More on Tumbaga

I received a message drawing attention to Robert Blust's theory on tumbaga, an alloy of copper and gold, written about here in previous posts.

Blust's theory is published in the following article:

Blust, Robert. "Tumbaga in Southeast Asia and South America," Anthropos 87/4-6, 1992, 443-457.

He argues that the tumbaga word traveled from the Philippines to the Americas, and that the gold-copper alloy technology traveled the opposite direction from the Americas to Southeast Asia. In the Americas, the word "tumbaga" replaced previous words or was adopted alongside of them by many different Amerindian cultures and by the Spanish. In Southeast Asia, the gold-copper alloy was adopted by native peoples and the local word "tumbaga" or its cognates, referring to copper or copper alloys, was attached to the new metal.

Blust suggests that all this happened during the "Manila Galleon" trade, which he says starts in 1565.


Blust's evidence

I won't present all of the arguments offered by Blust here, but the main thrust of his article as I see it depends on the following points:

• The tumbaga alloy, involving gold and silver, and sometimes together with other metals, did not exist in Southeast Asia before the Spanish colonization of the Philippines.
• The word "tumbaga" or its cognates did not exist in the Americas before the Spanish discovered the Philippines, whence Pigafetta first records the word in written form.
  

Now, these points can quickly be refuted right off the bat:

• Tumbaga has been discovered at pre-colonial sites in the Philippines. For example, barter rings made of tumbaga and dated to the 15 century and the pre-colonial part of the 16th century have been found at Samar. Ramon N. Villegas also mentions tumbaga from pre-colonial sites in Malaysia and Indonesia.
• Columbus in his diary as preserved by Las Casas mentions tuob -- suggested as a cognate of tumbaga -- during his first voyage.
  

In addition to the discovery of tumbaga at pre-colonial sites, there is some textual evidence suggesting the presence of this alloy since at least the Sung Dynasty.

Zhao Rugua (Chau Ju Kua) mentions the use of huojin "trade gold" in the kingdoms of Mayi, Poni and in the islands around Poni. Now Mayi is almost certainly the island of Mindoro, which till this day is known as Mait by the indigenous people of southern Mindoro, and by the fishermen in nearby Aklan on the island of Panay. According to Zhau Rugua, Mayi was south of Sanfotsi (Sanfoqi) and north of Poni.

The same text by Zhao Rugua tells of huoyin "trade silver" that was made in the kingdoms of Sukitan and Toupo, the latter asserted by me to refer to kingdoms around modern Cotabato. The type of money in both places was the same and was called Toupo-jin "Toupo money." An alloy of silver, copper, "white copper" (copper-nickel) and tin was cut into small bits the size of "dice."

These coins were stamped with a seal and sixty were said to equal in value a "tael of gold." A tael or tahel is the Chinese ounce. However it took only six of these coins to equal a tael of "trade gold." Obviously the "trade gold" or huojin of Mayi, Poni and the nearby islands was not pure gold, and we can suggest that it was a gold alloy just like "trade silver" or huoyin of Toupo and Sukitan.

Toupo money sounds like the piloncitos -- the tiny coins found in Java but especially in the Philippines at locations in Samar, Leyte, Marindique and Mindanao, and dating possibly from the 10th to the 12th century based on the inscriptions on the coins. These inscriptions or stamps are thought to represent the character ma possibly standing for Mayi or for the weight of the coin.

Now when Juan de Salcedo accompanied the Spanish invasion fleet to the Philippines in 1565, he mentions the making of impure gold -- apparently tumbaga -- at Mindoro for he mentions seeing the people had "given two hundred taels of impure gold, for they possess great skill in mixing it with other metals. They give it an outside appearance so natural and perfect, and so fine a ring, that unless it is melted they can deceive all men, even the best of silversmiths." The "ring" mentioned by de Salcedo is apparently a barter ring like the ones found on Samar that were made of tumbaga.

Hernando Riquel, the government notary of the same armada, makes clear that the gold alloy was tumbaga when he says in 1573: "They mix it [gold] with copper so skillfully they will deceive the best artisans of Spain."


Tuob of the Caribs

Blust mentions native words for tumbaga from the Arawakan languages like guanin and karakoli, but he misses one important word that could easily have been derived from "tumbaga" or its cognates.

Columbus' journal of his first journey is known only from the abstract published by Las Casas who had witnessed the discoverer's return from that voyage. Here is Las Casas summary of Columbus' entry for January 13 of his first voyage:

The Admiral asked him about the Caribs and he made signs to the east, near there, which the Admiral says he saw yesterday before he entered that bay: and the Indian told him that there was a great deal of gold in that country, pointing out the poop of the caravel which was very large and indicating that there were pieces as large as that. He called gold tuob and did not understand it by caona as it was called in the first part of the island nor by nozay as it is called in San Salvador and in the other islands. On Espanola they call copper or a base quality of gold tuob. That Indian told of the island of Matinino and said that it was all settled by women without men and on it there was a great deal of tuob which is gold or copper, and that it is farther to the east of Carib. He also told of the island of Goanin where there is a great deal of tuob.

Now the "gold" referred to that is called caona (guanin) and nozay (nucay) on the other islands was in fact tumbaga.

Blust argues that the word tumbaga is not used in Spanish to refer to a gold-copper alloy until 1817 using as his source the Spanish etymological dictionary of Corominas and Pascual written in 1983. However an article in Anuario de lingüística hispánica (v. 12, no. 1 - v. 13, no. 1 - 1996) suggests that tumbaga and tumbagas referring to gold-copper alloy was already common in Seville and also apparently in the Americas by the 1700s: "Fue familiar pues, el uso de la voz tumbaga en Sevilla -- y, al parecer, tambien en America --, a durante la primera mitad del siglo XVIII..."

A number of examples are given including the early reference to the choir screen in the Mexico City Cathedral made by Geronimo de Balbas in 1730 of tumbaga, an alloy described as consisting of equal parts of gold and copper, together with silver. The tumbaga in this case was made in Macao and shipped through Manila.

These examples indicate that either Corominas and Pascual are incorrect, or Blust has not interpreted them correctly. As I do not have a copy of their etymological dictionary, I'll have to leave that as an open question.

Of course, nothing definitive can be said as to the first occurrence of tumbaga or similar words in Spanish until an exhaustive study of the vast hoards of documents in the Archivos Espanoles is conducted.


Manila Galleons

Blust suggests that the metal tumbaga and apparently also the technology to manufacture the metal only crossed over to Southeast Asia with the Manila Galleon trade starting in 1565, albeit from Cebu and not Manila.

