Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan

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

2020-09-20T17:21:00.002-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Part II

Part III

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Part II

Part III

Bucky Fuller and the Cruciform Temple/Church

2015-05-30T21:09:00.001-07:00

Here's a recent Facebook posting I made after reading this article on Buckminster Fuller:

We Got Buckminster Fuller's FBI File.

Bucky Fuller and the Cruciform Temple/Church

May 27, 2015 at 3:13pm

Credit: Tetrascroll, http://lampsacus.com/documents/BuckminsterFullerTetrascroll.pdf

"In all the villages, or in other parts of the Filipinas Islands, there are no temples consecrated to the performing of sacrifices, the adoration of their idols, or the general practice of idolatry. It is true that they have the name simbahan, which means a temple or place of adoration; but this is because, formerly, when they wished to celebrate a festival, which they called pandot, or “worship,” they celebrated it in the large house of a chief.

There they constructed, for the purpose of sheltering the assembled people, a temporary shed on each side of the house, with a roof, called sibi, to protect the people from the wet when it rained. Theyso constructed the house that it might contain many people — dividing it, after the fashion of ships, into three compartments.

On the posts of the house they set small lamps, called sorihile; in the center of the house they placed one large lamp, adorned with leaves of the white palm, wrought into many designs. They also brought together manydrums, large and small, which they beat successively while the feast lasted, which was usually four days. During this time the whole barangay, or family, united and joined in the worship which they call nagaanitos. The house, for the above-mentioned period of time,was called a temple."

-- Fray Juan de Plasencia, 1589

"They would build a shelter with branches in their homes which they called sibi . It was divided in three naves and a longer fourth one, and it was adorned with leaves and flowers all around, and many small lighted lanterns. There was also a large lamp in the middle with many ornaments, and this was their simbahan or oratory"

-- Fray Juan Francisco de San Antonio, 1743-1744

"St Sernin’s [1080 – 1120 AD] is a typical Romanesque church in that it was built in the basilica format, but because it is so large it has a few adaptions to this format. The main features of St Sernins are;

1) Heavy appearance with small rounded windows
2) Made of local brick not stone
3) An extra aisle on either side of the nave
4) The extra aisle continues around the transept and the apse creating an ambulatory where pilgrims could walk and pray
5) Nine small chapels at the back of the chuch behind the transept and the apse.
6) The nave is barrel vaulted the aisles are groin vaulted
7) Lantern Tower at the crossing of the transepts and the nave which lets in much light
8) A Clerestory/ Clearstory – a row of windows up at the top of the walls to let in light"

-- Romanesque Architecture, http://arthistoryleavingcert.com/romanesque/

Catalan surnames, Y-DNA and the Sayabiga?

2015-02-25T22:15:00.000-08:00

An interesting new study may have some bearing on the theories discussed on this blog on the Sayabiga connection of the Agotes and Cagots of Spain, France and other areas of Western Europe.

The study Y-chromosome diversity in Catalan surname samples: insights into surname origin and frequency examines 50 Catalan surnames chosen based mainly on their current frequency in the region. While most of the Y-DNA haplogroups discovered from the sample of 1375 men were of expected European origin with a significant number of North African/Middle Eastern examples, two haplogroups are of interest regarding the Agote/Cagot theory.

Three individuals, all from the Girona region, shared the C* haplogroup while a single person from Castells has the K* haplogroup. All the C* individuals had the surname Llach, which translates to "lake." The sole K* has the surname Ferrer meaning "smith."

The markers used in the test can be found at http://0-www.nature.com.es.library.du.ac.bd/ejhg/journal/vaop/ncurrent/extref/ejhg201514x11.pdf. From this table, we can see that the study tested for the M8 (C1a1) and M219 (C2) markers, so the absense of these markers translates to a solid identification of C*.

From the corresponding Universitat Pompeu Fabra website, we can find an analysis of each of the surnames studies. Here is the entry for "Llach":

Llach. Cognom poc abundant, típic de la Garrotxa, el Pla de l’Estany, el Gironès i Perpinyà. Se’n troba un exemple entre els immigrants francesos al fogatge de 1637.
Hem pogut obtenir resultats de tots els 26 voluntaris d’aquest cognom, que pertanyen a 8 llinatges diferents (llinatge en el sentit de grup homes descendents d’un avantpassat comú). Es tracta d’una diversitat genètica moderadament elevada per a un cognom relativament freqüent. Veiem que els Llach de les comarques gironines pertanyen a quatre llinatges diferents (precisament, els anomenats de l’1 al 4), i també són de llinatges particulars els Llach pirinencs (el llinatge 6), del Berguedà (7) i de Castelló (8). Cal remarcar que el fundador del llinatge 1 pertanyia a l’haplogrup C*, que es troba en freqüències elevades a l’Àsia Oriental, i que a Europa difícilment es dóna més enllà d’Europa Oriental. Entre els més de 400 fundadors de llinatges que hem analitzat fins ara, aquest és l’únic C* que hem trobat.

Here is a translation from the Anthrogenica forum (emphasis added):

Llach. An uncommon surname, typical of la Garrotxa, Pla de l’Estany, Gerona and Perpignan. We find an example among French immigrants in 1637 hearth tax.

We were able to get results from all 26 volunteers for this surname, which belong to eight different lineages (lineage group in the sense of people descended from a common ancestor). This is a moderately high genetic diversity for a relatively common name. We see that the Llachs of the Gironne [?] region belong to four different lineages ... and the individual lineages are Llach Pyrenees ( lineage 6 ) of Berguedá (7) and Castellón ( 8). Importantly, the founder of the lineage 1 belonged to haplogroup C * , which is found in high frequencies in East Asia, and in Europe there is hardly beyond Eastern Europe. Among the more than 400 founding lineages that we have analyzed so far, this is the only one we've found C * .

Children believed to be descendents of the Cagots at La fontaine Saint-Blaise à Bagnères

**C* strongly linked with ISEA**

In fact, we know from previous studies by Karafet et al. and Delfin et al. that C*, known as C-
RPS4Y* and CRPS4Y respectively, are strongly associated with the Insular Southeast Asian (ISEA) region.

Karafet et al. shows only 17 out of 581 Mainland Southeast Asian samples with C*, while Western Indonesia has 40 out of 960 in Western Indonesia, 145 out of 957 in Eastern Indonesia and 2 out of 182 in Oceania. Variance is significantly higher in Eastern Indonesia suggesting that as the place of origin in this study.

In Delfin et al., 8.9% of Negrito peoples in the Philippines have C*, while the percentage among non-Negrito indigenous and Muslim peoples in the same country is 7.1%.

K* also connects with ISEA

The single K* individual tested negative for L or the MNOPS groups showing a strong association with the K*, a type that also is found mostly in Insular Southeast Asia and particularly with the Philippines. Delfin et al. also tests for the subgroups L and MNOPS and finds that 32.2% of Negrito Filipinos and 8.1% of Muslim and indigenous non-Negrito Filipinos are K*.

Conclusion

The Catalan surname study may suggest that a small percentage of Y-DNA haplogroups are of ISEA origin in one of the main areas associated in this blog with the Sayabiga. Additionally, it was closely linked with the Agotes and the adjoining region of France was connected with the Cagots.

Indeed, Girona (Gerona) was the location of a particular late study on the Cagots at the turn of the 20th century.

Of course, as the Sayabiga did not appear to be endogamous like the Gitano/Roma, we may expect that some paternal lineages may have already been "switched out" during stays in other areas associated with the Sayabiga including Basra in Iraq. For comparison, no H1 or H1a lineages, common among the Gitano, were found in this study.

Interestingly, no examples of the O haplogroups that are so common nowadays were found in this research. Possibly, these groups were not as predominant in certain regions as they are today, however, it is difficult to say with such a small data set.

Unfortunately, the surnames Borja, Borgia, Borge, etc. were not included in the study as the results would have been interesting to see. Indeed, this opens up quite a bit of territory for future research to confirm whether these findings do indeed confirm a Sayabiga link.

The Borneo Route

2014-12-26T16:17:00.003-08:00

Gavin Menzies has a new book out co-written with Ian Hudson entitled Who Discovered America: The Untold History of the Peopling of America. While I haven't read it yet, the summary and samples indicate that it follows the same theme as his Menzies' previous works.

Now may be a good time to review a specific point in his earlier books that I have discussed in this blog. Specifically, the evidence surrounding the traveler Nicolo de Conti. Here's a posting I did on the subject on Facebook:

The Borneo Route

December 26, 2014 at 4:12pm

Above is a portion of Fra Mauro's mappa mundi of 1459 showing the islands of Java Major and Cipango along with the coastal city of Zaiton (Zayton) that is known today as Quanzhou.

One of the legends from the Fra Mauro map reads (emphasis added):

Giava minor, a very fertile island, in which there are eight kingdoms, is surrounded by eight islands in which grow the ‘sotil specie’. And in the said Giava grow ginger and other fine spices in great quantities, and all the crop from this and the other [islands] is carried to Giava Major, where it is divided into three parts, one for Zaiton [Changchow [Quanzhou]] and Cathay, the other by the sea of India for Ormuz [Hormuz], Jidda [Jedda], and MECCA, and the third northwards by the Sea of Cathay.

-- http://cartographic-images.net/Cartographic_Images/249_Fra_Mauros_Mappamundi.html

From the excerpt above, we can surmise that Giava Major (Java Major) is the island of Borneo and this would agree with the mention of trade agrees closely with the concept of the "Borneo Route" as conceived by Roderik Ptak. Another scholarly work mentions trade in this region during this period(emphasis added) :

Pires [ca. 1500] twice mentions that the junks of the Malays and Javanese were not allowed to proceed to the city of Guangzhou because of the fear in which they were held, but when describing details of the fear in which they were held, but when describing details of the city he adds, "so the Lucoes [Luzons] say who have been there". These Lucoes demand some attention..."They [Luzons] have two or three junks, at most. They take the merchandise to Burney [Brunei] and from there they come to Melaka, . . . The Bruneians go to the lands of the Luzons to buy gold."....The Luzons were in fact the principal Melaka traders to China, which is difficult to understand unless they had brought with them to Melaka some knowledge of Chinese commerce and customs. It seems probable that the Luzon-Brunei connection arose when both centres were rising into commercial significance in consequence of their close connection with China in the early fifteenth century.

-- Alilunas-Rodgers, Kristine, and Anthony Reid. Sojourners and Settlers: Histories of Southeast Asia and the Chinese. Honolulu: Univ. of Hawai'i Press, 2001, 34-5.

Brunei, of course, was the main trading city on the island of Borneo. From the accounts of the time, we know that the Luzons and other traders brought spices and other merchandise to Brunei from which it proceeded either north up what the Chinese called the "Eastern Ship Route" or west to Melaka (Malacca) where it then proceeded toward other ports in Asia and Africa. The Eastern Ship Route would account for two of the "parts" mentioned by Fra Mauro, the routes to Zaiton and Cathay. The route west toward Malacca was the one that went toward "Ormuz, Jidda, and Mecca." Pires account is only 50 years later than the information provided by Fra Mauro.

Above: The Borneo Route after Ptak (http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/arch_0044-8613_1992_num_43_1_2804)

Many scholars believe that one of Fra Mauro's main informants on the Asian region was the Italian traveler Nicolo de Conti. In this regard, there is an interesting notice from Pero Tafur (1435-1439) who claimed to have met de Conti while traveling through the Middle East (emphasis added):

Prester John and his people are said to be as good Catholics and Christians as could be found anywhere, but they know nothing of our Romish Church, nor are governed by it....I learnt also that the people in those parts are very skilled in the Black Arts, and that when navigating in the Red Sea, de' Conti saw them consult with demons, and he told me that he could descry a vague black shape moving up and down the mainmast. The sailors then conjured it to keep still and demanded: "What of our voyage?" and the shape made answer: "You will have six days of dead calm when the sea will be like oil, but be prepared, for you will have as many days of very heavy storms." He described their ships as like great houses, and not fashioned at all like ours. They have ten or twelve sails, and great cisterns of water within, for there the winds are not very strong, and when at sea they have no dread of islands or rocks. These ships carry all the cargoes which the caravans receive from them at MECCA [Jedda], which is the port where they unload. De' Conti told me that Mecca is a great place, larger than Seville....

"I learnt from Nicolo de' Conti that Prester John kept him continuously at his court, enquiring of him as to the Christian world, and concerning the princes and their estates, and the wars they were waging, and while he was there he saw Prester John on two occasions dispatch ambassadors to Christian princes, but he did not hear whether any news of them had been received."

-- Pero Tafur, The Travels of Pero Tafur (1435-1439), https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/tafur.html

Note that De Conti, according to Pero Tafur, also mentions large ships taking Eastern cargo to Mecca and Jeddah as described as well by Fra Mauro. The name "junk" is a Malay/Javanese term (jong or ajong) for ships related to the Chinese chuan. However, the term properly belonged to hybrid ships that combined characteristics of the chuan with those of the indigenous ships of Southeast Asia.

For example, the hybrid junk might have one or more of these Southeast Asian "traits" that differed from the classic chuan: a V-shaped hull, keel, multiple hull sheathing, transverse bulkheads, wooden drowels rather than iron nails, tropical hardwood materials, stem and stern posts, and multiple rigging of masts and sails (https://books.google.com/books?id=jtsMLNmMzbkC&lpg=PA33&dq=hybrid%20junks%20stern%20sheathing%20stem&pg=PA33#v=onepage&q=hybrid%20junks%20stern%20sheathing%20stem&f=false).

Eventually, even Chinese ocean-going ships took on these hybrid characteristics.

Here are some examples of hybrid junks:

An anonymous Italian source from 1504 mentions junks bringing cloves, silk and silver from the East to Socotra, a small archipelago near Yemen. From there, the ships took the cargo to Hormuz and Aden (see Kauz, Ralph. Aspects of the Maritime Silk Road: From the Persian Gulf to the East China Sea. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010, 16.).

The Portuguese interrupted the previous order and after they set up bases in India and Malacca, trading ships from East and Southeast Asia generally went no further west than Malacca.

Pampangos and Luzons in Sumatra

2014-12-25T17:27:00.004-08:00

https://www.facebook.com/notes/paul-kekai-manansala/pampangos-and-luzons-in-sumatra/10152572341218687?pnref=lhc

Pampangos and Luzons in Sumatra

November 12, 2014 at 9:26pm

In the text below from Blair and Robertson's we see a translation from Father Francisco Colin's Labor Evangelica published in 1663, but probably written around 1640. In it, he tells of a Pampango (Kapampangan) who met a group of people living near a large lake in Sumatra who could speak "excellent Pampango."

Either Colin or his Pampango informant may have remembered the account wrong as they say the people of the lake claimed their ancestors ventured to Pampanga. Indeed, it was Colin's theory that the Kapampangans did originate from Sumatra. However, neither Kapampangan or any language mutually intelligible with Kapampangan is found in Sumatra. Any ancestral connection is unlikely given the different structures and genetic relationships of languages in both regions.

Another explanation is that the inhabitants of the lake came from Pampanga more recently and settled in the area. In turns out that more than a century earlier, people from Lusung (Luzon) were involved in the geopolitics of northern and western Sumatra. Here is a snippet from Mike Pangilinan's article Lusung [呂宋]: A preliminary investigation into its role in East Asian history.

The source for this information is mainly Portuguese texts which refer to people from the kingdom of Luzon as Luções "Luzons." These Luzons, as can be seen by the quote above, were involved in fighting both for the leaders of Aceh in Northern Sumatra and of Menangkebau in Western Sumatra around 1529.

Quite possibly, these Luzons settled in the area after their service. This was not unusual as we also know from Portuguese sources that there were Luzons permanently settled in Malacca, Brunei and other areas at this time. The largest lake on Sumatra is Lake Toba, which is between the Batak-Menanagkebau and the Aceh kingdoms. There are also smaller lakes located quite near the Menangkebau region.

The anonymous document Relación de las Islas Filipinas, which is part of the collection from 1580 to 1605, is dated by Blair and Robertson at about 1586 on internal evidence. In talking about the people of Pampanga, the author says "they are keen traders, and have traded with China for many years, and before the advent of the Spaniards, they sailed to Maluco, Malaca, Hazian, Parani, Brunei and other kingdoms."

"Hazian" has been interpreted my some experts as referring to Aceh in Sumatra. We know from Ming Dynasty maps, that the kingdom of Lusung (Luzon) did not refer to the whole island known today but to the Manila Bay area and particularly to the area north of the Manila Bay, which would correspond to the Pampanga region.

Therefore, it is quite possible that the Pampango-speaking people living in Sumatra in the mid-17th century were descendents of the Luzons who fought for the Menangkebau or the Aceh kingdoms, or both more than a century earlier.

The Philippines and the sandalwood trade in the late pre-colonial and colonial periods

2014-02-01T07:47:00.000-08:00

Video presentation for the Inaugural National Conference of the Philippine Association for the Study of Culture, History and Religion (PASCHR) on Feb.1, 2014 at Holy Angel University in Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines.
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Few trade items were as valuable throughout human history as yellow sandalwood (Santalum album) also called white sandalwood. In particular, the fragrant wood was an important ingredient in the production of sacred and medicinal incense and ointments[1]. Some scholars even believe that the "almug" wood mentioned in the Old Testament as a building material for King Solomon's Temple was either yellow sandalwood or red sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus)[2].

Kingdoms in Luzon, Mindanao, Sulu and Butuan in what is now known as the Philippines played an important role in the old sandalwood trade going back at least to Yuan Dynasty up to colonial times. In those days, yellow sandalwood came mostly from the island of Timor until Santalum album nearly became extinct there due to excessive logging. The Philippine archipelago sat along the important shipping lanes known to the Chinese as the "Eastern Ship Route," which was the main conduit for sandalwood, cloves, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon and other products from the southern Philippines and eastern Indonesia.

Although sandalwood today comes largely from India, numerous sources suggest that in early times, most sandalwood came from Timor. Tome Pires, for example, stated: "God made Timor for sandalwood and Banda for mace and the Moluccas for cloves, and that this merchandise is not known anywhere else in the world except in these places; and [Tome Pires] asked and enquired very diligently whether they had this merchandise anywhere else and every one said not." Chinese sources generally agreed that sandalwood was primarily a product of Timor.[3]

In his diary, Antonio Pigafetta, one of the crewmembers during Magellan's fateful voyage, mentions a ship from Luzon trading in Timor. Interestingly, even after colonization, a family with roots from Pampanga on the island of Luzon played an important role in Timor's sandalwood trade.

Sandalwood incense was an essential natural product in Buddhist, Hindu and other Asian religions. In the belief systems of South Asia, sandalwood paste would often represent the earth among the five elements. Believers smear the paste on the face and use it make the tilak (dot) on the forehead associated with the area of the "third eye." The sweet smell of burning sandalwood helps the dead depart from the body according to beliefs on the Indian subcontinent. The sacred fragrance also makes the wood a favorite material for sacred statues and other types of carving[4].

In China, sandalwood is a key ingredient in joss sticks, and tradition states that the fragrant wood provides a calming influence together with aloeswood (agarwood). The Japanese use sandalwood as incense during meditation practice[5]. Although many joss sticks use "sandalwood" in their product names, only the expensive varieties contain actual sandalwood or aloeswood.

Sufi Muslims borrowed the use of sandalwood paste in India from other religious practitioners. The paste may serve as a incense and also as a decoration during religious festivals. Among some Sufis sandalwood is believed to have healing or miraculous powers. The paste may mark the graves of Sufis in the state of Tamil Nadu.

In his journal, Pigafetta describes the island of Timor in his time: "In this island, and nowhere else, is found white sandalwood, besides ginger, oxen, swine, goats, poultry, rice, figs, sugarcanes, oranges, lemons, wax, almonds, and other things, and parrots of divers sorts and colors.[6]" Furthermore, he mentions seeing a trading ship at Timor while he was there:

All the sandalwood and the wax which is traded by the people of Java and Malacca comes from this place, where we found a junk of Lozzon [Luzon] which had come to trade for sandalwood[7].

Pigafetta's account of Luzon merchants venturing to Timor to trade for sandalwood concurs with other accounts of the time, although this is the only one to connect Luzon merchants specifically with the sandalwood trade.

The evidence suggests that the "Luzons," known to the Portuguese as Luções, were among the primary traders, if not the main ones, on three of the most important regional trade routes of the time. The Luzons of that period had very close relations with the kingdom of Brunei according to various European sources. Rui de Brito Patalim even states in 1514: "The people of that island [Brunei] call themselves Luções.[8]" For the next decade, Portuguese sources continued to use the term " Luções" to refer to the people of Brunei even though they clearly knew of the Luções on the island of Luzon (Lução).

Tome Pires, writing in the early 1500s, described Lução as ten days sailing from Brunei[9], and Pedro Fidalgo, who landed on the island after a storm drove his ship off course while sailing toward Brunei in 1545, described Luzon as lying between the latitudes nine and 22 degrees North[10].

Pires also mentions a community of people from Luzon in Malacca including influential maritime traders, and he mentions that the Luzons and the people of Brunei were almost "one people." The evidence seems to suggest that the merchants of Luzon were conducting a great deal of the trade across Southeast Asia and northward to China including possibly much of the sandalwood trade. In order to understand how this came to be, we can examine how the trade routes developed in earlier historical periods.

By at least the Sung Dynasty, the Chinese wrote of two maritime trade routes that handled traffic moving to and from Southeast Asia. The Western Ship Route xi hanglu 西航路 involved sailing along the mainland Southeast Asian coastline from Quanzhou in Fujian through Vietnam (Zhangcheng) and Cambodia (Zhenla) from which ships continued sailing southwest to Malaya, Sumatra and Java. Not as well known is the Eastern Ship Route dong hanglu 東航路 that followed the trade winds due south from Quanzhou and staying east of the Jiaozhi Sea (Vietnam Sea). The necessity of staying east of the Jiaozhi Sea along the Eastern Ship Route was due to the existence of many shoals and coral reefs in this area. We know these low-lying or submerged islands as the Paracel and the Spratly islands. Historian Roderich Ptak explains these two routes in more detail:

Elsewhere I have demonstrated that this East / West segmentation can be related to the existence of two major trade arteries between China to Southeast Asia: the so-called xi hanglu 西航路 (western route) and the dong hanglu 東航路 (eastern route). Ships sailing along the first route went from Fujian and Guangdong to Hainan and Vietnam, passing the Paracel Islands on their western side; from Vietnam they proceeded to the Malayan east coast and finally around the peninsula’s southern tip to Melaka and the Indian Ocean; a further link connected the southern tip of Vietnam to Cape Datu; from there vessels could follow the Kalimantan coast down towards Java. The second route ran from Fujian – via the southern tip of Taiwan – to Luzon; from Luzon one would then go through the Sulu Sea to Brunei or, via the Sulu Islands and Celebes Sea, to Sulawesi, Maluku, Ceram, Timor, and so forth. The existence of this double route system is related to a very special geographical feature: the central part of the South China Sea was considered dangerous due to its many shoals and reefs.[11]

The Zhufan Zhi (諸蕃志) describes the shallow blue water of the area, a result of the coral habitat, where the "the sky and water meet with the same color." He goes on further: "Ships and boats sailing through the area are solely dependent on the compass to guide their navigation. Days and nights the compass has to be carefully observed, because even an [sic] slightest error may make a difference between life and death.[12]" The dangerous situation is common knowledge among mariners in this region up to today. The many semi-submerged islands and shoals, and the low tide elevations make the Paracel and Spratly islands a hazardous area for shipping, especially for boats with deep keels. Modern navigational charts, for example, mark the entire Spratly region as "dangerous ground.[13]"

Ptak notes that the Eastern Ship Route extends through the area of the modern Philippines southward to Maluku and Timor. Maluku and the surrounding area was the main center for the production of clove flower buds, nutmeg and mace. Timor, again, was the primary source of sandalwood during the medieval and early colonial periods. Ptak believes that Butuan along with Champa were the main "re-exporters" of cloves during the Sung Dynasty[14].

