back.

"God brought him out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of a buffalo."

-- Numbers 23

This is similar to the Iranian myth of the bull Sarsaok bringing nine races on his back across the Vourukasha Sea.

Sarsaok is also said to have a flaming back from which come the three sacred fires to the mountains of Persia.

In Exodus, Yahweh is seen as a deity who inhabits flaming mountain tops. The name El Shaddai may mean "El (God) of the Mountains." Enlil as the supreme god of the Sumerian pantheon was known as Rimu "Bull" and also as Kur-Gal "Great Mountain."

The crescentic horns of the buffalo also resemble the 'ship of the Sun' and agrees with the symbolism of transporting people.

The two tribes of Joseph are compared to the horns of a reem that 'pushes people to the ends of the earth.'

His majesty is as the firstling of his ox; And his horns are as the horns of a buffalo. With them shall he push the peoples Together to the ends of the earth. These are the myriads of Ephraim, And these are the thousands of Manasseh.

-- Deuteronomy 33

Archaeological evidence

Although some suggest that the swamp buffalo appears only during the Akkadian period, other evidence suggests an earlier presence.

From the archaeological standpoint, water buffalo remains are recorded
from a home in Layer III (Grai Resh) of the Uruk culture.

The horn core, first phalanx and rib of a water buffalo has been found at Halaf (5500-5000 BCE) in northern Syria.

These are surely domesticated water buffalo, as the wild water buffalo
survives only deep in the rain forest.

Rock drawings of water buffalo occur in Ubaid period megalithic sites in the Persian Gulf, including those associated with the shell mound culture.

Water buffalo are rare in the aceramic and early ceramic periods of Mehrgarh, and appear to be of the swamp type with long sweeping horns. The same swamp buffalo appears at Harappan sites, now much more common. However, these locations in northwest South Asia would not have hosted the wild water buffalo, which lived only further East. The river buffalo seems to have come to prominence at a latter time, and now represents the overwhelming majority of water buffaloes in India, especially in northern India.

A number of Early Dynastic portrayals of Utu as a bull with a human face appear to portray a buffalo body with a human head with large splay hooves and shorter more robust body and legs with bushy tip of tail.

According to Ebeling and Meissner, writing on the human-headed buffalo
(alim, Sumerian, alimbu, Akkadian):

"From the Ur III period onwards it wears the horns of divinity. Associated with Utu (2.2), represents mountains through with Utu rises (2.4) [i.e., Mt. Mashu]"

_Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archaologie: Meek-Mythologie_, by Erich Ebeling, Bruno Meissner, 1999.

Swamp buffalo depicted on the seal of Ishar-beli from Urkesh, notice the muscular humped shoulders. In Ugaritic texts, the r'm is described as humped (also known as ibr). Source: Bucellati, Giorgio and Marilyn Kelly-Buccelati. Tar'am-Agade, Daughter of Naram-Sin, at Urkesh.


Horned caps displaying the "horns of divinity" mostly resembling buffalo or bison horns. The Assyrian caps near the bottom display symmetrical buffalo or bison horns in profile that may be related to the "unicorn" images found Proto-Elamite and Sumerian art. The three horned cap was used to represent Enlil, An and Assur with each horn representing one of the gods, and at times all three caps were shown together.


A "unicorn" calf under the foot of Enki, with possibly one of the buffalo/bison horns hidden symmetrically behind the other.


Some kings like Naram-Sin shown above donned the "horns of divinity."

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Edwards, I. E. S. , C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond (editors). The Cambridge Ancient History, Cambridge University Press, 1970, pp. 64, 42, 405, 690.

Johannes, G., Botterweck, Helmer, Ringgren, Heinz-Josef, Fabry (editors). Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004, pp. 243-4.

Potts, Daniel T. Mesopotamian Civilization: The Material Foundations, Cornell University Press, 1996, pp. 258-9.

New book: Les Messagers Divins

An interesting new book has been released edited by Pierre le Roux and Bernard Sellato. The articles are both in French and English.

Although the snake here is regarded as masculine and the bird as feminine, I believe that orignally this was not the case despite the apparent visual symbolism inherent in the species i.e. snake as male organ, and bird as female organ.

As outlined in this blog, the legendary histories suggest the real existence of bird and snake clans that at one point united and in the bilaterial kinship system the bird clan represented the male line, and the serpent clan, the female line.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
---

Connaissances & Savoirs Publ. (Paris, www.connaissances-savoirs.com), SevenOrients Publ. (Paris, www.7orients.com), and the Institute for Research on Contemporary Southeast Asia (Paris and Bangkok, www.irasec.com) are pleased to inform you of the release of the book:

LES MESSAGERS DIVINS
Aspects esthétiques et symboliques des oiseaux en Asie du Sud-Est


DIVINE MESSENGERS
Bird Symbolism and Aesthetics in Southeast Asia
edited by Pierre LE ROUX and Bernard SELLATO

Preface by Jean LARIVIERE (Scientific Adviser of the Foundation Ushuaia-Nicolas Hulot pour la Nature et l'Homme, Vice-President of the French Section of the International Union for Nature Conservation).



