The peoples in the regions around Arayat and Pinatubo considered these mountains sacred and they had various ritual and practices concerning the mountains that are known to an extent.
Animism -- certain trees, stones, caves, streams, etc., were thought to harbor special spirits called Anito. Aduarte in 1640, for example, mentions a sacred speaking stone among the Sambals. Certain black rocks were considered to be remnants of Sinukuan's great bridge before it was demolished.
Every valley, river, rock, outcrop, or tree in Pinatubo had a significance in Aeta lore. (Elder and Wong 1996:280)
Careri states that fruit and other products of Arayat should only be eaten while on the mountain. It was taboo to carry them to the lowlands. According to Serrano, one should first ask permission before taking any fruit of the mountain:
Apo dinan mo ku pu, ke pung mangan darening tanaman mo "Lord, please grant this to me which I would like to eat from your fruit trees."
One should not commit acts of greed on the mountain like excessive logging (Dominador G. David, Pampangan Folklore Stories, 1917) or gold mining (Manuel Carreon, Pampangan Legends, 1917). One should not even have greed in one's heart in case you should come upon Sinukuan or his daughters, who often test people in this regard.
The bathing pool of Sinukuan on Arayat was considered a place of healing where the sick could come and bathe to free themselves of illness.
Both Pinatubo and Arayat, or their deities are believed to control the weather, especially when angry. Prayers are made to these mountains/deities for help during inclement weather. Hiromu Shimizu relates an incident in which Pan Bangay, a Pinatubo Ayta, made an offering to appease Apo Pinatubo. The pair had come close to the mountain and it suddenly became dark and started raining. Pan Bangay lit a straw from Shimizu's hat and uttered the following appeal:
Pakida-ep mo Apo Pinatubo, agmo kay kik oranan Apo Pinatubo, kapapa-ingalo ya kik nabaha ang! (Grandfather Pinatubo, please smell the smoke. Don't expose us to the rain, have pity for we will get wet!)
When Mt. Pinatubo erupted in 1991, the Ayta held a manganito seance in which they said that they were informed that Apo Namalyari was angry due to modern commercial encroachment on Pinatubo. They conducted the talbeng ritual to appease Pinatubo and to ask Apo Namalyari to bring back the forest.
Be kind to animals, insects, plants, etc., on Arayat and do not even point at them unnecessarily for fear of angering Sinukuan. (Eugenio 1993:180)
Batung Maputi, the White Rock of Arayat. Legendary location of Sinukuan's palace.
One way of reconstructing the original motifs and themes of the local legends is to ascertain which ones are found independently from at least a few sources. In practice though, it is often easy to discern when outside myths and legends are mixed into those of local origin.
Here are some of the recurring themes and motifs involving Pinatubo and Arayat:
Power of mountains/deities to control weather, earthquakes
Deities of mountains involved in creation of land formations
Excessive logging, mining angers mountain deities
Deities live inside their respective mountains. Sinukuan has a underground palace of gold or bronze.
Sinukuan's daughters, usually three in number, like to interact with humans trading gold for pig's feed (darac "rice husks")
Sinukuan was very rich with gold and generous giving away gold and magical items.
Malyari is associated with Moon and Sinukuan with Sun. Many of their children are also associated with the heavenly bodies or locations in the sky where the Sun sets, crosses the zenith, etc.
Sinukuan and Malyari are associated with a bridge to each other's mountain or to some other mountain or area.
Marital and courtship relations existed between the gods of Pinatubo and Arayat. However, they also engage in land-altering battles.
Both mountains have many taboos and restrictions against desecration. The sacred mountains are meant to remain in a natural and unspoiled state as much as possible.
Anything that originates on the mountains is sacred.
The White Rock (Batung Maputi) is the location of the entrace to Sinukuan's palace.
A future eruption from Pinatubo was expected.
There is the myth recorded by Beyer, and also a warning before the last eruption that Ayta elders gave their children that Apo Pinatubo Namalyari would awake and throw stones if they did not behave. (Rodolfo 1995:88)
Elder, John, and Hertha Dawn Wong. Family of Earth and Sky: Indigenous Tales of Nature from Around the World. The Concord library. Boston: Beacon Press, 1994.
Rodolfo, K. Pinatubo and politics of lahar. Eruption and Aftermath, 1991, University of the Philippines Press, 1995.
Shimizu, Hiromu. Pinatubo Aytas: Continuity and Change. Quezon City, Metro Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1989, 50.
The axis mundi is where sky, earth and underworld meet. That this term applied to both Pinatubo and Arayat is evident by the deities that inhabited these mountains. Malyari, the Moon on Pinatubo, and Sinukuan, the Sun on Arayat.
