Millenarianism (Glossary)

Millenarianism can be defined as the belief in a future period of prosperity, happiness, justice, etc. Such beliefs generally involve the concept of cyclic eras or a linear era of birth, decay and rebirth, the latter following an apocalypse or the 'end of the age.' In some cases, the apocalypse is seen ultimately as the end of the world, or even the end of the physical universe.

Nusantao millenarianism

The cargo cults that erupted throughout the Pacific at the time of European contact were not multiple spontaneous inventions, but derive from reactions based on common inherited cultural concepts of a "return to the source."

We can surmise that Nusantao millenarianism is based on ideas of transmigration, reincarnation and generational cycles.

Heroes foretold to return in the future like Lono in Hawai'i and Lumauig in the Philippines have genealogical significance. Studies of East Indonesian cultures have provided valuable clues to the importance of genealogical history that likely apply to broader Nusantao thought processes.

Genealogies provided not only the timeline for the past but also for the future. Among Formosan and Philippine peoples, five or six successive generations were seen as successive parts of the human body. A body of generational time. These generations could both precede and follow the present one.

Using genealogies, marriages were made aimed at future "return" and "unification." Thus, two lineages might be reunited in the future, carefully avoiding taboos, by planning a series of future "courtships." Ancestral heirlooms could be brought back to their original house using the same strategies.

A lack of documentation and the loss of oral traditions accounts for the lack of specific knowledge of but a few pre-colonial Nusantao millenarian traditions. However, we do know that these thrived throughout the region during colonial times. They could be divided into two types, one Southeast Asian and the other Pacific.

Between these two regions, there were common links like the ideas of "return to the source" and reincarnation. In the Pacific, the emphasis was on "cargo" and the return of the "other" -- the one that had left to cross the "pond" or "river."

Southeast Asian millenarianism was characterized by peasant revolutions and hidden royal and/or priestly lineages. The material counterpart of Pacific cargo was found in magical heirlooms and amulets.

Bergano left a clue to the concept of the apocalypse among ancient Kapampangans in his dictionary entry for sucu: Datang mangga quing sucu "hasta el termino, o duracion de las edades" ('Until the end or duration of the ages'). The author noted though that not much was known anymore about the origin of this concept in his time.

Sucu (Suku), which also means 'time and place,' is the name preserved in Kapampangan folklore tradition for the god of Mount Arayat, with the alternate form of Sinukuan (s-in-uku-an).

Sucu may have been a god of time judging by his name, similar probably to Laon, mentioned by the early Spanish writers as a supreme god of the Bisayans of the central Philippines. The word laon denotes the passage or flow of time.

In Timor, the cycle of rebirth was likened to recurring seasonal patterns. The dead souls first entered the ancestral mountain, and after a time they were taken by ship out to sea. From there they rose into the sky as vapors to form the black rain clouds. When the rain of Heaven mixes with the "milk" of the Earth, new life is born.

The recurring cosmic battles between Sucu and his archrival Mallari of Pinatubo were also likened to the monsoon weather pattern with Mallari bringing the storms from the Sambal mountains. In the end, despite the conflict, the son of Mallari and the daughter of Sucu end up getting married renewing the cycle.

Five Phases

Nusantao in Taiwan, the Philippines and Borneo, viewed a succession of five generations as analogous to the feet, knees, waist, elbows and head of the human body (or some similar scheme). This idea of time in relation to the human body may also be found in reconstructions of Austronesian words for "body," "year" and "season."

Oracle Bone Inscriptions from China indicate that the Shang had a ritual cycle of five rites conducted throughout the year in honor of the ancestors. These rites may have been based on the order of the Sifang, a five-part view of the world. This conception probably gave rise to the Wuxing or Five Phases view of cyclic time that arises in the Warring States Period. The ritual Wuxing halls of the Han Dynasty had the same general sifang or ya cruciform character shape as the ancestral tombs of the Shang.

Wuxing regulated the cycles of birth, change and dissolution, and gave rise to the concept of "dynastic cycles."

Aspects of previous cyclic turnover are found in Chinese cosmology. In the Huainanzi, Nuwa kills the flood demon Gonggong after a cataclysm involving the gods of fire and water. After repairing the sky, her husband Fu Hsi, belonging to the dog man theme relevant to other apocalyptic traditions, teaches various arts leading to a new golden age. Although this story has some cosmological aspects, neither Nuwa or Fu Hsi represent the first human populations. Before them Chinese tradition tells of the clan of Suiren, who taught people to build houses on trees, and Youchao who taught the art of making fire.

In the Shangshu, it is Yao rather than Fu Shi who is the first emperor, and it is he who conquers Gonggong and ushers in a new world order. Here Yao, and also the Shang ancestor Di Ku, appear to be forms of Shang-ti, the god connected with both dogs and rice. At that time, according to Sarah Allan, the ti character used with the names Yao and Ku referred specifically to Shang-ti.