During the Yuan Dynasty, Min-to-lang, a polity mentioned along with Sulu and Butuan, may refer to Mindanao or Mindoro in the Philippines. Accounts from the time claim that sandalwood was one of the "natural" products of the island; however, it may be that Mindanao during this period actually acted as an entrepot for this trade item. Archaeological evidence supports the idea of extensive Philippine trade with China and other Southeast Asian nation going back at least to the eleventh century. Kenneth R. Hall mentions the layers of ceramic deposits that provide evidence of these trade networks at ports around the Philippines: "Each of these communities' trade links with China are demonstrated by the communities' association with significant deposits of Song and Ming porcelain dating to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The archeological remains of early Laguna, Mindoro and Cebu societies especially document the rapid growth of trade centers as people from the interior and other islands congregated around ports fortified with brass artillery – to protect against the piracy rampant in the region's sea channels – in response to the opportunities and demands afforded by foreign trade.[15]"

Additional evidence of maritime trade comes from the Pandanan and Lena Shoal shipwrecks off Palawan and the Santa Cruz wreck off Zambales that date from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Unfortunately, the main items found in archaeological expeditions consist of ceramic and metallic objects as organic materials like sandalwood and spices quickly decompose in most conditions.

When Martin de Goiti arrived in Manila in 1570, he found 40 Chinese and 20 Japanese families living in the city along with four trading junks in the harbor[16]. These connections were profound and probably had a significant impact on the future direction of trade between Asian and European nations that started in the 16^th century. Pires, for example, mentions that neither Javans nor Malays were allowed at the port of Guangzhou according to an account he heard from Luzons "who have been there." The report suggests that the Luzons were trading in South China or at least in Guangzhou to the exclusion of two of the most important trading groups of Insular Southeast Asia at the time.

The evidence provided by Portuguese writers suggests that the Luzons may have monopolized the trade between Malacca and China. Miguel Lopez de Legaspi reported in the late sixteenth century that merchants from Luzon and Brunei were frequently mistaken for Chinese and that people in Maluku considered their ships to be "Chinese junks" because they carried Chinese goods. Such reports indicate that the Luzons together with their allies from Brunei acted as "middlemen" for the trade between China and Southeast Asia. The Ming bans on Chinese external trade combined with the close relationships forged in earlier periods may have helped the Luzons secure this position. Both Legaspi and Villalobos report Chinese junks in Butuan, and it is noteworthy that the expeditions of Magellan and Villalobos sailed to the Moluccas, Ambon and Timor via the southern Philippines[17].

International relations including royal intermarriages may also have helped cement ties between Luzons and others in the Philippines with people throughout the Southeast Asia region. Pigafetta, for example, mentions that a prince of Luzon acted as admiral for the king of Brunei. Rajah Soliman of Manila's son married the daughter of the Sultan of Brunei, and many relatives of the Rajahs Lakandula, Soliman and Matanda fled to Brunei along with their entourages after the Spanish invasion of Luzon. Humabon, the King of Cebu during Magellan's visit, was fluent in either Malay, Cham or Thai, which he used to speak with a merchant from "Ciama[18]." The Luzon spice trader Regimo de Raja, based in Malacca, was highly influential and the Portuguese appointed him as Temenggong (Sea Lord) of the Muslims of Malacca. His father and wife carried on his maritime trading business after his death. Another important Malacca trader was Curia de Raja who also hailed from Luzon. The "surname" of "de Raja" or "diraja" could indicate that Regimo and Curia, and their families, were of noble or royal descent as the term is an abbreviation of Sanskrit adiraja[19].

We can surmise from the available information that these relationships, some of which may have been cultivated for centuries, helped Manila later on during the colonial period in becoming the epicenter of the global galleon trade. By 1589, nearly half of the South Seas (Nanyang) trading licenses had Manila as their destination. By 1603, there were about 20,000 Chinese residing in Manila alone while in comparison there were only 400 Chinese in Batavia in 1619, and 400 in Malacca in 1649[20].

In addition to royal marital ties with regional polities, there is also evidence of the possibility of other types of political relationships. Portuguese and other writers frequently mention Luzons serving in the navies or armies of foreign kingdoms. While many modern commentators label these Luzons as"mercenaries" suggesting that they were basically "soldiers for hire," this may not be the correct judgment -- at least not in all cases. For example, the Prince of Luzon's command of the Brunei fleet surely was not connected to any type of "freelancing." The political family relationships between nations in the region may have fostered the deployment of Luzon soldiers and sailors to other countries in fulfillment of alliances and treaties. A Luzon named Sapetu Diraja, for example, was commander of the King of Aceh's garrison on the Aru archipelago.< href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9512229#_edn21" name="_ednref21" style="mso-endnote-id: edn21;" title="">[21].

Even during the colonial period, the people of Luzon and other parts of the Philippines were essential in allowing the Spanish to maintain the Manila Galleon trade for 250 years. A number of researchers have suggested that the "Indios" played the major role in making the galleon enterprise successful. In a sense, it may be the role played by the Luzons in earlier centuries prepared them for the demands of the world's first global trade system. Historians like Dennis O. Flynn, Arturo Giraldez and Andrew Peterson contend that the indigenous Filipinos provided the raw materials, the galleon-building labor, the mariners and soldiers, and even the financing required to maintain the seagoing enterprise[22].

According to one report, for a galleon that cost P60,000 to the royal treasury, the people of Pampanga would pay P150,000[23]. Pampanga supplied the molave wood and most of the rice and other food supplies needed to feed the workers, soldiers and seafarers involved in the galleon trade. The compulsory vandala system required that the people of Pampanga and other parts of the Philippines sell goods to the government that the latter was often late in repaying. Because of the fertility of the region, Pampangans had to pay tribute in rice while other provinces could substitute cash for rice[24]. The situation became so onerous that a revolt broke out in Pampanga lead by Francisco Maniago forcing the Spanish governor to compensate his Kapampangan financiers. The Manila trade demonstrated that the people of Luzon were fully capable of undertaking daring maritime ventures that most seafarers from other nations were unwilling to accept. One can easily see how the intense trading activity of the Luzons during the Ming and earlier periods helped prepare the people for the Manila Galleon trade.

Archaeological data attests to a surge in trade during the late Ming period as a direct result of the open door policy of that dynasty. Particularly in the late Ming phase in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, we see a dramatic increase in the quantity of ceramics from Philippine trade port sites in some cases reaching magnitudes of ten-fold over earlier periods. The evidence clearly shows that this upswing in trading activity predates the Spanish colonization, and the quality of the imports ranged from the highest grades for special elite customers to poorly crafted items probably meant for the average Philippine consumer[25].

What we know from European and Chinese accounts of the time indicate that there were three important routes used by the Luzon traders: one that extended to Brunei through the "Palawan Strait" and onward to Malacca; one that went southward toward Maluku and as far south as Timor; and one that went northward to Guangzhou[26]. In this setup, it appears that Chinese traders, particularly during certain periods, mainly traded at Luzon or other Philippine ports like Butuan while relying on Luzon "middlemen" to handle trade with other countries[27]. Since much of the sandalwood from Timor headed for Chinese markets, we can surmise that Luzon traders would have managed much of this trade, if they did not indeed monopolize the trade. Sandalwood may have come to Chinese ports either directly through the Eastern Ship Route, or the products could have come re-exported through Malacca, but again traveling in the ships of the Luções.

Regimo De Raja dispatched trade ships to China, Brunei, Siam, Java and Sumatra. His father sent trading ships to China and his widow sent at least one junk to Sunda[28]. Surya de Raja sent one trading ship annually to Luzon. He also sent a yearly junk to China with 1,000 bahar or about 200 metric tons of pepper. Surya personally owned a plantation and one of his junks accompanied the first Portuguese maritime mission to China in 1513. Indeed, the Portuguese appeared to employ Luzons to help them navigate in the area with Bras Bayao describing the Luções as "discoverers" and as "good pilots.[29]"

Logically, given the statement by Pigafetta on Luzon traders dealing in sandalwood at Timor, the fragrant wood would have been one of the products brought to Malacca and directly to China. When the Spanish established the Manila Galleon trade, we know that sandalwood was often one of the items found on ships coming from China. The Portuguese generally carried the items to the Macau from Timor for trade with Chinese. The Chinese then re-exported the product to Japan, Korea and even the Philippines[30].

During the union of Spain and Portugal under Philip II, the trade between Manila and Macau was brisk. After the dissolution of the union, the trade fell into disrepair until the Viceroy in Goa decide to resurrect it in 1672 to take advantage of the treaty with the Hapsburgs[31]. Interestingly enough, the Captain-general at that time in Timor, the source of sandalwood, was a person of Kapampangan descent known as Mattheus da Costa[32].

Da Costa traced his descent from the Papangers (Kapampangans) who served with the Spanish in Ternate in the seventeenth century[33]. His forebears eventually moved to Larantuka, which may have harbored a sizable Papanger population who made up part of the population of Mardikers known as Topasses. Da Costa established himself as Topass lord, and his descendents intermarried with another important clan, the De Hornays, to form the hereditary lineage that ruled Timor during much of the colonial sandalwood trade[34].

Da Costa was a "Black Portuguese" of Kapampangan descent who likely spoke Portuguese. No information is available about any connections he may have had with his ancestral homeland of Pampanga in Luzon. The mixed race Topasses managed to hold off both the Dutch and the Portuguese despite claiming allegiance to the Portuguese crown. They effectively controlled the sandalwood trade from the middle of the seventeenth century until late in the nineteenth century. Although they only controlled the whole island of Timor for about a century, they had a powerful influence among the Timorese royal, noble and aristocratic families that allowed them to foil Portuguese and Dutch designs on the island. The Topasses continued to resist colonial powers in the interior of Timor until the early twentieth century.

Excessive exploitation of sandalwood trees on Timor, however, led to their near extinction by the early nineteenth century. As sandalwood stocks on Timor dwindled, explorers sailing mostly out of Manila discovered a new source of the fragrant wood in Melanesia and Polynesia in the late eighteenth century. Before long, mostly British and American companies were shipping sandalwood from the Pacific islands to trade in Manila and Canton for tea and other products[35].

Eventually, sandalwood in the Pacific region also declined markedly due to overexploitation. White and yellow sandalwood dropped out of view from the trade scene in the Philippines although the widely used word for "sandalwood," i.e., sandana still occurs in languages of Pampanga and the Bisayas where it refers to fragrant wood and not specifically to Santalum album[36]. The Philippines does have a form of the red sandalwood in the narra tree, known as apalit in Pampanga that may have taken the place of Santalum album. Like the latter, the wood of the narra tree is highly valued for religious carving.

Conclusion

Sandalwood has an important history as one of the major trade items of ancient and medieval times. The odiferous wood was particularly important for religious purposes in the regions of East Asia, South Asia and West Asia.

Sourced primarily from Timor, one natural route for this product, particularly for Chinese ports, involved the shipping lanes known as the Eastern Ship Route in medieval Chinese literature. The route went northward from Timor to Maluku and then to southern Philippines and Borneo northward to Luzon. From there, it reached the ports of South China like Guangzhou and Quanzhou.

Evidence from at least the Sung Dynasty suggest that this Eastern Ship Route was vital for transporting goods from Eastern Indonesia north to China and other destinations. China and other nations would often re-export goods like sandalwood to other countries that did not have easy access to Southeast Asian traders.

The evidence points to polities of the Philippines playing an important role in the sandalwood trade from medieval times until well into the colonial period in which it eventually also became an entrepot for sandalwood sourced from the Pacific islands.

NOTES

[1] Kew. "Sandalwood," Plant Cultures: Exploring plants & People, <http://www.kew.org/plant-cultures/plants/sandalwood_crafts.html>.

[2] "almug." Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary. 21 Dec. 2013. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/almug

[3]

[4] Kew, <http://www.kew.org/plant-cultures/plants/sandalwood_spiritual.html>.

[5] Howard, Michael C. Transnationalism in Ancient and Medieval Societies: The Role of Cross-Border Trade and Travel. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland, 2012, 119.

[6] Pigafetta, Antonio, and R A. Skelton. Magellan's Voyage: A Narrative Account of the First Circumnavigation. New York: Dover, 1994. Print, 141.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Brunei Museum Journal, Vol. 5, Issue3. Brunei: The Brunei Museum, 1969. Print, 52.

[9] Pires, Tomé, and Francisco Rodrigues. The Suma Oriental of Tome Pires: An Account of the East, from the Red Sea to Japan, Written in Malacca and India in 1512-1515, and the Book of Francisco Rodrigues, Rutter of a Voyage in the Red Sea, Nautical Rules, Almanack and Maps, Written and Drawn in the East Before 1515. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1990. Print, 133.

[10] Galvano, Antonio, Summary of the discoveries of the World. < http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/kerr/vol02chap01sect03.html>.

[11] Ptak, Roderich. The Sino-European Map (“Shanhai yudi quantu”) in the Encyclopedia Sancai tuhui. <http://www.humanismolatino.online.pt/v1/pdf/C003-022.pdf>.

[12] Moore, John N, and Myron H. Nordquist. Security Flashpoints: Oil, Islands, Sea Access, and Military Confrontation. The Hague [u.a.: Nijhoff Publishers, 1998. Print, 157.

[13] Beckman, Robert, Gault I. Townsend, Clive H. Schofield, Tara Davenport, and Leonardo Bernard. Beyond Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea: Legal Frameworks for the Joint Development of Hydrocarbon Resources. , 2013. Print, 48.

[14] Ptak, Roderich. China's Seaborne Trade with South and Southeast Asia (1200-1750). Aldershot [u.a.: Ashgate, 1999. Print, 47.

[15] Hall, Kenneth R. A History of Early Southeast Asia: Maritime Trade and Societal Development, 100-1500. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print, 332-3.

[16] Cortes, Rosario M, Celestina P. Boncan, and Ricardo T. Jose. The Filipino Saga: History As Social Change. Quezon City, Philippines: New Day Publishers, 2000. Print, 24.

[17] Junker, Laura L. Raiding, Trading, and Feasting: The Political Economy of Philippine Chiefdoms. Honolulu: University of Hawaiì Press, 1999. Internet resource, 109; Antony, Robert J. Elusive Pirates, Pervasive Smugglers: Violence and Clandestine Trade in the Greater China Seas. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010. Print, 76.

[18] Junker, 400.

[19] Wilkinson, R J. An Abridged Malay-English Dictionary (romanised). London: Macmillan and Co, 1948. Print, 291.

[20] Ooi, Keat G. Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia from Angkor Wat to Timor. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2004. Internet resource, 473.

[21] Scott, William H, and William H. Scott. Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1984. Print, 80.

[22] Peterson, A. (2011). What really made the world go around?: Indio contributions to the Acapulco-Manila galleon trade. Explorations: A graduate student journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 11(16), 3-18, < http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/20303/Peterson-%20Indio%20contributions%20EXP%202011.pdf?sequence=1>.

[23] The American Chamber of Commerce Journal. Vol. 21, Manila: The Chamber, 1921. Print, 318.

[24] Peterson, 7.

[25] Junker, 198.

[26] Goddio, Franck, Lost at Sea: The Strange Route of the Lena Shoal Junk, 2002.

[27] Junker, 197.

[28] Scott, 80.

[29] Brunei Museum Journal, 52-3.

[30] Ptak, Roderich. " The transportation of sandalwood from Timor to Macau and China during the Ming dynasty," Review of Culture (Macao) no. 1 (Apr-Jun 1987). Print, 31-9; Majewski, Teresita, and David R. M. Gaimster. International Handbook of Historical Archaeology. New York: Springer, 2009. Print, 477.

[31] Ames, G.J. Renascent Empire?: Pedro Ii and the Quest for Stability in Portuguese Monsoon Asia Ca.1640-1682. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1999. Print, 134.

[32] Ames, 135.

[33] Hägerdal, Hans. Lords of the Land, Lords of the Sea: Conflict and Adaptation in Early Colonial Timor, 1600-1800. Leiden: BRILL, 2012. Print, 108.

[34] Hägerdal, 143-158.

[35] Jolly, Margaret, Serge Tcherkézoff, and D T. Tryon. Oceanic Encounters: Exchange, Desire, Violence. Canberra ACT: ANU E Press, 2009. Print, 40.

[36] Bergaño, Diego. Vocabulario De La Lengua Pampanga En Romance. Reimpreso: Manila: Impr. de Ramirez y Giraudier, 1860. Print, 205; Mentrida, Alfonso . Diccionario De La Lengua Bisaya Hiligueina Y Haraya De La Isla De Panay. Manila: Imp. de D. Manuel y de D. Felis S. Dayot, 1841. Print, 325.

Books: Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan and Sailing the Black Current

2013-08-31T08:22:00.001-07:00

Katutubong Binhi -- Center for Babaylan Studies Conference

2013-08-31T08:19:00.000-07:00

SF launch of two great books on Philippine culture

2011-01-21T13:34:00.000-08:00

If you have time tomorrow (Saturday, Jan. 22) and live in or near San Francisco, you can check out the book launch by my friends and colleagues, Virgil Mayor Apostol and Lane L. Wilcken.

I've known Virgil since I launched my own first book, The Naga Race, back in 1994. He helped me promote my book and I contributed a section to a book on the Philippine healing of which he was the lead author.

Way of the Ancient Healer is the first Virgil's first solo book and it offers a really thorough study of the many types of indigenous healing systems that exist in the Philippines. The types of therapies range from the purely spiritual to methods based on manipulation of the body and the systematic use of herbal medicines.

While the Virgil's previous work dealt more with the ins and outs of actual healing, Way of the Ancient Healer is more focused on the sacred realm of Philippine healing traditions. The healer was also a mystic, shaman, medium and prognosticator. The idea of classicism was virtually absent in local traditions, which were instead very syncretic and synthetic readily incorporating new ideas so long as they appeared to work.

Virgil comes from a long line of indigenous healers and he has studied with many of the world's most noted teachers of ancient traditions.

The famed guru and public speaker, Dr. Deepak Chopra says of Virgil's book:

"In Way of the Ancient Healer, Virgil Mayor Apostol brilliantly blends the art and science of the sacred teachings of Filipino traditional healing to help people find their path toward health and happiness."

I met Lane Wilcken first over the Internet not too long after the publication of my first book. Lane was just starting to prepare his book on Filipino tattoos and I referred him to Virgil who comes from northern Luzon where the tattooing tradition survives to this day.

Lane did a tremendous amount of research for Filipino Tattoos Ancient and Modern venturing deep into the mountains of northern Luzon to meet the last traditional tattoo master from those parts.

Filipino Tattoos Ancient and Modern is destined to become the premier work on Filipino tattoo tradition as no earlier work has taken on the subject in any thorough detail. Lane's book will give readers a deep understanding of tattoo symbols and the cultural and spiritual underpinnings of the tradition.

Lane also does a marvelous job of linking the tattoos of the Philippines with those of the wider Austronesian cultures of which the Philippines belongs.

Both Virgil and Lane will be at the event on Saturday to sign books and to discuss these topics with participants.

Father Christmas and the Green Man

2010-12-20T16:54:00.000-08:00

With the holiday season upon us, it's a great time to investigate the possible connections of Father Christmas with the Green Man.

The idea of the link between Father Christmas, linked with the Yuletide or Winter Solstice, and the Green Man of art and architecture has been explored since at least the time of Lady Raglan in 1939. Father Christmas is traditionally depicted with crowns or other ornaments of holly, ivy and mistletoe and often dressed in green robes.

Green Man

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20040310163133/http://www.lincsheritage.org/lincs/misc/green-man.html

The Green Knight of medieval literature -- often equated with the artistic Green Man -- had a Winter Solstice connection. He scheduled his rematch with Sir Gawain on the shortest day of the year. Interestingly, in the first contest between the two, the Green Knight's head was cut off by Gawain but with surprising results. The headless body of the Green Knight retrieved the head, which offered the winter challenge to Gawain before body and head went on their way together.

The head cult perspective offers an obvious link with the foliate head of the Green Man depicted in art.

Victorian drawing of Father Christmas from a copy of Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol with green robe and foliate crown.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scrooges_third_visitor-John_Leech,1843.jpg

If we go back to the Tantric connections suggested for the Green Man here, we can find in the Kabbalah the idea of a father figure known as Abba, which means "father" in Hebrew. This Abba is related to the male principle of creation. He is paired with Imma, meaning "mother" in Hebrew, the female principle.

While Judaism disdained anthropomorphic icons, Abba and Imma were described in the texts as mated in divine union resulting in the generation of progeny or creation. Abba can be equated with Adam Kadmon, the primordial man. The divine union of Abba and Imma is similar in many respects to that of the Tibetan concept of Yabyum. Yab also means "father" in Tibetan, while Yum means "mother." The Yabyum depiction of deities in Tibetan art shows a male and female deity in sexual union. The literary references to Abba and Imma are also quite sexually explicit in their description of the cosmic union.

Despite the taboo against iconography, Abba was still meditated upon in the sense of his Partzufim or "face." The Kabbalistic practitioner concentrated on the divine face of Abba and other forms of the creative male principle, particularly focusing on the massive beard. According to some interpretations, by concentrating on the face of Abba and traveling along the hairs of his beard, one achieves unity with the Divine Image. The similarity with Tantric visualization of the deity is striking.

Also, the aspect of meditating on the face brings us back to the head cult, i.e., in the Green Knight example, and to the "face motif" discussed here earlier in connection with the Green Man.

Non-religious depiction of the head of Adam Kadmon, who himself is seen as a form of the Tree of Life.

Source: http://img2.allposters.com/images/BRGPOD/202525.jpg

Although I have not found a direct solstice link with Abba and Imma, the erotic union of the two, or rather the union of their "faces," is considered to have generated the ten Sephirot of the Sefer Yetzirah "tree."

Abba, along with other forms of the male principle, are also directly seen as types of the Sun, while Imma and the female principle including the Shekinah were seen as types of the Moon. The Partzufim or faces motif blends quite well with this linkage to the celestial luminaries.

Like Abba, Father Christmas has a full beard while the Green Man has vegetation spewing from his mouth. In all these cases, the representation may be that of the generative powers of the Sun.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

More on migration of Tantric concepts

2010-09-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

In 1977, the anthroposophist Pio Filippani-Ronconi suggested that elements of Ismaili Shi'ism appeared to have originated from the Vajrayana Tantric Buddhist doctrine in Tibet. Specifically he compared the Vajrayana system of the five Dhyani Buddhas, also called Jinas and Tathagatas, to the Holy Family of Islamic mysticism -- the Five of the Mantle. Indeed, one could favorably compare many elements, particularly in the areas of cosmology and numerology, within the Tibetan and Islamic mystical traditions, and furthermore extend these westward to the Kabbalistic traditions.

The five Dhyani Buddhas are transcendental enlightened beings (Buddhas) as compared to their earthly, human counterparts known as Manusa Buddhas. Each of the Dhyani Buddhas is linked with a specific cosmic time cycle, and also with a "family" of beings and attributes. The five-fold division of the cosmos in line with the Dhyani Buddhas recalls the Wuxing classification in China, but we will not pursue that lead in this article.

Dhyani Buddhas are particularly associated with the five primary colors -- white, blue, red, gold/yellow, and green.