Sinukuan had among his children Munag Sumalâ, the Dawn, and Ugtu, the Noontime. Among Malyari's children is Sisilim, the Setting of the Sun. In one version (Eugenio 1983, 180), the daughters of Sinukuan are known as the Three Marias (Tres Marias), which is a name given to the three stars of Orion's Belt. Furthermore, Tala, the planet Venus and the Morning Star, is said to descend either from Sinukuan (Apolaqui) and the Moon (Mayari), or from the marriage of Munag Sumalâ and Manalastas, the Rooster, the son of Malyari.
Not only do these deities live on the two sacred mountains, but they are expressly said in multiple accounts to live within the mountains, i.e., in the Underworld. The golden palace of Sinukuan within Arayat, for example, is featured in many of the legends of this region. Sinukuan's palace, according to the accounts, could generally only be accessed by mortals through magical intervention.
In a myth found among the fisherfolk in Masantol, the creator deity Mangatia or Mangetchay, whose name means "net weaver," created the sky as a great net with the stars as the holes or "eyes." After finishing this cosmic net, Mangatia dropped the sewing needle to the Earth and the former became either Mt. Arayat, or Batung Maputi (White Rock). The latter is a massive white rock formation near the peak of Arayat, where many legends say the magical entrance to Sinukuan's subterranean palace is located.
I mentioned earlier in this blog, that the Kapampangans apparently had two geographical centers -- one in the North in Upper Pampanga, and one in the South in Lower Pampanga, where the trading seaports were located. The northern center was located between Pinatubo and Arayat with the latter mountain indicating the direction of the East, and the mouth of the Pampanga River, the direction of the South. From the cosmic perspective, this area between the two great luminaries -- Sun and Moon -- was the center of the world.
Battle between the Sun and Moon
The fighting between Malyari and Sinukuan is also a conflict between the Sun and Moon. The most common form of this myth takes the form of a widespread theme that extends beyond the Philippines. R. Rahmann in his work "Quarrels and Enmity between the Sun and the Moon: A Contribution to the Mythologies of the Philippines, India, and the Malay Peninsula," traces this theme from Southeast Asia to India.
The quarrel between the two orbs is usually started due to the intense heat of the Sun, often together with his progeny. After the battle, the Moon, which was once as bright or brighter than Sun, takes on a subordinate position. In many cases, this theme is combined together with the motif of a cataclysm of fire-rain or fire-water on the earth. There is also, especially in the Philippines, an accompanying land-forming theme with new formations caused by the huge boulders hurled by the combatants.
The motifs of great heat, fire, water, flying stones, and the new land formations in connection with the mountains is easy to interpret as volcanic activity -- an indication of the geographical origin of these myths.
Many of the accounts of the battle between Malyari and Sinukuan do not actually mention Pinatubo by name. Often "Mount Zambales" or a more vague reference to the Zambales mountains is mentioned instead. H. Otley Beyer recorded many of these in his unpublished Philippine Folklore, Social Customs and Beliefs Vol. IX (Pampanga),a collection of papers written by his students during the early 20th century. In many cases, the accounts are clearly mixed with other folk material. For example, the tale of Sinukuan's friends including Carguin Cargon and Supla Supling are taken from the Spanish legend of Lucifer's Ear.
Here are some of the stories of the battle between Sinukuan and his opponent from Zambales.
Sinukuan battles with the young prince, the son of Storm God of the Sambal mountains after the latter comes courting Maya, the youngest and favorite daughter of Sinukuan. (Parker 1929)
According to Alfredo Nicdao in 1916, Mt. Zambales was a great single mountain in former times inhabited by a friend of Suku (Sinukuan) who came one day to ask for the hand of one of Suku's daughter's in marriage. This angered Suku and the two engaged in a stone throwing battle that broke Zambales into a mountain range and flattened the top of Arayat. (Beyer, undated)
Dominador G. David in 1917 tells of a giant in Zambales mountain who challenged and defeated the king of Arayat. The latter was killed and his son Sinukuan took his place, and later he eventually married the daughter of the lord of Zambales. (Beyer, undated)
In 1915, Beyer recorded a myth of the Ayta living in Zambales that sounds very much like a volcanic eruption of Pinatubo, but mentions neither Malyari or Sinukuan. Instead, the battle is between Algao, which may be northern name for the Sun (related to Aldo), and Bacobaco, a great sea turtle. This Bacobaco may be related to the legend of the Baconaua, usually described as a sea serpent or whale. However, Baconaua has a sister that is a great sea turtle according to most accounts. Baconaua was not the Moon but the great serpent that was said to swallow the Moon during an eclipse.