Ideas of cyclic dynastic change and the periodic arising of new sage movements were already developed in early Daoism and Confucianism. By about the 2nd century BCE, the belief that the sage Lao Tzu (Laozi) would return at regular intervals as the savior Li Hung arose.

Later in medieval times, these millenarian ideas eventually led to the development of the mixed Buddhist-Daoist concept of Prince Moonlight and the King of Light, who engage in all-out war with the forces of evil.

In Chinese Buddhist texts, especially of the Pureland school, we also find the concept of five 500 years periods or a total of 2500 years of decline from the time of the Buddha.

An interesting comparison can be made between the concept of five generations comprising a "body" of time, and the five Chinese ages/phases, with ideas that arose much further to the West. In the second chapter of the Book of Daniel, we read how that prophet interprets the dream of Nebuchadnezzar in which he saw a great image of a metallic man.

31. Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.

32. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,

33. His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

-- Daniel 2

Daniel further interprets the image as representing five successive kingdoms. The difference in value in the metals as one goes from the head to the feet corresponds to a period of decline. These kingdoms, with the exception of the gold head represeting Nebuchadnezzar realm, are all projected into future time. This may be recognized as one of the earliest examples of the popular notion of metallic ages or cycles.

The order in time with the head representing the oldest period and the feet the newest is the reverse of that found in the generational scheme further east.

Rgvedic tradition also records the representation of the four castes in what could be considered an "evolutionary" order as parts of the body of the primordial Purusa deity:

11 When they divided Purusa how many portions did they make?
What do they call his mouth, his arms? What do they call his thighs and feet?

12 The Brahman was his mouth, of both his arms was the Rajanya made.
His thighs became the Vaisya, from his feet the Sudra was produced.

-- Rgveda 10, XC

Here the order from a chronological standpoint could be argued to more closely match that of the Austronesian version of body-time, if one considers an evolution from Sudra to Brahmin.

Earlier in the same hymn, we hear of the annual Purusa sacrifice: "When Gods prepared the sacrifice with Purusa as their offering, Its oil was spring, the holy gift was autumn; summer was the wood."

Reference here is to the year-long Purusamedha sacrifice, which corresponds closely to the Asvamedha horse sacrifice. The body of the Purusa, which translates as "person, man," is linked to the time period of the solar year. In the Philippines, words for "year" (taon, taun, etc.) appear derived from the same root as those for "body" (katawan, ka-tau-an) and "person" (tao, tau, etc.)

India also has a four-ages scheme known as caturyuga, which however is not so strongly linked with metals. A declining cycle of five metal ages -- gold, silver, two of bronze and iron -- is mentioned by the Greek writer Hesiod. The Zoroastrian Bahman Yasht, which was written only in Muslim times but contains older eschatological information, appears to glue on a four-age setup to their older system of ten millennia.

Ancient Egypt and Hermetic Thought

Egypt has the earliest extant texts of clearly apocalyptic literature. The "complaint" texts of the Middle Kingdom dating back to 2000 BCE, tell of the decline of the nation and the coming of a savior king.

The New Kingdom Book of the Dead, chapter 175, tells of destruction of the world by Atum in which Osiris and Horus survive:

You will live more than millions of years, an era of millions, but in the end I will destroy everything that I have created, the earth will become again part of the Primeval Ocean, like the Abyss of waters in their original state. Then I will be what will remain, just I and Osiris, when I will have changed myself back into the Old Serpent who knew no man and saw no god. How fair is that which I have done for Osiris, a fate different from that of all the other gods! I have given him the region of the dead while I have put his son Horus as heir upon his throne in the Isle of Fire, I have thus made his place for him in the Boat of Millions of Years, in that Horus remains on his throne to carry on his work.

In this blog, we have discussed how the Isle of Fire may have been a concept that reached Egypt through Nusantao contacts including those after the establishment of the Punt (Rhapta) spice trade.

Indeed, many aspects of the Isle of Fire can be found in the Middle Kingdom Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor who encounters an island and prince of Punt. Christopher J. Eyre states: "There is a direct comparison here with the island in the Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor: a place which stands at the edge of the cosmos; where the god survives after cataclysmic fire from the sky; where food and spirit (k3)are found to perfection; where the sailor burns his offerings, and is threatened with destruction by fire; but where he receives assurance of post-cataclysmic order, and a renewal of his life, restoration to the created world following his passage through this place of danger."

