Conf. Paper: The Great Scorching: Possible linkages to ancient and modern global warming

I'm posting my paper for the Alamat Conference, which was held at Manila in 2008, in three parts. The subject of the paper is the widespread myths of the "great scorching" and its relevance to ancient and modern global warming and rising sea levels.

Part one is found below.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
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The Great Scorching: Possible linkages to ancient and modern global warming

Messages from the past...do they have anything to tells us about our present, or our future?

Have myths preserved memories of rising seas, driven by global warming, submerging lands in ancient times?

We face today what has been called the greatest crisis in the known history of modern humans – the crisis of global warming and climate change. And it is a problem, according to the vast majority of experts, of our own making.

However, in the past, after the last glacial period or “mini-ice age,” the world witnessed extensive sea flooding caused by warming temperatures melting global ice packs.

During this illustrious conference, we have heard many participants speak of global flood myths.

The purpose of my paper is to examine myths here in the Philippines and the surrounding region that tell of a time when people viewed the sky as lower than it is today, or as containing multiple Suns. Because the sky was lower, the Sun was also lower and there was great heat -- a period of great scorching. And about this same time in some of these same mythologies we hear that the great sea flood also occurred.

I want to examine whether these myths of the great scorching and the great flood are actually remembrances of a time at the start of the present inter-glacial period, known as the Holocene, when warming temperatures actually caused seas to rise dramatically.

However, before I proceed, let me first examine one of the questions addressed by this conference. That is, whether or not myth and oral tradition convey historical events and facts.

My experience studying the voluminous material on myth suggests that most researchers believe myth preserves at least some history when the right conditions exist. This is the case whether they see mythology as originating from the unconscious mind as suggested by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, or as derived from ritual and the need to explain nature as espoused by James Frazer[i].

Of course, we should distinguish the ordinary folk tale or story that is told simply for amusement from the memorized, structured traditions of full-time priests and other ritualists. The folk storyteller usually recollects the tales heard to the best of his or her ability.

A full-time chanter, bard or priest learns line by line, and sometimes syllable by syllable in serious instruction that lasts for many years. They often memorize traditions that can fill whole books using cadence, rhythm, meter, rhyme, assonance and other memorization techniques[ii]. Prior to their exposure to the modern world, the material these specialists learned was often considered of grave importance to the community.

Of course, many oral traditions fall somewhere in between the simple folk tale or folk remedy and the serious epic or ritual chant.

The mythologist Lord Raglan once proposed that myths and folklore do not preserve history for periods longer than 150 years. However, Raglan’s beliefs were based on anecdotal experience from his own family where he found that information was lost after three generations of 50 years[iii]. He came from a literate culture that depended on writing and were sophisticated oral preservation methods were not used.

In cultures were writing was absent, or were oral transmission was preferred for various reasons; the situation is quite different from what Raglan found among his own family.

Indeed, one of Lord Raglan’s critics, William Bascom offered an exception to Raglan’s claims in the case of the Gwambe people of Mozambique. They had preserved legends -- ordinary folktales -- that described early migration and the Gwambe’s experience with early Europeans[iv]. These oral traditions were verified using the records of Portuguese explorers from four centuries earlier.

In another example, historians once believed that Biblical accounts of the city of Ur, and Homer’s tales of Troy were purely fictional, possibly derived from folklore, until archaeologists discovered remnants of these ancient cities[v].

One archaeological study released just last year verified indigenous Hawaiian chants of voyages from Hawaii to Tahiti and back. Stone tools, some of them 2,000 years old were found in Tahiti made of basalt traced to the Hawaiian Islands. Previously, many researchers had believed that the Hawaiians had reached these islands accidentally, driven by storms, and lacked the navigational ability to make the return journey to Tahiti[vi].