However, as noted above neither Juan de Salcedo or Hernando Riquel, who were members of the armada of 1565 make any mention of such a cargo of tumbaga, and furthermore they both testify that this technology was already known in the Philippines.

Riquel, as the government secretary, would have handled all the documents of exchange, including valuing trade items, and would have been quite familiar with cargo going to and fro. However, both he and de Salcedo appear unfamiliar with tumbaga coming from the Americas, and both make it clear that the natives in the islands were already skilled at making gold alloys.

Governor Francesco de Sande adds his voice in 1577 saying: "In this island [Luzon] there is much gold, in sheets, among the natives; and, although they trade but little, they understand the value of the gold, and know how to adulterate it by mixing it with silver, tin, copper, brass, and other metals brought from China."

So it is quite clear that the peoples of the Philippines were already familiar with gold alloys including those involving copper. Piloncitos or barter rings made of tumbaga were probably the "trade gold" or huojin mentioned in medieval texts describing Sung Dynasty trade. These barter rings were probably similar in form to the rings used for trading known as panica by the locals and orejeras (earrings) by the Spanish that were made of gold from 16 to 19 carats in purity.


Origin of tumbaga

The suggestion that tumbaga is borrowed from Sanskrit tamra "copper" is problematic at best. First the supposed Prakrit form of the borrowing is only speculative. And the sound changes from that Prakrit form are not clear at all.

Indeed, there may be only a coincidental resemblance between these words. Firstly, tumbaga often is only a secondary word for "copper" in Southeast Asian languages.

While Blust gives many examples of where the word means "copper" the earliest definitions favor the suggestion of a copper alloy of one kind or another.

Blust, for example, mentions the word tambaycke recorded in British sources from Sumatra dating to 1602 for gold-copper alloy. The earliest Portuguese example dates to 1603 mentioning tambaca or tambaque as an alloy of copper with zinc or tin.

He cites Marcos de Lisboa's Bicol dictionary that was compiled by 1618 and states for the entry tumbaga: "a metal more refined than brass, (somewhere) between brass and gold; it is said that gold can be extracted (from it) through a great deal of refining."

Lorenzo Fernández Cosgaya's dictionary of Pangasinan compiled between 1661 and 1731 mentions under its definition for gambang "copper":

Gambang: Cobre: de este metal derretido mezclado con oro, hacen el llamado "tumbaga: que otros llaman "Champurado"

Gambang: Copper: this metal mixed with gold is called "tumbaga"...

From 1727, there is tambac and tambaqua from Siam referring to the gold-copper alloy. And Bergano's Kapampangan dictionary that was first published in 1732 gives the definition "bronze, like copper but harder."

In fact, the oldest listing Blust gives for a cognate of tumbaga (tambaga) that simply means "copper" is from Hardeland's dictionary of Dayak dating to 1859. However, Henry Ling Roth and Hugh Brooke Low give "brass" as the definition for tambaga among the Sarawak Dayak. Blust states that Pigafetta gives the definition of "copper" for tumbaga in the earliest reference to the latter word but in fact Pigafetta uses al metalo "metal" and not al rame "copper" in defining tumbaga. The Old Javanese tambaga means not only "copper" but also "bronze."

Such evidence would suggest that tumbaga and its cognates are more likely originally words for copper alloys rather than pure copper. Among the alloys covered by such terms are gold-copper, bronze, brass, bronze-like metal, and copper-colored metal.

While the sound changes for a borrowing from Malay as suggested by Blust do not jibe in most cases, tumbaga does make sense as an inheritance from *tembaga "copper alloy" in which the /e/ may be the schwa sound, and would have been inherited as schwa in Malay, as /a/ in Javanese, and as /u/ or /o/ in most Philippine languages.

Blust has the Sumatran form tambaycke from 1602 as borrowed from Spanish traders, but most likely at such an early date a borrowing would have involved the word guanin -- as found in many early Spanish documents -- and not any cognate of tumbaga. If we assume that the Sumatran word was inherited from speakers of Philippine languages then it should have had an /u/ or /o/ in the initial syllable rather than an /a/. Clearly the Sumatran along with the Thai words are inherited from the forms in western Insular Southeast Asia like Javanase tambaga "copper, bronze."

Suggesting a very wide diffusion during the Renaissance age of both a word on the one hand, and a metal technology on the other, without any observers noting and documenting this diffusion is a complex explanation. However, Blust does not fully consider the major alternative and much simpler explanation -- that both the tumbaga word and technology were already in place in both the Americas and Southeast Asia at the time of European contact.


Pre-Columbian explanation

Suggesting Pre-Columbian contacts across the Pacific is almost taboo in some mainstream circles, but fortunately it has been discussed.

Wilhelm Solheim stand as one of today's most outspoken advocates for such contacts between the Sa-Huynh-Kalanay culture and the Valdivian culture of South America. He basically follows the late James Ford on this issue, both of them modifying the earlier views on transpacific contacts held by Betty J. Meggers, Clifford Evans and Emilio Estrada.

Links between the cultures may have began as early as 3000 BCE according to Solheim and Ford, and lasted until 1000 BCE or 500 BCE. The correspondences include many similarities in design, motif and form found in Sa-Huynh-Kalanay and Valdvian pottery. Also the use of shells for tools, fish hooks, ornaments, etc. was prominent. In Valdivian culture, the Spondylus and Strombus were widely used, and both also feature in Austronesian cultures.

Such links were not one way cultural highways. Indeed, the earliest dates for tumbaga in the New World actually predate those in Southeast Asia. However, it seems likely that the first contacts would have been made by Austronesian seafarers, whose transoceanic abilities are well-documented, I think, even for the dates like 3000 BCE. Obviously a lot more research needs to be done to piece together the details of the transfer to tumbaga but I feel the evidence strongly points to Pre-Columbian contacts.

However, my next posting will deal with the level of goldworking in the Philippines when the Spanish arrived, which is also pertinent to the subject of the current posting.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Fernandez Cosgayam, Lorenzo . Diccionario Pangasinan-Espanol and Vocabulario Hispano-Pangasinan, Colegio de Santo Tomas, 1865.

Roth, H. Ling, and Hugh Brooke Low. The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo: Based Chiefly on the MSS. of the Late Hugh Brooke Low, Sarawak Government Service. London: Truslove & Hanson, 1896, cxxxiv.