Egyptian apocalyptic literature down into Ptolemaic times has themes of both a savior king arising from Egypt and another king who comes "from the East" or "from the Sun." An example of the first king is given in the prophecy of Neferti:

A king will come from the South,
Ameny, by name,
Son of a woman of Ta-Seti (Nubia), a child of Khenkhen (Upper Egypt).
He will take the White Crown,
He will wear the Red Crown;
He will join the Double Crown,
He will please the Two Lords with what they desire,
The land in his fist, oar in his grasp.
Rejoice, O people of his time,
The son of man will make his name for all eternity!

I believe the "King from the East", on the other hand, relates to the imagery of Horus waiting to accomplish his works in the Isle of Fire, at the ends of the earth to the East where the Sun was born. The idea of the primordial location as a waiting area figures also in other millenarian traditions.

Here Horus standing for royalty also symbolizes the establishment of a new order, and enmity with the older regime, represented by Seth. In the Nusantao field of action, Tala represents the new order against the older trading clans, and it is from the fiery sacred mountains that he returns.

The term "King from the Sun" sometimes translated "King from the East" is found both in the Potter's Oracle that has been dated anywhere between the 4th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, and the Sybilline Oracles, a work considered roughly contemporaneous with the Potter's Oracle. In the latter work, following a period of serious decline, "Egypt will increase when the king from the sun, who is benevolent for fifty-five years, becomes present, appointed by the greatest goddess Isis."

In the Sybilline Oracles we read: "And then God will send a king from the sun, who will stop the entire earth from evil war, killing some, imposing oaths of fidelity on others. He will not do all these things by his own plans, but in obedience to the noble teachings of the great God."

In Hebrew tradition, the idea of a people coming from the East in latter times is found in II Esdras 1:

1:36 They have seen no prophets, yet will recall their former state.

1:37 I call to witness the gratitude of the people that is to come, whose children rejoice with gladness; though they do not see me with bodily eyes, yet with the spirit they will believe the things I have said.

1:38 "And now, father, look with pride and see the people coming from the east."

Isaiah 41 also speaks of one who is "stirred up" from the East and a savior who comes from the "rising sun." Although often interpreted differently, the "Kings of the East" in Revelation may refer to the same theme. According to some commentators, Apollyon, the king in Revelation who is usually now interpreted as the Devil, leads the armies of God from the East in Revelation.

Dog and horse imagery

Apollyon's army has been widely compared to the apocalyptic hordes mentioned in the second chapter of Joel and characterized as the camp of heaven.

The Lord raises his voice at the head of his army; For immense indeed is his camp, yes, mighty, and it does his bidding. For great is the day of the Lord, and exceedingly terrible; who can bear it?

In the same chapter, we read of this mighty host: " Their appearance is that of horses; like steeds they run." Revelation 9 also describes the army of Apollyon has having a horse-like look. Imagery of the dog, the horse and also the water buffalo/bull pervade many millenarian traditions. We have already mentioned the dog-related qualities of Fu Hsi and Yao (as Shang-ti).

Hermetic apocalyptic literature makes Hermes Tat (Hermes Thoth) a form of the god Hermanubis (Hermes-Anubis). The latter god has the human body and dog/jackal head of Anubis and the wand and clothing of Hermes. Hermanubis plays also the role of Horus as the opponent of Typhon (Seth). The prophetic literature tell of the dark period brought by the Typhonians before a final cataclysmic battle. Some aspects of Hermanubis including his identity as "Son of God" and "Logos" anticipate Christian beliefs.


Hermanubis


St. Christopher of Egypt, the dog-headed saint.


Horse-headed Kalki

In a strange transformation though, latter Christian illumination of Revelation frequently portrays all the satanic hordes including the seven-headed dragon known as the "Beast" with canine heads. This may be due to the dog's relationship with the Underworld. In Norse myth, the wolf Fenrir is turned loose at the advent of the apocalypse.

Horse imagery seems to step in for the earlier canine theme. In Christian, Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist belief, for example, we find the messianic savior arriving on horseback, and sometimes even depicted as a horse or horse-headed man.

However, canine aspects persist in the Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist saviors although submerged below the surface. Kalki, for example, although an incarnation of Visnu is said to take on the destroying powers of Siva. This destructive aspect of Siva is represented by both Bhairava, a god shown accompanied by dogs and also sometimes depicted as a dog himself, and by Rudra.

Rudra is known in the Yajurveda as Svapati "Lord of the Dogs," and the Arthavaveda says that he is followed by howling dogs, so he seems like an early model for Bhairava. The destructive powers of Kalki are known as Ekadesha Rudra (Eleven Rudras). Similarly, Raudracakrin, the Shambhala savior-king, is known as Rudra with the Discus/Wheel. In Kalacakra texts, he is often said to be aided by Rudra in his battles, and apparently he is sometimes also referred to simply as "Rudra." Such destructive aspects also might be present in Apollyon, the Jewish Greek form of the name Apollo, which translates as "Destroyer." The god was closely associated with the wolf.