Now, in the Ayta account Algao and Bacobaco have a great battle in which the latter eventually bores into the top of Pinatubo creating a great crater and emitting great flames, huge rocks, mud, ashes, smoke and deafening noise in the process. According to the legend, Bacobaco continued to dwell in the mountain and when he comes out "woe be to us."
The body of myths surrounding Malyari and Sinukuan clearly show their dual opposition to one another. Generally speaking, Sinukuan is depicted as male although a few accounts portray him as female. Malyari seems to be portrayed more as female, at least if all the myths of the region are taken into account, but sometimes also has a male identity. Despite their periodic enmity, Sinukuan is often said to be married to Malyari's daughter, or vice a versa, and their children also court and marry one another.
Here is a general breakdown of the dual aspects of these deities and their respective mountains.
Pinatubo/Malyari The western direction, south, female, mother, wife, daughter, hidden, gregarious, wide, sea, creation, beginning, birth, water, storm, bird
The belief in a future eruption of Mt. Pinatubo is mentioned above in the account of Algao and Bacobaco, and also in an earlier post on the myth of the battle of Aldau and Bulan. Damiana Eugenio, in her 1993 work (p. 179), relates traditions of a future return of Sinukuan:
Many barrio folks still say that some time in the future Sinukuan may come out again. Mt. Arayat used to be the home of the Colorums who waited for Sinukuan to come out of his cave and to find a new paradise on earth for them.
A colorum is a messianic group -- the name coming from a local corruption of Latin et saecula saeculorum "world without end."
(to be continued)
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Beyer, H. Otley. Philippine Folklore, Social Customs and Beliefs Vol. IX (Pampanga), unpublished and undated. Part of thePhilippine Ethnographic Series that was destroyed during World War II. Carbon copies were preserved by the National Library of Australia, which subsequently copied the works on microfiche.
__ (compiler).Ethnography of the Negrito-Aeta Peoples, Manila, 1915.
Rahmann, Rudolf . “Quarrels and Enmity between the Sun and the Moon. A Contribution to the Mythologies of the Philippines, India, and the Malay Peninsula,” Folklore Studies, Vol. 14, 1955 (1955), pp. 202-214.
The oral traditions involving the mountains Pinatubo and Arayat are quite vast, and I want to give an outline of some of these along with a bit of analysis. However, given that many of the works that might discuss these mountains and their traditions are buried in extensive archives that are not well-indexed, this will be an on-going process.
The earliest explicit mention of name "Arayat" and its main deity "Sinukuan" that I have been able to uncover is the travel diary of Gemelli Careri in 1696:
In Pampanga, and right on the mountain called Bondo [Bondoc], or Kalaya [Alaya], being a league and a half high (which was previously under the rule of Sinoquan and Mingan) are plantains, betels, and other fruits. They say they may eat these fruits on the spot, but if anyone carries them down they either fall down dead, or become lame. Perhaps the Devil (by God's permission) causes such strange accidents, to keep those people in paganism; but the Indians themselves also play their part for they are famous sorcerers and are said often to convert themselves into crocodiles, wild boars, and other forms.
The Bondo and Kalaya come from "Bondok Alaya" or "Mount Alaya," the original name of Arayat. Sinoquan is obviously Apung Sinukuan, who is portrayed here as a ruler of Arayat along with Mingan, a name that in most traditions is that of Sinukuan's wife, but occasionally occurs also as the name of one of his daughters.
As for Sinukuan's opposite -- Apo na Malyari (Apung Mallari) and Mt. Pinatubo -- the earliest reference I have found so far comes from a manuscript titled "Relation of the Zambals" by Domingo Perez in 1680. Malyari is mentioned primarily in reference to the sacrifices made by the Bayoc, the Sambal high priest, and Pinatubo ("Pinatuba") is noted for its rock slides during the rainy season (Blair and Robertson 1903).
These accounts are rather brief and do not provide detailed information. For example, no connection is made between the god Malyari and Pinatubo.
Modern ethnography
We begin to learn more about the myths and legends of these mountains when a renaissance in learning about indigenous culture occurred among the leaders of the Propaganda Movement and the Philippine Revolution starting around the 1880s. These studies intensified after American colonization among both American and Filipino scholars.
During this time, we learn that Sinukuan was also known by other names: Aldo "Sun," and Apolaqui "Lord Male," or possibly "Lord Grandfather." The myths suggest that knowledge of Sinukuan was more widely spread than the areas of Pampanga and nearby Zambales.
For example, Apolaqui was also known throughout most of Luzon where he is variously called Apolaki, Apolake, etc., often in myths that resemble that of the battle of the Sun and Moon, or Aldo and Bulan, that is associated with Arayat and Pinatubo.