In Islamic mystic tradition, the Five of the Mantle (or Cloak) -- Muhammad; his daughter Fatima, her husband 'Ali; and the couple's sons al-Hasan and al-Husayn -- become primordial, transcendental beings in Twelver Shi'ism. They are said to have existed before Creation and are linked with successive cosmic cycles in a manner remarkably similar to that of the Dhyani Buddhas. Additionally, the five are associated with the "Five Lights" or "Five Colors" a reference to the human incarnations of these transcendental beings.

In Tibetan Buddhism, the five Dhyani Buddhas are combined with a sixth being -- the Adibuddha -- representing the pantheistic totality of the group. Similarly in Islamic mystical tradition, the angel Gabriel becomes the "sixth of you five," which Henry Corbin describes as the "uni-totality" of the pentad. In both the Tibetan and Islamic systems, this sixth member is associated with the element of the mind, as Vajrasattva (manas "mind") in the case of the Adibuddha, and as the Ruh Natiqa or "Thinking Spirit" in the Ismaili tradition.

Body of Light

The association of the Dhyani Buddhas and the Five of the Mantle with the five colors links conceptually with the belief found in both schools that spiritual adepts can attain a "body of light."

In the Dzogchen and Bonpo traditions of Tibet, this is known as the Rainbow Body or the Rainbow Light Body. Upon the attainment of the highest yogic plane before death, the yogi dissolves into the "Five Pure Lights," i.e., the five primary colors of the rainbow achieving union with the Dharmakaya, the pantheistic godstuff.

The Sufi "body of light" or "resurrection body" is attained by the adept who completes a sacred itinerary that is generally thought of as imaginal in nature. Actually the final part of the journey is that in which the devotee travels to union with the Divine in this subtle body of light.

The Inner and Outer Journey

Both the Tibetan and Islamic mystical traditions include concepts of a pilgrimage that the adept undertakes to attain spiritual transformation.

In the Tibetan case, there are clearly both real world along with imaginal sides to this tradition. The pilgrimage sites are real places that have been traditionally used as such including Kamarupa in Assam, the Gondavari River in South India, and the Himalayan range in Nepal and Tibet. The only really exotic destination is Suvarnadvipa, which also happens to be a key location in this blog's research.

The Tibetan pilgrimage sites are divided into five major groups -- the pitthas, ksetras, chandohas, melapakas and smasanas -- and these are further subdivided by adding the prefix upa- to each major group. Thus there are five groups of pilgrimage sites, ten in all including subgroups, that are said to correspond also to ten parts of the human body:

Suvarnadvipa is included in the group known as the upamelapakas, which are associated with the feet and the calves. According to Jamgon Kongtrul, the inner journey of transformation begins interestingly enough from the head and then moves downward toward the feet. Suvarnadvipa is found at the eighth stage of awakening and is associated with the sacred ground known as the "Higher Gathering Place." The sacred grounds of the ninth and tenth stages are known respectively as "Cemetery" and "Higher Cemetery" suggesting that the adept is already passed on beyond this life.

The Sufi and Shi'a sacred journey is represented by the journey of the birds to the East toward Mt. Qaf, the eighth mountain in a system that consists of either nine or ten stages. The birds never proceed beyond Qaf, which is known as the Footstool of God, for the next stages take the adept to the very Throne of God.

For the Sufi mystics also, the inner itinerary begins from the top, starting in the eyes according to al-Kubra then moving down into the face, the chest, and then the rest of the body. Like Suvarnadvipa, the eighth stage of the Tantric pilgrimage, Mt. Qaf, the eighth sphere, was located in the furthest East. Abassid tradition places it "behind," i.e. on the other side of the China Sea.

Kabbalah echoes

The Zohar, the central text of Kabbalah that dates back to 13th century Spain, also emphasizes a journey, mainly spiritual in nature, that the practitioner undertakes to reach Gan Eden -- the Garden of Eden, also known as Pardes. There are actually two Garden of Edens -- a heavenly one that one attains to after death, and an earthly garden where the Shekinah is exiled.

The Shekinah is the female aspect of the Divine that remained in the Terrestrial Paradise after the banishment of humanity. The Kabbalah adepts seek to rejoin the Shekinah via a sacred pilgrimage to the primordial garden through mystical paths known as Sephirot. The Sephirot were likened to the organs of the human body, specifically that of Adam Kadmon, the Primordial Man.

The Sephirot shown in a traditional diagram. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tree_of_life_hebrew.svg)

From Wikipedia: "Metaphorical representation of the Five Worlds, with the 10 Sephirot radiating in each, as successively smaller Iggulim-concentric circles."

At the top of the body is the first Sephira, Keter, the crown of the head, while the tenth and last Sephira corresponding to Gan Eden is Malkuth, which also represents the feet of Adam Kadmon. The Hebrew term malkuth is related to the malakut of Islamic mysticism with both words referring to the "realm of kings," an area on the border of the earthly and heavenly regions.

Although the sacred journey of Kabbalah was an inner one, the belief in a real world Gan Eden did exist. According to medieval documents like the Hebrew letters of Prester John, the location of Gan Eden was 'India ha-gedolah or "Further India," the same area where one finds the Sambatyon River and the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.

Evidence exists that at least some medieval Kabbalists undertook real journeys to these far-off locations. For example, Abraham Abulafia attempted to find the Sambatyon River with the idea that he could help the world along toward the end times, but also to help undo the "knots" that hindered his own spiritual development.

Echoes in the East

Suvarnadvipa (Island of Gold) in the Tibetan version of the spiritual itinerary would equate with the locations of Qaf and Gan Eden in the respective Islamic and Kabbalah traditions. As I have argued often here, the Ming Dynasty kingdom known as Lusung (Luzon) was the political and cultural heir to Suvarnadvipa and located in the same geographical political center.

Here we can still find the concept of cyclic and generational time represented in the image of a human body divided into five parts. The body thus divided could represent five generations of a clan, and also the cycles of regeneration and reincarnation that existed in the previous belief systems.

I have also suggested previously that the sacred lands of Lusung were apparently divided in a quadripartite fashion based on the imagery of the human body. Thus, we have place names like Olongapo or Ulo ng Apo "Head of the Lord."

Another example of the human form representing the cosmos or at least the Earth can be seen in the Tausug house architecture that interlinks Earth, tree, house and human body.

A diagram of a traditional pentagonal Tausug house made with nine posts that create an outline of a human body in the well-known squatting figure motif. The tree acts as the umbilical cord of the Mother Earth extended by a rope tied to a central post. After nine months, the period of human gestation, the rope is cut. (Sources http://media.photobucket.com/image/tausug%20nine%20square%20house%20numbers/kharl_prado/tausug.jpg)

The house with it's symbolic human figure represents the "child" of the Earth and thus is a copy of the world in microcosm. While the oldest form of the Austronesian house had four corner posts, a central post is often added symbolically to represent the center of the world. Thus, the five posts create an imagery of the cosmos. In the Austronesian scheme of the base, trunk and tip, the base of the house is the bottom and thus one travels back to the "source" by going from top to bottom.

In another sense, the mythical family of Pinatubo and Arayat can be compared to the Holy Family of the Mantle in Islamic tradition. In the local folk legends, this family is often represented with five members, for example, Sinukuan and his spouse and their three daughters. However, an extensive review of the traditions would allow us to logically reconstruct the family as consisting of the two deities of Pinatubo and Arayat, standing for the Moon and Sun respectively; a single child for each of these deities, more connected with the Earth, who are involved in a battle-courtship; and the offspring of the latter who again has an astronomical relationship representing Venus, the Morning Star.

Islamic mystical tradition normally equates Muhammad with the Sun; 'Ali with the Moon; Fatima with Venus; while the al-Hasan and al-Husayn are sometimes equated with the pole stars. The emphasis on the luminaries and Venus to the exclusion of the other planets is quite telling. The astronomical links here are clearly associated with the association of these "families" with cyclic time.

We also hear of widespread beliefs surrounding the rainbow in the Philippine region . In some cases, the rainbow was equated with the Supreme Deity, while elsewhere it is seen as the abode of God or the gods. Sometimes it is viewed as a bridge or boat by which one reaches the Divine after death. There was a belief that people who died a noble death by the sword, or who were devoured by crocodiles, or struck by lightning, became anitos (deified spirits) and were united with the pantheistic Deity in the rainbow, or through the vehicle of the rainbow.

In Pampanga, the pantheistic nature of the rainbow can be seen in its name pinanari "loincloth of the King" with the "king" here probably referring to the creative force Mangetchay.

Concepts of transformation are also included in the practice of obtaining a mutya, although in this case the transformation involves those still living on earth. Mutya refers to a pearl or gem that shines and radiates light. Grace Odal-Devora states: "...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."

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Cooper, David A. The Ecstatic Kabbalah. Boulder, Colo: Sounds True, 2005.

Corbin, Henry. Cyclical time and Ismaili Gnosis, http://www.amiscorbin.com/textes/anglais/Corbin%20Cyclical%20Time.pdf.

Idel, Moshe. Studies in Ecstatic Kabbalah. SUNY series in Judaica. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988.

Karma-gliṅ-pa, and W. Y. Evans-Wentz. The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Or, The After-Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane, According to Lāma Kazi Dawa-Samdup's English Rendering. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Katz, Nathan. Indo-Judaic Studies in the Twenty-First Century: A View from the Margin. New York: Palgrave Mac Millan, 2007, 64-5.

Merkur, Daniel. Gnosis: an esoteric tradition of mystical visions and unions. SUNY series in Western esoteric traditions. Albany, NY: State Univ. of New York Press, 1993, 217-245.

Odal-Devora, Grace. 2006. Some problems in determining the origin of the Philippine word "mutya" or "mutia." Paper presented at Tenth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics. 1720 January 2006. Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, Philippines. http://www.sil.org/asia/philippines/ical/papers.html.

Reyes y Florentino, Isabelo de los. Notes in order to familiarize myself with Philippine theodicy : the religion of the Katipunan which is the religion of the ancient Filipinos, National Historical Institute, 1980, 4, 6.

Sakili, Abraham P. Space and Identity: Expressions in the Culture, Arts and Society of the Muslims in the Philippines. Diliman, Quezon City: Asian Center, University of the Philippines, 2003.

Silliman, Robert Benton. Religious Beliefs and Life at the Beginning of the Spanish Regime in the Philippines: Readings. Dumaguete City, Philippines: Reproduced by College of Theology, Silliman University, 1964.

Wallace, Vesna A. The Inner Kālacakratantra A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Zangpo, Ngawang, and Blo-gros-mtha'-yas . Sacred Ground: Jamgon Kongtrul on "Pilgrimage and Sacred Geography". Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publ, 2001.

The Christian Buddha

2010-09-04T22:44:00.000-07:00

Returning over the next few blog posts to the theme of the migration of Tantric elements from South and Southeast Asia across the Muslim world into Europe, probably the most noteworthy literary evidence of this transmission of ideas comes in the story of Barlaam and Josaphat.

The Sayabiga, I have suggested in this blog, played an important role in the transmission of Tantric ideas, as they migrated along the trade routes seemingly always accompanied for some reason by another group known as the Zutt (Jats). The Sayabiga originally came from Zabag (Suvarnadvipa) and the king of that country had a great interest in reaching out to far-off kingdoms. During the Pala dynasty, we hear of Serlingpa, a prince of Suvarnadvipa, bringing a number of Tantric texts including the abridged Kalacakra Tantra from Shamhbala, which can thus be equated with Suvarnadvipa. Even earlier, this same regional king, who was known by Muslims as the Mihraj, had sent correspondence to the Umayyad caliphs Mu'awiyah and Umar ibn abd al-Aziz.

Along the trade routes, the merchants and seafarers of Zabag had absorbed Tantric Buddhist and Muslim, mostly Shiite, influences. In Europe, I have suggested that Sayabiga settled in the areas of the rice fields of Valencia with their tidal rice and fishing culture based on the tropical Japonica rice strain. Some of these Sayabiga may have dispersed along the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela in connection with the people known as Agotes and Cagots.

The Legend of Barlaam and Josaphat

Two important texts were transmitted into Europe from the East during the Romanesque period. These were the books known as the Legend of Barlaam and Josaphat and the European versions of the Arabic Kalilah wa Dimnah, based on the Sanskrit Panchatantra.

The Barlaam legend contains the story of the cattari-pubba-nimattani, the "four signs" of the Buddha. In the story, the Indian prince Josaphat is confined within the wall of the king's palace to keep the prince safe from the evils of the world. The prince though becomes the subject of a prophecy that declares he will either become a great world conqueror or shall take up the life of an ascetic. He manages to convince his father to allow him to make excursions to the park outside the walls of the palace escorted by his friends. There he encounters for the first time in order an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and lastly, an ascetic. Eventually Josaphat decides to join the ascetic, Barlaam, and renounces the throne to become a hermit himself. Now, these important elements of the story provide a near replica of the tale of Gautama Buddha.

A sculpture at the Parma Cathedral by Benedetto Antelami (c. 1150 – c. 1230) shows St. Josaphat, i.e., the Christianized Buddha, standing in the Tree of Life after being transported there by angels. (Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/15762541@N06/2230621003/

According to the text itself, the Barlaam story was written down by one John the Monk of St. Sabas Monastery near Bethlehem. John reportedly received the legend from "pious men" from India who apparently translated the tale. However, all Europeans versions of the Barlaam legend that exist today are thought to trace back to a Greek translation of a 10th century Georgian version by Euthymius the Iberian.

The Georgian version in turn is derived from the Ismaili Shi'ite text Kitab Bilawhar wa Budhasaf in Arabic, which dates to about the 8th century. An Old French version by Gui de Cambrai appears around 1215 in Western Europe. Around 1250, Hebrew and Old Spanish versions of Kalilah wa Dimnah also appear on the European scene, so we can say rather confidently that the transmission of the two texts was linked at least to some extent.

The ultimate source of both the Buddha and Panchatantra stories appears to be Buddhist. Such a contention is natural enough with the story of the four signs, but the Panchatantra leads us further to make a connection with the Tantric Buddhism of Tibet.

In the Kalilah wa Dimnah cycle we find the story of the interpretation of the king's dreams that has a decided anti-brahmin bias. The story is completely missing from the Hindu Panchatantra, but is found in the Tibetan Kanjur.

Flow of knowledge from the East

We know that during Abbasid times the caliphs, probably attempting to imitate Sassanian rulers, welcomed scholars from all directions and particularly from "India" to their courts. In 772, for example, a scholar from Indian brought an astronomical work called the Sindhind to the court of al-Mansur.

However, many of the "Tantric" cultural elements appear to have been transmitted more by groups of wandering ascetics, probably connected with the Zutt and Sayabiga, who it has been suggested eventually helped spawn the Sufi Dervish sects. The early ascetics appear to have had a Shi'ite bias and we can see that particularly in the mystical orientation of the Ismaili branch of the Shi'a religion.

Zutt and Sayabiga, described alternately as guards, mercenaries, pirates, farmers, and buffalo herders, were already present in the Sassanian empire before the Arab invasions. Many of these people were forcibly moved to the swamps around Basra to help in creating an agricultural system there. So, it is worth noting the position of Basra as an early center of Islamic mysticism with its blending of Persian and Indic influences. Both Sayabiga and the Zutt were later moved to northern Syria, which like Basra also became strongly associated with Ismaili and Sufi mysticism.

At some point also, the "Gypsy" Sayabiga and Zutt appear to have located themselves in Egypt. A few names provide some evidence of these groups in the history of the region. For example, from 815 to 820, the governor of Egypt was Yusuf al-Zutti, whose nisba "surname" indicates he was from a Zutt tribe. Salim Bayya' al-Zutti was a Shi'ite faqih and a companion of the Imams Musa ibn Ja'far and 'Ali ibn Musa.

Likewise, the captain of the guard of Caliph Ali was Ma'kal Ibn Kifi al-Zabaji, whose nisba could indicate ancestry from Zabag. A number of Muslim authors testify that the Sayabiga were widely employed as guards, for example, at the treasury of Basra. The early Sufi mystic Salim al-Barusi may trace his descent from Barus or Balus in Sumatra, the home of the famous Fansuri camphor, while another Sufi sage Abu Yazid al-Waqwaqi has a nisba that could indicate his heritage from the islands of Waqwaq south of Zabag.

The evidence of a Tibetan Buddhist background to the texts of Kalilah wa-Dimnah and Barlaam and Josaphat would fit in well with the Sayabiga presence as Zabag had established links with Tibet through the Kalacakra doctrine. Serlingpa was stated by various sources to have brought texts in the historical period (10th-11th centuries) from Shambhala, and other sources claim or suggest that he was himself the author of important texts and commentaries. Thus, Shambhala was not simply an imaginal location as suggested by some, but a real place identical with Suvarnadvipa (Zabag).

Indeed, the Sufi and Ismaili sacred geographies, also often interpreted as purely imaginal, are geographically located in the same general region as Shambhala-Suvarnadvipa. In the Sea of China, was sacred Mt. Qaf and the talking Waqwaq Tree (Wakwak). Many locations like the mystical fortress island Kangdez were even given latitude and longitude coordinates in Islamic geographical tables.

The appearance of the Hebrew and Spanish versions of the Panchatantra tales seem to point toward a southern entrance of these Tibetan Buddhist stories. Although the earliest Western European variant of Barlaam and Josaphat appears in France, Spain was also an important center for Barlaam tales. Spain and neighboring southern France experienced a flowering of mysticism during this period.

In the areas inhabited by the Agote-Cagot people, this influence was strongest where it appears together with "Tantric" material of a sexual nature found in both church art and in the literature of the troubadours. In Languedoc, the Cathars adopted Barlaam and Josaphat as an important book, and according to D.M. Lang they even used the text to defend their rejection of material pleasures, property ownership, and the practice of asceticism among the Perfecti order. Some have even claimed that the Provencal version of Barlaam was a crypto-Cathar document.

In neighboring Provence, the Jewish Kabbalah arises around the same time as Catharism. Like the latter, it shares attitudes towards reincarnation, the transmigration of souls back and forth between humans and animals, and other spiritual beliefs with the Cathars. That the Kabbalah mystics were strongly influenced by Sufism and Ismaili Shi'ism is a standard view in the scholarly world.

Impact of the Legend of Barlaam and Josaphat

Even though this story became popular in Europe only in the 13th century, the tale became so widespread that both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches eventually accepted both Barlaam and Josaphat as saints. Philip Almond describes the story's almost unparalleled popularity:

It enjoyed a popularity attained perhaps by no other legend. It spread into nearly all the countries of Christendom and is extant in over sixty versions...and even at the beginning of the eighteenth century, returned to the East in a Philippine dialect. It was also included in Vincent of Beauvais's thirteenth century Speculum historiale, and in the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine in the same century. It was probably from Caxton's English translation of the latter work, The Golden Legend, that Shakespeare borrowed the fable of the caskets for use in The Merchant of Venice.

Even as late as the 19th-20th centuries, the book had influenced Leo Tolstoy to renounce materialism in the middle of his life. It may not be a coincidence that the flourishing of monastic orders like the Augustinians, Carmelites, Cistercians, Dominicans, and Franciscans, which helped propagate Romanesque architecture, occurred after the original translations of the work into Greek and Latin.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Almond, Philip C. "The Buddha of Christendom: A review of the legend of Barlaam & Josaphat," Religious Studies, 23, 1987: 391-406.

Ashtiany, Julia. ʻAbbasid Belles-Lettres. The Cambridge history of Arabic literature. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1990, 140-1.

Bīdpāī, and I. G. N. Keith-Falconer. Kalilah and Dimnah. Cambridge: University press, 1885.

Lach, Donald Frederick. Asia in the Making of Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965, 100-111.

Surmelian, Leon Z. Daredevils of Sassoun; The Armenian National Epic. Denver: A. Swallow, 1964, 254.

Tolstoy, L. A Confession and What I Believe, London, 1921, 23-4.

Lapita, Taotie and other Face/Head Motifs (Part 3 of 3)

2010-08-06T20:28:00.000-07:00

Another strong evidence of the relationship between the Indian and European face motifs is the existence in Romanesque art of a feline face disgorging (or gorging) strings of beads from the corners of its mouth. Similar motifs are found in India and Tibet with the apparent earliest example located at the Ajanta Caves dating to the 5th century.

Feline masks with strings of beads streaming from the corners of their mouth at Iffley Church in Oxford, England, 12th-13th century. (Source: http://www.bejo.co.uk/greenmantrail/html/missing.html)

A Gupta era Kirtimukha with festoons of pearls disgorged from the corners of the mouth. Notice the double spiral "horns." (Source: Huntington Archive)

Traditional Tibetan bell (Source: Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs) and

A more elongated type of head disgorging various items from the upper part of the mouth with no lower jaw visible, Lincoln Cathedral, Norman period. Click on image for larger view. (Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lincoln_cathedral_03_West_portal.jpg)

More on the meaning of the face motifs

Face motifs continue to be used to this day in the Austronesian-speaking regions in tattoos, textiles and other art forms. In the Marquesas, the mata hoata "face" and ipu "eye" motifs can be used to denote the etua, the deities and deified ancestors to include the pantheistic Fractal Being.

The Kala form of the face motif in Southeast Asia gives this design a connection with the deity of cosmic time. In the Philippines, the pantheistic volcano gods are seen in some cultures as lords of, or personifications of time. In medieval Tibet, the Kalacakra Deity was both lord of time and also a form of the pantheistic Adibuddha or "First Buddha."

In the Philippines, one of the closest matches to the face motifs under discussion are the decorations found on boat prows, blade hilts, musical instruments, and other items known variously by names such as Bakunawa, Buaya, and Naga.   The Bakunawa motif is connected with a deity among certain peoples of Panay who in the past chose auspicious times for events based on the direction that the Bakunawa was said to be facing. Almanacs were made that gave the direction of the Bakunawa's face for any time of the year, and these calendars also served a geomantic purpose in orienting the direction of the entrance of a home under construction.

The Bakunawa was thus related to aspects of astronomical time, although I have not seen information connecting this deity with any constellations or stars. Viewed as a great winged dragon-like creature with a red tongue, the Bakunawa was also said to swallow the Moon during eclipses. In this sense, the serpent may have been related to the Indian deity Rahu, who was also envisioned as a disembodied head that devoured the Sun or Moon during an eclipse.

Bakunawa blade hilts (Source: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v51/zelbone/Philippine%20Edged%20Weapons%20Forum/3Visayanhilts.jpg)

The hilt on this blade from Panay is more like the buaya or makara motif (crocodile-like). (Source: http://www.filhistory.com/2010/07/sundang-itak-bolo-pinuti-talibong-tenegre-pinote-philippiine-weapon-filipino-sword-sandata-1-1.html)

The idea of the Bakunawa devouring the Sun or Moon may connect with the earlier red-slipped, Lapita and Taotie face motifs. In the tumpal face design, the "eyes" can also represent the Sun as discussed above but additionally they can represent the Moon also. In an earlier post, I suggested that the crescent shape, and also the half circle shape found in some red-slipped and other early tumpal patterns could represent the "Crescent Sun."   The latter astronomical term refers to a Sun nearly fully eclipsed but with the non-eclipsed part forming a crescent shape.

In addition, the name "Taotie" is generally translated as "Glutton," while the Chinese term for "solar eclipse" 日食 means literally "to eat the Sun." However, while some experts believe the Taotie may be linked with the eclipse, I have not seen any explicit literary or artistic reference making this connection. K. C. Chang does provide literary evidence that the motif was linked with the concept of "devouring humans" though.

The concept of devourer is also found in the legends surrounding Kala, who as the personification of time consumes humans and also the entire world in his ceaseless march.   The depiction of Kala above gates in Indonesian temples gives the impression that the deity is devouring the pilgrims as they move from one part of the temple to another.