An eastern explanation might be found for this dog and horse imagery where both animals are often conflated with the primordial pantheistic god. We have seen this latter being can also be identified with the concept of cyclic time represented by the human body divided into five parts. Therefore we can suggest that the pantheistic God with the accompanying dog/horse aspects is identifiable with cyclic and deified time, thus explaining the animal imagery of the apocalyptic battlefield.

'Paradise Terrestrial'

Many traditions exist of end-times actors waiting patiently in the terrestrial paradise or the 'intermediate heaven' for the coming apocalypse. These persons are often said to have escaped death.

In China, Prince Moonlight and the King of Light reigned on the paradise island of Penglai. The Zoroastrians believed that immortal heroes awaited the final battle in Kangdez, where Bahram Varjavand would organize armies from Hind and Chin to fight the forces of evil.

A popular Christian tradition interpreted verses in Revelation concerning the "two witnesses" as applying to the biblical figures Enoch and Elijah, who never died according to tradition. The two witnesses are described as revealing prophecy and battling with the Antichrist before they are killed by the beast. Enoch and Elijah were said to live in the Garden of Eden until those fateful days.

It can be shown that, starting in the early medieval period and clearly established by the middle of that period, a sacred waiting-place of millennial warriors, both good and evil, was located at the eastern edge of insular and tropical Asia. The same place suggested here that the germ of these beliefs arose.

These locations include Kangdez, the fortress of heroes, and the Vourukasha Sea (Sea of Chin) where the great dragon awaited the last days; the Garden of Eden around which one could find Enoch, Elijah and Prester John; Bratayil, the island of al-Dajjal, the Muslim Antichrist, found somewhere in the East Indies; and Penglai the kingdom of Prince Moonlight and the King of Light.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Eyma, Aayko and C. J. Bennett. A Delta-man in Yebu: Occasional Volume of the Egyptologists' Electronic Forum No. 1, Universal Publishers, 2003, pp. 240-4.

Eyre, Christopher J. Cannibal Hymn: a cultural and literary study, Liverpool University Press, 2002, pp. 82-3.

Muller, Kal. East of Bali: From Lombok to Timor, Tuttle Publishing, 2001, pp. 36-39.

News: Following stars into the Unknown

Those living in or visiting New Zealand might be interested in the Auckland Museum's new Vaka Moana exhibit on Polynesian seafaring and migrations:

---
Athena Hale prepares a copy of Abel Tasman's journal for the exhibition. Picture / Paul Estcourt



Following the stars into the unknown

Saturday December 2, 2006
By Angela Gregory

Auckland Museum hopes New Zealanders will do a bit of "way-finding" to discover a ground-breaking exhibition about the Polynesian migration across the Pacific Ocean.

The ancestors of today's Pacific peoples travelled the vast oceans 4000 years ago by a method of navigation traditionally known as way-finding, based on observations of the sea and sky.

The migration story is central to the Vaka Moana exhibition in the new exhibition space, part of the Dome museum extension.

It is the first comprehensive exhibition to explain the latest findings on the origins of the Pacific peoples, and how they migrated by sea, thousands of years before the oceanic forays of the Vikings, Portuguese and Spaniards.

The word vaka, used in Tokelau and elsewhere, is one of the variations of the Polynesian word for canoe including waka (New Zealand) and va'a (Samoa and Tahiti).

Read rest of story...

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Kalacakra Millenarian Timeline (Article)

Kalacakra millenarian views of history and the future as found in Tibetan Buddhism center on three key dates. The first is the transmission of the Kalacakra doctrine to Sucandra by the Buddha. Historians tend to look at this as a legendary event.

According to Kalacakra tradition, Sucandra brought the Kalacakra system to Shambhala where it was passed on by seven kings of the Sakya dynasty in that country.

Then comes the next key date when the Kulika dynasty arises with the Rigden King Manjushrikiirti. One of the most noteworthy deeds of this first Kulika king was to merge the different castes into a single equal "vajra" caste.

Next, the Tibetan Calendar begins in 1027 CE when the Kalacakra system is brought to India and Tibet by either the 12th or 17th Kulika king according to different traditions. The texts state that the calendar starts 403 years after the leader of a people known as the Lalos institutes a new type of astrology. This takes us to the year 624 CE or about two years after the Hijra of the Islamic calendar.

25 Kulika kings

Kalacakra texts state that 25 Rigden kings will reign before an apocalyptic war that ushers in a new golden age. The antagonists are the Lalos, apparently a term for peoples who expand their religious systems through violence.

Each Rigden is given an approximate reign of 100 years, so the full period of the Kulika Dynasty is approximately 2500 years.