Diego Aduarte in 1640 mentions Apolaqui as a war god in Pangasinan.
The Bolinao Manuscript mentions the Sambal priestess Bolindauan in 1684 who has Apolaqui as her Anito (personal deity).
Dean Fansler in 1921 writes of a legend told to him by Leopoldo Layug of Guagua that tells of the battle between the brother Apolaqui, the Sun, and his sister, Mayari (Malyari), the Moon.
F. Landa Jocano, much later in 1969 relates a similar tale to that mentioned by Fansler among the Tagalogs involving Apolake and Mayari, who again are the personifications of the Sun and Moon.
In 1918, A. L. Kroeber records that Apolaki is considered a mountain monster in Bikol, the southernmost part of Luzon, and that the term is also used as a name for God among Christians in Pangasinan and Ilocos, the northern areas of Luzon.
From these examples, we can see that the myths of Apolaqui and Mayari were linked with the spirits of the Sun and Moon. A similar legend from Pampanga tells of the supreme deity Mangetchay (Mangatai) who is said to live in the Sun while his wife dwells in the Moon, and his daughter lived on Venus, the Morning Star (Eugenio 1993, 64).
Where these myths of the Sun and Moon are not explicitly linked with Arayat and Pinatubo respectively, we can still surmise the connection. For example, the goddess Malyari, the personification of the Moon, has a name that relates to the local Pinatubo Ayta and Sambal people. "Malyari" is also a native Kapampangan word that Bergano derives from the word yari "cosa acabada, perfeccionada ['something finished, perfected']" and gives three alternate forms: malyari, milyari and malalyari.
That Malyari is the deity of Pinatubo is agreed upon by the Ayta, Sambal and Kapampangans. The Pinatubo Ayta call this deity Apo Namalyari (Apo na Malyari) or Apo Pinatubo (Schebesta 1959).
Naturally, the Sun would be located to the east of Pinatubo in Bondoc Alaya, which literally means "Mountain of the East."
Mythology gives Arayat and the Zambales mountain range a common origin as noted by Cornélis De Witt Willcox writing in 1912:
According to the native legend, this mountain [Arayat] used to form part of the Zambales range. It became, however, by reason of its quarrelsome disposition, so objectionable to its neighbors of this range, that they finally resolved no longer to endure its cantankerousness and accordingly banished it to its present position in the plain of Central Luzon, where it would have no neighbors to annoy, and where it has stood ever since, rising solitary from the surrounding plain.
The idea of Arayat belonging at one time, before separating, to another (unnamed) mountain range is also mentioned in the story that Don Pedro Serrano heard from an octogenarian informant in 1889. It was from these and similar legends that the likely latter ideas of Arayat separating from Candaba or Tapang, Nueva Ecija. That the Zambales origin tale was the original one is too obvious from the actual geology of Arayat.
According to the leading theory, Arayat is a back arc of the same mountain range that includes the Zambales Mountains. And this fact would be fairly obvious to keen observers as a note by Richard von Drasche in 1876 demonstrates:
If one were to draw a line from Monte Pinatubo to the isolated mountain of Arayat in the plain, one would notice that all the rivers north of this line flow in a northeasterly direction, while all those south of it flow in a southeasterly direction toward Rio Grande de la Pampanga. This circumstance may be observed particularly plainly from the top of the Arayat, where I first noticed this slope of the plain in both directions, increasing toward Monte Pinatubo. East of Monte Arayat this circumstance disappears entirely.
The connection between the two mountains was alluded to in the idea of a cloud bridge mentioned in Luther Parker's Sinukuan tales published in 1929. This cloud bridge was likely the origin of other bridges that are said to have been built from Arayat to Dayat, Candaba, Makiling and elsewhere. These bridges likely arose from the perception of a ridge, alluded to above, existing between Pinatubo and Arayat -- a formation that probably also gave birth to the latter legends of a tunnel connection between Arayat, Makiling and Banahaw mountains.
(to be continued)
Sincerely, Paul Kekai Manansala Sacramento
References
Blair, Emma Helen, James Alexander Robertson, and Edward Gaylord Bourne. The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803: Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, As Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century. Cleveland, Ohio: A.H. Clark Co, 1903, 296, 302-4.
Drasche, Richard von. "The volcanic region around Manila," Proceedings of the Royal Geological Service, 1876.
Eugenio, Damiana L. Philippine Folk Literature: The Myths, University of the Philippines Press, 1993.
Careri, Gemelli Giovanni Francesco. Giro del mondo del dottor D. Gio: Francesco Gemelli Careri. T[omo] qu[a]r[t]a contenente le c[ose] più regguardevoli vedute nella Cina. In Napoli: Nella stamperia di Giuseppe Roselli, 1708, 137-8.