Another archaeological example comes from the Pacific region of Vanuatu, where well-preserved oral chants and genealogies tell of Chief Roimata who lived according to tradition around the year 1265. Archaeologists were able to locate the chief’s gravesite and used various techniques to confirm many of the legendary details. For example, according to legend, Chief Roimata was accompanied on his voyage to the land of the dead by family and clan members[vii].

At the burial site, it was found that about 50 people including possibly the chief’s youngest wife were buried together with him probably in acts of self-sacrifice. Above the chief, on a dancing ground surface were eleven embracing couples buried together. According to the oral records, the men were drugged with kava extract before internment but not the women, and in fact, the men do appear in the burials as more sedated than the women.

In Pakistan, the Kalash and Burusho peoples have legends that trace the descent of their people or leaders back to Alexander the Great and his invasions. A genetic study released last year showed both the Kalash and Burusho indeed carry a haplotype, unique in the region that originates in Greece and Macedonia[viii].

A number of researchers including DeLaguna, Vansina, Miller and Krech have recorded many examples showing that oral tradition does preserve valid history sometimes with surprising clarity[ix].

One difference between written and oral traditions before modern times is the very limited number of people who could record written history. In most societies, it was only the elite scribes that could write. These scribes were often subject to the political environment of the time and could hardly express themselves freely.

History is replete with kings who claimed vast conquests that on later inspection prove to be exaggerations. Ramses II of Egypt, for example, claimed victories that went beyond the existing evidence. The same Pharaoh was known also to have appropriated the statues of previous kings removing their identifying inscriptions and replacing them with his own signatures[x].

In comparison to scribal societies, oral records can be created by any family or clan. Among the Polynesians, for whom the keeping of family genealogies was a sacred duty, some traditions record dozens of generations, both fathers and mothers. In some areas, a genealogy of more than 100 generations could be found, and these records usually included stories and details linked with noted ancestors[xi].

Having many different versions of the same event or person is often advantageous as compared to only one or a limited number of versions. Journalists and criminal investigators know that even for events that have occurred very recently, witnesses will give accounts that can sometimes vary wildly in details[xii]. The more witnesses available, however, the greater the ability of the investigator to sort through details and arrive at the version closest to the truth.

Turning again specifically to the link between mythology and history, we know that historical events are often mythologized, or that historical events are embellished with mythological or supernatural themes.

For example, a stone inscription found in East Java known as the Calcutta Inscription and dated to 1041 CE, tells of a volcanic eruption that occurred on the island in 1006 CE[xiii]. The inscription describes a time of great dissolution known in Sanskrit as pralaya in which Java is described as resembling a “sea of milk.”

This concept of a “sea of milk” comes from Ancient Indian mythology – the story of the churning of the sea of milk as found rendered in art at the great temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Geologists have discovered that during this very time Mount Merapi in Java had erupted mightily covering much of the island with a layer of light-colored ash or tephra that could explain the period of great dissolution mentioned in the inscription, and the ashy color would account for the “sea of milk” description[xiv].

Javanese scribes had apparently recorded an historical eruption of Mount Merapi with motifs known from Hindu-Buddhist mythology.

In a similar sense, when Mongol fleets attempting to invade Japan were destroyed by typhoons, historical records attribute the victory to the Divine Wind known in Shintoism as Kamikazi.

Even in modern times, we still witness the practice of mythologizing real events. One example comes from the late well-known tele-evangelist Jerry Falwell in the United States. Falwell had stated publicly that the 9-11 attacks in New York City were allowed by God because of America’s sinfulness[xv].

Falwell’s followers may well have seen some truth in these statements, and potentially they could transmit these beliefs as folklore traditions. One could view in the same way the claims made by U.S. President George W. Bush that God had spoken to him and advised him to invade Iraq[xvi].

Regardless of the truthfulness of the mythological or supernatural claims, these elements are fused together with real historical events, the 9-11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq respectively. I suspect that most mythology in a similar fashion transmits both historical and non-historical information.