A period of 25 reigns of 100 years each can find some basis in the native mensuration systems found in the Philippines and also possibly more broadly in early Austronesian society.

Ifugao peoples retained a quinary (base 5) counting system that they used together with a base 10 system. The quantity of five was known as hongol. When counting base 5, after one reaches five sets of five, one must had a new word to a word number and a new digit to a numeral. Five fives or 25 is known in the Ifugao system as dalan.

Dalan is an interesting word that normally means "way, path, road." So after one counts five fives, the "way" of counting is finished and one starts over again. The imagery is linear although the counting is cyclic.

Remnants of base 5 counting can also be found among the Christianized Filipinos in the dry measure system where five gantas equal one pati, and five pati or 25 ganta equal one caban.

The number five is of importance in Philippine social systems also because most clan genealogies include five generations. These five generations are often visualized in the form of a human body.

Among the Kapampangans, the great-grandparent is known as apung qng tud "grandparent of the knee." The great-great-grandparent is known as apung qng talampacan "grandparent of the sole of the foot." The Tagalogs knew the great-grandchild as apo sa tuhod "grandchild of the knee" and the great-great-grandchild as apo sa talampakan "grandchild of the sole."

Ilocanos saw the present generation as likened to the waist area, while the two preceding generations were characterized as the shoulders and head, and the two successive generations as the knees and soles.

According to researchers, the Ifugao usually kept genealogies going back from 15 to 30 generations. It may be at one time, that it was common to keep at least 25 generations in memory i.e., one dalan or circuit of generations. Noble families may have kept longer genealogies as the Spanish mention the 'genealogies of gods,' which likely refers to the chiefly families tracing their alleged divine descent.

The dalan unit (also daan) in the indigenous decimal systems denotes a quantity of 100. There is some evidence that dalan also referred in early times to one's "path of life" to mean both the course and the duration. For example, the term dalan sa kinabuhi "path of life" in Sugbuanon.

Samosir Batak has the term dalan ngolu literally "path of life" but also meaning "field" to express an agricultural mode of living.

In Tongan, the cognate word hala can mean "death, especially that of the king," in the sense probably of death as the completion of life's path.

If the 100-year reigns of the Rigden Kings are viewed as decimal dalan, then a quinary dalan consisting of five "bodies" of five reigns each would equal 25 reigns lasting 2,500 years.

So, the Kulika Dynasty could be seen as a quinary dalan of decimal dalans.

Reincarnated ancestors

Some of them worshiped a certain bird, others the crocodile; for holding the same fancy regarding the transmigration of souls as was held by Pythagoras in his palingenesis, they believed that, after certain cycles of years, the souls of their forefathers were turned into crocodiles.

-- Pablo de Jesus Letter to Gregory XIII

De Jesus letter on beliefs of tranmigration in the Philippines rightly mentions the crocodile which was known as nunu and dapu "grandfather." The early Filipinos believed in the return of great heroes, for example, the culture-hero/god Lumauig was believed by Igorot peoples to one day return and restore the old order.

During revolutionary times, different peasant leaders claimed to be reincarnations of heroes like Jose Rizal or Father Jose Burgos. Felipe Salvador, who led a sectarian peasant revolt in Central Luzon, declared he was the second coming of Christ.

In addition to reincarnation, there was a belief in the inheriting of the spirit-double of -- or guidance by the spirit of -- a deceased ancestor. In Kapampangan this is known as mana ning kaladua.

The mid-17th century hermaphroditic priest Tapar of Panay, who wore the "garb of a woman," claimed that he was under the command of the nonos, the departed ancestors. He called himself "Eternal Father" and appointed among his followers persons known as the Son, Holy Ghost and "Maria Santisima."

Throughout Southeast Asia the belief that even a person of humble origins could acquire extraordinary powers and claim a special relationship with the supernatural could give rise to sudden eruptions of localized religious movements when prophecies, dreams, magic, amulets, claims of invulnerability and secret revelations provided a potent weaponry.

-- Nicholas Tarling, The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia

The "humble origins" mentioned by Nicholas Tarling above could also mask a submerged ancient lineage as in the prophecies of Ratu Adil and Satria Piningit "Hidden Warrior" in Indonesia. The rural messiah is also indicated by Hindu texts that declare Kalki would be born in a "village" known as Sambhala. Some Kalacakra traditions also claim that both the king and kingdom of Shambhala would be unknown initially to the Lalos, despite the latter having gained control of much of the earth.

Dual ages

If we look at the 2,500 period from the standpoint of the dualistic views held in the region, it would be logical that this period would have a dual counterpart age. Thus the two periods would be equal to 5,000 years.