Another set of myths related to the raising of the sky and the end of the great heat is found among the highland peoples of Mindanao and Luzon in the Philippines. In many mythologies of the Philippines and surrounding regions, the pre-diluvian and/or pre-scorching period was either a golden age or at least a period of normalcy[i].This supports the idea that the low height of the sky is a post-creation event.There was still a memory of times when the seas were not rising and temperatures were not so warm.
In one Ifugao version in northern Luzon, the golden age is followed by drought that spurs people to dig for springs of water.They finally reach a great underwater fountain, apparently a form of the great navel of the Earth found in other regional myths. Waters gushing from the spring cause the Great Deluge[ii].
Manobo and Bagobo myths tell also of the Great Scorching that endangers all life.People cannot plant, or do not know planting yet, and cannot even reproduce properly to populate the land.After Tuglibong or Mona raises the sky by striking it with her pestle, a golden age ensues, people begin to multiply and crops are planted.Either Tuglibong or her daughter Mebuyan creates a great hole into the Underworld when her spinning rice mortar drills into the Earth.The mortar is placed at the center of the Earth when the rice is pounded, and one version places it on a mound.This imagery could suggest the cosmic mountain, in this case a volcano whose crater is seen reaching into the bowels of the Earth[iii].
The Earth opening created by the mortar, the world spring created by the Ifugao and the widespread motif of the “navel of the sea” found in the Philippines and throughout much of Insular Southeast Asia all appear related[iv].They are generally linked in some way either with the flood or with control of the flood, or with the ebbing and flowing of the tide.
The navel of the sea drains the waters of the ocean keeping the seas from rising too high.It is also widely seen as responsible for the changing tides. The opening created by Tuglibong or Mebuyan leads to the Black River of the Underworld, which can be seen as related to the underground oceanic waters originating from the cosmic drain. In Pampanga, myths of the battle between the gods of Arayat, on the one hand, and Pinatubo or Sambal gods on the other, are often seen in the light of a great deluge or storm[v].The battle between the two mountain gods could allegorically represent a volcanic eruption as the two deities hurl rocks at each other.
We also find in this region the common theme of the battle between the Sun and the Moon[vi], something that I submit can be seen as a reference to the cataclysm of fire, and water or steam, that occurs during an eruption.This set of motifs not only occurs widely in the Philippines but also can be found in many parts of Southeast Asia and reaches all the way to India. In many cases, the quarrel starts because of the intense heat caused by the Sun and his progeny.After the battle, we again see the start of a new age when things are more or less stable, and in which the Moon, once the superior or equal to the Sun, takes a subordinate position.
In Eden in the East, Dr. Oppenheimer mentions a legend of the deluge combined with a fiery cataclysm in classical Hindu texts.The theme appears to link with mythologies of various Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Burmese, Daic and other peoples in India and Southeast Asia often together with the motif of the Sun-Moon battle. In these myths, we often find a catastrophe of fire-rain or fire-water upon the Earth[vii], along with the motif of excessive heat from the Sun and his children.
We have then three different causes for the Great Scorching: 1) The low height of the sky and thus the Sun, 2) the multiplicity of Suns, or 3) the excess heat of the Sun usually combined together with that of his progeny. In each case, the intense heat threatens the world and is usually solved by violent action such as striking the sky to raise it higher, shooting down the superfluous Suns, or a battle between the Moon and the Sun.
When the problems related to the Sun’s heat are resolved, the other plagues of rising seas, floods, drought and fire-rain finally subside as well although the resolution is in itself usually cataclysmic. Moreover, the final event is often easily interpreted as indicating a volcanic eruption with falling ashes, embers and rocks; even the descriptions of the falling Suns can be seen as large spewed fireballs or fiery ash clouds descending to the Earth. If we study the distribution of these motifs, we find a strong circum-Pacific association.
Therefore, the ancient peoples around Sundaland, I would suggest, sought to explain global climate changes, as they experienced them regionally, through myth.Memories of a previous stable climate were preserved in ideas of an ancient golden age that preceded the great flood or great heat.
These latter events, due to rising temperatures and rising sea levels, were explained in various ways, most commonly through the idea of a low sky and Sun. It may be that Asian brown clouds, the result of more frequent and intense forest fires linked to global warming, helped in the development of the belief of the low height of the sky.
A volcanic eruption centralized along the Nusantao trade routes was, in turn, connected through both coincidental and causative events with positive changes in climate and sea levels.The fireballs of the eruption were visualized as superfluous Suns, and back-linked with the Great Scorching.These Suns, shot down and submerged in the sea, consumed the excess water flows thus controlling sea levels.In other myths, the eruption opened up or cleared the ocean’s great cosmic drain.