In Papua New Guinea and Melanesia, one commonly finds instances of masks representing "Ghosts" that devour and regurgitate initiates in sacred rituals. A similar idea may have been present in the pre-colonial Philippines and nearby parts of Indonesia in relation to concepts of immortality. Here we find the idea that the entrails represented human mortality and that removal of these entrails cause the subject to become immortal.

In relation to this we have the legends of what are now considered demons -- the Aswang and Manananggal -- that are able to detach their heads from their bodies when they go to search for "prey." In most cases, they do not devour their victims whole but simply suck out their viscera. While this myth today is used in horror stories, in ancient times it may have referred to rituals believed to confer immortality or long life.

Interestingly the Aswang and Mananaggal when detaching their heads were said to take their own viscera along with them trailing from their necks.   According to early Spanish records, the icon of the god Malyari of Pinatubo and Zambales, was said to consist only of a head and straw arms. Possibly the straw arms were actually viscera as in the case of the legends of the body-less "demons," and these hanging entrails could be related to the depiction of foliage streaming out of the mouth of Kirtimukha and Kala images. The protruding tongue motif widely found in Polynesia, Melanesia and Papua New Guinea, and less commonly in Southeast Asia, may also be related to the imagery of streaming intestines-vegetation.

The Green Man and the Green King

In Europe, the foliage spewer motif is often related to the medieval tales of the Green Knight as found in Grail and other literature of the same period. However, an even better explanation might be found in the concept of the Green King found in Eastern Christian apocalyptic literature.

Most important of these is the Apocalypse of Bahira, a 9th century work in Syriac and Arabic that tells of a Green King from the East to come in the last days:

...a king dressed in green clothes will come from the East and through him there will be great peace and quiet in the world. Churches will be built and monasteries will be restored. And he is the last one whom the world expects to come at the end of the kingdoms of the Sons of Ishmael.

Barbara Roggema thinks the idea of the Green King is related to the Islamic al-Khidr, the Green One, who represents fertility and immortality. However, she notes that al-Khidr was not destined to kingship and she interprets the concept as an early prototype of the king who would become known as Prester John. She gives as evidence a passage from the Liber Otensor written by the 14th century Franciscan Jean de Rocquetaillade who equated the Green King of the Apocalypse with the King of the Tartars, who at the time was widely identified as Prester John.

According to Ibn al-Tiqtaqa, the Green King wore green clothing because that was the color of garments worn in Paradise -- another link with the Prester John kingship. In addition to having Paradise within or near his kingdom, Prester John's land was filled with many fruits and fountains that bestowed long life, and he ruled with a fabulous emerald scepter.

For another possible connection involving the Green King and al-Khidr, see my article on Qingtong, the Blue-Green Lad, (and here also) who was an early Daoist messianic figure expected to arise from a region to the southeast of China; as well as my article on Mount Qaf.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Ambrosio, Dante L. "Bakunawa and Laho," Philippine Daily Inquirer, 02/08/2009, http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/talkofthetown/view/20090208-188046/Bakunawa_and_Laho.

Chang, Kwang-chih. Art, myth, and ritual: the path to political authority in ancient China. Cambridge, Mass. u.a: Harvard Univ. Press, 1983, 72-3.

Healy, Tim. "The Missing Link?" The Green Man Trail, 2007, http://www.bejo.co.uk/greenmantrail/html/missing.html.

Roggema, Barbara. The legend of Sergius Baḥīrā: eastern Christian apologetics and apocalyptic in response to Islam. Leiden: Brill, 2009.

Riesenfeld, Alphonse. The Megalithic Culture of Melanesia, Brill, 1950.

Scott, William Henry. Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society. Quezon City, Manila, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1997, 252.

Lapita, Taotie and other Face/Head Motifs (Part 2)

2010-08-05T22:15:00.000-07:00

If the "simplified" Lapita face motifs can be traced back to similar designs in red-slipped and other early wares from Southeast Asia, then the simple design probably predated the realistic version. However, since the face motif appears to be derived from a mask, in which the mouth area is often left open for vocal reasons, then there may have been a realistic earlier mask version that did not survive. Since masks tend to be made of perishable materials, they would not endure in tropical environments like clay pottery.

"Simplified" face motifs suggested by Chiu, and the tumpal motif design in the bottom right corner that was discussed in the last post.

Red-slipped and Neolithic pottery fragments with designs similar to the "simplified" Lapita motifs. From top to bottom, left to right, Gua Sirih, Sarawak; the next two from Saipan, Marianas; the next two from Kamassi, Sulawesi, Indonesia; Minanga Sipakko, Sulawesi; Batungan, Masbate, Philippines; next two from Saipan.

According to Madeleine Colani, a design consisting of a hachured triangle with a small circle on top found in jewelry of Laos and Vietnam was said by locals to represent the Sun. As mentioned before, the tumpal or triangle design in Insular Southeast Asia is often said to represent hills or mountains. The idea of the circle, double circle, or circle dot motif as a symbol of the Sun is found widely in many cultures including some in the Austronesian region. For example, Florentin-Étienne Jaussen, mentions that the circle dot symbol in Easter Island, or at least parts of that island, represented the Sun.

Earlier in this blog, I suggested that the triangle with a circle at its apex was a symbol for an erupting volcano, and specifically the sacred volcanoes on Luzon that erupted in the Neolithic period.

When we look at the Lapita face motif consisting of two of these triangle-circle combinations linked together, the circles would represent both the Sun and also the eyes of the face motif. The space between the two triangles, or mountains, would form the nose, beak, snout, tongue, or combination of these features on the face motif.

The connection between eye and Sun is supported by the widespread use of related words or phrases found in the Austronesian region. For example, the word for Sun in Malay is mata hari or mata wari meaning literally "eye of the day." In the Pacific, some examples include mata ni siga of Fiji and San Cristoval meaning "shining eye," and Western Eromangan nipmi-nen "eye of the day."

Use of mountains and Sun to create a face design may relate again to pantheistic beliefs discussed earlier -- the idea that the universe exists in the form of a universal deity's "body." That this deity is sometimes represented in human form and sometimes in animal or composite form, often in the same culture, could also suggest that the people believed that these forms were interchangeable, i.e., part of the same being.

Face motifs before the appearance of the Kirtimukha image

After the period of Lapita and Taotie face motifs, the most important evidence for a continuation of this tradition in the realistic versions comes from the Pejeng and moko type bronze drums, and the Roti axes, found in Indonesia and Malaysia. Face motifs, which stylistic similarities, also appear on megaliths and certain other artifacts that are mostly related to megalithic sites in the same region.

The famed "Moon of Pejeng" or "Moon of Bali" drum is the most noteworthy of these artifacts. However, the face motif here is similar to the full Lapita face designs rather than those that lacked a lower jaw.

Face motif from the Moon of Pejeng bronze drum in Bali. The mask-like motif has double circle eyes, and the whole jaw is represented. (Source: Wikipedia)

While difficult to date, the Moon of Pejeng and the other early bronze drums in Insular Southeast Asia are thought to be at least 2000 years old. Some of the Roti axes, which have a similar face motif, may be older than the bronze drums.

One interesting thing about the moko drums found in Alor and similar drums found elsewhere in the region is the form of a triangle used in the area where the mouth should be located, or else the whole head has a triangular or heart-like shape. As noted in the Lapita designs, the "nose" is often triangular, and is sometimes formed by two linked triangles. In other examples, the whole head is triangular in shape.

In describing early mokos found at various museums around the world, August Johann Berne Kempers states: "There is also the indication of a mouth, triangular or oval — or rather something in-between suggestive of a nose and a mouth simultaneously." Kempers also notes that on one of the mokos the mouth has been "swallowed up by the lines and triangles (tumpal)," while another face lacks a mouth entirely.

A triangular form placed in the lower part of the face together with the absence of a mouth are certainly suggestive of a relationship with both the more realistic and "simplified" Lapita forms. We find a similar type of design in the mask-like tattoos of Borneo's Dayaks.

Dayak tattoo pattern with inverted double spiral forming eyes, and triangular lower face. (Source: http://www.indonesiatraveling.com/Indonesia%20traveling%20over%20Land/Pages_arts/kalimantan/sculptures_ii.htm)

The often obscure triangular shape found on moko drums and Dayak tattoos may have been related to an image that developed into the lotus bud that drops from the mouth of many Kirtimukha motifs in India. Mercia MacDermott, in her book Explore Green Men, suggests that the fir cones, leaves, and grape bunches dropping straight down from face images in Romanesque Europe are derived directly from the lotus bud of the Kirtimukha.

A 12th century carving at Abbey of St George, Saint-Martin-de-Boscherville showing a pine cone hanging from the upper jaw of a human-like face. MacDermott suggests that this was derived from the lotus bud that hangs from the mouth of Kirtimukha images. (Source: http://www.beyond-the-pale.org.uk/column.htm)

Click here for continuation.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Kempers, A. J. Bernet. The Kettledrums of Southeast Asia: A Bronze Age World and Its Aftermath, Rotterdam and Brookfield: A.A. Balkema, 1988, 371-3.

Macdermott, Mercia. Explore Green Men. Loughborough: Heart of Albion Press, 2003.

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

Solheim, Wilhelm G., David Bulbeck, and Ambika Flavel. Archaeology and Culture in Southeast Asia: Unraveling the Nusantao. Diliman, Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 2006, 112.

Wolff, Werner. Island of Death: A New Key to Easter Island's Culture Through an Ethno-Psychological Study. New York: J.J. Augustin, 1948, 65.

Zahorka, Herwig. "The mystery of the twin masks on megaliths at Long Pulung in East Kalimantan: prehistoric wax modeling molds for casting bronze moko drums? An interpretative attempt" The Free Library 01 January 2004. 06 August 2010 <http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The mystery of the twin masks on megaliths at Long Pulung in East...-a0134382058>.

Lapita, Taotie and other Face/Head Motifs

2010-08-02T19:34:00.000-07:00

The possibility of a relationship between the Taotie face motif that dates back to the Shang Dynasty in China, and the previously discussed Kirtimukha images of India and the Kala images of Southeast Asia, has been explored in previous literature. Joseph Campbell in The Mythic Image (pp. 118-130) believes these motifs along with the Mesoamerican jaguar mask and the Greek Medusa all owe their similarities to diffusion.

Stella Kramrisch and Raymond Burnier also apparently see a direct relationship between the Kirtimukha/Kala images and the Taotie, and also the "Green Man" motif from medieval Europe (foilage spewers-column swallowers).

The earliest of these images is the Taotie, however, it has a possible contemporary match in the Lapita face motif, which to my knowledge has not been explored. The Taotie and Lapita images date from about the same period -- from the middle of the second millennium BCE to the beginning of the first millenium BCE -- the dates for the Erligang Culture in Henan and the Lapita Culture in eastern Melanesia and Western Polynesia. The face motifs appear to date to the earliest phases of both Lapita and Erligang cultures.

Examples of Lapita faces taken from Chiu 2007 and Spriggs 1993

Examples of Taotie face motif from Erligang Culture in Henan, China from Allan 1991.

While there are significant stylistic differences between these contemporary motifs, there are also some important similarities:

In both cases, the face normally consists of defined eyes and nose, whether realistic or stylized, but the mouth, or at least the lower jaw, is missing or not clearly defined.
Opposing spirals are an important element in both types of face motifs. With the Lapita face, the spirals often define or border the eyes, but in some cases they appear as "horns" to the side of a set of eyes.
Leaf-like eyes with pointed edges or tips are found in both regions.
A "face within a face" motif is found often involving the "horns" of the image in some Lapita images, and this also appears to be clearly defined in some Taotie motifs from the Shang-Zhou period.
The presence of flanking decorative elements that occasionally take on a clearly independent identity, and which may be related to later images in Oceania, Asia and Europe.
The presence of scrolling patterns, spirals, and leaf-like or flower-like designs can be seen as suggestive of foliage in both cases.

Three sets of Lapita face motifs showing two pairs of eyes sharing the same "nose." The outermost pair of eyes is found in the "horns" of the smaller eye set. From Spriggs 1993.

Below are leaf and other foliage-like eye motifs from Lapita artifacts.

Origin of the motifs

Both Spriggs and Chiu refer to the large number of "simplified" face motifs on Lapita artifacts suggesting that these motifs are latter developments of the earlier more realistic face designs.

However, at least one these simplified versions may have a very ancient origin. The dentate or linked triangular pattern with circles at the top of the triangle is very similar to designs found on red-slipped wares in the Philippines that may date back to before 5000 BCE. Such patterns are found widely in Southeast Asia by the Late Neolithic period.

Here is an example of the motif found in Lapita culture:

The triangular design in latter times is known at tumpal and is often said to represent hills or mountains. However, this would not preclude its use in face designs. The use of vegetative motifs in other Lapita forms as well as in the Taotie face motifs could suggest these faces or mask have a pantheistic or fractal identity, which is something we shall examine in future posts.

Click here for continuation.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Allan, Sarah. The Shape of the Turtle: Myth, Art, and Cosmos in Early China. SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1991.

Campbell, Joseph, and M. J. Abadie. The Mythic Image. Princeton/Bollingen paperbacks. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981, 118-128.

Chiu, Scarlett, Detailed analysis of Lapita Face Motifs: Case Studies from Reef/Santa Cruz Lapita Sites
and New Caledonia Lapita Site 13A, http://epress.anu.edu.au/terra_australis/ta26/pdf/ch15.pdf, 2007.

Kramrisch, Stella. The Hindu Temple 2. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publ, 1996, 322-25.

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

Spriggs, M. "How Much of the Lapita Design System Represents the Human Face?" In P. Dark and R. Rose (eds), Artistic Heritage in a Changing Pacific, Bathurst: Crawford House Press, 1993, 7-14.

Chams show closer matrilinear link to Mainland vs. Insular Southeast Asians

2010-06-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

A new study (abstract below) suggests that the Austronesian-speaking Cham people are more closely related in terms of mtDNA to Mainland Southeast Asians as compared to other Austronesian speakers in Island Southeast Asia.

"...our results suggested that the origin of the Cham was likely a process of assimilation of massive local Mon-Khmer populations accompanied with language shift, thus indicating that the Austronesian diffusion in MSEA was mainly mediated by cultural diffusion, at least from the matrilineal genetic perspective, an observation in agreement with the hypothesis of the Nusantao Maritime Trading and Communication Networks (NMTCN)."

Wilhelm Solheim something similar happened in the Neolithic period further north along the coast of Southeast and East Asia, with evidence of the NMTCN turning up at various coastal archaeological sites. However, in this case any linguistic influence either vanished or was submerged as adstrata.

Would be interesting to see what the Y chromosome data reveals about the Chams, who created an ancient kingdom in central Vietnam.

Mol Biol Evol. 2010 May 31. [Epub ahead of print]
Tracing the Austronesian Footprint in Mainland Southeast Asia: A Perspective from Mitochondrial DNA.
Peng MS, Quang HH, Dang KP, Trieu AV, Wang HW, Yao YG, Kong QP, Zhang YP.
State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, P.R. China.
Abstract
As the relic of the ancient Champa Kingdom, the Cham people represent the major Austronesian speakers in Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) and their origin is evidently associated with the Austronesian diffusion in MSEA. Hitherto, hypotheses stemming mainly from linguistic and cultural viewpoints on the origin of the Cham people remain a welter of controversies. Among the points of dissension is the muddled issue of whether the Cham people arose from demic or cultural diffusion from the Austronesians. Addressing this issue also helps elucidate the dispersal mode of the Austronesian language. In the present study, we have analyzed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control-region and coding-region sequence variations in 168 Cham and 139 Kinh individuals from Vietnam. Around 77% and 95% matrilineal components in the Chams and the Kinhs, respectively, could be assigned into the defined mtDNA haplogroups. Additionally three common East Eurasian haplogroups B, R9, and M7 account for the majority (>60%) of maternal components in both populations. Entire sequencing of 20 representative mtDNAs selected from the thus far unclassified lineages, together with four new mtDNA genome sequences from Thailand, led to the identification of one new haplogroup M77 and helped to re-evaluate several haplogroups determined previously. Comparing the Chams with other Southeast Asian populations reveals that the Chams had a closer affinity with the Mon-Khmer populations in MSEA than with the Austronesian populations from Island Southeast Asia (ISEA). Further analyses failed to detect the potential homelands of the Chams in ISEA. Therefore, our results suggested that the origin of the Cham was likely a process of assimilation of massive local Mon-Khmer populations accompanied with language shift, thus indicating that the Austronesian diffusion in MSEA was mainly mediated by cultural diffusion, at least from the matrilineal genetic perspective, an observation in agreement with the hypothesis of the Nusantao Maritime Trading and Communication Networks (NMTCN).

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Mandala and fractal thinking in Southeast Asia and the Pacific

2010-06-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

The term "mandala" is often used in scholarly literature to describe the polities, the temple architecture and other aspects of Southeast Asian culture. The same word could be extended into the cultures of the Pacific where both mandala and fractal types of thinking also prevail.

A mandala again, in this analysis, is a way of viewing or representing the cosmos, or a part of the cosmos seen as the whole in microcosm. The term fractal refers to a geometric shape that can be broken into fragments that are copies or approximations of the whole. In sociology and ethnology, the term fractal applies to ways of visualizing the cosmos as consisting of parts that are smaller copies or approximations of the whole -- the macrocosm.

Indeed, in Southeast Asia and Oceania, one can view the entire culture from polities and family relationships to iconography and orality through the prism of the mandala and the fractal. Such concepts are defining in identifying what is indigenous in these regions.

Fractal Cosmos, Fractal Person, Distributed Person

Thomas Reuter in Sharing the Earth, Dividing the Land: Land and Territory in the Austronesian World describes Austronesian society using indigenous metaphors that relate the self and the community to trees and other plants.

Botanic metaphors are among the most commonly used metaphors for social relationships in the Austronesian world. The source ancestor of a clan or founding clan of a village, for example, may be referred to as the ‘trunk’ or ‘root’ and his descendant or newcomer clients as the ‘leaves’ or ‘tips’ of the same tree. Similarly in a topogeny, the place of origin is usually the ritual centre or ‘trunk’ of the domain, to which a path of origin is ceremonially traced back along one or several ‘branch’ villages, beginning from the newest settlements or ‘tips’. The people who reside at, or in some other way can lay claim to, the origin site tend to maintain a position of ritual precedence or of political authority in the domain, but rarely both. Botanic metaphors generally suggest a segmentary process of spatial expansion due to organic growth from within, but can and are applied also within local societies featuring a population with multiple origins

....an underlying Austronesian territorial concept that envisages a shared social identity based on a specific ‘foundation event’. Many Gumai villages in the South Sumatran highlands are thought to have been established by, and thus trace their ‘origin’ to, a single ancestor, the puyang Ketunggalan Dusun. Villages contained a small ancestor house (lunjuk or rumah puyang) for the spirits of the founding ancestors, where rituals would be held to commemorate the village origins. The morpheme pu in puyang could be a reflex of puqun, which is a Proto-Malayo-Polynesian reconstruction meaning ‘tree’, ‘trunk’, ‘base’ or ‘source’. Villages are inhabited by the descendants of the puyang and their affines. The population is divided into origin groups called jungkuk which are ranked in order of precedence based on birth order and ritual seniority.

The idea of the "trunk" and the "tip" takes on fractal dimensions as Mark S. Mosko points out in "The Fractal Yam: Botanical Imagery and Human Agency in the Trobriands":

As Jim Fox and his collaborators on the Comparative Austronesian Project have amply demonstrated, the arboreal idiom of ‘base’, ‘branch’ and ‘tip’ animates the origin structures of precedence of many if not most societies of the Austronesian world...Based on recent ethnographic enquires at Omarakana, the site of Malinowski’s original fieldwork, this paper argues that the sequential recursiveness of base-branch-tip across North Kiriwinan contexts is fractally structured – borrowing a notion from chaos theory. The production of every ‘tip’, in other words, becomes the condition or ‘base’ of further base-branch-tip transformation, and so on.

The generation of self-similarity at every new tip applies quite broadly not only to Austronesian society, but also to the other non-Austronesian societies in the region.

In Kapampangan culture, the trunk or source is known as pun, which can also mean the chief or leader, who in ancient times was likely a "fractal chief." One's relatives or siblings can be known as capsi from the word apsi "small branches." Bergano defines capsi as "el un hermano, o pariente porque vienen de un tronco." The "tronco" or 'trunk" here again is the pun.

The most ancient ruler was likely the clan leader, or pun, who like the latter chiefs, kings and emperors was seen as a personification of the community, kingdom or world, and like the original Cosmic Being was expected to "distribute" him or herself, at least ritually, to his or her followers.

According to Bergano, the opposite of pun is sepu -- a word referring among other things to the tip of a leaf. The word sepu can also mean "history" as in one's clan history, the history of a village or nation, or history in general. From this word, Bergano mentions the derived form casesepuan "ultimisimo de la historia" (the last part of history), which might also be related to one of his definitions for the word suku as "the end of time."

The Rurutu deity Tangaroa or A'a represents the "Fractal Person" at the cosmic level -- the pantheistic concept of the cosmos as a person or other microcosmic form that generates similar smaller forms in the "creation" of the cosmos. In the sculpture above, A'a generates other deities and humans as his eyes, nose, knees, etc. (Source: http://detoursdesmondes.typepad.com/dtours_des_mondes/anthropologie_de_lart/)

The depiction of fractal thinking appears quite early in this region. For example, the Lapita motif below, dated to about 1000 BCE, shows "face" motifs that are believed to have been widely used by the Lapita culture.

Source: http://picasaweb.google.com/JTeddyT/LapitaFace?authkey=Gv1sRgCMfAr6DEpafBVg&feat=flashslideshow#5221186924082589314

The image above shows both larger and smaller face motifs as demonstrated below.

You can also rotate the image 180 degrees to double many of the face images. Note that the highly stylized face motif that borders this "mandala" creates many face images. Click on image for larger view.

The image to the left is taken from Art and Agency showing Marquesan tattoos with "hand faces."

From Art and Agency, tattoos and mask showing mata hoata "faces," and ipu "eyes."

Mata hoata faces on leg, from the Marquesas. For more images, see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/runningafterantelope/sets/72157608481767555/

Variations of the etua motif (squatting figure motif, etua = deity, deified ancestor) from the Marquesas showing the number of ways the local artists could represent the "Distributed Person."

Fractal tortoise

Knots, knotted cords and carvings with knots are also used to portray the interconnected objects/persons in the family, community or world. Some examples are the Malangan sculptures of New Ireland and the to'o knots of Tahiti.

The Malanggan sculpture from New Ireland with carved knots represents the distributed or fractal self. During death ceremonies, the breaking up and distributing of the carving is essential in passing on the land of the deceased to the involved parties. A bird is carved at the top of the sculpture. (Source: http://detoursdesmondes.typepad.com/dtours_des_mondes/anthropologie_de_lart/)

In Masantol, Pampanga, the myth of Mangatia or Mangetchay describes the Creator as a net-maker, which is the meaning of "mangatia," and the cosmos is described as a great interwoven net. The image of a net stresses the interconnection of all things.

Imagining the world as mountain, tree

Earlier in this blog, I have described how the concept of the cosmos as a mountain was quite widespread in this region, if not throughout the world.

The depiction of this world mountain may come very early in this region depending on how one interprets symbols like concentric circles, triangles, spirals, etc. that appear in the very early Neolithic phase.

During the megalithic period, we see the rise of many types of terraced structures that in latter times where widely viewed throughout the SEA-Oceania region as representing mountains, and in many cases the World Mountain.