Buddhist tradition does mention that the period of decline after the death of the Buddha would last 5,000 years consisting of five 1000 year periods. However, after the ordination of women, this period was cut in half to five 500 year periods equaling 2,500 years! We might view this from the dualism standpoint as indicating that the ordination of women allowed the cancellation of the female half of the period of decline. Chinese millenarian sects often saw two ages before the golden age. Among some of these sects, these ages were known as the Blue Sun and the Red Sun, indicating respectively yin and yang.

Some Kalacakra traditions also mention a 5,000 year period but in this case broken up into the 700-year Sakya Dynasty of Shambhala, the 2,500 year Kulika Dynasty, and a 1,800 year golden age after the final battle with the Lalos.

Concepts of generational time perceived in the form of a human body has other reflexes in the Philippine region. In the Tagalog language, for example, the words tao "people," katawan "body," and taon "year" are all derived from the same root. The Kapampangan word banua can mean "heaven" as a place inhabited by the gods, stars and planets, but originally from an early Austronesian word denoting a territory inhabited by people. Banua also means "year" in Kapampangan.

The Bisayan god Laon, was a god of time, and laon denotes the passage of time. He is often described with pantheistic traits as pervading all things or forming the substance of all things.

Aspects of genealogical and solar time were obviously important in the region, but it was also suggested previously that there were may have been some pragmatic reasons involved in the formation of the Kalacakra timeline. Muslim traders began establishing themselves increasingly along the eastern African coast progressively moving southward during the 10th century and threatening the spice trade of Shambhala (Suvarnadvipa). It was about in the late 10th century that we see evidence of propaganda efforts by Suvarnadvipa to draw other political entities into the fray.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Blair, Emma Helen, James Alexander Robertson, Edward and Gaylord Bourne. The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803;: explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands..., The A.H. Clark Company, 1903, vol. 36. p. 318; vol. 38, p. 218.

De Beuclair, Inez. Three genealogical stories from Botel Tobago: A contribution to the folklore of the Yami, ND, http://www.sinica.edu.tw/~dlproj/article/ET-t/ET23.html (Chinese Traditional Big5 encoding).

Conklin, Harold and Pugguwon Lupaih. Ethnographic Atals of Ifugao: a Study of Environment, and Society in Northern Luzon, Yale University Press, 1980, p. 11.

Narayana (Glossary)

The deity Narayana appears as a form of the Hindu god Visnu fused together with the Vedic primordial being known as Purusa. Narayana is often depicted as floating on a bed of serpents in the Milky Ocean, an imagery found also in the Vedas were a cosmic Yaksha (tree spirit) floats on the primordial waters prior to creation.

Narayana can be broken down etymologically into nara "man" and ayana "coming, arrival," in reference to the deity as the cosmic man and pantheistic cause of creation. The word "nara" might also refer to water and Narayana's association with the ocean.

During the rainy season in the summer months, Narayana is said to fall asleep on the Milky Ocean, connecting his name also to the coming or arrival of water i.e. the summer rains.

Narayana and Pangu/Panhu

Like Narayana in the form of Purusa, the Chinese primordial being Pangu is portrayed as a cosmic being from which the world is created. Panhu, the dog king, is probably identical with Pangu, both having the same father Hundun -- the cosmic dumpling or gourd that floats on the ocean.

The dog-shaped Hundun, and the imagery of Panhu swimming across the flood, or over the ocean to the Dog Tumulus Country (Quan-feng-kuo), brings to mind Narayana's floating over the Milky Ocean.

Indeed, the dog imagery associated with Pangu, appears as horse imagery in association with Narayana. While Narayana as Purusa is closely linked with the Asvamedha horse sacrifice, the lei dog sacrifice to Shang-ti has some related pantheistic aspects.

Shang-ti refers to the Shang dynasty kings' sacrifice of their ancestors and was specifically connected with the location of the Fusang Tree. Instituted by Shun (Di Jun), the Shang-ti ritual was closely connected with dogs and rice, and the lei sacrifice mirrors some of the imagery of the Pangu/Panhu story of dismemberment during the world's creation.

In the Asvamedha, a swimming dog is sacrificed during the opening ceremony. Rice also plays an important part in the Vedic horse ritual. Wendy Doniger notes the rice links mentioned in the Satapatha Brahmana:

The Adhvaryu cooks the priests' mess of rice; it is seed he thereby produces...For when the horse was immolated, its seed went from it and became gold; thus, when he gives gold (to the priests) he supplies the horse with seed...For the ball of rice is seed, and gold is seed; by means of seed he thus lays seed into that (horse and sacrificer) (SB 14.1.1.,1-4)

During the Mahisi ritual of the Asvamedha sacrifice, fried rice grains are thrown at the horse. Rice also plays an important part in an Assam horse ritual in which a dance with a horse image lasts throughout the night after which the body of the image is thrown into a river and the head preserved for another year. During the river ritual, rice is eaten by the participants.