These explanations were created by the ancients to both explain and record events of a truly cataclysmic nature that had changed their societies.
Now, having offered my hypothesis on the nature and origin of these myths, I would like to turn to something that Prof. Odal-Devora requested of me when she invited me to this prestigious event. That is to explore the ancient flood myths in relation to the modern situation of global warming and rising sea levels.
Myth often contains moral lessons and warnings in the form of prophecy.The recording of natural calamities may have been meant as a warning for future generations. What happened before could, and probably will, happen again. You might be surprised to find out that even some modern geologists have even created a new field of research known as geomythology[viii].
Geomythologists study ancient legends for clues that might indicate potential for natural disaster that has not yet been revealed by scientific research.
Patrick Nunn from Fiji, for example, was contracted by the French government to study Pacific myths for warning clues of natural disasters.Nunn became a believer in the power of geomythology in 2002 when road construction revealed signs of a recent volcanic eruption on the island of Kadavu supporting local legend.Previously he had dismissed such traditional lore because scientific studies showed the last volcanic activity was tens of thousands of years old[ix].
Probably the best recent example of how ancient legends can instruct future generations came during the recent devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean.The Moken, nomadic sea gypsies living in Thailand, preserve myths that warn of sudden and dramatic receding tides creating ‘man-eating waves, that people should escape by heading for high ground[x].
During the 2004 tsunami, which killed 300,000 people, the Moken heeded this ancient knowledge and survived the terrible disaster.
Moken traditions may serve as one example of how ancient myths can serve a very practical purpose for future generations.We know that in the present many indigenous peoples have a deep reverence for nature.
The Agta people of Cagayan in northern Luzon know that fire could be put to great advantage when used wisely[xi].Fire could clear land for agriculture, but if the fire were allowed to get out of control, the land would produce no food. Agta use fire to attract animals during hunting, and the smoke from fire aids them on their expeditions for honey and red ant larvae and eggs.They also use smoke to repel insects and snakes, and the ashes from fire to repel parasites.Like the Hanunoo of Mindoro, the Agta realize that fire must not endanger the regeneration of fallow land.The Hanunoo watched over the trees on fallow land to make sure they were not cut down prematurely and they placed firebreaks around all swidden land to protect the fallow[xii].
When used wisely fire could help reduce the forest load actually helping to prevent forest fires.However, the slash-and-burn methods of modern commercial farmers have rejected the old ideas of natural balance.
Lowland slash-and-burn farmers quickly exhaust the land and promote topsoil loss, landslides and flooding[xiii].The excessive fire and smoke soon disturbs the ecological balance in the region resulting often in loss of both forest and agricultural land.
In the present-day, we have seen how the loss of knowledge of the natural balance may cost humanity and the rest of the world dearly through unnatural processes of global warming.Not that global warming is itself unnatural. The flooding of Sundaland was not the fault of our ancestors.
However, modern humans are causing climate change to occur before its natural cycle.We are bringing on misery at a global scale before its natural time. Like slash-and-burn farmers, modern industry is unwisely dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at an ever-increasing rate, changing global weather patterns.
Moreover, we are beginning to feel nature’s wrath. Although we may not be able to avoid all the consequences of our past actions, we can still come to an accord again with nature, with our parents, the Earth and Sky, and in the process realize the wisdom of our ancestors.
[i] Damiana L. Eugenio. Philippine Folk Literature: The Myths, University of the Philippines Press, 1993, 103-113.
[ii] Otley Beyer. “Origin myths among the mountain peoples of the Philippines,” The Philippine journal of science April 1913. [Vol. 8, no. D], 112.
[vi] Rudolf Rahmann. “Quarrels and Enmity between the Sun and the Moon. A Contribution to the Mythologies of the Philippines, India, and the Malay Peninsula,” Folklore Studies, Vol. 14, 1955 (1955), pp. 202-214.
Tales of the ancient deluge are often combined together with the myth of the “great heat” and/or the “world fire” in many parts of the globe[i].If we take the position that many stories of sea flooding are based in reality, then indeed, global warming would be the cause.
At its peak, this warming pattern is sometimes called the Warm Maritime Phase[ii] when much of the area of the Northern Sea and the Northwest Passage, now impassable, was free of ice.Sea levels were about five meters higher than they are today.Some time roughly between 5500 and 4500 years ago, the Earth’s climate began to cool and eventually stabilize resulting in the sea settling at present-day levels[iii].