Oral history and mythology is subject to accretion, interpolation, mutation, errors in transmission and the like. We find the same thing, though, occurring in writing systems. In certain cases, transmission was more difficult with written texts[xvii]. Copying manuscripts, for example, was a painstaking process that led to many errors from simple misspelling to skipping entire stanzas or paragraphs.

For the researcher, whether the tradition is oral or written, the task still lies in identifying archaic language and style, analyzing content, and other methods in reconstructing the text in chronological layers[xviii].

Now, turning to the question at hand our colleague Stephen Oppenheimer, in his book Eden in the East[xix] makes a powerful argument that many of the widespread flood myths can be traced to actual rising sea levels during the Holocene period. He traces these myths especially to the submerging of Sundaland under the South China Sea and Indian Ocean. In this body of myths, rainfall usually plays little or no part; the sea engulfs the land often causing permanent loss of previously inhabited territory.

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[i] Otto Rank and Alan Dundes. In Quest of the Hero, Princeton University Press, 1990, vii-xxxi.

[ii] David C. Rubin. Memory in Oral Traditions: The Cognitive Psychology of Epic, Ballads, and Counting-out Rhymes, Oxford University Press, 1995.

[iii] FitzRoy Richard Somerset Raglan. The Hero: A study in tradition, myth and drama. Methuen, 1936, 12.

[iv] William Bascom. “The Myth-Ritual Theory,” The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 70, No. 276 (Apr. - Jun., 1957) 103-114.

[v] S.H. Allen. Finding the Walls of Troy: Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann at Hisarlik, University of California Press, 1998.

[vi] KD Collerson and MI Weisler. “Stone adze compositions and the extent of ancient Polynesian voyaging and trade,” Science 2007 Sep 28;317(5846):1907-1.

[vii] José Garanger. Archéologie des Nouvelles-Hébrides: contribution à la connaissance

des îles du centre. Publications de la Société des Océanistes, No. 30. Paris: ORSTOM.

[viii] S. Firasat, Khaliq S, Mohyuddin A, Papaioannou M, Tyler-Smith C, Underhill PA and Ayub Q. “Y-chromosomal evidence for a limited Greek contribution to the Pathan population of Pakistan,” Eur J Hum Genet. 2007 Jan;15(1):121-6.

[ix] Fredrica DeLaguna. “The Story of a Tlingit Community,” Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 172. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1960. Jan Vansina. Oral Tradition: A Study in Historical Methodology, Chicago: Aldine Press, 1965. Joseph C. Miller ed. The African Past Speaks: Essays on Oral Tradition and History. Folkestone: W Dawson, 1980. Shepard Krech III. "The State of Anthropology." Annual Reviews of Anthropology 1991 20:345- 375.

[x] Ian Shaw. The Oxford History of Egypt, Oxford University Press, 2003, 288-9.

[xi] William Ellis. Polynesian Researches, During a residence of nearly eight years..., J & J Harper, 1833, 78. Karl Von den Steinen, Die Marquesaner und Ihre Kunst, II (1928), 64. Von Den Steinen mentions a knot genealogy in the Marquesas that contained 159 generations.

[xii] Anthony Heaton-Armstrong, Eric Shepherd and David Wolchover. Analysing Witness Testimony, Oxford University Press, 1999.

[xiii] George Coedes. Les états hindouisés d'Indochine et d'Indonésie, E. de Broccard, 1948, 245.

[xiv] Supriyati D. Andreastuti and Brent V. Alloway. Stratigraphy, age and correlation of a tephra marker bed in Central East Java, Indonesia, 2005, http://conferences.eas.ualberta.ca/tephrarush2005/abstracts/Andreastuti_and_Alloway.pdf.

[xv] Robert E. Denton. Language, Symbols, and the Media, Transaction Publishers, 2004, 23.

[xvi] John Bice. A 21^st Rationalist in Medieval America, Chelydra Bay Press, 2007, 202.