Horse's head

There are various tales of Visnu having a horse's head and human body. Not surprisingly these horse forms are closely linked with Narayana-Purusa.

Narayana is said to have taken the form of the sage Vadavamukha, the submarine mare's head that devours the salty waters of the ocean turning them into fresh water. He also is associated with Hayasiras, the horse-headed deity who saves the Vedic texts after they are stolen by demons.

Kalki, the final avatar of Visnu, is also associated with Narayana and often portrayed with a horse's head.


Kalki with horse's head, source: http://www.karma2grace.org/encyclopedia/Kalki.html


Narayana as horse-headed Hayagriva, source: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/vasu/cambodia/museeguimet/hayagriva.htm

Thus did the blessed Hari [Visnu] assume in days of old that grand form having the equine head. This, of all his forms, endued with puissance, is celebrated as the most ancient. That person who frequently listens or mentally recites this history of the assumption by Narayana of the form equipt with the equine head, will never forget his Vedic or other lore.

-- Mahabharata 12:47

In China, Panhu, the culture hero who brings rice agriculture, and his descendents in Quan-feng-kuo are often described as having dogs' heads. In medieval times, the Dog Tumulus Country is conflated with Fusang, where we now find the dog-headed men together with the associated kingdom of women.

That this is not a coincidence is also supported by the fact that both Narayana and Panhu are located in the same general region, and at times in the same specific area. If we equate the Vourukasha Sea with the Milky Ocean as we have done previously using the story of Trita, then we know that at least in medieval times these oceans were identified with the "Sea of Chin."

Malaysia and the Philippines retain concepts, now confined to the area of demonology, that could explain the theme of animal and bird-headed humans. The Penanggalan in Malaysia and the Manananggal in the Philippines are now a type of vampire known to detach their heads from their bodies. These heads, often trailed by the person's entrails, fly around at night and come back to rejoin the body during the day.

Thus, the flying detached heads are quite similar to the principle of the kaladua or spirit-double but with a more anthropomorphic twist. The names of both head-detaching creatures are derived from the word tanggal which means "to detach or remove." As the kaladua spirit roams away from the body mostly at night so the detached head flies from the body of the Penanggalan, Manananggal and the Asuang.

In the case of a bird or animal double, the head represents the person's other self. So for the Asuang, the detached head is in principle that of a dog. While in modern Christianized culture, the Asuang has become an enemy of children and childbirth, originally it can confidently be said that the situation was reversed. The dog was seen as a protector of children, something that still survives in the use of dog-teeth necklaces to protect young ones from evil, including protection from the Asuang!

Indian lore often explains the horse's heads of gods and sages as coming after the original head is cut off. Various explanations are given for this procedure. In some cases, the human head is seen to represent bodily desire, while the horse's head contains the knowledge of the Vedas. Some view the horse's head as a symbol of the Sun.

However, even with other animal incarnations of Visnu, we see often that they are sometimes represented as humans with animal heads. This indicates the idea of a double nature.

Sa-Huynh-Kalanay bicephalous pendants may connect with this idea of the double self. There are other indications of dual thinking in this culture including the lingling-o earrings with decorations at each of the four quadrants, and the hexagonal and octagonal cut jade beads.

Object of pilgrimage

Classical sources mention journeys to the eastern island of Svetadvipa to visit Narayana by personages such as Narada, Trita, Rama, Ravana, and the four Kumaras.

Such pilgrimages may link with the Tibetan Buddhist journeys to Shambhala, which in Hindu tradition is linked with horse-headed Kalki. Indeed the Garuda Purana mentions Shambhala as a pilgrimage destination:

"...the village of Shambhala is a good place of pilgrimage. The sanctuary of Narayana is a great shrine, whereas a pilgrimage to holy forest Vadarika leads to the emancipation of self."

Despite the number of Tibetan guidebooks for journeys to Shambhala, the location is not specifically mentioned in the Kalacakratantra as a pilgrimage destination. It may have been included in the location of Suvarnadvipa, that is listed as one of the pilgrimage sites known as upamelapaka in the Kalacakratantra.

Mention has been made of expeditions by Chinese emperors and kings to find the fabled island of Penglai. In messianic Buddhist-Daoist texts that started appearing in the sixth century CE, savior kings known as Prince Moonlight (Yueguang tongzi) and the King of Light (Mingwang) came into being. Writings like the Scripture of the Monk Shouluo and the Scripture of the Realization of Understanding Preached by the Boddhisattva Samantabhadra told of voyages to Penglai to visit Prince Moonlight's kingdom.