Published with assistance from the Maison Asie-Pacifique (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Université de Provence), in partnership with IRASEC (Institute for Research on Contemporary Southeast Asia).

Format / Size : 145 x 210 mm; 866 pages noir et blanc / B&W, 36 planches quadri./36 colour plates.

Prix de vente / Selling price : 35 euros - ISBN : 2-7539-0059-0

Available for sale from 29 September 2006

Further information can be obtained from the Sales Department of Editions Connaissances & Savoirs:

Abstract: Is there a special relationship in Southeast Asia between humans and birds? Indeed, birds play here an important role in cosmology, beliefs, social structure, funerals, and ritual technology, which cannot be dissociated from economic productions: agriculture, fishing, harvesting, hunting, handicraft and trade. The bird in Southeast Asia is to be understood first as part of an essential symbolic couple: the snake and the bird, which represent, respectively, masculinity, seniority, the underground and aquatic worlds, rainy seasons; and femininity, the sky, the dry season, and juniority, i.e., dependent people. In a region characterized by alternating monsoons and, often, by a cultural bi-polarity, most societies have elaborated a dualistic conception of the universe, and sometimes a ternary conception: two expressions of a same original godhead. A trinity made of two main elements (the elder and younger brothers) and a third one (the wife) dominates throughout almost all of Southeast Asia, where the opposition between elder and younger is general and relevant in most kinship and marriage systems. Here, perhaps more than elsewhere in the world, the social position of women is privileged, if not primordial. While the bird, very often, is a metaphor for a maiden, its taking flight is always assimilated to that of the soul of the dead, the beginning of a new life, and so, always, a symbol of hope.


Contributeurs / Contributors:

Contributions, en français ou en anglais de / A collection of contributions in French or in English by:

Lorraine V. Aragon (University of North Carolina, USA), Helga Blazy (Universität zu Köln, Germany/Allemagne), Pascale Bonnemère (CNRS, France), Peter Boomgaard (KITLV, The Netherlands/Pays-Bas), Jean Boulbet (EFEO, France), Josiane Cauquelin (LASEMA, France), Anne-May Chew (Université de La Sorbonne, France), Robert K. Dentan (State University of New York at Buffalo, USA), Gregory Forth (University of Alberta, Canada), Donald & Joan Gear (South Africa/Afrique du Sud), Itie van Hout (KIT Tropenmuseum, The Netherlands/Pays-Bas), Bernard Koechlin (CNRS, France), Corneille Jest (CNRS, France), Pierre Le Roux (IRSEA, France), Ghislaine Loyré de Hauteclocque (IRSEA, France), Guy Lubeigt (CNRS, France), Albert Marie Maurice (France), Nguyen Tung (CNRS, France), Bernard Pot (IRSEA, France), Oliver Raendchen (Humboldt Universität, Germany/Allemagne), Clifford Sather (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia), Jean-Christophe Simon (IRD, France), Vishvajit Pandya (Institute of Information and Communication Technology, India/Inde).


Southeast Asia is here understood as stretching from India to China, and south towards the Pacific. It thus includes not only Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, but also the Andaman Islands (India), Madagascar, Papua-New Guinea, Taiwan, and Nepal.

mtDNA of Aboriginal Southeast Asians

A new study co-written by "Eden in the East" author Stephen Oppenheimer showed that about half the mtDNA of the Senoi population of Malaya, and a significant population of "Aboriginal Malays" originates in Indochina. The Semang group has mostly deep-rooted mtDNA from the Malay Peninsula.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
---

Mol Biol Evol. 2006 Sep 18;

Phylogeography and Ethnogenesis of Aboriginal Southeast Asians.

Hill C, Soares P, Mormina M, Macaulay V, Meehan W, Blackburn J,
Clarke D, Raja JM, Ismail P, Bulbeck D, Oppenheimer S, Richards M.

Studying the genetic history of the Orang Asli of Peninsular
Malaysia can provide crucial clues to the peopling of Southeast Asia
as a whole. We have analyzed mitochondrial DNA control-region and
coding-region markers in 447 mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) from the
region, including 260 Orang Asli, representative of each of the
traditional groupings, the Semang, the Senoi and the Aboriginal
Malays, allowing us to test hypotheses about their origins. All of the
Orang Asli groups have undergone high levels of genetic drift, but
phylogeographic traces nevertheless remain of the ancestry of their
maternal lineages. The Semang have a deep ancestry within the Malay
Peninsula, dating to the initial settlement from Africa >50,000 years
ago. The Senoi appear to be a composite group, with approximately half
of the maternal lineages tracing back to the ancestors of the Semang,
and about half to Indochina. This is in agreement with the suggestion
that they represent the descendants of early Austroasiatic speaking
agriculturalists, who brought both their language and their technology
to the southern part of the peninsula approximately 4000 years ago,
and coalesced with the indigenous population. The Aboriginal Malays
are more diverse, and although they show some connections with island
Southeast Asia, as expected, they also harbor haplogroups that are
either novel or rare elsewhere. Contrary to expectations, complete
mtDNA genome sequences from one of these, R9b, suggest an ancestry in
Indochina around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, followed by an
early-Holocene dispersal through the Malay Peninsula into island
Southeast Asia.