Thacher, John Boyd, and Samuel Eliot Morison. Christopher Columbus: His Life, His Work, His Remains As Revealed by Original Printed and Manuscript Records, Together with an Essay on Peter Martyr of Anghera and Bartolomé De Las Casas, the First Historians of America. New York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1903, 643-4.

Villegas, Ramon N. Hiyas: Philippine Jewellery Heritage. Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines: Guild of Philippine Jewellers, 1997.

__. Kayamanan: The Philippine Jewelry Tradition. Manila: Central Bank of the Philippines, 1983.

Wicks, Robert Sigfrid. Money, markets, and trade in early Southeast Asia: the development of indigenous monetary systems to AD 1400. Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell Univ, 1992, 285-90.

The Balance of Nature

The Philippines has distinguished itself as an excellent location to study the special relationship that some indigenous cultures have with nature.

For example, the forest-dwelling Hanunoo of Mindoro are well known in this field of research. Harold C. Conklin found that the Hanunoo had a very deep knowledge of the natural world around them especially the plant world. They classified plants into 1625 categories -- more than the number found in the modern botanical taxonomy --which were further grouped into 890 taxa. In comparison, modern botanists recognize 1,100 species and 650 genera in the same area.

Of the Hanunoo's 1625 plant species about 93 percent had some use for the people. From 500 to 600 were considered exclusively edible while 406 were considered exclusively medicinal. They grew 413 different types of plants including 280 food crops, and they recognized 92 different types of rice. Crops were rotated, and from 40 to 50 crops -- or up to 125 cultigens -- could be found growing on a single swidden.

The Hanunoo realized the delicate balance that must be maintained between agricultural and forest land. They preferred to clear secondary forest rather than virgin forest, and they protected their secondary forest and fallow land with firebreaks.


Hanunoo farmer uses bamboo torch to create a firebreak (Source: http://www.fao.org/docrep/x5385e/x5385e05.htm)



The Pinatubo Ayta

The Ayta of Pinatubo are another forest group noteworthy for their knowledge and relationship with nature. The Ayta continue to study and learn about their natural world to this day.

They have an intricate understanding of their environment and according to Robert Fox, writing in 1952, an average Ayta could easily name at least 450 plants, 75 birds and more than 20 species of ants. Although they had no use for many of these plants, they still found it important to know about them as they understood the ecological "relationships of the plants with the animal and insect world."

Thus, the Ayta know when each plant flowers and fruits, and they recognize the calls of birds and many intricacies of the behavior and life cycles of animals, insects and other wildlife. In their belief system, they know of two types of "environmental spirits" -- the beneficient anito spirit , and the malefic kamana spirit. These environmental spirits inhabit "the forest, trunk of a huge tree, bamboo thicket, rock, stream, cave, and other places or objects."


Batak on Palawan crossing forest on aerial rattan bridge, 1998 (Source: http://www.kent.ac.uk/sac/department/staff/darioN/index.html)


In order not to offend the spirits of a place, the Ayta took create care not to harm or desecrate the environment. Mount Pinatubo, in particular, was held holy and the entire sacred geography of that mountain from gully to tree formed part of the prodigious indigenous knowledge of the Ayta. They were careful not to over-exploit or harm the natural resources of Mt. Pinatubo or any other area for fear of angering the anitos or even the Supreme God, Apo Namalyari.

The forests were not only important for swidden agriculturalists in the Philippines, but also for those who used transplantation agriculture. The Igorots of northern Luzon maintained their muyong or secondary forests for collecting wood and other forest products, but also for the purpose of replenishing the soil of their agricultural terraces. The muyong woodlots were not primary forest, but old swidden fields converted into secondary forest.

The tidal rice agriculture and fish pond system of Lower Pampanga also depended on the forests of Upper Pampanga and Zambales to provide water and new silt for the land. The old dike or pampang system consisted of "water towns" in which the buildings were all placed on stilts and boats were parked in front of every house. During the flood season, the rivers and canals deposited a new layer of sediment over the entire region. While mangrove forestry was practiced on the dikes and on the bay's shore, most forest and swidden products had to be collected from outside the tidal system.

Much of the area between Mt. Pinatubo and Mt. Arayat before modern times was heavily forested, and there was a brisk trade for timber, deer meat and other products. According to Bergano's dictionary, venison was once the greatest delicacy among meats for Kapampangans and widely-consumed, but today most have never tasted the flesh of the native usa. Bergano also mentions the term caqueuan which meant both a "forest" and a "field that was turned into a forest." So the caqueuan may have been the Kapampangan equivalent of the muyong secondary forest of the Igorots.

The destruction of the forests in Upper Pamapanga helped cause the usa sambar deer to go extinct in this area. Indeed most of Upper Pampanga acted as a type of muyong for the rest of the region, but it's modern agricultural and urban development has had serious environmental repercussions. When the Spanish arrived, the area Lower Pampanga and a bit of Upper Pampanga alone supplied not only its own rice and food supplies but also the needs for the large and growing city of Manila and the surrounding environs as well. Whenever there was a shortage of rice in Pampanga, a famine would occur in Manila.


One with nature

A factor that may have lent to the respect for nature among certain groups in this region is the belief that human souls transmigrated and were reborn as animals, plants, other living things, or even as inanimate objects and places.

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

The above quote is interesting in that Bergano's Kapampangan dictionary reveals that the word dapu (dapo) means both "crocodile" and "great-grandparent" or specifically "great-great-grandparent" (tatarabuelo). Among the Kapampangans, as among many other regional ethnicities, the clan or descent group is established to the fifth generation, and this clan/group is likened to a human body with each generation represented by a different body part. The dapu would be the ancestor four generations back from whom one determines clan relationships.



The python skin pattern of the hanggi textile made by the Kodi of West Sumba, Indonesia. The python was widely seen in Southeast Asia as a symbol of rebirth due to its practice of shedding its skin. (Source: National Gallery of Australia)


Interestingly, the Hanunoo also determine their clans according to the great-great-grandfather who is known as 'apu -- an apparent cognate of Kapampangan dapu. They view their ancestors as dwelling in the land of the dead until four generations have passed at which time they become 'apu returning to the world of the living. If we apply this to de Jesus letter above in which he says "after certain cycles of years, the souls of their forefathers were turned into crocodiles," we could say that in the Kapampangan case after four generations one reincarnates into a crocodile.

We also know that there was a belief that humans reincarnated in later cycles as humans again also. Grijalba in 1624 writes that the ancient Filipinos believed in "transmigration from one body to another: and that the only the gods rewarded or punished in having them imprisoned in beautiful bodies, or ugly, poor or rich, good or bad."

In addition, we know that the early Filipinos often saw millenarian figures as divine incarnations, or as reincarnations of past heroes. Tapar, for example, who led a revolt in 1663, declared that he was an incarnation of the "Eternal Father," and that among his followers were incarnations known as the Son, Holy Ghost and "Maria Santisima." In more recent times, the revolutionary hero Jose Rizal was considered a reincarnation of Jesus Christ by at least 14 different sects according to Leonardo Mercado. And later figures often claimed that they were reincarnations of Jose Rizal.

However, how did this reincarnation back into human form occur? Was it after the incarnation as a crocodile? Bergano also gives another term nunu, which can be a general reference to one's predecessors but appears to refer specifically to the great-grandparent. Nunu, however, is also a term for an inhabitant of a termite mound, ant-hill or large tree (like the balete) in local folk belief. Possibly this represents an incarnation as a mound or a tree, or as ants or termites. In many cases, the nunu is viewed as a dwarf race similar to humans. Possibly such an incarnation came after the crocodile incarnation in descending order.

Earlier in this blog, I suggested that a number multiplied by itself was seen as a type of cycle known as dalan. I linked this with the reign periods of the kings of Shambhala, located in the Southern Sea or Milky Ocean, and equated by me with the Pampanga region and the medieval kingdom known as Zabag (Suvarnadvipa)

So five times five would represent a complete cycle after which it may be that the soul would reincarnate back into human form. Every five generations of the person's descendants would result in a new non-human incarnation but after four such births the soul again becomes human. Thus the total cycle consists of 25 generations with five incarnations.

Now, in the Milky Ocean the Hindus believed that there was a cycle of incarnations or avatars of the god Visnu. The first four of these incarnations happen to be animal incarnations. They are in order incarnations as a giant fish, turtle, pig and lion-man. The first fully human incarnation is Vamana, the fifth avatar, who also happens to be a dwarf.

Visnu's first three avatars have an oceanic and geological orientation similar to the creatures associated with the pillars of the earth and the navel of the sea in Philippine myth, or with similar regional myths of oceanic-geologic catastrophe. Often known as the tandayag, these creatures were viewed variously as fish, whale, crocodile, dragon, boar, serpent, crab, eel, etc. Like the matsya (fish), kurma (turtle) and varaha (boar) avatars of Visnu, the tandayag is associated with great world floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other natural catastrophes, and with changes in the landscape and geology.

Although there is some evidence of karma in relation to the concept of transmigration in the Philippines, generally the incarnations as animals were not considered evolutionary in any way. Indeed, the crocodile, for example, was greatly revered and it was considered an honor to be born as such an animal!

Another difference is that in the Philippine system, reincarnation was strictly family oriented. If one did not have descendants in sufficient quantity, then the cycles stopped and one stays in the afterlife. The idea of transmigration was clearly associated with providing assistance to one's family lineage in different incarnations, at least some of which were animal incarnations. As the people believed that animals and other living things could be incarnations of their own ancestors, they held that there was a deep connection between all life forms.


Non-human ancestors

In addition to reincarnating as non-human life, there was also a widespread belief here in totemic descent from animals and other living things, and even inanimate objects in nature. Such beliefs are of course quite widespread and they tend to create an idea that all life belongs to one great family.

Indeed, modern science does support the idea that all life is genetically related, and the peoples who closely observed nature may have recognized this in their own way.

The Bagobo of Mindanao even have a myth of their origin that anticipates in a vague way Darwin's ideas on the relationships between species:

Bagobo tradition records that before time began to be reckoned, before man was made, the universe was peopled by creatures that are now called monkeys (lutung) ; but at that primeval period monkeys had the form of man and were in all respects human. After man appeared on the earth, the apes took on their present
form. Although the line of separation between monkeys and human beings was then pretty well established, there still lingered a tendency toward metamorphosis, by which the simian groups gained an occasional recruit from the ranks of man.

In addition to descent from other forms of life, there was also the belief that certain types of sorcerers and other classes of people could transform themselves into different animals or creatures. The aswang, for example, who could become a dog, pig, cat, bird or other animal. The line between humans, animals, plants, etc. was vaguely drawn in these cultures.

The concept of an all-pervading unity also extended beyond earth into the sky. In the Philippines and Borneo, there is a myth in which Sky and Earth marry and produce a child. The divine child is eventually divided in half when the couple separates or argues. One half becomes a new mortal being, sometimes a progenitor of humans, while the other half is used to create different celestial phenomenon, animals, diseases, etc. In the Ifugao version of this myth, the sky half of the child becomes lightning, while the earthly transmigration becomes thunder.

According to a Sulod myth, all living things are born from the different body parts of the goddess Bayi. So in essence all things are related as part of one great ecological family.


When Mother Nature strikes back

In both a practical and spiritual sense, the indigenous belief systems in this region recognized that there were consequences for disturbing the natural balance, or for desecrating sacred land.

Practically, they knew of the consequences that resulted from conditions like wild fires or soil depletion. In their mythological beliefs, they had abundant tales of nature's wrath for humanity's transgressions against nature.

Many myths attribute great natural disasters to the disturbance of either the social or the natural order. Among the Aytas of Pinatubo and the Kapampangans, there was a firm belief that any desecration of the holy mountains, or abuse of their natural resources, resulted in the wrath and punishment of gods and nature.

Sinukuan, the god of Arayat, did not tolerate any unkindness to the wildlife that lived on his mountain. In many other cultures in the region, there are similar customs. Among the Manobo and Bagobo, one should never make fun of animals as doing so would invite painful punishment from the gods. Most cultures in this area during ancient times asked permission before hunting, gathering or harvesting. One could kill other living things for food but only with idea that you had their consent, and often with the knowledge that at some time you would also contribute your own body to the great food chain.

When the natural balance was disturbed, rituals for renewal often had to be performed. The Batak conduct such rites to "heal the world" when great natural disasters occur due to some social disorder. Among the Badjao sea gypsies, rites of renewal are performed by the individual each morning in solar rituals. Rites to renew the whole community are conducted during periods of famine, epidemic or some other calamity that impacts Badjao society.

When Mt. Pinatubo erupted, the Ayta discovered by their seance ritual the cause of the disaster and performed the talbeng ritual to appease the wrath of the mountain and its god, and to start the process of bringing back life to the region.

Observations of people like the Pinatubo Ayta that demonstrate how all life is interrelated and interdependent undoubtedly helped to create the indigenous views in this region toward nature, and the belief in the need to maintain a sustainable relationship. In this worldview, humans are not conquerors of nature, but part of nature and equally as dependent on the natural balance as others in the ecosystem.


The Badjao sea gypsies traditionally lived at sea on boats like the one above (Source: http://ghasseltoft.wordpress.com/2008/05/04/research-for-docu-launched/)

They also live on pile-elevated houses on estuarine or other sheltered waters as below with fish pens (Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ironwulf/1741859625/ )

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Conklin, Harold C. Hanunóo Agriculture; A Report on an Integral System of Shifting Cultivation in the Philippines. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1957.

Conklin, Harold C., Joel Corneal Kuipers, and Ray McDermott. Fine Description: Ethnographic and Linguistic Essays. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, 2007.

Fox, Robert. “The Pinatubo Negritos, their Useful Plants and Material Culture,”. Philippine Journal of Science, 1953.

Grijalba, Fray Juan de. Crónica de la orden de N. P. S. Augustin en las provincias de la Nueva España, 1624.

Laquin, Elizabeth. “To be in Relation; Ancestors” or the Polysemy of the Minangyan (Hanunoo) Term ‘āpu," Paper presented at Tenth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics. 17-20 January 2006. Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, Philippines. http://www.sil.org/asia/Philippines/ical/papers/luquin-The%20Polysemy%20of%20the%20Minangyan.pdf.

Miclat-Teves, Aurea (ed.). Land is Life. http://www.scribd.com/doc/17639775/Land-is-Life.

Miyamoto, Masaru. 1988. The Hanunoo-Mangyan: Society, Religion and Law among a Mountain People of Mindoro Island, Philippines, Senri Ethnological Studies, n. 22, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan.

Tumbaga and Alchemy

Men marvel at the alchemy which converts copper into gold; regard the copper that every instant fashions alchemy!

-- Rumi

Although ancient alchemy involved attempts to change all types of base metals into gold, the transmutation of copper into gold stood out as the alchemist's ultimate goal.

Changing copper into gold was important in both metallurgical and spiritual alchemy. Democritus mentions such transmutations, but it was during the medieval age that the phrase "copper into gold" became closely equated with alchemy.

The Daoists of China, the Tantrics of both India and China, the Arabs, and the European alchemists during medieval times all used the copper to gold transmutation to stand for the highest accomplishment in their science. Even into modern times, many practitioners in yoga claim that their perfection of the art is proven by their ability to change the metals copper into gold -- apparently a sign of their spiritual transformation.

From the metallurgical standpoint, we know that such transmutation was impossible. Therefore many theories have been put forth as to what the alchemists were trying to achieve. The most frequent explanation is that "gold" had different meanings in early times and alchemists were simply attempting to make other metals appear like gold -- something known as "aurifaction."

However, I think the case of tumbaga needs to be examined quite closely in relation to alchemy and especially to the idea of changing copper into gold.


Tumbaga, gold-copper alloy

Tumbaga is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and copper, and also often of silver. What is unique about tumbaga is that goldsmiths in Insular Southeast Asia and across the Pacific in the Americas did perform a transmutation "trick" with tumbaga.

The process known as depletion gilding made it seem like non-gold was transmuted into solid gold. Basically tumbaga was an early form of gold plated object. The depletion gilding on both sides of the Pacific was accomplished using the acidic juices or saps of certain plants that dissolved the copper from the surface of the tumbaga. The coating was then burned away in the furnace leaving a pure or near pure gold surface.

Writing in 1577, then governor of the Philippines Francesco de Sande mentions that "there is a very base gold that has no name, with which they deceive." In fact, latter Spanish chroniclers mention the name as "tumbaga" or by related cognates. In "Relation of the Voyage to Luzon," (1569-1576) Juan de Salcedo mentions witnessing the local people had "given two hundred taels of impure gold, for they possess great skill in mixing it with other metals. They give it an outside appearance so natural and perfect, and so fine a ring, that unless it is melted they can deceive all men, even the best of silversmiths."

In his dictionary of the Kapampangan language, Bergano mentions this art:

Belatan -- Oro falso, alquimia, ó cosa mal dorada...(False gold, alchemy, or something of poor gold.)

Maŕcos de Lisboa's dictionary of the Bicol language of southern Luzon (1628) gives another related term:

Sombat -- hacer uno como oro de alquimia mezclando una parte de oro fino, otra de calongcaqui, y otra de tumbaga...(to make like the gold of alchemy mixing one part of pure gold with another of calongcaqui, and another of tumbaga.)

Sinombat -- este oro asi de alquimia...(this is the gold of alchemy.)

Whether tumbaga was made to actually deceive is unlikely. The fact that tumbaga was used to make barter rings as found on the island of Samar suggests the product was highly-valued.


Barter rings and coins used in the pre-Hispanic Philippines (Source: http://www.bsp.gov.ph/bspnotes/evolution/page2.asp)


In the Americas, the production of tumbaga was thought to awaken the camay, or living spirit of inanimate objects, which was seen in the form of the gold that appeared to rise to the surface. Tumbaga stood for the sacred and temporal power in both objects and people.

The fact that the word alquimia "alchemy" is used in the above definitions rather than the more ordinary definitions for metallurgy mentioning mixing or smelting of metals can be seen as indication that the process was considered magical or sacred in these regions. Unfortunately, there is little other information in this direction that I've been able to find so far.

In the Philippine context, two words may be related to the concept of transmutation -- mutya and tubo. Grace Odal-Devora in noting the different physical forms related to the word mutya states:

These forms of the mutya give birth to a concept of the mutya as an unusual natural occurrence. This concept seems to spring from a collective perception of something extraordinary emerging from nature, functioning as an offspring, a child, an outgrowth and an excrescence from nature. However, though it comes as basically a natural emergence from nature there is usually something unusual about its coming into being, something like a freakish appearance, a unique , rare and unusual phenomenon. It variously comes in the form of a round or spherical outgrowth, an excrescence, a seed, a kernel, a grain, a fruit, a child, a flower, a boil, a cyst, a bezoar stone, a fragment, piece, a pulverized or powder form of a whole stone, rock, plant, tree, animal, person or thing...the inherent powers and virtues of the various mutya objects can be the basis for conceptualizing on the nature of the self – that starts from discovering the innate powers and inherent virtues within and using them to transform oneself and one’s society – like the transformation of the pearl from slime, mud, sand or dirt into a gem of light , beauty, healing and purity.

While mutya refers to more unusual types of transformations, the words tubo or tubu as found in derived words like Pinatubo "causing to be born, grow," or tibuan "place of conception, birth, origin," speak toward the more natural concepts. Both mutya and tubo involve a form of vivification in which the life spirit arises.

Certainly, the apparent transmutation of tumbaga to gold, that would pass the test of a touchstone, could have been viewed in a manner similar to what was found in the Americas. Gold after all was among the most durable of metals -- resistant to corrosion and chemical reactions and dissolved mainly with mercury. Gold thus is a prime metal symbolic of longevity and immortality.


Tumbaga trail

Tumbaga has been found at pre-colonial sites in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. In the Americas, tumbaga seems to appear first with the Moche culture that lived along the coast of Peru. And the coastal bias of the distribution of tumbaga in the Americas has led some researchers to suggest a mainly maritime diffusion to other countries throughout South and Central America.

Wilhelm Solheim has proposed that the Nusantao seafaring network extended to the west coast of the Americas staring in 3000 BCE and that voyages across the Pacific occurred periodically for "hundreds of years." Whether this would take us to a date for the transmission of tumbaga is not clear, but in earlier works Solheim has discussed Heine-Geldern's theory that tumbaga, along with the mise en couleur technique (depletion gilding), cire-perdue casting, and granulation were carried across the Pacific by Dongson seafarers.

Actually the dates of tumbaga might be older in the Americas than in Southeast Asia, but the practice of gold granulation appears to originate from early pottery practices in the latter region. In both regions, small gold balls or spheres were used to create decorations or designs on a gold base plate. These gold balls may be the origin of the piloncitos, tiny gold coins that like the barter rings were used as a type of currency in the pre-Hispanic Philippines. As depletion gilding is not archaeologically attested for Dongson culture, and granulation was a characteristic of both the Sa-Huynh-Kalanay and the entire Philippine goldworking tradition, the Sa-Huynh-Kalanay culture would seem to be a better candidate as an agent for this cultural transmission.



Piloncitos, gold coins from pre-Hispanic Philippines. (Source: http://www.bsp.gov.ph/about/history/story2.asp)



Alchemy Isles

According to the Shiji, the Qin Emperor sent missions to Penglai in search of alchemists skilled in the "transmutation of cinnabar and other substances into gold." I have tried to show that Penglai was an island nation located to the southeast or south of South China. The Biblical and Muslim traditions place the origin of alchemy in Nod or Mount Budh to the east of Eden where it was brought by Adam.

I have suggested earlier that alchemy was originally linked with a "yin-yang" type of philosophy that sought to harness the creative or life-giving principle to extend longevity or to attain immortality. Seafarers and merchants in the Nusantao network came to connect these concepts on a cosmic scale with the volcanoes Pinatubo and Arayat, which I have suggested constitute the alchemical Mt. Penglai of Chinese texts.

The seeming transmutation of a metal like copper -- subject to corrosion and reactive to the acids of plants -- into gold, the durability and stability of which can be equated with long life and immortality, may have been seen as a fitting allegory for the process of vivification. The vivifying or revivifying concepts of mutya and tubo could have been viewed as symbolized by the transmutation of tumbaga.

At a latter date, this symbolism may have evolved into an idea that transmuted metals themselves conveyed immortality through a confusion with what I suggest was the Nusantao belief that volcanic ejecta from the sacred mountains was a form of life-giving cosmic placenta.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Far-Eastern Prehistory Association. Asian Perspectives v. 22, 1979. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1957, 179, 194.

Hosler, D., 1988, Ancient West Mexican Metallurgy: South and Central American Origins and West Mexican Transformations, American Anthropologist, 90(4), pp. 832–55.

The Philippine Islands 1493-1803: Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and their Peoples, their Hist. and Records of the Catholic Missions, as related in contemporaneous Books and Ms., showing the Political ... Conditions of those Islands ... ; Transl. from the originals : With maps, portr. and other ill. Cleveland, Ohio: A. H. Clark Co, 1903, vol. 3, 81.

Miksic, John N. Earthenware in Southeast Asia: Proceedings of the Singapore Symposium on Premodern Southeast Asian Earthenwares. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2003.

Shimada, Izumi. Pampa Grande and the Mochica Culture. Austin, Tex: Univ. of Texas Pr, 1994, 105.

Villegas, Ramon N. Hiyas: Philippine Jewellery Heritage. Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines: Guild of Philippine Jewellers, 1997.

__. Kayamanan: The Philippine Jewelry Tradition. Manila: Central Bank of the Philippines, 1983.

Dugong bone mounds found on Persian Gulf coast

A news story at gulfnews.com covers an archaeological find on an inlet off the Umm Al Quwain coast in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Akab site is Neolithic and associated with shell mounds, and pottery fragments from the Ubaid culture, often described as "Proto-Sumerian," have been found at Akab.

The interesting part about the excavation from our view is the discovery of mounds made of dugong bones. The researchers suggest the arrangement of the bones may be symbolic and linked with ritual.

"Traditionally, the dugong has special status in the Indo-Pacific area. The preparation for hunting dugongs is as much the object of propitiatory rites as the transport of their carcasses to shore, their butchering and their consumption," said Dr Sophie Méry of the French Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and director of the French archaeological mission in the UAE.

Méry mentions similarity of the site with sacred totemic dugong mounds on the Australian coast of the Torres Strait across from Papua New Guinea. The researchers also make a connection with finds from around the same period in Oman but which involved the green turtle rather than the dugong:

Méry and Charpentier believe the dugong at Akab held the role attributed in the same period to the green turtle in Ra's Al Hamra in Oman, the subject of impressive deposits between 3700 and 3300 BC, where skulls were placed near the face of the dead, while the body was covered with elements of turtle carapace or pebbles in a formation imitating that of turtle eggs.

Interestingly, the same people along the Torres Strait who practice dugong hunting rituals also have a breeding ritual involving the green turtle.

Another area not mentioned in the article is Palawan in the Philippines. The Neolithic site at Duyong Cave is associated with the bones of at least 5,000 dugong, and the sea mammal is thought to have had ritual significance there. At the cave there is also a jar burial site associated with funerary offerings. Dugong bones have also been found at the 9th to 12th century site at Butuan. In the Philippines, the teeth and bones of the dugong are still thought to have magical qualities bringing good luck and fertility and driving away evil and sickness.

Nearby Duyong Cave at Tabon Cave, an ivory carved turtle has been found, and earthenware turtles were discovered at Taal in Luzon, and in Iloilo in the Bisayan region. At Sinalakan Cave, also on Palawan, a terracotta turtle vessel from the Metal Age was found that apparently was both an inkstand and a burial object.

The present-day Tagbanua of Palawan have a rice wine ritual known as Pagdiwata in which wooden turtles are floated in the mouth of rice wine jars. The ritual takes place before planting and the turtle is considered a divine vehicle.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
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Excavation uncovers ritual site

Archaeologists find dugong bones that prove local tribesmen held fishing rites Aeons ago

• By Emmanuelle Landais, Staff Reporter
• Published: 00:00 November 6, 2009

• The bones of dugongs, a large marine mammal, were found symbolically arranged on a mound which experts say was used for ceremonial purposes.
• Image Credit: Supplied

An archaeological excavation held on an islet off the coast of Umm Al Quwain, close to the earlier fishing village of Akab, recently revealed that ancient fishing rites were conducted by tribesmen.

The bones of dugongs, a large marine mammal resembling a sea cow, were found symbolically arranged on a mound which experts believe was used for ceremonial purposes.

Read rest of the article...

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References

Fox, Robert B. The Tabon Caves; Archaeological Explorations and Excavations on Palawan Island, Philippines. Manila: [National Museum], 1970, 176.

Paz, Victor, and Wilhelm G. Solheim. Southeast Asian Archaeology: Wilhelm G. Solheim II Festschrift. Diliman, Quezon City: Univ. of the Philippines Press, 2004, 276-288.

Philippine mtDNA, the Polynesian Motif, and Austronesian expansion

A new study (see below) examines mtDNA in the Philippines, Sulawesi and Taiwan.

The researchers study all the haplotypes tested but focus on the frequent mtDNA haplotypes B4a1a, E1a1a and M7c3c, which they claim support the "Out of Taiwan" model of migration.

Analysis of Hypervariable Segment I sequence variation within individual mtDNA haplogroups indicates a general decrease in the diversity of the most frequent types (B4a1a, E1a1a, M7c3c) from the Taiwanese aborigines to the Philippines and Sulawesi, although calculated standard error measures overlap for these populations.

However, as noted above with each finding the standard error for the comparisons overlapped, so the conclusions are not really meaningful.

What is interesting is the findings on the B4a1a haplotype and particularly those concerning its daughter haplotype B4a1a1, known commonly as the "Polynesian motif."

B4a1a1 is closely associated with Austronesian expansions, in my view specifically with Malayo-Polynesian expansion. While the parent haplotype B4a1a is frequent in Taiwan, the Philippines and Sulawesi, neither its predecessor B4a or the Polynesian motif B4a1a1 were found in the sample of 640 women from Taiwan.

The authors suggests that the Polynesian motif may have originated in the Philippines where it is present in small quantities in Mindanao. However they also conclude that because of the higher diversity of B4a1a in Taiwan that the haplotype must have migrated from there to the Philippines where it is found at the lower diversity. However, the estimated ages of 9,500 BP �4,600 for the haplotype in Taiwan and 7,900 BP �2,400 for the Philippines show an extensive overlap in the standard error calculation.

What seems more important is the presence of the parent B4a, which is present in small quantities in the Philippines but absent from Taiwan.

The estimated ages for the frequent haplogroups that the study focuses on i.e., 7300 BP for B4a1a, 7900 BP for E1a1a, and 11,400 BP for M7c3c, all seem to early to0 correspond to the commonly given dates for an Out of Taiwan expansion of Proto-Austronesian, which is generally place more in the range of 5000 BP.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
---

Mol Biol Evol. 2009 Sep 15. [Epub ahead of print]

Philippine mitochondrial DNA diversity: a populated viaduct between Taiwan and Indonesia?

Tabbada KA, Trejaut J, Loo JH, Chen YM, Lin M, Miraz�n-Lahr M, Kivisild T, De Ungria MC.

DNA Analysis Laboratory, Natural Sciences Research Institute, Miranda Hall, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.

Relatively little is known about the genetic diversity of the Philippine population, and this is an important gap in our understanding of Southeast Asian and Oceanic prehistory. Here we describe mtDNA variation in 423 Philippine samples and analyze them in the context of the genetic diversity of other Southeast Asian populations. The majority of Philippine mtDNA types are shared with Taiwanese aboriginal groups and belong to haplogroups of post-glacial and pre-Neolithic origin which have previously been identified in East Asian and Island Southeast Asian populations. Analysis of Hypervariable Segment I sequence variation within individual mtDNA haplogroups indicates a general decrease in the diversity of the most frequent types (B4a1a, E1a1a, M7c3c) from the Taiwanese aborigines to the Philippines and Sulawesi, although calculated standard error measures overlap for these populations. This finding, together with the geographical distribution of ancestral and derived haplotypes of the B4a1a sub-clade including the Polynesian Motif, is consistent with southward dispersal of these lineages "Out of Taiwan" via the Philippines to Near Oceania and Polynesia. In addition to the mtDNA components shared with Taiwanese aborigines, complete sequence analyses revealed a minority of lineages in the Philippines which share their origins - possibly dating back to the Paleolithic - with haplogroups from Indonesia and New Guinea. Other rare lineages in the Philippines have no closely related types yet identified elsewhere.

Evidence of tumbaga from the Sipan royal tombs, Peru

Earlier in this blog I mentioned that word tumbaga is used both in the Philippines and across the Pacific in the Americas to refer to a gold-copper alloy.

At one time it was thought that both the word and technology had crossed the seas from the Philippines to the Americas during Spanish times with the trade galleons. Tumbaga involves depletion gilding or electrochemical replacement to make the alloy appear as pure gold on the surface -- on both sides of the Pacific

However, the archaeological evidence clearly shows that tumbaga technology was known in the Americas long before Columbus sailed to America.

An abstract of a recent study (below) of the royal tombs of Sipan in Peru shows that there was evidence of tumbaga among the Moche between between 50 and 700 CE.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

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Appl Radiat Isot. 2009 Sep 12. [Epub ahead of print]

Pre-Columbian alloys from the royal tombs of Sipán; energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis with a portable equipment.

Cesareo R, Calza C, Dos Anjos M, Lopes RT, Bustamante A, Fabian S J, Alva W, Chero Z L.

Dip. di Matematica e Fisica, Università di Sassari, via Vienna 2, 07100, Sassari, Italy.

On the north coast of present-day Peru flourished approximately between 50 and 700 AD, the Moche civilization. It was an advanced culture and the Moche were sophisticated metalsmiths, so that they are considered as the finest producers of jewels and artefacts of the region. The Moche metalworking ability was impressively demonstrated by the objects discovered by Walter Alva and coworkers in 1987, in the excavations of the "Tumbas Reales de Sipán". About 50 metal objects from these excavations, now at the namesake Museum, in Lambayeque, north of Peru, were analyzed with a portable equipment using energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence. This portable equipment is mainly composed of a small size X-ray tube and a thermoelectrically cooled X-ray detector. Standard samples of gold and silver alloys were employed for quantitative analysis. It was determined that the analyzed artefacts from the "Tumbas Reales de Sipán" are mainly composed of gold, silver and copper alloys, of gilded copper and of tumbaga, the last being a poor gold alloy enriched at the surface by depletion gilding, i.e. removing copper from the surface.

Sinawali comes to America

Here in California it is officially Filipino American History Month. The celebration is also observed by Filipino organizations throughout the United States.

One important contribution of Filipino Americans to American culture is in the area of martial arts. And there is an interesting link here that we can tie in with the subject of this blog specifically to the towns of Macabebe and Masantol in Pampanga. Both these towns were previously one town known as Macabebe.




The old chronicles of Zhao Rugua (Chao Ju-Kua) mention cotton and silk material that was imported into Sanfotsi, but does not tell us how these fabrics were used. In Ma Tuan-lin's geographical encyclopedia of the Sung Dynasty, he mentions several instances of fabrics sent to the Chinese emperor as gifts from Sanfotsi.

In 962, the king Li-si-lin-nan-ni-ji-lai sent "beautiful fabrics" along with his envoys to the emperor. In 975, hats, belts and silk garments were sent as gifts, and in 1082, the Sanfotsi king's daughter sent textile gifts to the maritime prefect who refused to receive them until he had permission from the imperial palace.

Zhao Rugua mentions mats coming from Sanfotsi, Sansu and Tanjungwulo. The mats from Sanfotsi were considered the best in quality. These mats were said to be made from a plant resembling the rattan palm.

Macabebe was a famous center for the silk and cotton weaving and for the production of mats and sugar sacks (bayones). The town held a monopoly on the production of rayadillo military uniform. The Philippines in general has long been famous for mats, and Macabebe was considered a prime source of high quality mats that were made of the fiber of the wild banana, known as abaca, of sasa palm leaves, and other materials. The sasa palm may be the rattan-like plant mentioned by Zhao Rugua. Abaca was also spun into thread for clothing and such cloth was called sinamay and was very popular with the natives but too coarse for most foreigners. Weaving in Macabebe was done with a native loom made of wood and cord.



A rattan palm (Source: Hort Log, http://hortlog.blogspot.com/2009/04/thorny.html)



Sasa palms (Source: Mongabay.com, http://travel.mongabay.com/indonesia/images/kali8915.html)


According to Hugo H. Miller in the late 20th century, the Macabebe cloth traders, mentioned by Leo Giron in the video above, were often small landowners whose families 'tended the farm' while they were gone. Only a minority had any investments in their own business and most borrowed money at high interest rates from a few wealthy Macabebe families. Some also took loans, often unsecured, of goods from Chinese merchants.

When my father was young in Masantol, the children would help make mats from sasa leaves that my grandmother would sell to supplement the income of my grandfather, who was a Philippine Scout. So, this activity was still thriving up until World War II.

The fabrics, mats and other products were traded all over the Philippines from northern Luzon, where Giron hailed from, to Mindanao in the South. The merchants usually sold the materials to families with whom they had developed special relationships who in turn sold them to others in the area.


Giron and Filipino martial arts in America

Giron created his own style of Filipino martial arts that incorporated the two-handed Estilo Macabebe and Sinawali forms of fighting. The rods used for this martial art form in the Philippines were often made from fan palm trees. The first graduate of Giron's style was Dan Inosanto.

Inosanto was one of the few students of the fighting style of famed martial arts star Bruce Lee, which is known as Jeet Kune Do. He was the only student granted the right to teach the highest third level of Jeet Kune Do. But Inosanto is also famed as the man who taught Lee "how to wield the chuks," i.e., the Okinawan weapon known as the nunchaku. Inosanto used the nunchaku in a two-handed style known as double nunchaku.


Inosanto uses double nunchaku starting at 0:27 in the video.


Inosanto had many noteworthy students including his daughter Diane Lee Inosanto, who is also a martial arts star; the late Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee; Paul Vunak; and even Denzel Washington trained with Inosanto for the movie "The Book of Eli." The stick fighting organization known as The Dog Brothers was formed at the Inosanto Academy in Marina Del Rey.

Often when one sees any type of double weapon fighting in Hollywood movies there is an influence from the double sinawali or "weaving" style of Macabebe. For example, Filipino martial arts were used as models for the Star Wars franchise through the influence of Roel Robles and Jonathan Soriben. The use of two blades in Star Wars is known in the story as Jar'Kai.



Anakin Skywalker uses double light sabers briefly against Count Dooku (starting at 1:40) in Star Wars Episode II.


Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Hamm, Margherita Arlina. Manila and the Philippines. London: F.T. Neely, 1898, 59-60.

Mendel, Bob. "The Nunchaku," Black Belt Aug. 1994, 19.

Ma, Duanlin, and Léon Hervey de Saint-Denys. Ethnographie des peuples étrangers à la Chine: ouvrage composé au XIIIe siècle de notre ère. Atsume gusa, 4. Genève: H. Georg, 1876, 559-564.

Maclennan, Marshall S. The Central Luzon plain. 1980, 78.

Miller, Hugo Herman. Economic Conditions in the Philippines. Boston: Ginn and Co, 1920, 423.

Philippines, Ignacio Villamor, and Felipe Buencamino. Census of the Philippine Islands Taken Under the Direction of the Philippine Legislature in the Year 1918. Manila: Bureau of printing, 1920, 236.

Pinatubo and Arayat (3 of 3)

Rituals and Practices

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.

Source: Ronnie Muring, http://www.panoramio.com/photo/3274534


Recurring themes

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)
  

  
  

Rainforest in southern Zambales

Source: http://keishastech.blogspot.com/2008/01/exploring-rainforest-in-subic.html


Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

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.

Pinatubo and Arayat (2 of 3)

Between Heaven and Earth

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."


Ayta from the Zambales region.

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/josearmando/1804253902/


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

Arayat/Sinukuan
The eastern direction, north, male, father, husband, son, prominent, solitary, tall, land, destruction, ending, death, fire, earthquake, serpent/dragon

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 the Philippine 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.