The megalithic period dates to around 3000 BCE from the Peinan Culture in Taiwan, with the specific evidence of terracing dating to about 2000 BCE from sites like Gio-Linh in Vietnam. Megalithic monuments in Island Southeast Asia associated with Neolithic culture also show evidence of terracing that increases during the Bronze Age.

Many of the well-known Hindu-Buddhist temples in Southeast Asia are actually built over older pre-Hindu-Buddhist structures. For example, Borobudur in Java is built over an indigenous Javanese pyramid with three great stone terraces. Pre-Hindu-Buddhist terraced pyramids and platforms used for burial and ritual are found all over Java.

The use of terracing for both practical and ritual purposes is widely found during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods in Southeast Asia. Such forms also extend out into the Pacific where we find marae, the often cruciform-shaped paepae and similar platforms. On some small islands of the Pacific there are hundreds or even thousands of these stone platforms.

At some point, it may be that the terraced mountainside became associated with depictions of the World Mountain.

A house built on a terraced paepae in Hakaui, Nuku Hiva. (Source: http://www.insidemystery.org/hakaui-1971/arrival.html)

A massive paepae on Nuku Hiva. (Source: http://www.insidemystery.org/hakaui-1971/arrival.html)

The building plan of Borobudur in Java from overhead showing the cruciform staircases leading from the four directions to the apex or summit of this stone mountain-pyramid. The slightly cruciform lower terraces lead to the circular terraces near the summit. (Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Borobudur_Mandala.svg)

The top of this Dongson bronze drum (northern Vietnam) might be a representation of a mandala with concentric circles showing depictions of the world. Click on image for larger view. (Source: http://www.asianart.com/asianartresource/d10479.html)

The Borobudur stupa from Java has often been described as a mandala in stone. Although a Buddhist monument, Borobudur possesses characteristics of Southeast Asian temple architecture including the terraced pyramid form and the use of a cruciform building plan that were evident in pre-Hindu-Buddhist structures.

On many Tibetan cloth mandalas (thangkas), we see depictions of "palaces" from an overhead view with the "gates" and other features that need to be displayed shown in a "flattened" out manner.

Kalachakra Mandala depicting palace as seen from above with gate towers flattened out. There are three concentric levels of terraces with the gates leading to the apex of the palace. Click here for larger image.

The cruciform staircases at the four quadrants of Borobudur lead through gates with foilage-spewing carvings of Kala, the demon of time. The word "kalacakra" means cycle of time, and we can note also the gates of the palace in the Kalacakra Mandala. (Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Borobudur_entrances_and_stairs)

Borobudur gate with Kala at the top "devouring" the worshipper as they climb through the galleries to reach the stupa at the top. The galleries at the bottom depict everyday life from the Jataka tales, and as one moves higher we see reliefs of the journey to become a boddhisattva. The topmost terraces contain Buddhas, and thus, the mandala represents a movement in time toward ultimate enlightenment and Nirvana, which is possibly symbolized by the empty stupa at the apex. The Kalacakra Deity is the pantheistic source (Adibuddha) -- the Fractal Self -- in Kalacakra Buddhism and is seen as a personification of time, a belief that also is found in indigenous systems of Southeast Asia. (Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Borobudur_entrances_and_stairs)

Click on image for full size. (Source: http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_48_1939/Volume_48,_No._189/The_Tuamotuan_creation_charts_by_Paiore,_by_Kenneth_P._Emory,_p_1-29/p1?action=null#)

In the image above, "creation" is shown as a stepwise process through time and space represented in the form of a concentric mandala. Click on image for larger view.

(Source: http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_48_1939/Volume_48,_No._189/The_Tuamotuan_creation_charts_by_Paiore,_by_Kenneth_P._Emory,_p_1-29/p1?action=null#)

The Cosmic Person or Fractal Person that represents the cosmos can be a human, an animal like a dog, lizard or whale, a tree, or an "inanimate" object like a mountain since all these entities were viewed as fractal copies and parts of the greater Cosmic Being.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Chiu, Scarlett, Detailed analysis of Lapita Face Motifs: Case Studies from Reef/Santa Cruz Lapita Sites
and New Caledonia Lapita Site 13A, http://epress.anu.edu.au/terra_australis/ta26/pdf/ch15.pdf, 2007.

Gell, Alfred. Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory. Oxford: Clarendon, 1998.

Mosko, Mark S. 2009. "The Fractal Yam: Botanical Imagery and Human Agency in the Trobriands". The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 15, no. 4: 679-700.

Reuter, Thomas Anton. Sharing the Earth, Dividing the Land: Land and Territory in the Austronesian World. Canberra: ANU E Press, 2006, 25.

Schellinger, Paul E., and Robert M. Salkin. Illustrated Encyclopedia of Historic Places: Asia and Oceania. New Delhi: Aryan Books International, 1997, 147.

Smith, Ralph Bernard, and William Watson. Early South East Asia: Essays in Archaeology, History and Historical Geography : [Papers ... Submitted to a Colloquy on Early South East Asia Held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, in September 1973]. New York: Oxford U.P., 1979, 180.

More Romanesque motifs: Tree of Jesse and the Tree of Life

2010-05-17T19:08:00.000-07:00

The Tree of Jesse is another Romanesque-Gothic motif worth examining for evidence for the eastern influence that I have suggested was largely brought by Sayabiga settlers -- a segment of which may have become or fused with the people known as Agotes.

In 1929, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy had suggested that the theme of the reclining, sleeping Visnu giving birth to the creator god Brahma through a lotus sprouting from his navel, a form of Visnu also known as Padmanabha or Anantasayana, was the probable source of the Tree of Jesse motif. I would add that not only was the Padmanabha a source but also the Tree of Life theme from Southeast Asia, and the related motifs found on totem poles and textiles from the same region.

Visnu reclining and sleeping on a bed of serpents (Anantasesa) in the Milky Ocean gives rise to the creator deity Brahma via a lotus that sprouts from his navel. The relief above is from Ellora Cave 15 and dates to the late 8th century. (Source: elloracaves.org)

The oldest complete Tree of Jesse depiction from the Chartres Cathedral in France dating to 1145. Based on Isaiah's prophecy: "there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots" (Isaiah 11:1), the window shows Jesse at the bottom with the tree rising out of his "navel." (Source: Sacred Destinations)

The full Tree of Jesse from Chartres showing the lineage of Jesus from Jesse. (Source: Tree of Jesse, Wikipedia)

Padmanabha image from Hampi, India. (Source: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-photo/lraleigh/youarehere./1175963580/img_2579.jpg/tpod.html)

The prototype of the Visnu-Padmanabha motif is found in the Atharvaveda, generally dated to at least the 6th century BCE, which mentions a Great Yaksa, or tree spirit, that sleeps on the cosmic ocean. Periodically, a lotus springs from the Yaksa's navel giving birth to the creator Prajapati. When the worship of Visnu began to come to the fore, that deity took the place of the Yaksa in Vaisnava lore.

Visnu-Padmanabha in more or less full form first appears at the 6th century CE Deogarh Temple in central India although in this case the lotus emerges from in back of Visnu from the ocean rather than from his navel. The example above from Ellora is an early example of the motif with the lotus and Brahma arising from Visnu's navel. In many cases, the Tree of Jesse springs from in back of the patriarch rather than from his navel, probably for reasons of artistic preference since the tree trunk must taper to a very small diameter when coming from the navel, and looks like it is coming from the belly when the trunk is depicted in a more realistic proportion.

In some cases, the Tree of Jesse is also shown specifically coming from the navel as in the early13th century Bavarian ivory panel shown below.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tree_of_Jesse_Louvre_OA10428.jpg

An example of the Visnu-Padmanabha theme that overlaps with the Romanesque period is the giant bronze statue from Angkor in Cambodia dated to the 11th century. The surviving fragment of this statue is eight feet long and according to some estimates the entire artifact would exceed 20 feet in length making it the largest bronze statue of the ancient or medieval period still extant, if only partially so.

While the motif of humans or deities arising from vegetation that springs from the navel of a sleeping, reclining male progenitor seems certainly to come from an Indic source, the specific "family tree" motif seems to have Southeast Asian connections.

Firstly, the form of the "tree" is not the classic "family tree" of modern genealogies. The tree has a vertical orientation similar to pedigree poles and pedigree lineages displayed in Southeast Asian textiles. In the case of the Tree of Jesse, the older ancestors are at the bottom starting with Jesse and the lineage is shown in order as one goes higher all the way up to Mary, the mother of Jesus, who appears just below her son.

In a similar sense, the totemic pedigree pole generally shows ancestors in order in a vertical fashion. And in Southeast textiles, ancestor figures, either anthropomorphic or symbolic, are often shown connected, interlocked or overlapping in a vertical fashion based on order of descent.

Maori totem pole, Mt. Victoria, New Zealand (Source: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dNAo2GzCDCTMiixEzAVvOA)

Maori totem pole (Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robdickson/370674999/)

Totem pole from Borneo (Source: http://www.taicollection.com/files/index.htm)

Ikat hinggi from Sumba, Indonesia. (Source: http://www.trocadero.com/stores/cranegallery/items/946080/item946080.html)

Mandaya ikat from Mindanao, Philippines with anthropomorphic figures. (Source: http://www.trocadero.com/bundok48/items/930832/en1.html)

Moai or stone statues from Easter Island are found in ceremonial plots known as ahu, which is also the name of the descent group associated with each group of moai. The statues, the earliest dating back to about 1000-1100 CE, are believed to be those of prominent ancestors and they face towards the lineage's community. The arrangement in neat rows could possibly show order of descent as in the totem pole, although for practical reasons the moai could not be arranged vertically. (Source: http://www.world-mysteries.com/easter_island.htm)

If one looks closely at the Tree of Jesse images above (click on source links for full size options) from Chartres Cathedral, the figures are not clearly seated (although they could be leaning on the tree trunk) and have their arms outstretched holding the branches of the tree. One could interpret this as a variation of the squatting figure motif mentioned in the post "More on "Tantric" influence on Romanesque art," with the hands raised up. As mentioned in that article, the squatting figure motif often has ancestral significations. A similar type of positioning is seen at York Minster dating to 1150, and from Canterbury Cathedral from the late 12th to early 13th century, although in the latter case the figures are seated on throne-like chairs.

Tree of Life motif in Southeast Asian pedigree representations

The burial poles of indigenous peoples of Borneo like the Iban and Kenyah and known by names like pantar and sanggaran are decorated with mythical motifs like the hornbill, the serpent or dragon, spears, swords, and jars. In the local belief system, these burial poles are seen as symbols of the Tree of Life.

Totem burial pole at the Sarawak Museum. These poles are seen as representing the Tree of Life. (Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32734523@N08/3060638554)

The vegetative motifs and the birds and serpents often displayed on Maori totem poles indicate that a similar belief system may have also operated at one time with these memorial carvings.

In a similar system, representations of ancestors and totems on Southeast Asian textiles are often shown together with representations of the Tree of Life.

A ba baby carrier from Borneo showing a squatting guardian figure clutching a stylized Tree of Life. (Source: http://www.lelong.com.my/Auc/List/2010-04DeStd58768938_AUCTION_-Traditional-BABY-CARRIER-beads-craft-art-antiques-Dayak.htm)

Tree of Life in Southeast Asia and Oceania

Waruno Mahdi and Stephen Oppenheimer have studied the importance of the Tree of Life theme in the regions of Southeast Asia and Oceania. Mahdi compared beliefs in this region to those in South Asia, while Oppenheimer studied the Tree of Life myths worldwide.

According to Mahdi, the Tree of Life in Southeast Asia, Oceania and South Asia was predominantly associated with Ficus species due to the characteristic of having aerial roots.

Aerial roots at Ta Promh, Cambodia (Source: http://www.myseveralworlds.com/2007/11/09/the-banyans-of-ta-prohm/)

Aerial roots (Source: http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1131080103044331310ksDLmg)

Aerial roots extending from the branches to the ground were seen as representing the connection between sky and earth, between the upper and lower worlds in many Austronesian cultures and also in other regional mythologies. The important of the aerial roots relates not only to the mythology, ritual and folklore, but also apparently to shamanic practices, for example, the Tree of Life motif appears on textiles used in regional shamanic ritual.

However, it was not simply symbols of the Tree of Life that were used. More commonly actual Banyan or Benjamin type trees were placed on temples or ceremonial platforms, or such structures to include meetings houses were located adjacent to particularly significant trees. Also, ritual ceremony and dance grounds were often marked off by perimeters that corresponded to the shadow cast by a great Ficus with aerial branches. In some cases, the ritual center was carved out of the tree itself.

The Hindu-Buddhist Kalpataru Tree at the Borobudur stupa in Java. Geese and possibly half-geese kinnaras-kinnaris are shown under the tree. (Source: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=225953707&albumID=495816&imageID=3808997)

Stylized Orang Ulu Tree of Life from Sarawak with aerial roots spiraling to ground. (Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/3877832454/)

Tree of Life at the Wat Xieng Thong Temple built in 1560, Luang Prabang, Laos. (Source: Luang Prabang)

Some Romanesque trumeaus and the Tree of Life

Both Mahdi and Oppenheimer note in their studies the close linkage between the Tree of Life and the bird and serpent/dragon motif. The bird and serpent can be seen as types of opposites that represent both conflict and also the creative aspect of union. The Tree of Life itself covers many aspects of duality including the opposition of sky and earth, male and female, and death and resurrection, along with related themes involving warring brothers, jealousy, greed, and fertility.

The trumeau, or tympanum column, below is from Sainte-Marie, Souillac, France dating to 1120-35.

Source: http://www.wga.hu/html/zgothic/1romanes/po-12c11/12f_1100.html

For the full size image of the trumeau, click here.

You can see that from three corners of the capital there appear to be what could be interpreted as aerial roots curving down all the way to the base of the trumeau. The claws of the topmost bird figure can be seen clutching one of these roots or branches.

While the scenes involving various creatures gnawing at each other have been interpreted as "hellish," there are obvious Biblical references included on the column such as the Sacrifice of Isaac.

The Sacrifice of Isaac might be appropriate here for it is viewed a symbol of the death and resurrection of Christ, which in turn is a model of the dying and rising tree i.e., the Tree of Life. The gnawing beasts -- griffins, dragons, reptiles, lions -- might represent the conflict associated with the journey from birth to death. Scenes of violence, hunting, biting, etc. are also often also displayed in Southeast Asian depictions of the Tree of Life.

In trumeaus from Moissac that are believed related to the Souillac one, the bodies of human figures (St. Paul and Prophet Jeremiah) are shown elongated with especially the legs looking like the aerial roots or branches as shown in the Souillac trumeau.

Note the long, root-like legs. Source: http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/Images/arth212images/Romanesque/Moissac/trumeau.jpg

Source: http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/Images/ARTH212images/Romanesque/Moissac/trumeau_paul.jpg

One can also view the scrolling branches and the scrolls held by the prophets to side of each ancestor in the Chartres Jesse Tree above as representing aerial roots. The scrolls held by the prophets flanking Jesse seem to fall down from above their heads and reach all the way to the ground.

Tightly-interlocked animals and humans on the Souillac and Moissac trumeaus might also be seen as similar to a mass of intertwined aerial roots. The practice of closely interlocking or compressing animals in totemic designs can be found in both Southeast Asia and the Pacific as seen in some of the examples below.

Maori totem pole with highly stylized representations of birds (beaks) and other creatures. (Source: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/wQbwaprEGJRy7xRciJK0Gw)

Maori totem pole (Source: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/xzN3UmPwlz4vCFNG350lAQ)

From Oppenheimer, illustration 32, depicting spirit brothers Lawena and Dawena with one of the cockatoos holding a severed head in its beak, from incised bamboo, Kambot, Papua New Guinea.

From Oppenheimer, illustration 16, Wain and followers showing images tightly compressed in space with many of the creatures biting at the genital areas of others, from incised bamboo, Kambot, Papua New Guinea.

Totem pole from Borneo with stylized hornbill and other creatures. (Source: http://mykambatikworld.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post.html)

A modern Maori totem pole designed for tourists. Here the stylized animals are transformed in to realistic Western-style representations. (Source: http://www.fly-to-neverland.com/nz/nz7.html)

Sets of motifs

The suggested cognates in motifs between the Visnu-Padmanabha theme from India and the Tree of Jesse are:

Male ancestor or primordial deity is shown reclining with vegetation rising out of navel.
The said figure is usually shown as sleeping with eyes closed.
The head is often resting on or propped up by hand.
The said figure is usually reclining on right side with head on right hand.
The vegetation can sprout either out of the navel or from the rear of the said figure, in the case of the Tree of Jesse sometimes from his side.
Humans or deities are sitting, standing or squatting on the vegetation rising out of the navel.

Tree of Jesse (Capuchin's Bible, c. 1180) showing the patriarch reclining on his right side with eyes closed and head resting on right hand, compare with images of Visnu above. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JesseTree.JPG)

Tree of Jesse (Scherenberg Psalter, c.1260), with head propped on right hand and eyes closed. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cod_St_Peter_perg_139_Scherenberg-Psalter_7v_.jpg)

The Southeast Asian Tree of Life motifs found in common with the Tree of Jesse motif are:

Vertical arrangement of ancestors in order of descent.
Ancestors are placed in or around tree.
Ancestors may be framed in branches/aerial roots of tree, and may be grasping these branches/aerial roots.
Ancestors may be shown in variation of squatting figure motif -- front-facing with arms outstretched to the side and hands raised.
The ancestor figures are often connected -- by the trunk of the tree, a root/vine, a line, etc.
The Souillac and Moissac trumeaus appear to have representations or stylized representations of aerial roots and the depiction of animals on the columns is similar to that seen on totem poles and other indigenous art in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Dating of the motifs in Southeast Asia and the Pacific can be difficult. For example, squatting figures may be found arranged in either vertical or horizontal lines, and may be connected together, but we cannot say for sure that this represents an ancestral lineage.

Also, in modern times, something as simple as a triangle can represent the Tree of Life to one set of textile weavers, the Cosmic Mountain to another, and both motifs to yet another group of weavers. However, we do not know for sure that such simple symbols had the same meaning long ago.

However, the combination of South Asian and Southeast Asian motifs fits in nicely with the idea of Sayabiga transmission during the Romanesque period. The kingdom of Zabag (Sabag) was highly influenced by Tantric Buddhism and other cultural streams from India, and of course, they would have been very familiar with Southeast Asian symbolism.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. "The Tree of Jesse and Indian Parallels or Sources," The Art Bulletin, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Jun., 1929), pp. 216-220.

Mahdi, Waruno. "Linguisitc and philogical data towards a chronology of Austronesian activity in India and Sri Lanka," IN: Roger Blench, Matthew Spriggs. Archaeology and Language IV: Language Change and Cultural Transformation, Routledge (UK), 1999.

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

Mandalas, Wheel Windows and Rose Windows

2010-05-02T21:38:00.000-07:00

Following up on my posts on the evidence of "Tantric" eastern influences in Romanesque Europe, one very interesting element that pops up in Romanesque churches is the wheel window.

The wheel window generally adorns the west fronts of these churches staring in about the 12th century. The subsequent rose window is widely believed to have been derived from the wheel window. Most scholars see the wheel window as a development of the earlier Roman oculi, a circular opening in structures for ventilation and lighting.

However, most do admit that the designs of the wheel and rose window may indicate foreign influences. For example, some have suggested that the designs may have come from the six-petaled rosettes of the Khirbat al-Mafjar in Jordan.

A stronger argument exists, I think, linking the wheel window with the dharma cakra (wheel of law), and the initial rose window designs with the mandala. These cultural elements could have been brought over, again, by the Sayabiga and related peoples.

Firstly, many of the earliest wheel windows have eight "spokes" as in these examples from 12th century Norman England:

Patrixbourne

Barfreston

Castle Hedingham

(Source for photos: Mary Berg at the Kent Archaeology Page)

The dharma cakra appears very early in Indian art, for example, in the Asokan architecture, but the spoke number can vary. By the late ancient period though, the eight-spoked dharma chakra becomes well-established and it is the classical type used in Tibetan Buddhism. At churches with eight-spoked wheel windows, we often see that many motifs also occur in groups of eight.

Another noteworthy similarity found in many early wheel windows is the use of the column motif for the "spokes." In the Barfreston and Patrixbourne examples above, these column-spokes form a likeness of a trefoil arch between each spoke.

A traditional widespread form of the dharma chakra displays trefoil-like "knobs" that appear to protrude from each "spoke" through the "rim" of the dharma wheel as in the examples below:

A dharmacakra on the flag of Sikkim. Note the trefoil-like knob at each quadrant. (Source: Wikipedia)

A dharma cakra manufactured in Xining, China with large trefoil designs, one for each spoke. (Source: Wikipedia)

Another similarity is that the "rim" in both the dharma chakra and the window wheel is wide and often very ornately decorated, for example, with vegetative motifs.

A very striking comparison can be made between the wheel window of Barfrestron and the dharma cakras found on the Sun Temple of Konark, eastern India, which dates to the 13th century. In both cases, the rims are decorated with the respective bestiaries of each culture.

Bestiary on rim of Barfreston wheel window includes griffins, winged lions, harpies, crabs and other creatures both real and fabulous. (Source: http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/bestiary_arches.pdf)

Rim of dharma wheel at Sun Temple of Konarak has elephants, swans, deer, deities, mythical creatures and sensuous couples displayed in a circular vine motif.

Rose windows

The early rose windows were obviously similar to the wheel windows that came before. For example, the following window from the cathedral at Chartres dating to the late 12th century is sometimes called a rose window and sometimes a wheel window.

Wheel window at Chartres Cathedral (Source: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/chartres-cathedral-photos/)

Here there are twelve column-like spokes in the central figure creating arch-like "petals." The design is very much like the mandalas of Tibet.

While Tibetan tradition states that mandalas were originally taught by the Buddha, the first mandalas to appear on murals date from about the 10th century. By the 11th century, highly-sophisticated textile mandalas were made. While the word "mandala" can refer to any circular type of design, but in Tibetan art it generally referred to a representation of the cosmos that was concentric in nature.

The concentric design of mandalas often resulted in fractal patterns. For example, many Buddhist mandalas display the fractal plane known as the Sierpinski Carpet. Even a simple design of concentric circles is fractal in a way -- the outer circle surrounds a circle that in turn surrounds a circle surrounding a circle.

More complex fractal patterns can include, for example, a circle of Buddhas encircled by smaller circles of Buddhas.

The Mandala of the Six Cakravartins dates at least to the 11th-12th century Vajravali text, although it is based on an earlier prototype. The mandala above was created in the 19th century. In this mandala, a Cakravartin, or World Emperor, is enclosed in a circle surrounded by eight deities in lotus petal-like containers. The lotus is encircled and placed in a square with cruciform "gates." Five other Cakravartins in similar presentation surround the central figure. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mandala_of_the_Six_Chakravartins.JPG)

A 14th century Vajravarahi Awakening Mandala shows a central eight-petaled lotus or rosette with deity figures surrounded by smaller six-petaled lotuses. (Source: http://www.asianart.com/mandalas/page14.html)

In the wheel window of Chartres Cathedral the central lotus or rose-like figure has twelve "petals" and has a rosette-like figure at its center with twelve apses. The rose is surrounded by smaller circles with eight apses.

These figures with the apses may possibly be related to the description giving in Titurel during the 13th century of the Grail Temple:

Grail Temple plan after Ringbom (A. A. Barb, 1956: 34) following descriptions in Titurel.

In the following sand painting of a Mandala Palace, the outermost lotus figure has 22 petals, which can be compared to the 22 apses of Titurel's Grail Temple. The number 22 in Tibetan Buddhism can represent the 22 deities of the Kalacakra Deity's Palace, the 22 Bodhisattvas, etc.