[xvii] Kathleen Davis and Robert Boenig. Manuscript, Narrative, Lexicon, Bucknell University Press, 2000.

[xviii] Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht. The Powers of Philology, University of Illinois Press, 2003.

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

Part II
Part III

Canoe evolution suggests Maori came from Hawai'i

New research on the evolution of canoe designs suggests that New Zealand may have been at least partly settled from Hawai'i.

The study in the November Proceedings of the Royal Society B by Stanford University researchers Marcus Feldman and Paul Ehrlich and biologist Deborah Rogers compared canoe designs compiled by A. C. Haddon and James Hornell.

They specifically analyzed morphological, decorative and construction characteristics of canoes throughout Polynesia.



Source: PNAS

"Evolution is a logical way of looking at change over time," said Ms Rogers.

The study used software programming to run though 10 million possible permutations of canoe evolution and reached the conclusion that New Zealand canoes came directly from Hawai'i.

A Hawaiian migration was once considered one of the leading hypotheses for Maori origins but lost favor among archaeologists who thought the archaeological record suggested that the Maori came from more southern parts of eastern Polynesia. A genetic study might help in providing any verification of this latest suggestion.

Sincerely,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Deborah S. Rogers, Marcus W. Feldman, and Paul R. Ehrlich. “Inferring population histories using cultural data,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Vol. 276 No. 1674, November 7, 2009.

Single origin for domesticated dog in Southeast Asia and South China

At the end of this article is the abstract of a new study suggesting a single origin for dogs in Asia south of the Yangtze River. The entire article is available for free viewing and downloading online by following the Open Access link below.

The study uses the principle of "greatest diversity" in determining the origin of the domesticated dog. The idea again is that dogs migrating away from the place of origin carry some but not all of the genetic types found within the species. Therefore, nearly all the dogs outside of "ASY," which stands for "Asia south of the Yangtze," i.,e. South China and Southeast Asia, originated from a subset of the total haplogroups found in ASY. And there were many unique haplotypes found only in ASY. Only in this region were all 10 major haplogroups found and this number decreases as one moves further away through Eurasia with the lowest total of four haplogroups found in Europe.

Interestingly of all the geographic areas tested, the Southeast Asian sample had the highest genetic diversity at 0.9526 followed by South China at 0.9486. The exact samples from these regions are:

South China:
Guangdong (n=14), Guangxi (n=35), Hunan (n=54), Guizhou (n=57), Jiangxi (n=46), Yunnan (n=75)

Southeast Asia
Thailand (n=41), Vietnam (n=11), Cambodia (n=7)

What is apparent is that with the exception of northern Yunnan, the wolf is not present in any of these areas in modern times. At one time, it was assumed that the wolf must have extended over all this region and further because of the existence of the dingo in Australia.

The dingo was considered a wild dog, but modern research led by one of the supporting authors of the current study -- P. Savolainen -- suggests that the dingo is actually a descendant of the domesticated dog.

However, the dingo's behavior is very much like a wild dog suggesting that possibly it represents a mixture of wild and domesticated dogs. Multi-generational feral dogs generally depend on human settlement where they scavenge garbage heaps, beg for scraps, and, in some cases, prey on livestock. Most dingos, though, lived totally independent of human populations when they were first studied by Europeans.

Now the existence of similar "wild" dingos in Thailand and Sulawesi, and dingo-like feral dogs throughout much of Southeast Asia, is suggestive. If the original domesticated dog was often feral, as is the case in modern Southeast Asia, then interbreeding with wild wolves could have been commonplace.

Although wolf packs will attack dogs and other wolves that are strangers to the pack, when individuals break off from a pack to mate, they are much friendlier. It is known that wolves, for example, in the Americas will even sometimes mate with different species like the coyote.

So during the early domestication period, large packs of feral or semi-domesticated dogs may have bred with the wild dog, or wolf population. Eventually these mixed types would have developed into the wild-ranging dingo, or the wild populations wold merge with feral dog stocks. This could explain why the pure wolf is no longer found in Southeast Asia or most of South China.