In addition to increasing temperatures, global warming in Southeast Asia also causes a decline in rainfall because of weakening winds that circulate moisture across the Pacific[iv].Dry conditions are also exacerbated on Mainland Southeast Asia by the eventual melting of glaciers in the Himalayas[v].
Recent theories suggest that major forest fires, like those in the western United States during 2007, may be due in part to climate change[vi].Warmer temperatures and drier conditions in Southeast Asia might also increase the frequency and severity of regional forest fires.
During the Warm Maritime Phase, the increase of Southeast Asian fires would have resulted in haze of greater intensity than the Asian brown clouds of modern times.Ancient humans, I would suggest, may have viewed this haze as evidence of the sky moving lower.The Sun seen through the haze might also appear lower than usual. The low-hanging clouds of smoke together with the increasingly warm weather and drastic change in climate could have appeared linked.With the low sky seen by ancient observers as also bringing the Sun closer to the Earth and causing the seasons to become warmer.
The increase in forest fires might also account for the tales of the great conflagration and the World Fire that often accompany myths of the Great Flood.
If the ancients perceived the low hanging sky as responsible for the great scorching period, often described in catastrophic terms, then the raising of the sky[vii] would bring relief to humanity.Sky-raising signals also the end of the Great Flood in various mythologies. Now, we come to the question as to how the ancient storytellers perceived the sky as moving up to its present height?
My suggestion is that a major volcanic eruption occurred simultaneously with the beginning of the cooling period that began bringing down and stabilizing sea levels, and cooling global temperatures.The timing of the eruption with the cooling trend was coincidental, but the eruption itself could have contributed to global cooling just as Mt.Pinatubo caused the world to cool for a few years after it exploded in 1991[viii].
Sometime probably between 4000 BCE and 3000 BCE, when global sea levels drop and then stabilize, a major volcanic eruption[ix] occurred along the routes of the Nusantao Trade and Communication Network[x].The vast fiery cloud of the eruption would be visible at great distances during the night.Vast portions of the sea in the region became filled with ash and lahar.
News of the eruption spread throughout the Nusantao maritime network. This is something I discuss in detail in my books Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan[xi]and Sailing the Black Current[xii].
This belief in a new epoch could be linked quite intimately with the changing climate, the cooling weather and the subsiding sea levels.The imagery of the sky being pushed up would be supplied by the expanding mushroom cloud and the explosions of an erupting volcano.
Think of the volcano’s ash cloud as the pestle of Tuglibong[xiii], who in Manobo myth, strikes the center of the sky with her pestle while pounding rice causing it to move upward to its present height.The eruption likely deposited large amounts of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, which works to deplete the ozone layer resulting in cooling global temperatures[xiv].
From the volcano, large fireballs may have been perceived as similar to the solar orb, giving rise to the myths of the superfluous suns.In many legends of the region, the multiple suns rise up and then are shot down often falling into the ocean where their flames control sea levels by consuming excess water.
You may see here mythological attempts to explain natural changes in climate based on observations of a series of events.These events may be coincidental as with the timing of the general global cooling trend with that of the volcanic eruption, or actually linked as in the case of the volcano-induced cooling due to atmospheric aerosol deposits.
Falling temperatures would help reduce problems with forest fires, and large volcanic eruptions often help spur El Nino events as some believe happened during last Pinatubo eruption[xv].This would mean increased rainfall, further reducing the problems with fires and brown clouds and possibly creating the perception of a raised sky in the eyes of ancient observers. Although the immediate effects of the volcano would be harsh, in the long term the changes in weather, combined with general global trends not related to the volcano, would have brought relief from the previous situation of rising temperatures and rising sea levels.
Nusantao seafarers would have updated communities in their communication network rapidly.The short-term catastrophic effects of the volcanic eruption could have spurred even more extensive Nusantao migration, thus further spreading the reach of the myths that evolved from the natural changes.For example, the theme of sky raising relieving the world of great heat can be found in “New World” cultures like those of the Cherokee and Navajo[xvi]. Indeed, there is a rather large body of common myths between Asia and the Americas, and I have discussed possibilities for these connections in my books The Naga Race[xvii] and Quests of the Dragon and Bird ClanDr. Oppenheimer has also discussed these possible links, which could be direct and/or indirect in nature.
Now, we can examine a few sets of myths to see how the motifs agree with the natural events that I have outlined.
First, let us start with the ancient Chinese tale of Nu Gua (Nuwa) as found in the Han Dynasty classic Huainanzi[xviii].Nu Gua appears here as the primordial female or goddess who mends the earth apparently after a cataclysmic battle of fire and water between the characters Kung Kung (Gonggong), associated with water and floods, and Chuan Hsu (Zhuanxu).