Source: http://buddhistsymbols.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/mandala.jpg

Architectural changes during the Romanesque period

Changes in design and orientation are also supportive of the idea of eastern influences in line with those already described in this and previous posts.

For example, we see the rise of cruciform churches during this period. The new architecture is generally seen as a fusion of the Visigothic cruciform church and Mozarabic design elements. However, one interesting feature is the idea of the church representing Paradise -- something that is carried on into the Gothic period.

The churches now have gates or portals that can be viewed as entrances into a representation of either the divine or the terrestrial paradise. One interpretation of the trees, vegetation and rivers represented in Romanesque and Gothic churches is that they are intended to represent the Garden of Eden. The palm tree, in particular, is represented as the Tree of Paradise. In a similar sense, the terraced pyramid temple of Southeast Asia, which also had a cruciform building plan, represented the cosmic mountain, the axis mundi.

Additionally, during this period the churches began to be pointed in an eastward direction. The high altar was placed at the "top" of the cross in the easternmost part of the church. However, the churches were not oriented directly at the rising Sun during the equinoxes. They usually diverged from a few degrees to 15 or more degrees from true East. Previously Christian churches had no particular orientation and could be facing in any direction.

Now the great majority of temples in South and Southeast Asia traditionally had the same orientation -- toward the East but rarely toward true East.

Various explanations have been given for the orientation of Romanesque churches including the idea that they faced the Sun on first day of building or on the patron saint's day. Some have also suggested that compasses were used for orientation and that they were thrown off by magnetic declination.

One possibility that could be tested is whether the churches or a subset of them were oriented toward a fixed geographical location like the mosque was oriented toward Mecca. Giving the paradisaical themes of Romanesque churches, they may, for example, have been pointed toward the perceived location of the Garden of Eden in the East. If this were the case, then we should see that the churches tend to face more southward as the church's location is more eastward in longitude and northward in latitude.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Abrahamsen, Niels. Orientation of Romanesque Churches and Magnetic Declination in the 12th Century in Denmark. GeoSkrifter, 23. Aarhus: Geologisk Institut Aarhus Universitet, 1985.

Brunius, Teddy. "Old nordic churches and the points of compass" Konsthistorisk Tidskrift/Journal of Art History 66.4 (1997). 03 May. 2010.

Cowen, Painton. The Rose Window, London and New York, 2005

Grabar, Oleg. Constructing the Study of Islamic Art 2 Islamic Visual Culture, 1100 - 1800. Aldershot [u.a.]: Ashgate Variorum, 2006, 387.

Graham, Robert Maxtone. The Sculptures at the Church of St Nicholas, Barfreston, http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/bestiary_arches.pdf, 2008.

Hoare, Peter G., Caroline S Sweet, "The orientation of early medieval churches in England," Journal of Historical Geography, Volume 26, Issue 2, April 2000.

Hughes, Robert. Heaven and Hell in Western Art. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968.

Kubach, Hans Erich. Romanesque Architecture. History of world architecture. New York: Abrams, 1975.

More on "Tantric" influence on Romanesque art

2010-04-27T17:10:00.000-07:00

Warning: While I post a risque photo or image now and then, this article plus the links will have more than a few "carnal" images.

The term "tantric" is often associated with erotic iconography and sacred sexual practices, although the latter idea is greatly exaggerated in most cases.

However, one can say that there was a definite surge in erotic art and a more open attitude toward sex during the Tantric period. Not that India was any stranger to such ideas since the Kamasutra was written in this region, but it has been suggested that more conservative attitudes had prevailed especially after the Muslim invasions.

Tantric texts give evidence of more open attitudes toward sacred sexuality flowing into India from the East -- from Suvarnadvipa, Mahacina and Cina, i.e., from Insular and Mainland Southeast Asia and South China.

Earlier I suggested that Tantric influences had been brought by the Sayabiga and Zutt into Islam via "dervish" groups, and that these influences also reached into Europe and were found in the Grail literature. During the height of the Tantric period, at the same general period when erotic temples like Khajuraho and Konark were being built in India, there arose a tradition of erotic sculpture in Romanesque art as well.

Source: http://goeurope.about.com/cs/sex/a/sexual_carvings.htm

From the Romanesque section (~12th century) of the Santa María Church-Fortress in Ujué, Spain. Compare above to this graphic sculpture from the 15th century Candi Sukuh Temple in Java.

Erotic elements in Romanesque art appear concentrated most heavily in northern Spain and southwestern France -- locations closely associated with the Agote peoples discussed in the previous blog posting. The style also became popular in Italy, England and Ireland. Note that these sexual carvings were displayed both in the interior and on the exterior of churches. Nothing comparable was found before, and starting in the Renaissance, the church began to suppress such artistic expression. Types of sexual and amorous literature that arose at about the same time was publicly burnt in some places. The evidence suggests then that the erotic displays in Romanesque churches were an intrusive development.

Anthony Weir and James Jerman in Images of Lust: sexual carvings on medieval churches suggest that the practice actually was diffused along the routes that led to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, where the great medieval pilgrimage took place to the supposed burial place of the Apostle St. James.

Motifs we have studied, like the Avaritia and la femme aux serpents, are to be found along, or in the close vicinity of, the four main pilgrimage roads of France, but only the westernmost, from Compostela, along the northern provinces of Spain, into Aquitaine, Poitou, the Vendee, Brittany and Normandy (with a tributary northeast of Paris to Liesse), thence to the British Isles, has sexual exhibitionists in significant numbers.

The exhibitionist sculpture included scenes of copulating couples, a depiction in Indian art known as mithuna. In the tantric art of Tibetan Buddhism, deities are often shown in a divine and sexual embrace known as yab-yum. In many cases, the couples in Romanesque churches are in non-missionary, Kamasutra-like positions as in the relief from Carennac, France below.

For some more clear examples of Romanesque mithuna, see this Beyond the Pale webpage or browse through the whole site.

Squatting figure motif

One important type of sexual exhibitionist motif displayed in Romanesque art is that of the squatting figure. Here is an example from Poitiers in France, and further below from Moulton in Suffolk, England:

For more examples of this motif along with one for comparison from Candi Sukuh in Java, see the Poitiers page at the Beyond the Pale site.

Another type of squatting figure commonly found at Romanesque sites is that known as Sheela na gig and features a female figure boldly displaying her her vulva.

Sheela na gig from Rahara, Ireland (Source: beyond-the-pale.org.uk)

The squatting figure motif is a well-known and widespread element in the art of Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Robyn J. Maxwell, in her work on Southeast Asian textiles, states:

The oldest realistic representation of the human body on textiles presents a full frontal view, standing or squatting. Strength is conveyed in the stance, usually with feet apart and arms raised, although the bold 'hands-on-hips' pose is also an ancient representation.

The motif can be classified into three basic types:

A high squat or standing figure with hands raised, usually above the head. Variations include hands on or near the hips or the elbows extended outward with hands dropping down. This figure gives an imposing look that may be protective against evil (apotropaic).
A very low squat with groin at about the same level as hips. In many cases, this is a birthing posture. Tiwari notes that this is the traditional posture for parturition from South Asia to the Pacific where the squatting figure motif is still widely used to this day. The low, splayed squat is also found in male depictions, so it does not always represent child birth. Arms may be raised or positioned near the hips or groin. Here is an article on the Lajja Gauri statue that was popular in India during a period that overlapped with the Romanesque.
A position of sitting on one's haunches as is common in many parts of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, or simply sitting with one's legs bent in front of the body as when squatting. This is often called the hocker motif. The elbows or hands are usually resting on the knees. When depicted with genitals, this figure often represents an ancestor. Check out this article on the hocker motif in Micronesia.

Not only is the squatting figure widely used in this region today, but it is also very old. Examples have been found among the Angono Petroglyphs in the Philippines and in the Harappan Culture of South Asia. Both Ban Chiang artifacts from Thailand and Dongsonian pieces display the squatting figure motif.

Squatting figure motif from the Angono Petroglyphs in the Philippines dated by cultural association to 2000 - 4000 BCE. The open end at the legs probably indicates a female figure. (Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40493841@N00/154225235/)

Meaning of motifs

Weir and Jerman suggested that the sexual exhibitionist art was meant as a lesson against sexual immorality. They note the presence of other motifs symbolizing greed and that in some cases these motifs include depictions of punishment or hellish surroundings.

Other alternative explanations that have been offered including suggestions that the motifs were fertility symbols; apotropaic, or protective against evil; or that they were meant for humor and to break down social inhibitions.

The squatting figure motif in the region of South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific has attested functions for warding off evil; promoting fertility; sorcery; good luck; success during hunting, fishing, maritime travel and similar expeditions; and ancestor worship. A Harappan depiction shows a "goddess" in wide splayed squat sprouting a plant from her womb, and it has been suggested that this is the origin of the Lajja Gauri statues, which have a lotus instead in place of the head. T'boli textiles, according to Maxwell, may show the squatting figures giving birth to smaller figures of the same form again indicating a fertility or creation theme.

Romanesque changes in attitudes toward women

One thing to note during this period is the appearance in literature of new attitudes that uplifted the status of women. For example, the theme of "courtly love" appears to arise out of Mozarabic poetic romances in Moorish Spain and the works of Ibn Hazm (11th century) and Ibn Arabi (1165-1240).

The impulses come from the direction of Spain and it is hard to disconnect these changes from the sudden appearance of the very strange trend in sexual church art. The timing overlaps with the rise of Tantrism in South and Southeast Asia where we see similar types of art, but maybe with different interpretation.

Check out this page for a good representation of sexual exhibitionist art from the Romanesque period. And here for more on Tantric influences in the Grail Legends.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Lommel, Andreas. Prehistoric and Primitive Man. London: Paul Hamlyn, 1966. 103.

Macdermott, Mercia. Explore Green Men. Loughborough: Heart of Albion Press, 2003.

Maxwell, Robyn. Textiles of Southeast Asia: Tradition, Trade and Transformation. Singapore: Periplus, 2003, 82, 83, 128.

O'Donoghue, Bernard. The Courtly Love Tradition. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1982, 75-5.

Tiwari, Jagdish Narain. Goddess Cults in Ancient India: With Special Reference to the First Seven Centuries A.D. Delhi: Sundeep Prakashan, 1985, 210, 217.

Weir, Anthony, and James Jerman. Images of Lust: Sexual Carvings on Medieval Churches. London: Routledge, 1999, 144.

The Agotes: A remnant of the Sayabiga?

2010-04-23T23:34:00.000-07:00

In a followup to the last post, it might be wondered whether the Sayabiga had left some traces of their existence in the same way that we can suggest that the Gitano are at least partly a remnant of the Zutt.

The best bet for such a population representing a vestige of the Sayabiga may be the Agotes of northern Spain, and related peoples in neighboring lands. Although I have suggested the Sayabiga were mainly concentrated in coastal northeastern Spain, i.e., Valencia, they could have traveled more broadly into the Muslim-held areas, and even further if they converted to Christianity.

The Agotes belong to a set of peoples known as Cagots, Agotacs, Gafets and Gahets in France; and as Cacous in Lower Brittany. In Spain, they are known in Asturias as Vaqueiros; as Maragatos in Leon; and as Agotes in Navarre. However these names are mostly of latter origin. In many areas, the Agotes at some point in history became out-castes, which may have helped in preserving them as a separate group. In the 19th century though, bans were placed on practices that discriminated against the Agotes and they began mixing with the rest of the population. Although they have mostly disappeared as a separate group there are still people today who can trace their descent back to the Agotes.

A group apart

The textual references of the Agotes and related peoples make it clear that they were seen to be different both culturally and also in terms of their appearance from the rest of their neighbors. The references about their appearance are late and a bit confused, for example, here is a description of those who lived in the Ribas Valley of northwestern Gerona:

"They never exceed 51 1/2 inches in height, and have short, ill-formed legs, great bellies, small eyes, flat noses, and pale, unwholesome complexions."

Another source states:

"Their language is merely a corrupt form of that spoken around them; but a Teutonic origin seems to be indicated by their fair complexions and blue eyes. Their crania have a normal development; their cheek-bones are high; their noses prominent, with large nostrils; their lips straight; and they are marked by the absence of the auricular lobules."

And yet again:

"In personal appearance almost all may be distinguished by their grey eyes, short noses, thick lips, very short auricular lobes, and sad looks. It has been said that the Agotae are short lived, but instances are cited of centenarians amongst them. They follow chiefly the occupations of carpenters, blacksmiths, masons, turners, and above all of millers; indeed, in certain localities, to be a miller is considered the equivalent of an Agotae."

In some cases they are said to be dark, but other sources describe them as fair. Dudley Costello, writing in the mid-19th century gives an explanation for the discrepancy:

The most interesting of these tribes are undoubtedly the Cagots of the Pyrenees, so persecuted by the authorities in Bearn in 1596. These have often been confused with diseased idiotic subjects like the cretins of the Alps, from whom they differ in many respects. E.g. the cretin is sually afflicted by goitre, and possesses an extremely small semi-idiotic brain: but the Cagot is apparently a normal example, and the intelligence of many male, and beauty of many female Cagots, have become proverbial. They are specially characterised by a peculiarly formed ear, sessile with, yet brusquely exserted from the head, small bright blue eyes, very large skulls, often of considerable breadth, short necks and frequently bowlegs. Two sorts exist, one with white skin and flaxen hair, the second deeply bronzed, with crisp woolly hair, grey eyes, and high cheekbones.

The Agotes and related peoples were carpenters and masons and tradition states they were responsible for building many Romanesque churches and other buildings including the Jaca Cathedral, Santa Cruz de la Seros and San Pedro de Siresa. The sculpture of the Romanesque period contains a broad array of physical types that probably includes some sculpture created by Agotes representing their own physiognomy. Of course, Spain was a highly multicultural and multiethnic region at this time, so one would have to pay close attention to detail in this area. Also, the Sayabiga do appear to have been as endogamous as the Gitano. At some point, if the Agote peoples do represent remnants of the Sayabiga, they became out-castes and intermarriage became rare (but not unheard of).

Puerta del Perdón. Tímpano. San Isidoro de León. España from Wikipedia.
Click here for full size image. See more images below.

Culturally, the Agote type people once lived in huts, some with thatched roofs, that were often secluded deep in the forest. Those that practiced transhumant herding or woodcutting often had multiple huts in which they lived in at different times of the year. They had settled mainly in mountainous areas and the adjoining valleys. Most were employed as carpenters, woodcutters, masons, and builders

History of the Agote peoples

The precise date at which the Agote and related folk appear is hard to pin down exactly. They have been variously given Visigothic, Morisco, Viking, Albigenses, Cathar, "Tartar," Jewish/Marrano and other origin.

When they became out-castes, the Agote were forced to wear a dried goose foot painted red on their shoulder; or else a piece of red or yellow cloth cut in the shape of a goose's or duck's foot. According to some texts, the Agote had webbed feet like a goose.

In relation to this legend, the Basques have myths of the Laminak, a race of fairies with goose feet. In Toulouse where the Cagots dwell, there is the legend of La reine pédauque "The Goose Foot Queen," and the region is even known as Pays d'Oc "Land of Goose," and the language is Languedoc "Goose Language."

Supposedly, this goose-footed queen was Bertha, the mother of Charlemange who was also known as Berthe aux grand pieds because of her large, broad feet (she is also known as Bertha Broadfoot) that caused her to waddle like a goose.

The goose feet apparently had some ethnic connotations as the Agote peoples themselves were said to have goose-like feet and were also called Canards or "Ducks." Eventually, the goose foot became a type of esoteric symbol and emblem of the Agotes. Many of the churches attributed to Agote builders are marked with a goose foot symbol, a crucifix shaped like a goose's foot, or a statue of Bertha Broadfoot on the facade with a crown, a distaff in hand, and goose or swan's feet.

Camino de Santiago

During the Romanesque period, a great pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia became widely popular, as this was said to be the location where the Apostle James was buried. While there had been other pilgrimage routes like the Via Francigena leading to Rome previously nothing really compared to the "Way of St. James."

The Camino de Santiago running through northern Spain from the Pyrenees to Galicia has been linked by many researchers with the Agote peoples. Firstly the route runs through the areas closely associated with Agotes and many of the important churches and buildings are marked with the goose foot symbol or have crucifixes in the goose foot shape. Many esoteric scholars also associate the common scallop shell symbol found along this route with the goose foot.

A photo of a goose's foot beside a photo of a goose foot symbol at Cementerio de Santa María de Adina, Iria Flavia (Source: http://laberintoromanico.blogspot.com/2008/02/el-juego-de-la-oca-la-pata-coja.html)

A crucifix in the shape of the stylized goose foot at the Templo del Crucifijo, Puente la Reina in Navarre along the Way of St. James dating to the 13th-14th century.

Scallop shell symbols are found on fountains, wall and other structures all along the Camino de Santiago.

Various theories are connected with these symbols. The camino is located along an old Roman trail that was supposed to follow the Milky Way to the sea. Thus, some esoteric scholars connect the scallop shell and goose foot to constellations. Others see the scallop as a fertility symbol linked with the goddess Venus, and the shell does have a womb-like shape.

Louis Charpentier in 1973 noted the large number of place names that included the word for "goose" along the Camino, and it has been suggested that the Juego de la Oca or Goose Game originates from the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. In this game, there are 63 squares leading in a spiral-like path to the 64th central square that contains the image of a goose. There are also images in the other squares including geese, which are auspicious to land on, and less lucky squares containing images of obstacles, prisons and the like.

The goose connection here may lie in the goose-footed Agotes who built or helped to build many of the important structures along the Camino de Santiago.

Camino de Santiago marked in red (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stjacquescompostelle1.png). Click here for full image.

Geese provide a link with the fairy folk that have been described in many places in this blog. Bertha Broadfoot herself, who becomes the wife of Robert II of France in latter legend, was known to tell tales to children while sitting by her spinning wheel, and some believe that "Mother Goose" of the fairy tales is derived from La Reine Pédauque "the Goose Foot Queen."

As geese and swans were interchangeable in medieval lore, we can also see a connection between the fairy Swan Knight, and the goose footed Agotes and Bertha Broadfoot.

Grail connection

In Jüngere Titurel, following Wolfram von Eschenbach's linkage of the Grail family with the Angevins, the author takes the story back to late ancient times. They come from Cappadocia, which is not far from Antioch where both the Zutt and the Sayabiga were transported in the early 8th century.

According to the story, the pagan prince Sennabor helps the Roman emperor against other pagans and is converted to Christianity. In return, the emperor grants one of Sennabor's three sons, Parille, some French provinces, while Azubar is granted Anjou, and the third son, Sabbilar, receives Cornwall. The link in with Wolfram is clear here along with a justification of the Angevin's Gallic claim to England.

In order to bring the Grail family into medieval times, Parille's grandson Titurel, the first Grail King, is said to live past 400 years in age. Titurel was located in a region between Navarre and Aragon, although the area that was called Salvaterra can be seen as a form of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Titurel marries a daugher of Frimutelle, a king of a Spanish province. Thus, the Grail family is placed in basically the same area as that associated with the Agote, and which formed a part of the Camino de Santiago. The doctrine of the Grail is said to have radiated from there to Aragon and then in order to Navarre, Catalonia and eventually beyond Spain. Wolfram also makes the Spanish connection placing Parzival's mother Herzeloyde, a member of the Grail family, in the country but without giving a precise location.

Eastern influences in Romanesque art

Millard B. Rogers in 1960, and Mercia MacDermot in 2003 have published convincing studies showing Indic influences in Romanesque art. These findings are summarized at this webpage: http://www.beyond-the-pale.org.uk/column.htm. Millard concentrated on the art found on the Camino de Santiago.

Most important are the close similarities of the column-swallowers and the foliage-spewer motifs in Romanesque art to the kirtimukha motif in Indic art of South and Southeast Asia. Indeed some of the reliefs along the Camino de Santiago look more similar to what one would find in medieval Borobudur or Bhubaneswar rather that of pre-Romanesque or even post-Romanesque Europe.

From the aforementioned site:

"What are we to make of this 15th century carving at Candi Sukuh in Java which, apart from the typical Hindu hair-style, could have come from a 12th century church in France ?" http://www.beyond-the-pale.org.uk/column.htm

In the following photo of a tympanum from Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, we see what could be images of winged monkeys. These might be derived from Hanuman and his army of flying monkeys, and Hanuman himself was sometimes depicted in text and art as having wings.

Winged monkeys, Santiago de Compostela, the legendary burial place of Apostle St. James. Click here for full size image. (Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecolchesterkid/2925988533/)

Elephants, apparently Asian as evidenced by their head shape, small ears, and squarish bodies, and by the rigging. Sant Joan de les Abadesses, 12th century in northern Catalonia. (Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21086430@N00/2451054893/)

Conclusion

If Parzival and Jüngere can be viewed be viewed as semi-legendary "histories" relating to events of the 12th and 13th centuries, as suggested earlier in this blog, then the "Grail family" -- the fairy folk -- would have come from the Near East to Spain. In my view, these travelers would have come along with the other Sayabiga maybe as early as the early 8th century.

While most of this population settled in coastal areas like Valencia, where evidence of their presence can be seen in the tidal rice and related cultural elements that still persist, some would have ventured to other areas of the Moorish kingdoms. Here, the higher elevations, cooler climate and other ecological and social factors would have forced them to abandon rice cultivation and adopt a more local diet. During the Reconquista, populations in the mountainous northern parts may have adopted Christianity early including the "Grail family" but still keeping contacts with their cousins along the coast, and ultimately in the Indies. For this reason, the Grail and the characters of the Grail epics are repeatedly connected with distant lands to the East and with "Prester John."

The Sayabiga carried elements of Indic and "Tantric" culture with them that can be seen in Romanesque art forms.

An interesting test of this suggestion would be to examine whether the Agotes and related peoples possibly extending to the Bigaudens of Brittany left any linguistic influences on the local languages. Genetic tests might also be able to reveal something, although these people eventually did intermix extensively.

Here are some more examples of Spanish Romanesque art that may include some self representation of the Agote masons themselves, i.e., Sayabiga or more likely mixed Sayabiga physical traits.

Organistrum de Iglesia de Ahedo del Butrón (Burgos) España s. XII (Source: Wikipedia)

Puerta, Santiago de Compostela (Source: Wikipedia) Click here for full image.

Betanzos (Source: Wikipedia). Click here for full image.

Sacrifice of Isaac, Cathedral of Jaca (Source: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/zgothic/1romanes/cap-11c/25s_1000.html).

Monasterio de San Pedro de Villanueva, Cangas de Onís, Asturias, Spain. Portada Sur (Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/c0ntraband/3958198252/in/photostream). Click here for full image.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Costello, Dudley. "The accursed races of France and Spain," Quarterly Magazine of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Manchester Unity Friendly Society, 1860, 92.

Facaros, Dana, and Michael Pauls. Northern Spain. London: Cadogan Guides, 2008, 38.

Gould, George M., and Walter L. Pyle. Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine. Teddington, Middlesex: Echo Library, 2007.

MacDermott, Mercia. Explore Green Men, Heart of Albion Press, 2006

Merke, F. History and Iconography of Endemic Goitre and Cretinism. Lancaster: MTP Press, 1984, 199.

Muñoz, Patricia, R. El Camino de la Oca, http://patadeoca.blogspot.com/.

Rogers, Millard B. "An Archeological Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela," Science 22 April 1960: Vol. 131. no. 3408, pp. 1176 - 1182.

Piñuela, M. Garcia, Los Agotes, http://www.portalfarma.com/pfarma/taxonomia/general/gp000012.nsf/voDocumentos/95B978F353404068C1256A49002C4F9C/$File/mitologia.pdf.