Now when the domesticated dog moved out of ASY, it would have encountered different situations especially among pastoral peoples. These groups raise herds of free-ranging livestock, which are very vulnerable to predation by feral dogs. Thus, humans in these cultures would have taken greater measures to cull feral dog populations. Also, they probably trained dogs at an early age to guard herds and flocks against wolves, which would have helped prevent interbreeding between wolf and dog. Across many of the geographical areas bordering ASY, feral dog populations cannot survive to the same extent as in ASY. In these areas, dogs become more dependent on humans and the number of feral dogs decreases.

The authors suggest that the domesticated dog spread with agriculture, however, I think the archaeological record clearly contradicts this assertion. Dogs were diffused during the Mesolithic period, possibly when humans were first engaging in pastoralism, if we accept that the latter practice arose among hunter-gatherers. I wonder if there is any influence on the idea of dogs diffusing together with agriculture, that comes from the Chinese tradition of Panhu, the Dog-Man-God, which is sometimes interpreted as referring to the spread of the domesticated dog. I give my explanation of this myth and its relation to the spread of rice agriculture here and here.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Mol Biol Evol. 2009 Sep 1. [Epub ahead of print]

-->Links

mtDNA Data Indicates a Single Origin for Dogs South of Yangtze River, less than 16,300 Years Ago, from Numerous Wolves.

Pang JF, Kluetsch C, Zou XJ, Zhang AB, Luo LY, Angleby H, Ardalan A, Ekström C, Sköllermo A, Lundeberg J, Matsumura S, Leitner T, Zhang YP, Savolainen P.

State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China.

There is no generally accepted picture of where, when, and how the domestic dog originated. Previous studies of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have failed to establish the time and precise place of origin because of lack of phylogenetic resolution in the so far studied control region (CR), and inadequate sampling. We therefore analysed entire mitochondrial genomes for 169 dogs to obtain maximal phylogenetic resolution, and the CR for 1,543 dogs across the Old World for a comprehensive picture of geographical diversity. Hereby, a detailed picture of the origins of the dog can for the first time be suggested. We obtained evidence that the dog has a single origin in time and space, and an estimation of the time of origin, number of founders and approximate region, which also gives potential clues about the human culture involved. The analyses showed that dogs universally share a common homogenous gene pool containing 10 major haplogroups. However, the full range of genetic diversity, all 10 haplogroups, was found only in south-eastern Asia south of Yangtze River, and diversity decreased following a gradient across Eurasia, through 7 haplogroups in Central China, and 5 in North China and Southwest Asia, down to only 4 haplogroups in Europe. The mean sequence distance to ancestral haplotypes indicates an origin 5,400-16,300 years ago from at least 51 female wolf founders. These results indicate that the domestic dog originated in southern China less than 16,300 years ago, from several hundred wolves. The place and time coincide approximately with the origin of rice agriculture, suggesting that the dogs may have originated among sedentary hunter-gatherers or early farmers, and the numerous founders indicate that wolf taming was an important culture trait.

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Related links

Dog as deity, ancestor and royal animal

Article: Dog reverence in Southeast Asia and Pacific

Interpretations of the Dog Husband Theme

Rajasuya , Sunahsepa and the Royal Dog

Deluge, Gourd, Dog Husband

References

Fleming, Peter; Laurie Corbett, Robert Harden, Peter Thomson (2001). Managing the Impacts of Dingoes and Other Wild Dogs. Commonwealth of Australia: Bureau of Rural Sciences.

Dingos (photo from Wikipedia)

Coconut evidence supports Pre-Columbian journeys across the Pacific

Somehow I missed the following article when if first came out despite my subscription to the Coconut Study mailing list!

Baudouin, L & Lebrun, L (2008) Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) DNA studies support the hypothesis of an ancient Austronesian migration from Southeast Asia to America. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 56 (2), 257-262.