The messianic king of Penglai may be the same as the Rigden king of Shambhala, who also figured in millenarian prophecy. Penglai is frequently mentioned together with Fusang in Chinese texts, and the latter seems to be fused with Dog Tumulus Country in the latter literature. Today, for example, Chinese often ascribe the origin of Taiwan's indigenous people either or equally to Panhu and/or the inhabitants of Penglai, as the related locations are hard to distinguish from each other.

Shambhala's rigden kings were identified with incarnations of Visnu in Kalacakra texts. For example, the commentator Mipham says Rigden Manjushrikirti is the same as the Matsya or fish incarnation of Visnu. So, the Shambhala kings are easily connected to Narayana also and to the savior Kalki.

Messianic kingdom

Hindu texts say that Kalki, the last avatar of Visnu, comes from the village of Sambhala (Shambhala), and many researchers equate this with Tibetan prophecies of the messianic king Raudracakrin, the 25th Rigden of Shambhala.

Both Raudracakrin and Kalki are said to arrive on horseback, and Kalki is often portrayed as a horse or as a human with a horse's head. Raudracakrin defeats his enemies using the meditation of the "best of horses." Prince Moonlight also marches into the final battle on a "dragon-horse."

"Kulika," the name of Raudracakrin's dynasty and also possibly the name "Kalki" are derived from the words kaula and kula, derivatives of which can refer to "family" and "birth" and also mean "dog."

kulika -- "one of good family, noble birth"
kauleya -- "sprung from a good family, a dog"
kauleyaka -- "sprung from a noble family, pertaining to family, a dog"
kauleyakuTumbini -- "dog's wife, bitch"
kauleyakah -- "dog" (kula + dhakan, Panini As.t.a-dhya-yi- 4.2.96)

Chinese millenarian views date back at least to the sage Mencius who claimed that about every 500 years a sage would arise to restore the natural order. Daoists fused their seer Lao Tzu with the primordial Pangu/Panhu and beliefs arose that Lao Tzu would reincarnate periodically as the savior Li Hong during degenerate times.

Li Hong evolved together with the Buddhist-Daoist Prince Moonlight and the King of Light, the latter two possibly being the same person. These beliefs came to incorporate also the doctrine involving the coming Buddha known as Maitreya. Predicted dates for the coming of Li Hong and Prince Moonlight often matched.

According to the prophecies, a time of cosmic decay would arise leading eventually to a great final battle between divine and demonic troops. Prince Moonlight appears from his kingdom in Penglai, predicting the coming events and instructing in the means of salvation. Those elect few who hear his words are saved as Prince Moonlight leads them to Penglai, or in other versions to the Tushita Heaven, to escape the coming tribulation.

Some have claimed the millennial conflict betrays Manichean influence although cataclysmic dualistic battles are found in some of the oldest Chinese literature. In the Yaodian, which Joseph Needham has dated to between the eighth and fifth centuries BCE on philological grounds, but with astronomical data going back to the third millennium BCE, Emperor Yao battles the flood-ravaging demon Gong-gong. After defeating Gong-gong the earth is titled toward the Southeast causing rivers to flow into a maelstrom and hole in the Earth located in the Southeastern Ocean and known as the Weilu.

Likewise in the Huainanzi of the Han Dynasty, we hear of the battles of the fire and water gods before Nu Gua raises the sky from the earth.

After Prince Moonlight's apocalyptic victory, a new world is reconstructed having great peace and opulence.

The advanced millenarian movements in China were concentrated mostly in the South, with the first center at Nanjing. Cults like the White Lotus tradition were concentrated mainly in northern Fujian and northern Jiangxi. Later the messianic movements became strongly centered in southeastern coastal regions like Fujian and eastern Guangdong.

Hindu, Buddhist and Chinese millennial beliefs thus tend to cluster around Narayana or his cognates, and around the specific locations of the Milky Ocean and Svetadvipa, which act as a backdrop for the Visnu incarnations and as birthplace for the final messianic avatar. The geographic reference is of great importance and like Penglai and Shambhala the precise location is somewhat "hidden" adding to its mystery and allure.

Prester John's communications starting in the 12th century laid claim to the Indies including the Garden of Eden, which in the view of the Ptolemaic astronomers of Muslim Spain, would rest 180 degrees east of the Fortunate Isles in the Sea of Chin. According to Prester John himself, it was from his kingdoms that the final battle would break out, and there one could find both the lost Ten Tribes and apocalyptic Gog and Magog nations. A descendent of Prester John would lead the battle ushering in the Second Coming. Such messages sparked a new wave of voyages in search of the Milky Ocean and the island of Narayana.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Doniger, Wendy. Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts, University of Chicago Press, 1980, p. 155.

Ownby, David. "Chinese Millenarian Traditions: The Formative Age," The American Historical Review 104.5 (1999): 38 pars. 14 Nov. 2006 <http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr//104.5/ah001513.html>.

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.