In a time long ago, the four poles were decayed and the nine states, rent asunder. The sky did not cover everywhere and the earth was not filled in all around. Fire raged and flamed without dying out; water swelled and rose without dying down. . Fierce beasts ate the vigorous and vultures snatched the old and weak. Then, Nu Gua smelted stones of five colors and patched up the azure sky and cut off the legs of a sea-turtle to stand up the four poles.
Huainanzi, 6/6b (2nd century BCE)
In other versions of the myth involving Gonggong, the floods come after the shooting down of the Nine Suns, saving the world from destruction by great heat[xix]. The Nine Suns in certain traditions are said to fall into the ocean or unto a rock in the ocean and to consume the waters that flow into the sea[xx].
If we look at the elements of these myths, we find a series of motifs that potentially link up withsea level-stabilizing climate change in the fourth millennium BCE.
Ravages of fire and water can be seen symbolically as representing the competing forces of warm vs. cool climate.They can also relate to the firestorm created by a volcanic eruption, something also hinted at by a mountain’s collapse during the battle between Gonggong and Chuan Hsu. The raising of the sky by Nu Gua and the submergence of the Nine Suns can be seen as signs of global cooling.The submerged Suns also can be viewed as a cosmic explanation for the controlled sea levels with the Suns no longer threatening the world with heat, but instead consuming at stable levels the waters that flow from rivers into the ocean.In the new age that ensues, the floods and heat that plagued humanity are now under control allowing the growth of civilization.
In Hindu myth, we also find the theme of a great fiery underwater chasm known as the Mare’s Head (Vadavamukha).The Mare’s Head is in this case not the Sun but the flaming wife of the Sun transformed into a mare’s head that continuously consumes the ocean’s waters.As such, a balance arises, with rainwater flowing into the ocean from the world’s rivers controlled by the evaporating fires of the Mare’s Head[xxi].
[ii] James Hornell. Water Transport: Origins & Early Evolution, The University Press, 1946, 212.
[iii] William James. Climate Change in Prehistory, CambridgeUniversity Press, 2005.
[iv]University Of Arizona (2003, January 27). Climate Records Show Global Warming Could Influence Asian Monsoon. ScienceDaily.
[v] Tim Johnson. “Warming Triggers ‘Alarming’ Retreat of Himalayan Glaciers,” McClatchy Newspapers, .
[vi] Steven W.Running.“Is Global Warming Causing More, Larger Wildfires?” Science 18 August 2006: Vol. 313. no. 5789, pp. 927 – 928.
[vii] See Map A for distribution of sky raising theme.
[viii] Joan Martí and Gerald Ernst. Volcanoes and the Environment, CambridgeUniversity Press, 2005, 162.
[ix] Siebert L, Simkin T (2002-). Volcanoes of the World: an Illustrated Catalog of Holocene Volcanoes and their Eruptions. Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program Digital Information Series, GVP-3, (http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/largeeruptions.cfm).
[x]Wilhelm G. Solheim II. “Origins of the Filipinos and their Languages," 9thPhilippine Linguistics Congress, University of the Philippines, 2006.
[xi] Paul Kekai Manansala. Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan, Lulu Press, 2006.
[xii] Paul Kekai Manansala. Sailing the Black Current: Secret History of Ancient Philippine Argonauts in Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Beyond, BookSurge Publishing, 2006.
[xiii] Pieter Jan Raats. A Structural Study of Bagobo Myths, Cebu:University of San Carlos, 1969.
[xiv] A. Robock.“Volcanoes and climate,” Reviews of Geophysics, 1999 38(2), 191-219.
[xv] Lisa M. Pinsker. “Mount Pinatubo: A Natural Climate Experiment,” Geotimes March 2002, <>.
[xvi] Thomas Bryan Underwood and Moselle Stack. Cherokee Legends and the Trail of Tears, Kessinger Publishing, 2006, 5.Franciscan Fathers. An Ethnological Dictionary of the Navajo Language, Arizona: St. Michaels, 1910, 354.
[xvii] Paul Kekai Manansala. The Naga Race, Calcutta: Firma KLM, 1994.
[xviii] John S. Major. Heaven and earth in Early Han thought: chapters three, four, and five of the Huainanzi, SUNY Press, 1993.
[xix] Yves Bonnefoy.Asian Mythologies, University of Chicago Press, 1993, 236.
[xx] Anne Birrell. Chinese Mythology: An Introduction, JHU Press, 1999, 144.
[xxi] Tudeng Nima, Gyurme Dorje, Tadeusz Skorupski, Mi rigs dpeskrun khaṅ. An Encyclopaedic Tibetan-English Dictionary, School of Oriental and African Studies, 2001, 698.