Abstract The centre of origin of coconut extends from Southwest Asia to Melanesia. Nevertheless, its pre-Columbian existence on the Pacific coast of America is attested. This raises questions about how, when and from where coconut reached America. Our molecular marker study relates the pre-Columbian coconuts to coconuts from the Philippines rather than to those of any other Pacific region, especially Polynesia. Such an origin rules out the possibility of natural dissemination by the sea currents. Our findings corroborate the interpretation of a complex of artefacts found in the Bahía de Caraquez (Ecuador) as related to South-East Asian cultures. Coconut thus appears to have been brought by Austronesian seafarers from the Philippines to Ecuador about 2,250 years BP. We discuss the implications of molecular evidence for assessing the possible contribution of early trans-pacific travels to and from America to the dissemination of domesticated plants and animals.

Again this appears to be a landmark find that was completely ignored by the mainstream Western press.

The article was published along with a number of relevant studies that came out around the same time on Pre-Columbian chickens in the Americas, along with Pre-Columbian Datura metel and custard apple in South Asia.

The coconut study is based on examination of DNA microsatellite markers and the distribution of varieties that are resistant to the Lethal Yellowing diseases, which are transmitted by insects. For some discussion on the Ecuadorian cultures mentioned in the abstract, see my posts on fish hooks, fish poisons, Solheim's theory on Pre-Columbian contacts, migrations along the Kuroshio Current, and plants across the Pacific.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

New evidence of Cinnamon Route from Mtwapa, Kenya

An important story is circulating around in African popular publications, but unfortunately, maybe predictably, it has not been picked up yet by the Western popular media.

One version of the story of Dr. Chapurukha (Chap) Kusimba's research can be found at The East African website:

Digging for history in the sands of time
by Rupi Mangat

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/magazine/-/434746/653420/-/item/0/-/mqc8qw/-/index.html

Here are two key paragraphs from the article on discoveries made by Dr. Kusimba, an archaeologist with the Field Museum in Chicago, at the Mtwapa ruins along the coast of southern Kenya:

“This era [the Holocene] sees the bi-directional flow of cultural objects and foods through trade over wide regions of the world. l’m particularly interested in how domestic rice, coconuts, chickens and the Indian cow (Bos indicus) reached Africa from Asia and how African domestic foods like sorghum and millet reached Asia and became staples in countries there.”

This list of trade items shows that many of these exchanges of crops between Africa and South East Asia through trade happened as early as 4,000 years ago.

Now obviously these discoveries are greatly supportive of the theories of J. I. Miller, myself and others about the ancient age of the Cinnamon Route.

In an email correspondence with Dr. Kusimba, I was able to find out that it was specifically the sorghum and millet from the Africa to Asia; and citrus fruit, bananas and Indica rice from Southeast Asia to Africa, that date back to about 4000 years ago (1732 BCE).

Chickens, probably from Insular Southeast Asia, date back at Mtwapa to about 1000 BCE, and the coconut finds have not been datable so far.

Previously I have discussed how banana phytoliths dating back to 500 BCE have been found in Nigeria, and dating to about 2500 BCE were discovered in Munsa, Uganda. Banana cultivation is complicated and labor-intensive so there is no doubt that these domesticated plants were carried to Africa by humans.

Dr. Kusimba mentions that East Africa was known to the ancient Romans as the "Cinnamon coast," and I have suggested earlier, following Miller, that the ancient port known as Rhapta in Greek texts was probably the Punt of the ancient Egyptians. Rhapta was located in the same area as the bustling medieval island ports of Pemba and Zanzibar in modern-day Tanzania. Evidence of chickens in Tanzania dates back to 2800 BCE. These islands are actually quite close to the Mtwapa ruins, which are just north of Mombasa. Possibly we can say that Mtwapa was in the same economic zone as Rhapta, and we cannot rule out that Mtwapa may have been the actual site of that ancient port.