Prosser, Randall P. American Phonetic Journal. Cincinnati: R.P. Prosser, 1855, 162.

More on millenarian Spain at time of Columbus

2010-04-09T16:55:00.000-07:00

In the article Columbus, Magellan and the "Hidden King," the millennial environment that existed in Spain during the time of Columbus and Magellan was discussed.

The kingdom of Valencia, where I have suggested that Sayabiga elements had settled during Moorish times, turns out to be an epicenter of influence that created an environment in Spain favorable both the expeditions of both Columbus and Magellan. Not only did Valencia host the Sayabiga, but it was also a center of post-Templar influence in Spain.

According to the theory presented here earlier, the "Gypsy" peoples known as the Zutt, who were possibly a Jat group from the Sindh in South Asia, and the Sayabiga from Zabag moved along with their rice farming and buffalo herding through the Middle East. Probably they were the ones that introduced both rice and the buffalo to Egypt, and from there on to southern Spain. The rice culture there involves a tidal wet system and the Japonica strain, and I have suggested this rice was farmed by the Sayabiga.

Adoration of the Magi, Northern Spain, 1125-40 (Source: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/50921)

Much of the agriculture in Moorish Spain did come from Egypt both dry and irrigated types. Tidal rice was also planted by the Sayabiga in southern Mesopotamia, but they would have used regular wet rice agriculture in the Nile Valley before leapfrogging across North Africa to use the tidal system again in places like Lake Albufera in Valencia.

These Sayabiga in Spain, I have suggested, were an important link in the diplomatic efforts of "Prester John" of Zabag in Europe. They would have been the "Indians" or "fairy people" mentioned by Wolfram von Eschenbach and other medieval writers, and linked with the Plantagenet family and the Holy Grail.

Gypsies in Spain

The Gypsies in Spain are known as Gitano, a word that had been suggested to have been derived from "Jat," but most likely is a shortened form of Egyptiano "Egyptian."

Like the Romani Gypsies in other parts of Europe, the Gitano show linguistic traces of their origin from India. Therefore it is quite likely that they are descendants at least partly of the aforementioned Zutt. At one time, it was widely thought in Spain that the Gitano were descendants of Moriscos -- Muslims who had been converted to Catholicism. However, after the language relationship with the Romani was discovered, many suggested that the Gitano had migrated into Spain after the Romani appeared in Eastern Europe.

However, researchers like Susan G. Drummond have shown that the evidence suggests two streams of Gypsies into Spain. A Romani one in the north, and an older Gitano one in the south that dates to Moorish times. The Calo language of the Gitano displays a large number of Hispano-Arabic words, and their Flamenco music shows similar influence, both of which are absent among the Romani.

Adoration of the Magi, Fuentiduena Chapel, Castilla-Leon, 1175-1200 (Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterjr1961/2937556978/sizes/l/)

The presence of the Gitano can be seen as evidence of the migration of Zutt during Moorish times, and their ethnonym would agree with the suggestion that they came directly from Egypt. Also the fact that they show no signs of Orthodox Christianity would suggest that they converted in Spain, i.e. that they were Moriscos or conversos.

Quite possibly the Gitano were once Zutt buffalo herders, which could explain their wandering ways. The Zutt and their buffalo were moved to Syria and Anatolia to deal with the lion populations there -- a job that might have required a lot of movement from place to place. Since the Zutt and Sayabiga tended to move around together, they probably migrated from that region to Egypt with the Sayabiga engaged mainly in farming. The Sayabiga in Spain would have been rice farmers, and thus sedentary. Also, the literary evidence would suggest, according to theory suggested here, that they were less endogamous as compared to the Gitano and freely intermarried.

Royal Morisco link from Valencia

Interestingly, both Ferdinand and Isabella, the monarchs of Spain who supported Columbus' voyage, both descend from a Morisca from Valencia. Her name was Zaida, the daughter-in-law of al-Mutamid, the emir of Seville. Zaida is sometimes referred to as the daughter of al-Mutamid in latter works, but contemporary Muslim sources state that she was his daughter-in-law of unknown ancestry. She lived in Denia in the Alicante, which was then part of the Kingdom of Valencia but now forms its own province. Like Valencia, Alicante is noted for its rice production.

Zaida, a contemporary of the first "fairy" count of Anjou, Fulk IV, converted to Christianity and was either married to or was the concubine of Alfonso IV, king of Castile and Leon. Both Ferdinand and Isabella descend from Zaida through Alfonso Fernandez, King of Castile, who descends through Constance de Hohenstaufen from Constance de Hauteville, the daughter of Elvira Alphonsez. The latter was in turn was the daughter of Zaida.

Both monarchs may also descend from Zaida through Henry II's mother, a descendant of Zaida's other daughter Sancha Alfonsez, but this genealogy is less secure.

A Valencian clan that claimed royal descent was the Borgia family, which rose to great heights during the Renaissance. Accounts beginning in the early 17th century claim that the Borgias descend from King Ramiro of Spain, but the genealogies differ. The actual documentation from Valencia and Aragon suggests instead that the Borgias trace their origins to one Gonzalo de Borja, who had no formal title.

The surnames Borja, Borge, Borgia, etc. come from the name of the Moorish town, and the surname is found on lists of Morisco surnames. Evidence suggests that the Borgia clan, or at least their paternal ancestors, came originally from Borja in Aragon, but had been settled in the huerta of Valencia for some time before rising to prominence.

The first Borgia to gain fame was Alfonso from Canals, Valencia who became Pope Callisto III (Callixtus III) in 1455. Alfonso had once served as an ambassador for the Aragonese kings. He and the rest of his family became famed for their corruption and he appointed his nephew Rodrigo de Borgia, from Jativa, Valencia, as cardinal.

Rodrigo would become Pope Alexander VI in the same year that Columbus sailed on his first voyage. As Pope, he granted the coveted rights to the Americas to Spain after a request from King Ferdinand, who had helped bring Rodrigo to power.

The children of Alexander VI and others in the Borgia clan quickly gained titles of nobility including Duke of Gandia in Valencia, and a number of titles in Italy. Alexander VI's son Cesare Borgia became Duke of Valentinois, and inspired Machiavelli's work "The Prince."

Annio of Viterbo, possibly with the consent of Alexander VI, created a genealogy for the Borgias that claims the family descends from the Egyptian god-king Osiris -- interesting given the Zutt and Sayabiga's Egypt connection -- although Annio makes these links ancient and extends them to Italy.

The Borgia coat of arms with the bull representing Apis as an aspect of Osiris. (Source: Wikipedia)

Templars in Spain

When the Templars were disbanded, those in Portugal took refuge among the Order of Christ. The Templars in Spain joined the Order of Montesa in Valencia. Both of these orders play a part in the navigation to the Indies and the voyages of Columbus. Earlier in this blog, I suggested that the Templars had a political relationship with Prester John via Sayabiga/Assassin intermediaries.

The Order of Christ knights were used by Prince Henry of Portugal, himself the Grandmaster of the organization, during his voyages of discovery.

An interesting possible direct connection between the Order of Montesa, which was located in the Kingdom of Valencia, and Columbus comes through Carlos de Viana (Charles of Viana).

Carlos was a prince of Aragon, the son of the future John II, and himself the heir to the crown of Navarre. He also held the title of Prince of Viana. According to one theory, Prince Carlos was actually Christopher Columbus' father! A team of geneticists lead by Jose A. Lorente and Mark Stoneking had set out to test whether this theory was valid and they were expected to release results in 2005. However, I have not seen anything further published on this research.

One of Prince Carlos' sons, Felipe, Count of Beaufort, and possibly a half-brother of Columbus, quit his position as Archbishop of Palermo in 1485 to become Grandmaster of the Order of Montesa.

A member of the Borgia family -- Don Pedro Luis Galceran de Borgia -- would become the last Grandmaster of the Order of Montesa in 1572.

Rise in millenarianism

In Columbus' "Book of Prophecies" (Libro de las profecias), the discoverer claims that he had found the Biblical lands of Tarshish, Cathyr and Ophir.

Likely one of the main reasons that both Columbus and Magellan were able to find fertile ground in Spain while failing elsewhere lies in the millennial environment that existed in the area at the time. The Valencian alchemist Arnold of Villanova (1235-1311) was probably the first person responsible for popularizing the millenarian views of Joachim of Fiore in Spain.

He modified Joachimite prophecies combining them with earlier material from Pseudo-Methodius and others, and claiming that the Last Emperor who would reconquer Zion would come from Spain. After Arnold of Villanova, another Valencian, Francesc Eixemensis further popularized these millennial views both in Valencia and throughout Spain. Peter of Aragon, a member of the royal family and a Franciscan also helped promote the idea in the late 14th century that the King of Aragon would retake Jerusalem.

During the period of King Ferdinand V, the belief that this monarch was the prophesied one were widespread throughout Spain. Given that Columbus himself was also deeply interested in prophecy, and also apparently considered himself a divine instrument in prophetic fulfillment, he was destined to eventually come to the monarchs of Aragon and Castile.

In the introduction to the Book of Prophecies, Columbus also mentions that the islands he had discovered were the same archipelago of 7,448 islands off the coast of South China (Manzi) mentioned by Marco Polo. In the millenarian views of the time, islands were seen as important elements in the fulfillment of prophecy. The conquest of the islands at the end of the earth was widely seen as an important mission of the millennial king in the last days.

Message from Prester John

The millenarian environment helped fuel the thirst for exploration, but it was information from the far east that provided the geographic knowledge necessary for Columbus to set off on his journey.

Nicolo di Conti and the eastern ambassador who came together with the entourage of papal envoy Alberto de Sarteano provided that knowledge. Previously, I have suggested that the eastern delegate came from the kingdom of Prester John, which Conti claimed to have spent much time at during his Asian travels. The ambassador claims to have come from a Nestorian kingdom in "Upper India" about 20 days from Cathay, i.e., the kingdom of Prester John.

The knowledge they provided completed a set of influences that appear to have convinced Columbus and others of the feasibility of the western voyages. The other influences were:

Marco Polo's account of the eastern islands off South China and their richness in gold, which Columbus apparently equates with Biblical gold of Ophir.
The book attributed to John of Mandeville in the mid to late 14th century suggests that circumnavigation of the world is possible. Columbus refers to Mandeville's work as having a great influence on him. Mandeville described Prester John's eastern realm as follows:

"Toward the east part of Prester John's land is an isle good and great, that men clepe Taprobane, that is full noble and full fructuous...Beside that isle, toward the east, be two other isles. And men clepe that one Orille, and that other Argyte, of the which all the
land is mine of gold and silver. And those isles be right where that the Red Sea departeth from the sea ocean."
Orille and Argyte are the Chryse and Argye, the islands of gold and silver mentioned by Ptolemy who locates them beyond the Golden Chersonese (Malaya Peninsula).

At the extreme east of the kingdoms was the land of Eden:

"And beyond the land and the isles and the deserts of Prester John's lordship, in going straight toward the east, men find nothing but mountains and rocks, full great. And there is the dark region, where no man may see, neither by day ne by night, as they of the country say. And that desert and that place of darkness dure from this coast unto Paradise terrestrial, where that Adam, our formest father, and Eve were put, that dwelled there but little while: and that is towards the east at the beginning of the earth. But that is not that east that we clepe our east, on this half, where the sun riseth to us. For when the sun is
east in those parts towards Paradise terrestrial, it is then midnight in our parts on this half, for the roundness of the earth, of the which I have touched to you of before."
Mandeville then describes the journeys on the 'other half' of the globe that involve "coasting" from the lands of Prester John:

"From those isles that I have spoken of before, in the Land of Prester John, that be under earth as to us that be on this half, and of other isles that be more further beyond, whoso will, pursue them for to come again right to the parts that he came from, and so environ all earth. But what for the isles, what for the sea, and what for strong rowing, few folk assay for to pass that passage; albeit that men might do it well, that might be of power to dress them thereto, as I have said you before. And therefore men return from those isles above said by other isles, coasting from the land of Prester John."

Columbus learned of the testimony of Conti and the eastern ambassador at least from the letter of astronomer Paolo Toscanelli to Fernao Martins in 1474. If the second letter of Toscanelli to Columbus is authentic, Columbus was also told to expect to find Christians on a journey to the East Indies. Francis Millet Rogers has suggested that Columbus was additionally familiar with Conti through the work of Pero Tafur. If so, then he might easily have connected Prester John as mentioned in Tafur with the eastern ambassador from the Nestorian kingdom in Upper India. Conti also mentions Nestorians in India, and in Tafur's account he describes the subjects of Prester John saying that "they know nothing of our Romish Church, nor are governed by it."

Tafur suggests that Prester John had an interest in the Christian world: "I learnt from Nicolo de' Conti that Prester John kept him continuously at his court, enquiring of him as to the Christian world, and concerning the princes and their estates, and the wars they were waging, and while he was there he saw Prester John on two occasions dispatch ambassadors to Christian princes, but he did not hear whether any news of them had been received." Since the king was interested in making contact with Christendom logically he would have sent an ambassador along with Conti.

Upon analyzing the itinerary of Conti as supplied to papal secretary Poggio Bracciolini, Columbus probably noted that Conti's long sojourn with Prester John must have taken place sometime after the former had visited Champa. That was the period before Conti began his journey back to India and Europe, and the one in which he spent most of his time in Asia.

Therefore, Columbus quite logically would place Prester John's kingdom somewhere in Southeast Asia, in the same eastern archipelago mentioned by Marco Polo as lying off the coast of South China. In this location, Columbus, venturing to an unknown part of the world, could expect to meet the friendly Nestorian Christians of Prester John's kingdom. And Conti's testimony appears to have convinced many including Toscanelli and Columbus that the East Indies could be reached by sailing west from Europe around the globe.

Thus, Columbus' sailing course toward the equatorial latitudes, of which he expected to land in the East Indies, is not surprising. Magellan also folllowed a similar course, and we know from his notes that he also appeared to be searching for the islands of Tarshish and Ophir.

By the time of Columbus, Valencia had become the commercial capital of the Crown of Aragon, and it was through the city's port that Spain controlled much of the trade that occurred in the European part of the Mediterranean. Valencia provided the first round of funding for Columbus voyage as financiers like Jewish converso Luis de Santangel responded to Queen Isabella's call for financial backing.

After Prester John of Zabag sent letters to Western Christendom in the latter part of the 12th century, he became relatively quiet. Maybe the conquests of the Mongols eased the urgency of dealing with expanding threats along the trade routes. However, by the mid-15th century Islam began to expand quickly in Southeast Asia with the establishment of the Sultanate of Aceh, and with Islamic kingdoms already existing in Kedah and Pasai by 1380. At this time, the remnants of old Zabag were now consolidated into a kingdom known widely as Luzon. So the interest that "Prester John" showed Nicolo di Conti in the goings on of Christian nations in the West is logical.

Spain, for reasons that extend back to the original Prester John of Zabag, was the natural kingdom to have supported Columbus' millenarian plan to reach the fabled islands of Tarshish and Ophir.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Columbus, Christopher, Kay Brigham, and Kay Brigham. Christopher Columbus's Book of Prophecies. Barcelona, Spain: Editorial Clie, 1991.

Constable, Olivia R. Trade and Traders in Muslim Spain: The Commercial Realignment of the Iberian Peninsula, 900-1500. Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought, Ser. 4, 24. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Dandelet, Thomas James. Spanish Rome, 1500-1700. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.
Lorente, Jose A. DNA challenges posed in attempting to solve Christopher Columbus misteries [sic], http://www.promega.com/GENETICIDPROC/ussymp14proc/oralpresentations/Lorente.pdf, 2003.

Reeves, Marjorie. The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages A Study in Joachimism. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.

Rogers, Francis Millet. The Quest for Eastern Christians. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1962.

Tafur, Pero and Malcolm Letts (translator). Pero Tafur: Travels and Adventures (1435-1439), New York: Harper and Brothers, 1926.

Tompsett, Brian. Directory of Royal Genealogical Data, http://www3.dcs.hull.ac.uk/genealogy/GEDCOM.html, 2005.

Watts, Pauline Moffitt. "Prophecy and Discovery: On the Spiritual Origins of ChristopherColumbus's 'Enterprise of the Indies'," American Historical Review, Feb. 1985, 73-102.

West, Delno C. "Medieval Ideas of Apocalyptic Mission and the Early Franciscans in Mexico," The Americas vol. XLV, Jan. 1989, no. 3, 292-313.

Seafaring in the Philippines

2010-03-27T19:03:00.000-07:00

In previous writings and blog posts, I have discussed ancient sea exploration, and also specifically Austronesian navigation and seafaring techniques. Now I would like to touch upon the subject of the seafaring culture in what is now known as the Philippines.

In 1540, Portuguese royal agent Bras Bayao recommended hiring the capable pilots from Luzon whom he describes as "discoverers." At the time, Luzon merchants, mercenaries and seamen were widely in use throughout Asia. Luzon merchants like Surya Diraja controlled the pepper trade in the South China Sea. The admiral of the Sultan of Brunei's fleet was a prince of Luzon according to Pigafetta, and in 1525 a "captain" from Luzon commanded the flagship in the exiled Sultan of Malacca's attempt to retake the city from the Portuguese. Luzon mercenaries were in the service of the Sultan of Aceh in holding the island of Aru, and in 1529 and 1538 they fought for the Batak-Menanagkabau kings who were battling Muslim enemies. In 1529, Luzon forces were also in service with the Muslim fleet of Aceh.

Bras Bayao's recommendation of Filipino seafarers came at the beginning of a long legacy in which the Filipino played a major role in nearly all the merchant fleets, and many of the armed navies of the world.

Indigenous navigation techniques

One of the early notices of the outstanding abilities of Filipino seafarers came in Alexander Dalrymple's description of the Sulu navigator Bahatol, whom Dalrymple estimates was more than 100 years old when they met:

Amongst the authorities of this kind, I cannot omit mentioning a very extraordinary Chart, of the Sooloo Isles, and Northern part of Borneo; it was formed by the description of Bahatol, from the reflected experience of almost a Century: particular Observation was made some use of, in limiting the Islands adjacent to Sooloo, and mistakes, in these, were the source of some confusion; but, though it cannot be supposed a draught, made from memory, and delineated by the hands of another, should be free from very material error and omissions; I need not be afraid of exceeding, in my Applause of so remarkable a Work of Natural Genius! when I consider also, that his descriptions were conveyed through means of an Interpreter, and in a few days, which period did not admit a recollection of those inaccuracies, which are found in Works executed by the rules of Science. To confirm my sentiments of this Person's Genius, I have presented a faithful Copy of part of his Performance, even without his latter Corrections...

Bahatol had the ability to create charts of the region from memory that were the only ones Dalrymple considered accurate -- to include those made by Western navigators and cartographers. Another indigenous navigator of the same period, Tupaia of Tahiti, also had the ability to create modern maps based purely on mental references. Also, like the Tahitians encountered by James Cook, weather prediction played an important part in the indigenous navigation of the Sulu mariners. Dalrymple states:

Perhaps the conclusion of this chapter, which are signs of weather and land, communicated by Bahatol, the old Sulu, may expose me to ridicule. However, few are so ignorant of human nature, as not to know that experience exceeds the deepest reasoning, and that an illiterate fisherman shall often be found, better acquainted with the signs which indicate changes of the weather, than the most acute philosopher with his barometer. Bahatol informed me, that these signs have passed down from father to son, through many successions, and that his long experience has warranted their veracity: However, I only present them, to be confirmed, or refuted, by observation and experience. These signs are chiefly taken from lightning. When lightning explodes upwards, it shews there will soon be wind, though it does not denote a storm.
A storm is predicted, by a woo-ing sound in the water.
Tremulous lightning very high, is a sign of rain.
The same not so high, indicates a hill.
When the lightning is red and fiery, it shews the hill to be rocky.
When yellow, it is a sign the hill is earth.
Low flashes upon the surface of the water, denote a shoal under
water.
A shoal above water, has an atmosphere hanging over it, which appears like an island.
Low long lightning, upon the surface, shews an island with trees; and when an island, or hill, is high at one end, and low at the other, the lightning will be in an inclining line like the hill.

Use of the compass

Upon the arrival of Europeans, native seafarers were quick to obtain the latest mariner's compasses and telescopes from Europe, but mainly as prestige items. Most evidence suggests that the compass, at least, was rarely used.

However, there is some evidence of the use of the medieval floating needle that was commonly mentioned in writings concerning the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.

William Barlowe's Navigator's Supply, written in 1597, mentions encounters that Thomas Cavendish -- most popular for having pirated the Manila galleon Santa Anna -- had with two "East Indians" from Asia:

Some fewe yeeres since, it so fell out that I had severall conferences with two East Indians which were brought into England by master Candish [Thomas Cavendish], and had learned our language: The one of them was of Mamillia [Manila] in the Isle of Luzon, the other of Miaco in Japan. I questioned with them concerning their shipping and manner of sayling. They described all things farre different from ours, and shewed, that in steade of our Compas, they use a magneticall needle of sixe ynches long, and longer, upon a pinne in a dish of white China earth filled with water; In the bottome whereof they have two crosse lines, for the foure principall windes; the rest of the divisions being reserved to the skill of their Pilots.

Dead reckoning using stars, currents, winds, etc.

James Francis Warren, who personally observed the indigenous navigational techniques of the Iranun and Balangingi peoples of Mindanao, states:

Sailing directions of other kinds were used when the Iranun struck off across expanses of open sea; bearings were taken from the direction of the winds, the currents, and the position of the sun. At night they were guided by the stars, the moon and weather signs. Even in the sky, the Iranun and Samal raiders saw the sea; every type of star, wave and current, every rock and navigational landmark had been given a name. There at least a dozen words to describe the color of the sea and the varying tides. In deep haze and fog the Iranun and Samal navigated by reading the currents, swells and sounds as if hunting a living creature.

The ability to navigate in haze and fog -- when no visible means of orientation are available -- using only the action and sound of the waves and currents mirrors the practice of navigation used by Micronesian Mau Piailug and other Pacific navigators.

Eric S. Casino conducted a study of navigational bearing stars and the use of currents and winds for navigation among the Jama Mapun, a Samal "sea gypsy" people of Mindanao. When visible, the Jama Mapun use the stars, Sun and Moon to guide them. However, during storms and other conditions of limited visibility, they depend only on the currents and winds to know what direction they are traveling in, and how far they have traveled toward reaching their destination.

The Jama Mapun know the difference between prevailing winds and currents, and those kicked up by storms and other weather conditions. One method they use to detect an original current as opposed to a current that arises, for example, from a squall, is to dip their legs or paddles into the water so that they can feel the old current under the surface. In this way, they are able to calculate the boat's drift and changes in bearing. These seafarers have an advanced vocabulary for winds, currents, swells, etc.

Dante L. Ambrosio, who studies indigenous star lore, notes the following regarding Samal navigators:

My Sama Dilaut informants said that the position of the stars, which form the rope used to pull up the bubu out of the sea, indicated the strength of the current. These stars form the handle of the Big Dipper. When they are in the east, the current is strong but when they are in the west, the current is weak or there is no current at all.

Several stars, together with the wind, are used in direction finding. Samas know that the morning star Lakag or Maga is in the east, Bubu and Mamahi Uttara are in the north, while Bunta is in the south. The western direction is reckoned with stars Tunggal Bahangi and Mamahi Magrib. Unfortunately, I failed to identify these stars. The same goes with Mamahi Satan, the south star. Of course, the east-west direction is easily identifiable with the aid of the sun which is also a star. For the same directions, the Samas also observe Batik and Mupu which traverse the sky from east to the zenith to the west.