There is evidence of cinnamon or cassia that has been found in animal mummies dating back to the XXIII Egyptian dynasty (818-715 BCE) by Dr. Stephen Buckley. He also found traces of cinnamon or cassia that he states probably came from Southeast Asia in the canopic jar of Djediufankh, which is dated to about 664 - 525 BCE. Cinnamon has also been found at a Hera temple on the island of Samos in Greece that dates back to the 7th century BCE. This evidence puts to rest the idea that that the cinnamon of the ancients that traveled up the eastern African coast was not the cinnamon of Asia that we know today.

It is also worth mentioning again the discovery of clove flower buds at Terqa, Syria, at roughly the same time as the earliest dates for Mtwapa. These cloves may have followed a different coastal route, which I have called the Clove Route, as opposed to the probably trans-oceanic Cinnamon Route that bypassed most of the Asian coast.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Tidal Farming and Fishing System

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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


Curious culinary link

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Bringhe


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



Spain's TFFS and the Grail Myths

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

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

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

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



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


Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

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

Maria Kannon and the Philippines

A few posts ago, I wrote about Kuanyin in relation to the sandalwood trade. In Japan, the goddess Kuanyin is known as Kannon.

When Christian missionaries brought their religion to Japan, the early Japanese Christians fused Mary, the mother of Jesus, with the goddess Kannon creating what became known as "Maria Kannon" マリア観音.

This Maria Kannon eventually was used to covertly continue Christian worship after the government began persecuting the religion. Crucifixes were said to have been hidden in the Maria Kannon images, and Christian prayers were offered to the icons. The Maria Kannon images were particularly frequent in areas like Nagasaki. These statues were generally indistinguishable from ordinary Buddhist Kannon statues with the exception of the hidden Christian symbols.

Maria (Maruya), though, became associated with Luzon (Roson) among Japanese Christians rather than the Christian Holy Land in the Middle East. She was said to have been a native Luzon, and ends up marrying the resurrected King of Luzon. I have discussed how this might have come about in some earlier postings.

Interestingly after World War II, the Japanese have funded a number of Kannon or Maria Kannon memorials in the Philippines including some on the island of Luzon, which have mostly been funded by Japanese veterans or other private groups.

Here are some examples:


Ten-foot tall Kannon statue of the Japanese Garden Of Peace at Corregidor, the site of a major battle during World War II.

http://corregidorisland.com/part2.html



From the Maria Kannon Garden/Philippine-Japan Peace Commemorative Park in Tacloban, Leyte, called the "Madonna of Japan."
http://trifter.com/asia-pacific/japan/madonna-of-japan-a-symbol-of-peace-and-friendship/


 
Koyasan Shingon Buddhist Shrine with 15-ft. Kannon statue at Clark Field, Pampanga, Philippines in honor of dead Kamikaze pilots.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Heiwa_Kannon.JPG

The Kannon statue is a special symbol of peace between Japan and the Philippines, and the Hito Kannon in Aichi, Japan is dedicated to Japanese who died in the Philippines during World War II. There is another Kannon war memorial for all the Japanese who fell in the war at Ryozen.

One has to wonder whether the choice of the Kannon and Maria Kannon statue memorials in the Philippines is not linked with modern historical knowledge of Maria's connection, among Japan's hidden Christians (Kakure Kirishitan 隠れキリシタン), with the ancient kingdom of Roson.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Video: Gold of the Ancestors, the Surigao Treasure

This video shows part of a broadcast program featuring the story behind the Surigao Treasure discovered in northern part of the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. The Surigao Treasure is the most impressive collection of gold artifacts found in the country and dates back to the 10th - 13th century. The collection includes extraordinary gold belts and one items known as the "Sacred Thread" that may be the single most impressive solid gold personal ornament in the world. The Surigao Treasure is located at the Ayala Museum in Makati, a business district in Metro Manila, and also at the Central Bank of the Philippines.