Together with stars, winds are also used to mark direction. Satan or salatan, the south wind, is associated with Bunta, the asterism named after a puffer fish. The heavenly fish releases the air from its puffy body once it ends its seasonal appearance in the night sky. That air is satan or salatan.

When Anakdatu, which follows Bunta, has come and gone, the north wind called uttara replaces the south wind. Another marker for uttara is the appearance of Mupu in the east at nightfall. It is also uttara that blows when the northern stars of Batik get dimmer. Its southern stars dim when it is satan’s turn to blow.

Ambrosio states that the North Star -- Mamahi Uttara -- was prominently used by Sama Dilaut navigators. The North Star is also important among the Jama Mapun who know it as Sibilut. Using Iman Yasin as a source, Ambrosio gives an example of how a Sama navigator would set a course using the stars:

Using this [North Star] as a guide, one may reach Cotabato and Zamboanga by sailing northeast, Sabah northwest, Celebes or Sulawesi and Balikpapan in Kalimantan southeast with some necessary adjustments along the way.

Bunta is used in crossing the Sulu Sea from Mapun near Palawan to the capital town of Bongao on the Tawi-tawi mainland. To reach Bongao, the pilot with an outstretched arm must keep Bunta one dangkal — from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the middle finger — to the left of the boat’s prow. If the prow veers to the left by a dangkal, it will reach Languyan instead which is at the northern end of Tawi-tawi. But if it veers to the right, the boat will land at Sibutu which is at the southern end of the archipelago.

According to Aspalman Jalman, an expert navigator from Tawi-tawi, by knowing the "position of Mamahi Uttara and Mamahi Satan and the relative position of one’s destination, one could readily lay down the path to be taken by the boat." The idea that one can always correct one's bearings by knowing the "relative position" of one's destination gives an important clue as to how the local navigators projected their own vessel's position upon their mental maps of the region. Similar types of navigational techniques have been preserved among other peoples in Insular Southeast Asia such as the Bugis to the south in eastern Indonesia.

In addition to possessing excellent navigational capabilities, the peoples of the Philippines were also expert boat builders. According to Fr. Francisco Combes (1667, 70): "The care and technique with which they build them makes their ships sail like birds, while ours are like lead in comparison."

Filipinos as hired seafarers

When Europeans arrived in the area at the start of the colonial period, the kingdom of Luzon was heavily involved in the regional trade that included sending ships to Timor for sandalwood, and distributing pepper throughout the trade routes. Luzon merchants had a special relationship with the ports of China that allowed them to be the primary and at times exclusive middlemen in the commerce between South China and other countries using the maritime trade routes.

After colonization, Filipino seafarers continued to work on Spanish and other ships in the region. Francisco Leandro de Viana (1751-1765) writes:

There is not an Indian in these islands who has not a remarkable inclination for the sea; nor is there at present in all the world a people more agile in maneuvers on shipboard, or who learn so quickly nautical terms and whatever a good mariner ought to know. Their disposition is most humble in the presence of a Spaniard, and they show him great respect; but they can teach many of the Spanish mariners who sail in these seas. In the ships of Espana there are sure to be some Indians from these islands, and investigation can be made to ascertain what they are. The little that I understand about them makes me think that these are a people most suited for the sea; and that, if the ships are manned with crews one-third Spaniards and the other two-thirds Indians, the best mariners of these islands can be obtained, and many of them be employed in our warships. There is hardly an Indian who has sailed the seas who does not understand the mariner's compass, and therefore on this [Acapulco] trade-route there are some very skilful and dexterous helmsmen. Their disposition is cowardly, but, when placed on a ship, from which they cannot escape, they fight with spirit and courage.

By the 19th century, Filipinos had established themselves as highly sought seafarers for crews on international ships. According to Conrad Malte-Brun writing in 1827, the "natives of Manilla are almost universally employed as gunners and steersmen in the intercolonial navigation."

The importance of the Filipino seafarer has continued into present times. In 2009, for example, about 40 percent of the world's container vessel and oil tanker crews were Filipino. In the same year, about 70 percent of all Japanese shipping used Filipino crews.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Ambrosio, Dante. "Mamahi:’ Stars of Tawi-tawi," Philippine Daily Inquirer, 1/26/2008.

Casino, Eric S., "Jama Mapun Ethnoecology: Economic and Symbolic," Asian Studies, 5, 1967, 1-32.

Logan, James Richardson, and George Windsor Earl. The Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia: Singapore, 1847-1855. Nendeln, Leichtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1970, 514.

Malte-Brun, Conrad. Universal Geography, Or A Description of All Parts of the World, on a New Plan, According to the Great Natural Divisions of the Globe. Philadelphia: A. Finley, 1827, 336.

Scott, William Henry. Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society. Quezon City, Manila, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1997.

Warren, James Francis. Iranun and Balangingi: Globalization, Maritime Raiding, and the Birth of Ethnicity. Singapore: Singapore University Press, National University of Singapore, 2002, 264-5.

More on Anglo-Israelism and the Philippines

2010-03-12T12:57:00.000-08:00

In the the article "British-Israelism, America and the Philippines" and other posts, I have discussed the issue of how Anglo-Israelism helped influence America's decision to colonize the Philippines.

Throughout this blog, I have suggested that the region now known as the Philippines and the surrounding areas were thought of by various cultures far and wide as the location of cosmically important sites including the axis mundi, navel of the sea, world tree, paradise and the like. Nusantao seafarers and later the medieval kingdom known Sanfotsi and Zabag helped to spread such ideas.

When Columbus and Magellan sailed for the East Indies and Cathay, they hoped to find the biblical lands of Tarshish and Ophir. Columbus appears to be the person who sparked the idea that the acquisition of the gold and "almug trees" of Ophir were important prophetic requirements leading up to the reconquest of Jerusalem and to the Second Coming.

Shortly after the Spanish colonization of the Philippines had begun, most European writers believed that Tarshish and Ophir were located in the East Indies.

Sir Walter Raleigh, the founder of Virginia for Queen Elizabeth I and the architect of England's colonization in the "New World," wrote in 1614:

And by the length of the passage which Solomon's ships made from the Red Sea (which was three years in going and coming [to Ophir]), it seemeth they went to the uttermost east, as the Moluccas, or Philippines. Indeed, those that now go from Portugal, or from hence, finish that navigation in two years, and sometimes less; and Solomon's ships went not above a tenth part of this our course from hence....Neither was it needful for the Spaniards themselves (had it not been for the plenty of gold in the East India islands, far above the mines of any one place of America) to sail every year from the west part of America thither, and there to have strongly planted and inhabited the richest of those islands, wherein they have built a city called Manilla. Solomon, therefore, needed not to have gone farther off than Ophir in the East to have sped worse; neither could he navigate from the east to the west in those days, whenas he had no coast to guide him.

However the English were not particularly happy with Spanish claims to prophecy nor their denial of non-Catholics of the empire that became known as the "Spanish Main." The Ophirian Conjecture started as a debate largely between the English and the Spanish over proper interpretation of biblical prophecy.

Anglo-American Israel

In the mid 19th century, Americans began to strongly embrace the idea that their nation was included in the prophecies of the Bible. They largely drew on the older ideas of British Israelism that had been percolating for some time.

One can sense in the early writings on this topic, a continued antagonism with Spain. The Methodist minister Samuel Davies Baldwin, for example, admitted that the Spanish represented the biblical "ships of Tarshish" that according to him were prophesied to discover the Americas.

However, the main purpose of Spain's discovery, according to Baldwin, was "opening the way to the emigration of God's people," i.e., the Anglo-Saxon settlers of the United States. Fountain Pitts, another Methodist minister, stated that the Spanish were only interested in gold and silver, but that the Anglo-Saxon colonists came to claim the 'New World' for God.

In religious circles, the idea that America would evangelize the world as a prelude to Armageddon became widespread.

So when the Spanish-American War broke out, whatever the real cause of that war might have been, church writers quickly brought up the old antagonism between England and Spain in relation to the Ophirian conjecture and to prophecy. Now the Anglo-Israelists had departed from the old Catholic ideas that the "Far East" harbored the Garden of Eden, Prester John's kingdom, and golden Tarshish and Ophir. Again, they considered that Spain represented the nation known as Tarshish in the Bible. Of course, the also rejected Spain's old claim to be the nation that would reconquer Jerusalem and herald the return of Christ.

"Thou brakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind"

Religious minds of the time were quick to see America's defeat of Spain as a fulfillment of prophecy, and as a final settling of an old score with their Ophirian rival.

A. Maurice Low, an American working for the London Chronicle described 1898, the year of the Spanish American War, as "annus mirabilis in American history." While Martin Lyman Streator extended this "wonderful year" not only to American history but to the entire history of the Anglo-Saxon race.

Streator was a pastor of the Disciples of Christ, who worked as Pennsylvania State Evangelist for that organization before becoming chief missionary of the Christian Women's Board of Missions for the state of Montana. He was a prolific writer and two of his books, The Anglo-American Alliance in Prophecy in 1900 and The Hope of Israel in 1903 became very popular and favorably reviewed in Protestant religious circles. He writes in the former work:

The providential victory of Admiral Dewey at Manila, and the war in the Philippines, projected the American Republic in spite of ourselves into the great world of European and Asiatic nations. This should teach us that the God of nations and the ages intends that "the Company of Peoples" in the " strong nation " of prophecy in the United States shall have an influential voice in determining the destiny of the world in "this great epoch in the history of man." We cannot shirk this duty and avoid this destiny even if we desired to do it. The God of our fathers has set before us an open door in the Orient which no man can shut. He has given us a coign of vantage for the impending crisis.

In the conclusion of his sketch of one phase of our diplomacy before and after the war with Spain," Mr. Low says:

" It explains in a measure why those in authority have now, as they have had for the last two years, a feeling of gratitude toward England; it explains how, when in our extremity we needed a friend, the only friend we found was England, who stood by us loyally, manfully, and courageously, braving the displeasure of all the world because of the ties of blood ; it explains why there is to-day a solidarity of the English-speaking people: a union stronger, better, more powerful than any other union the world has before known; which does not exist by the favor of treaties or the grace of rulers, but which has come into being because it is a union that makes for the peace, the progress, the civilization of the world, which lends encouragement to the people still struggling for liberty and who know that to the Anglo-Saxon they must look for their inspiration and their deliverance.

"So long as the Blood endures,
I shall know that your good is mine, ye shall feel that my strength is
yours:
In the days of Armageddon, at the last great fight of all,
That Our House stand together and the pillars do not fall." (P. 261.)
Men of thought and discernment already are perceiving that we are entering "the days of Armageddon," and that Our Race must stand together in " the last great fight of all." This we will do if we are the elect race of Israel. If we are not the House of Joseph, to whom the God of the covenant promised the dominion of the world, then we will fall never to rise again in the impending war of nations and races. If you accept the Bible as a revelation from the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, then open your eyes and see what he declares concerning the origin, the course, and the destiny of Our Race. He is fulfilling day by day in the chosen people of Our Race, now scattered over the world, the promises which he gave of old to the fathers concerning the dispersion, the expansion, the gathering, and the triumphant and glorious destiny of the children of Jacob and Joseph. The manifestations of sympathy and harmony between the two great branches of Our Race, which are the most notable characteristics of recent years, are the development of the eternal purposes of the living God towards his people.

John Patrick Brushingham, A Chicago Methodist pastor, wrote an article "American Protestanitism and Expansion" in The Methodist Review that connects the American victory with Isaiah's prophecy about the far off isles of the Gentiles. The Methodist Review was at the time the nation's oldest religious review, although a different publication tham the journal of the same name that exists today. Brushingham wrote in 1899:

"The isles shall wait for his law," sang Isaiah. "America is the world's evangelist," said Senator Davis, of the Peace Commission.

When Captain Gridley of the good ship Olympia tired that first gun at Cavite, by permission and order of the great admiral on May 1, 1898, it was heard round the world and became a revelation and a prophecy. When Dewey had destroyed the Spanish fleet and cut the cable to Hong Kong, there was placed upon the shoulders of our American republic a new burden of responsibility, and there was opened up before it a wide door of opportunity to give the blessings of a modern form of government and Anglo-Saxon civilization to islands hitherto considered to be at the ends of the earth. The distant echo of Dewey's guns was a prophecy that under God, and baptized by the divine Spirit, we are equal to the responsibility of this great providential opening. Let us take counsel of our hopes rather than our fears, believing that the genius and virtue of our American Christianity are adequate to the emergency. Dr. John Henry Barrows in a personal note says: " Those who have courageous hearts and the Christian spirit of missions, and the spirit of a world-wide evangelism, see God's hand and hear God's voice in recent events."

In another important religious journal of the time, The Homiletic Review, the editorial section in the July 1898 edition connects Dewey's victory with another prophecy of Isaiah that tells of the defeat of the ships of Tarshish, the nation that again was interpreted by Anglo-Israelists as referring to Spain. These sentiments were also echoed in other writings of the time.

The naval battles have been marvels that would almost be pronounced miracles, and incredible by skeptics, if found written in the Bible. In the days of the Invincible Armada there seemed to be a literal fulfillment of the divine Word, in Psalm xlviii. 7: "Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind." The providential interpositions of the recent months have been almost as wonderful. In a little over one hundred days of actual war, most of which time has necessarily been devoted to preparation, everything for which this country contended has been gained—and more. Assuredly there is reason for peculiar gratitude and special thanksgiving. And now begins the greater task of the nation in carrying out unselfishly and to the end the purposes of humanity and freedom for which the war was entered upon. It will need wise statesmanship and the sustaining influence of a tremendously powerful moral and Christian sentiment to keep the nation from being swept into the unrighteousness of a mad ambition for territorial expansion and imperialism. It will require just is potent moral and Christian forces to lift the nation up to the comprehension and attainment of the new destiny in the world's future, markt out for it by the events of the year 1898.

Philippines as 'ends of the earth'

Columbus believed that Spain would fulfill prophecy as the chosen nation of God by carrying the Christian faith to the farthest corners of the world -- that in his mind meant the far east where Cipangu and Cathay were located. To this end, the most important geographical goal of his journeys was the island of Ophir.

Anglo-Israelists appear to have co-opted Columbus idea but with America bringing "true" Protestant Christianity to the 'ends of the earth.' In this sense, the Philippines was again linked with biblical prophecies speaking of the far east and the rising of the sun -- the last place on earth to be evangelized.

Here is how Streator interprets statements by President William McKinley on the "just war" with Spain and the colonization of the Philippines.

President McKinley characterized our recent war with Spain as "A just war for humanity." Concerning it, and the new issues growing out of it he said :

"Some things have happened which were not promised, nor even foreseen, and our purposes in relation to them must not be left in doubt. A just war has been waged for humanity and with it have come new problems and responsibilities. Spain has been ejected from the Western Hemisphere, and our flag floats over her former territory. Cuba has been liberated, and our guarantees to her people will be sacredly executed. A beneficent government has been provided for Porto Rico. The Philippines are ours, and American authority must be supreme thruout the archipelago. There will be amnesty broad and liberal, but no abatement of our rights, no abandonment of our duty. There must be no scuttle policy. We will fulfil in the Philippines the obligations imposed by the triumphs of our arms and by the treaty of peace; by international law; by the nation's sense of honor; and more than all by the rights, interests, and conditions of the Philippine peoples themselves. No outside interference blocks the way to peace and a stable government. The obstructionists are here, not elsewhere. They may postpone, but they cannot defeat the realization of the high purpose of this nation to restore order to the islands and establish a just and generous government, in which the inhabitants shall have the largest participation for which they are capable. The organized forces which have been misled into rebellion have been dispersed by our faithful soldiers and sailors, and the people of the islands, delivered from anarchy, pillage, and oppression, recognize American sovereignty as the symbol and pledge of peace, justice, law, religious freedom, the security of life and property, and the welfare and prosperity of their several communities."
This language of the President of the great Republic is in harmony with the teaching of the oracles of God concerning the mission and work and destiny of his chosen people Israel. The Messianic King of Israel breaks in pieces the oppressor by arming his chosen people who hate oppression with the weapons of war whereby they break in pieces the feet of the image of Gentile empire, and break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free. American Israel has been doing this on a stupendous scale since the beginning of this era of crisis in 1898. Compare the language of our President with the following oracle in Isaiah:

"According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay,
Wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies (such as the Spaniards) ;
To the islands he will repay recompense.
So shall they fear the name of Jehovah from the west (as in the West Indies),
And his glory from the rising of the sun (as in the East Indies):
When the adversary shall come in like a flood (as in the Boxer revolt in China),
The spirit of Jehovah shall lift up a standard against him." (13a.59:18,19.)

What standard is this but the standard of the chosen people appointed of God to execute his will? I do not claim that the instances cited as above in the parentheses exhaust the meaning of the prophecy, but select them as notable examples of its fulfilment. The context shows that the oracle relates to events belonging to the time of the end. It was not the design of American statesmen to take possession of the West Indies and the East Indies at the beginning of this crisis, for as President McKinley said: " Some things have happened which were not promised (in the political platform), nor even foreseen (by the wisest statesmen)." But they were foreseen of God, and they were promised by his holy prophets. The marvelous things in the great naval victories in Manila Bay and off Santiago were foretold in these words of the prophet Micah:

"As in the days of thy coming forth out of the land of Egypt Will I show unto him marvelous things.
The nations (Gentiles) shall see and be ashamed of all their might."
(Mi. 7:15, 16.)

Those victories arrested the attention of the world, and filled the Gentiles with astonishment and dismay at the might of the American Company of Peoples. The war in the Philippines is accurately described in the next sentences. I quote the language from Lesser's Translation as more definite in meaning.

"They shall lay their hand upon their mouth,
(In token of their astonishment at the victories of Israel),
Their ears shall be deafened (by the roar of Israel's cannon).
They shall lick the dust like a serpent;
Like those that crawl on the earth,
Shall they come forth trembling out of their close places
(As they are doing in the Philippine Islands):
Unto the Lord our God shall they hasten in dread,
And shall be afraid of thee." (Mi. 7: 16, 17.)

Biblical interpretation in the Philippines

While America had one interpretation of events in relation to biblical prophecy, the revolutionaries of the Philippines had their own view of the same writings.

The Philippine Revolution had begun two years before the Spanish American War, and one of the chief propagandists of the movement, Pedro Paterno, had reintroduced older views like those of Father Colin and Antonio Galvão that the Philippines was the location of Tarshish and/or Ophir to which the navy of Solomon ventured.

Paterno's interpretation would be repeated frequently by Filipino writers over the decades up to the present times, especially in popular publications.

Similar views also seemed to have penetrated into the Iglesia ni Cristo, the largest independent church of the Philippines and a powerhouse in politics. Due to their ability of delivering a solid block vote, the Iglesia ni Cristo has been credited by many local experts with electing a number of Philippine presidents.

Felix Manalo, the founder of the church in the early part of the 20th century, used biblical passages like Isaiah 43:5-6 and Isaiah 46 to claim that the "true" church of God would be reborn in the Philippines. He claimed that the Philippines was the location referred to as the "east" or "far east," and as the "end of the earth" in these prophecies. According to one school of thought, Manalo was influenced by the Disciples of Christ, who were also known as the "Church of Christ." The name "Iglesia ni Christo" translates to "Church of Christ." If this view of Manalo's influences is correct, then his views may have been directly influenced by the writings of Streator, a Church of Christ minister, with some reinterpretation of course.

So to this day, in important intellectual and religious circles in the Philippines, these old ideas still play a major role in shaping the national identity of the country.

Anglo-Israelism today

As discussed in earlier postings, Anglo-Israelism survives today in the United States as the movement known as Christian Zionism. Indeed, the Anglo-Israel movement has played no small part in shaping the present day Arab-Israeli conflict.

On the other side of the pond, Queen Victoria had shown a penchant for Anglo-Israelism. Streator quotes a news article published in the Pittsburgh Daily Post of Sept. 10, 1899 in which the queen claims to be a descendant of King David:

London, Sep. 10th. Queen Victoria, it is reported, has sent to Emperor William a prized copy of her family tree, showing King David at the top. A pet idea entertained by the Queen is that she is descended from the Psalmist thru Zedekiah's eldest daughter, and it is said that Emperor William's conviction of his divine origin is greatly due to his grandmother's foible."

Just as the Spanish had used extra-biblical works like Pseudo-Methodius to bolster their claims as heirs of prophecy, the Anglo-Israelists used works like the Celtic Book of Tephi to support their own arguments. According to that work a prophet arrived in Ireland in ancient times with a daughter of King David to continue the royal lineage.

Queen Victoria's favorite prime minister Benjamin Disraeli was the nation's first and only person of Jewish ancestry to hold that office. He was raised by Victoria to the peerage becoming the 1st Earl of Beaconsfield. Although baptized as a teen into the Anglican Church, Disraeli wrote what was probably the first modern Zionist novel.

When Theodor Herzl, generally considered the father of modern national Zionism, was asked to give a list of profiles to the newspaper Die Welt of "representative exponents of the Zionist idea," he placed Disraeli's name at the top.

The First Zionist Congress took place in 1897, the year following the start of the Philippine Revolution and the year preceding the Spanish-American War. In 1899, near the end of Queen Victoria's reign, the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland was established.

Decades later in 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour would send the Balfour Declaration to Lord Rothschild for conveyance to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland.

The Balfour Declaration, of course, declared the British policy of establishing a homeland for Jews in Palestine.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Raleigh, Walter. The History of the World.: In Five Books. Viz. Treating of the Beginning and First Ages of Same from the Creation Unto Abraham. Of the Birth of Abraham to the Destruction of Jerusalem to the Time of Philip of Macedon. From the Reign of Philip of Macedon to the Establishing of That Kingdom in the Race of Antigonus. From Settled Rule of Alexander's Successors in the East Until the Romans (Prevailing Over All) Made Conquest of Asia and Macedon. Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co. and sold by all Booksellers, 1820, 99.

Streator, Martin Lyman. The Anglo-American Alliance in Prophecy: Or, the Promises to the Fathers. London: Werner, 1900.

The Methodist Review vol. LXXXI. New York: Phillips & Hunt, 1899, 585.

The Homiletic Review vol. 36, July 1898. New York: Funk & Wagnalls], 286.

Sumatra site may have oldest megaliths, relief

2010-03-01T19:39:00.000-08:00

A new megalithic discovery in South Sumatra has been tentatively dated to 5000 BCE along with a relief showing a woman along with two children riding an elephant, and people under attack by crocodiles and snakes.

If the dating is confirmed, this will be the oldest megalithic site and the oldest relief found in Southeast Asia. Possibly also the earliest evidence suggesting the use of tamed elephants.

Although there is no identification of the culture involved mentioned in the article, the period of 5000 BCE would fit into Wilhelm Solheim's suggested chronology for the dispersion of the Nusantao. The latter people used megaliths especially dolmens according to Solheim.

Megalithic site found in South Sumatra

Wed, 02/17/2010 2:13 PM | The Archipelago

PALEMBANG, South Sumatra: A megalithic settlement has recently been unearthed at Skendal village, 10 kilometers from the town of Pagaralam in South Sumatra.
Irfan Wintarto, an official at the Lahat Culture and Tourism Agency's Historical and Archeological Preservation Department, said local residents had discovered around 36 types of rocks on a 150-by-300-meter plot in the middle of a 2-hectare coffee plantation. The site is currently being investigated by the Archeological Region Conservation and Heritage Center (BPPP).
"The findings are believed to date back to around 5,000 B.C.," Irfan said.
"The types of rocks and megaliths found are quite diverse."
Among the items are a mortar and a 1-by-1.3-meter relief showing a woman riding an elephant with two children, and people being attacked by crocodiles and large snakes, as well as several altars believed to have been used for offerings. - JP

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento