Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan

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

Red Gold of Alchemy

2010-02-01T16:10:00.000-08:00

According to the Chinese historical text Shiji, the 2nd century BCE wizard Li Shaojun advised the Qin Emperor to make food vessels of cinnabar turned into gold to help prolong life.

Li Shaojun learned the formula for "cinnabar gold" from Master Anqi of Penglai. According to later texts, cinnabar gold was "red gold." The Shiji states that when emissary Xu Fu was sent as an emissary to find Master Anqi, he encountered a 'great spirit' at sea that led him toward the southeast toward Sandao "Three Islands" of which Penglai was the most noteworthy.

Some 1800 years later, we hear of Japanese merchants who traveled to Mishima 三島由 (Chinese: Sandao 三島), where they sought highly-prized jars. Mishima or the "Three Islands" at that time consisted of Luzon, Taiwan and Macau. Of these, Luzon was the most important in terms of its highly prized Ruson-tsubo wares.

Golden bird ornaments at Ayala Museum

While many years had passed between these two periods, I believe there is a connection between the cinnabar gold food and drink vessels of Master Anqi of Penglai, and the Ruson-tsubo wares used for tea ceremonies by the Japanese shoguns and emperor.

Now in terms of the location of Sandao and Penglai, as noted Xu Fu was lead by sea to the southeast and I discuss Penglai's location and related geographic areas in the post Qingtong, Lord Lad of the East.

Penglai continues to figure in historical and semi-historical texts into the late ancient period in which it is directly related to the region of Fusang -- a connection that was indirectly hinted at in earlier sources. In the Tang Dynasty, the area was known as Foshi, and in the Sung Dynasty, Sanyu (三嶼) and Sanfotsi were probably equated with Sandao.

The placename Sandao appears again in historical records during the Yuan Dynasty, as a kingdom along the Eastern Ship Route.

Transmuting to gold

In my post on tumbaga and alchemy, I suggest that the "transmutation" of metals like copper into gold may have been an ancient reference to depletion gilding. In the last posting on goldworking, I discuss the practice in the Philippines of using red earth mixed with salt for depletion gilding at the last stage to remove any silver at the surface.

We cannot assume that the ancients understood the chemical processes at work, and it may be that they actually viewed depletion gilding as a transmutation of an alloy into pure gold. As noted, early Europeans like Juan de Salcedo and Hernando Riquel commented that even the most skilled silversmiths during the Renaissance period could not distinguish such alloys. The touchstone assay did not work, and de Salcedo says that only melting down the objects, i.e., the fire assay, could reveal the truth.

The red earth, then, could have been seen as the Philosopher's Stone, the magical material that transmutes base metals into gold.

In reality, it is believed that the red earth contained ferrous sulphate that when sufficiently heated releases its sulfur. The sulfur combines with silver to form silver sulfate. The metal is cooled and the silver sulfate is polished off leaving a pure gold surface.

During the medieval period, the Philosopher's Stone was generally thought of as a red substance. Many Chinese alchemists believed that cinnabar was the Philosopher's Stone, while the Muslims used the name al-Kibrit al-Ahmar الكبريت الأحمر "red sulfur."

The idea of the red color may come from the notion of cinnabar changed into gold during the Qin Empire. What this may refer to is the process of depletion gilding in Penglai that was taught by the Master Anqi. The technique may have used the same red earth that was mentioned some 2,000 years later in the same region.

Red earth gets its color normally either from the presence of iron or cinnabar in the soil or clay. In many cultures, red earth or red ochre is viewed in relation to blood, the fluid of life. In ancient China, it was cinnabar-rich earth rather than red ochre that was thought of in this manner.

So, the ancient Chinese alchemists may have viewed the red earth used for depletion gilding as cinnabar -- the Philosopher's Stone that transmutes base metals into gold.

The color red

Red ochre, red clay and the red color have a very important role in Philippine archaeology and ethnography. The archaeologist Jesus T. Peralta wrote a book" "The tinge of red: prehistory of art in the Philippines," the title of which highlights the importance of this color.

Red ochre was used in some of the earliest burials in the country such as those found at Tabon and Arku caves. The ochre was used to paint burial pottery, and skeletons were painted with red ochre before secondary burial. In some cases, skeletons were completely buried in red ochre. In Pila, Laguna, basins of red ochre (adobe) were used for cremation rites.

The color red was used for the clothing of warriors and their wives, and for the clothing of chiefs and nobles. To this day, indigenous peoples in the Philippines still use red as an important ritual color. The Kalinga see red as the color of health, strength and power. José Semblante Buenconsejo writes concerning the Manobo of Mindanao that the color red represents ritual blood, which in turn gives "fire, life, vitality to those persons and objects" involved in the ritual. The ancient Bisayans were said to have painted their bodies with red clay.

Blood of sacrifices was often smeared on sick people by the local healers due to its perceived health-giving property. And blood along with clay have an important role in the stories of creation in the Philippines and throughout the Southeast Asian region.

Damiana Eugenio gives 15 examples of Philippine myths in which humans, animals or other living things are formed out of clay. In one of these, the clay is mixed with blood. Among the Igorots of Sagada, red clay receives its color from mixture with human blood. In nearby Borneo, there are many myths in which blood is used as a temper for the clay used to form humans and other living things.

Volcanic clay and blood

Mt. Pinatubo's name can be interpreted as the "One that causes birth, sprouting, growth, conception, originating, beginning...," as opposed to Mt. Arayat to the east, also known as Mt. Sinukuan. The latter name comes from suku, which refers instead to death, surrender and ending.

The name of Pinatubo's deity (Apo Namalyari) can be interpreted as "One who enables" or "One who makes possible," and is in-keeping with the idea of Apo Namalyari as the creator god. In many regional myths, creation takes place after catastrophic events. For example, in a Bontoc Igorot myth, Lumawig creates the plants, animals and humans after a great battle between the Earth and Waters in which great stones are hurled through the air and the world is covered by a great flood. In a Bukidnon myth, the great Magbabaya gods allow themselves to be killed so their bodies and blood can be used for creation. A great rain of blood from one Magbabaya sinks into the ground and becomes animals, fish and plants.

Pinatubo's eruptions, I have suggested, were seen by ancient observers as a type of cosmic birth pangs and delivery -- originally of the entire creation and subsequently of the new golden age. The volcanic ash and lahar would then be the cosmic afterbirth.

Volcanic ash slowly weathers into clay at the rate of about 1 meter every 200 years, but the process begins immediately. Thus, witnesses to an ancient eruption could see thin layers of clay arising from weathered volcanic ash. Such clay was considered the building block of living things and this may not be too far from the scientific truth. A recent theory suggests that life, or at least the amino acids necessary for life, may have originated in volcanic clay. Such clay usually contains all the elements necessary to create life plus a volcanic gas, carbonyl sulfide (COS), that may have acted as a catalyst for the formation of amino acid chains.

Ancient observers would have been particularly interested in red clay, since they could have seen the red color as representing the cosmic uterine blood, the life fluid of red-blooded creatures like humans. In this red clay, one could reasonably expect to find the "secret ingredient" to health and longevity.

The red clay on its own was significant enough, so that if we add the added quality of its apparent ability to transmute other metals into gold -- the most stable of metals -- we can see how easily this red earth could be interpreted as the Philosopher's Stone. And how jars and other vessels made from this red clay would have certain "magical" qualities.

Thus, we find that the Philippine goldsmiths also used red earth to give gold a reddish tint, and maybe also with the idea that the red earth could help preserve golden heirlooms. The purer types of gold were handed down as heirlooms and relics. These heirlooms were considered sacred and were connected with the ancestors, and one's fate on the earth.

Even lowland Christianized Filipinos have kept such heirlooms until recent times. In Pampanga, heirloom jewelry is usually called tumbaga, interestingly enough, regardless of what it was made of. My paternal grandmother had a tumbaga heirloom that she had melted down and turned into rings for her children.

Red gold must have been ancient because one of the Proto-Austronesian reconstructions for "gold" *bulaw-an suggests a metal of a reddish color (bulaw "reddish, reddish gold"). Indeed, in the Philippines, the term pula in Ilocano and Tagalog refers primarily to tinting gold into a reddish color with red ochre (Tag. gintong pula "red gold"). Givin that there is another suggested Proto-Austronesian word for gold *emas, it may be that *bulaw-an referred originally to an ancient gold that was colored with red earth. The oldest archaeological gold in the Philippines is estimated to date to at least 450 BCE to 250 BCE, although the actual sites involved, like those at Duyong Cave were not dated. We will probably have to wait for further discoveries to get the oldest dates for gold in the country.

Possibly ancient Chinese alchemists confused the use of sacred red clay jars and symbolic red gold, for the idea that metals changed into gold with red earth, i.e. cinnabar, could be used to create live-giving vessels for food and drink. Or the original practice drifted in this direction. At a latter date, this idea morphed into a belief that the "elixir of life" was colloidal gold made with mercury extracted from cinnabar.

Sacred jars

Earthenware jars were among the ancient heirlooms kept in Pampanga and the surrounding region. Among the Kapampangans, these were known as balasini, and they were still being kept during late Spanish times. However, the people were beginning to lose the old ways, and the balasini were often sold at spectacular prices to merchants from Japan and elsewhere. As people became "modernized," they no longer shared the values that motivated their ancestors to keep these heirlooms. In the same way, many tumbaga jewelry heirlooms, which tended to last longer because of more practical value, were eventually sold or melted down.

The "Luzon Jars" were known for their unique ability to preserve tea leaves and tea stored in them. Jean Mallat, writing in the 1840s, tells of the red clay water jars in Cebu that "impart great freshness to the water they held."

Indeed even many people still alive today can attest to how the old clay water jars seem to keep water fresher and sweeter than other sources. In ancient times, when there were no water purification plants, refrigerators, etc. such a quality could not be underestimated.

Now, the red clay jars high is sulfur would be the best types in this regard since sulfur is a natural preservative agent and would inhibit the growth of microbes, fungi and mold. Thus the red clay used for depletion gilding, known in Pampanga as sapo, would be the very best because of its high sulfur content. Some volcanoes, like Mt. Pinatubo, release high sulfur volcanic ash that becomes high sulfur volcanic clay. However, red clay containing ferrous sulphate would have been valued for use as sangag, the mixture of red earth and salt, used for "transmutation" purposes since ferrous sulphate has a fairly low combustion point. At about 600°C or well below the melting point of gold, ferrous sulphate releases sulfur as sulfur trioxide gas, which reacts with silver allowing the resulting compound to be polished off from the surface.

With these qualities, the red clay jars would indeed match the spiritual and mundane significations of the color red and the primordial clay ingredient of life. Such jars would have been highly valued and never traded originally, but instead handed down as heirlooms.

Gold elixir

In China, alchemy took two directions. One was toward "aurifiction," the creation of an artificial "gold." Interestingly, the related gold alloy was actually known as "purple sheen gold" and had a purple or violet surface rather than a gold-colored one. The outward tinting was created by a patina consisting of a coating of various substance including cinnabar, mercury and realgar that is pickled in vinegar (acetic acid) and copper salts.

The other type of metallurgical alchemy involved the creation of colloidal suspensions of gold particles and other elixirs of colloidal minerals. These elixirs used mercury to dissolve gold and other metals, and the practice apparently developed in China from whence it spread throughout Asia into Europe and Africa.

Most of this diffusion happened during the "Tantric period" of the Middle Ages when there was a great exchange of culture between South Asia and East/Southeast Asia. With the Muslim conquests, many ideas were absorbed by the Muslim invaders and transmitted by them to Europe and Africa. The Muslim alchemist Geber apparently was primarily responsible for relaying the alchemy of gold elixirs into Europe.

Diane de Pointers, mistress of 16th century king Henry II of France died of poisoning from gold elixirs, scientists have discovered (Source: Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/6865939/French-kings-mistress-poisoned-by-gold-elixir.html)

The alchemist "Nagarjuna" who is said to have imported the goddess Tara and mercury from "Mahacina," into India may have come originally from Vietnam or somewhere else on mainland Southeast Asia.

In addition to the metallurgical alchemy, aspects of "inner alchemy" also arose during this period of Tantric exchange. Some ideas originated from Daoist meditation practices. Aspects of hatha or kundalini yoga might be termed "volcano yoga" in that they use volcanic imagery in describing the efforts to generate internal "heat" through meditation. In Tibet, this is known as tummo yoga and was imported by Naropa at around the same time that the Kalacakra doctrine arrives in that country.

The inner union of "mercury" and "sulfur" may be compared to the geologic co-mingling between Pinatubo and Arayat before an eruption. In the myths of the battles between these two mountains, the fighting always accompanies courtship between the gods of the two peaks. The eruption creates the clay of Sun (Arayat) and Moon (Pinatubo) providing the substance for the creation of life or the start of a new golden age. The red clay represented the substance that unites all living things with the Earth (and Sky).

In internal alchemy, the union of the two principles creates "heat" sometimes symbolized as a fiery pearl. In Kapampangan parlance, we can call this pearl Mutia (Mutya, Mukti), the fire or spirit that creates life or drives the New Age on the cosmic scale, and on the personal level helps the practitioner unite with the pantheistic whole.

Serlingpa, the king of the "Golden Island," included elements of internal alchemy in the Kalacakra Tantra, and also possibly in the Vimalaprabhu commentary, which according to John Newman he may also have authored. The Kalacakra promoted pluralism and universalism by focusing on the interconnection and interdependence of all things, particularly as revealed by the cycles of time.

Philosopher's Stone for sale

As the people of the Luzon adopted a new religion, the value of the ancient clay jars became limited to their practical usage as water or beverage containers. The importance of ancestral heirlooms faded as the culture changed. Certainly the jars in their mind were not worth the astounding sums offered for them.

However, the indigenous people along with groups from afar still seemed to recognize the ancient value assigned to these jars. In many cases, it is otherwise impossible to explain the fact that owners would not part with these jars for any price, or that buyers would offer to pay extravagant prices for wares that were old and fragile.

The most valued Luzon Jars in Japan were the old ones made of earthenware described as reddish-brown, brown, red or dark in color.

Interestingly, the sulfurous products have again become prominent in local commerce after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991. Pinatubo Lake is rich in sulphates and tour guides advertise the healthy benefits of bathing in the sulfurous waters. At a nearby Korean-owned spa, facials or full body treatments in sulfur-rich ash and mud are offered to tourists, again for their claimed benefits to skin and health.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Buenconsejo, José S. Songs and Gifts at the Frontier: Person and Exchange in the Agusan Manobo Possession Ritual, Philippines (Current Research in Ethnomusicology, Outstanding
Dissertations, vol. 4), Routledge, 2001, 147-8.

Gerrard, John. Mountain Environments: An Examination of the Physical Geography of Mountains. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1990, 201.

Needham, Joseph. Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, part 2. London: C.U.P., 1974.

Raedt, Jules de. Kalinga Sacrifice. Cordillera monograph, 04. Baguio City: Cordillera Studies Center, University of the Philippines College Baguio, 1989, 92.

White, David Gordon. The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Goldworking in the Philippines

2010-01-25T18:05:00.000-08:00

The Moros [of the Philippines] understand the laws of gold better than we do.

-- Francesco de Sande, 1577

They mix it [gold] with copper so skillfully they will deceive the best artisans of Spain.

-- Hernando Riquel, 1573

Upon their arrival, the Spanish noted the importance of gold in Philippine cultures. Gold was highly abundant in the soil, including native gold of very high grade. The quantity of gold possessed by the people was very great and everyone regardless of their place in society seemed to possess abundant gold jewelry and heirloom gold. The indigenous people were also highly skilled at gold working.

So important was gold trading that the third governor of the Philippines, Francisco de Sande, writes that most people could determine the relative value of gold:

Should a Spaniard buy food or anything else from a native, the Moro immediately takes out the touchstone which he carries with him; and, even if the value be not over two reals, he takes great pains to see if the gold be conformable to the aforesaid standard. Although it may be stamped and assayed, the Indian will trust to no reckoning but his own. Neither is there any rule by which to pay, beyond the weight and value of the gold; this applies likewise to the orejeras or panica, for all the gold which is used in trade is mixed with other substances, to make the other grades of base gold. Although I have intended and tried to remedy this, it is impossible, as the majority of them are silversmiths for this very purpose; and if any restrictions were made, they would think that they were about to be ruined. It has seemed to me that the country is very new for establishing any other currency than gold, which here is like the king's fifth of silver in Nueva Espana.

A good illustration of the abundance of gold in these islands is given by Francisco Alcina in 1664 or about a century after the beginning of Spanish colonization:

I do remember that once when I was solemnizing a marriage of a Bisayan principala, she was so weighed down with jewelry that it caused her to stoop — to me it was close to an arroba or so (1 arroba = 25 lbs.), which was a lot of weight for a girl of twelve. Then again, I also heard it said that her grandfather had a jar full of gold which alone weighed five or six arrobas. Even this much is little in comparison to what they actually had in ancient times.”

By Alcina's time, the craft of goldmaking had deteriorated markedly as he found that ancient works like the kamagi were of "higher gold content and craftmanship than what is being made now," and that "one who knows how to make them today is hard to find." The kamagi was one of the complex types of jewelry found on the islands. William Henry Scott describes the kamagi:

The most spectatular item in the Visayan inventory was the kamagi, a heavy gold chain of such tightly interlocked links it hardly looked like a chain at all, but rather as solid and sinuous as a gold serpent. These included both what are now called "gear-bead" necklaces and multiple "loop-in-loop" chains...A single large kamagi strand called, saay, but the the long thin barbar could reach 4 meters and so swing grandly to the ground even when doubled or tripled...[kamagi] contain hundreds of links and rods and wires.

A royal gold chain of the Makassar Gowa dynasty in Sulawesi is said to have come originally from Manila and is of the kamagi type.

The importance of gold can be seen in the vast terminologies applied to gold and gold-making, and in Marcos de Lisboa's Bicol dictionary alone there are more than 300 such words.

Gold reckoning

There were various systems of valuing gold that existed in the Philippines at the coming of the Spanish. Here are a few examples:

Guinogulan -- 22 carats, not traded
Panica -- 16-18 carats, 5 pesos per tael
Linguingui -- 4 pesos per tael
Bielu -- 3 pesos per tael
Malubai -- 2 pesos per tael

-- Gov. Francisco de Sande (1577)

Ariseis -- 23 carats three granos, 9 eight-real pesos per tael
Guinogulan -- 20 carats, 7 pesos per tael
Orejeras (Panica) -- 18 or 19 carats, 5.5 pesos per tael
Linguin -- 14 - 14.5 carats, 4 - 4.5 pesos per tael
Bislin -- 9 - 9.5 carats, 3 pesos per tael
Malubay -- 6 - 6.5 carats, 1.5 - 2 pesos per tael

-- Martin Castanos, Procurator-General (1609-1616)

Guinuguran -- not traded
Ylapo -- not traded
Panica -- not traded
Linguinguin -- four pesos a tael
Malubay -- two pesos a tael
Bizlin -- two pesos a tael

-- Andres de Mirandaola (1569-1576)

Idelfonso de Santos found the following terminology used in the Tagalog language for reckoning gold purity:

Ginugilan -- 22 carats
Hilapo -- 20 carats
Palambo -- 20 carats
Wasay -- 20 carats
Urimbuo -- 18 carats
Panika -- 16 carats
Panikang bata -- 14 carats
Lingginging -- 12 carats
Lingginging bata -- 10 carats
Bislig -- 8 carats

And from William Henry Scott, also using Tagalog sources:

Dalisay -- 24 carats
Ginugulan -- 22 carats
Hilapo -- 20 carats
Panangbo -- "Somewhat less than 20 karats"
Panika -- 18 carats
Linggingin -- 14 carats
Bislig -- 12 carats

Furthermore, each of the above categories could be divided into "senior" (matanda) or junior (nabata) sub-divisions. Thus, dalisay nabata was less pure than dalisay matanda.

Traditionally, Filipinos traded only gold at about the panica level and below, with the purer gold kept only as heirlooms to be passed on from one generation to the next.

People carried small portable scales and weights for trading purposes. The base of the Philippine system was the saga or rosary bean (Abrus precatorious), which was the basic weight used to measure gold. The term saga is also found in the Malay system.

There were three palay (rice grains) in a saga, and three saga in a bahay. According to the modern Malay system, there are 3 saga in a kupang, and 12 saga in an amas. Thus, the bahay is the same as a kupang, and there were 192 saga to a tael or to a Chinese liang. In the Visayas, the saga was known as bangati. The term "kupang" may come from the cupang tree, which is also known as the copang, and which produces a large, heavy, dark bean.

Piloncito gold coins may have been patterned after the beans, seeds and stones used to weigh gold.

The gold belts like the one above, and the gold sash below at the Ayala Museum in Manila are made of pure gold.

Gold mining

Natural gold of exceptional high purity could be found in the Philippines. Tomas de Comyn, writing in 1810, says that natural gold of up to 22 carats could be found in the mines of Caraga, a province of Mindanao. Possibly the high quality of native gold was one reason that early European explorers thought these islands might be identical with the Biblical land of Ophir. According to St. Jerome, there were seven grades of gold and the gold of Ophir was the purest.

Most gold mining in the country was placer mining conducted along streams and rivers. Wooden pans, often called dulang, were used to sift through the sand. The gogo vine (Entada purseta) was used to help during the sifting. Gogo contains saponins that cause the soil and other materials to suspend in water. The plant was also used as a soap and shampoo by the local people for bathing purposes.

Sometimes pits or mines were excavated and some on the island of Masbate were said to be up to 15-18 feet deep. The extracted rocks were broken into smaller pieces and then crushed by a sort of stone mill driven by water buffalo. The crushed stone mixed with water became muddy in consistency and was then sifted like alluvial sediment.

Gold refining

Gold was refined in clay crucibles using the salt process. Into the molten gold, the goldsmith added salt, rock salt, and/or saltpeter to form compounds with other metals, including silver, and separate them from the gold. The process could be repeated until the desired purity was reached. A touchstone was used to test for gold levels. However, observers noted that most people, and even children, could estimate the relative value of a gold object by observation alone.

In some cases, the goldsmiths purposely combined gold with other metals including silver, copper, brass and tin. Among some of the names for alloys found in the Philippines are:

tumbaga -- gold mixed with copper
sumbat -- gold mixed with silver
hutok -- gold mixed with copper and silver
malamote -- gold mixed with silver
sombat -- gold mixed with various metals including copper, brass and silver
lauc -- any gold alloy

Ramon N. Villegas notes that to give an outward appearance of gold to alloys like tumbaga, the smiths often used plant acids to burn off the copper at the surface. However, for alloys that contained silver, a metal that is very stable like gold, other processes had to be used to achieve a golden lustre.

Pasaoli -- La ultima operacion que hace el platero para dar color al oro (The final operation of the silversmith in giving a golden color.)

-- Lorenzo Fernández Cosgaya (1661-1731)

The last operation referred to in the Pangasinan term above is the use of red earth mixed with salt to reduce silver on the surface of the alloy. Dampierre, writing in 1687, stated that the smiths of the Philippines would smear gold-silver alloys with a paste of red earth when the metals lost their luster. There are various terms used for this paste mixture in Philippine languages including sangag: salt and tierra roja "red earth" -- Pampanga; and polog: tierra colorada "red earth" -- Bisaya. After being smeared with the paste, the object was heated in fire until red hot and then submerged in water. The red earth is believed to contain ferrous sulphate, which breaks down into sulfuric acid in heat and dissolves the silver. A similar process was used in ancient Peru where they mixed yellow clay containing nitrates and sulphates with salt to remove silver from the surface of tumbaga.

As noted in the previous post, this practice of giving an outward appearance of gold to alloys including tumbaga was already a developed art in the Philippines, as noted by the earliest visitors including Juan de Salcedo and Hernando Riquel. Both of these men accompanied Legazpi's armada, so this technology was not brought by the Spanish Galleons as suggested by Blust.

Red earth or red ochre (porog in Bisayan) was also added to gold alloys to impart a reddish color.

Gold crafting

Filipino goldsmiths used a wide variety techniques to create gold jewelry and other items to include the cire perdue moulding method, annealing, filigree and granulation. In the area of granulation, they were particularly skilled and Scott says that in this technique "ancient Filipino goldsmiths have never been surpassed."

Granules of gold (daou in Bisaya, sibug in Pampagan, sinnabug in Ilocano) were created in two ways. In one method, gold and charcoal were placed in alternate layers in a crucible. When sufficiently heated, the gold in the charcoal would melt and form into tiny balls. Later the charcoal is washed off leaving the granules. In the other method molten gold is dropped on a smooth stone or piece of metal. The granules are sorted by size using gauged sieves.

An organic adhesive said to be made from fish was used to attach the granules to a base surface, sometimes mixed together with a copper salt. Metallic materials used for soldering were known as pidal and ampay in Bicol, and as piral in Tagalog. The same glue was used for filigree decoration using tiny wires soldered to a base with heat. In many cases, hundreds of granules could be placed on a square centimeter and in some cases up to 1600 granules could be used on the same surface area.

The smiths also beat gold dust into extremely thin gold foil for gilding, or created "ropes" by intertwining very thin filigree wires.

Using moulds with the lost wax method was known as limbag in Pampanga, bosog in Bicol, bobo and bosog in Hiligaynon, and silog in Waray. Repoussé and chasing were used to create designs on gold surfaces, and a great number of motifs and themes were used.

Gold repousee from the Surigao Treasure at the Ayala Museum.

Medieval accounts tell of gold collars used for dogs and monkeys in this region (Wak-wak), and the Spanish mention gold bowls, and even gold that was used to decorate homes.

Interestingly, Bergano lists the word bascal as a dog collar, possibly used in ancient times, that apparently was made of gold. The related word cabascalan (ca-bascal-an) means the gold sufficient to make a bascal. In connection with this there is also the myth of Apung Sinukuan in which the animals of Arayat were adorned with gold jewelry. Among the many gold artifacts held at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in Manila is a gold bowl weighting between 600 and 700 grams.

Gold bowl from the Surigao treasure

The following condensation by Edward William Lane of notices on the islands of Wakwak from the works of al-Kazwini and al-Wardi is probably exaggerated but also undoubtedly contains a fair degree of truth.

"...navigation to them [Wakwak islands] is by the stars. They are said to be one thousand and seven hundred in number, and governed by a woman, named Demharah, who wears a robe woven with gold, and has shoes, (or sandals) of gold. No one walks in all these islands with any other kind of shoe : if he wear any other kind, his feet are cut. The Queen rides amid her slaves and troops with elephants and standards and drums and trumpets and beautiful female slaves. The place of her abode is an island called Amboobeh, the inhabitants of which are skillful in manufactures, so that they weave shirts of one piece each, sleeves and body together, and make great ships of small pieces of wood, and make houses of wood that move upon the face of the water.

'Eesa (or Moosa), the son of El-Mubarak, Es-Seerafee, relates, " I went in to this Qneen, and saw her sitting naked upon a couch of gold, with a crown of gold upon her head, and before her were four thousand maid-servants, beautiful virgins....No one knoweth what is beyond it save God. From one of these Islands of Wak-Wak there issueth a great torrent like pitch, which floweth into the sea, and the fish are burnt thereby, and float upon the water.—The islands of Wak-Wak contain gold in such abundance that the inhabitants make the chains of their dogs and other beasts, and the collars of their apes, of that metal; and the great men make bricks of gold, and build with them palaces and houses, well and skilfully

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Alcina, Francisco Ignacio, Cantius J. Kobak, and Lucio Gutiérrez. History of the Bisayan people in the Philippine Islands: evangelization and culture at the contact period. Manila, Philippines: UST Pub. House, 2002.

Bergaño, Diego. Vocabulario de la lengua pampanga en romance. Reimpreso: Manila: Impr. de Ramirez y Giraudier, 1860.

Carro, Andrés. Vocabulario de la lengua ilocana. Manila: Establecimiento tipografico del Colegio de Santo Tomas, 1849.

Encarnacion, Fr. Juan Felix de, and Fr. Jos Sanchez. Diccionario Bisaya-Español. 1885.

Fernández Cosgaya, Lorenzo. Diccionario Pangasinan-Español (y Vocabulario Hispano-Pangasinan). Manila: [s.n.], 1865.

Ganzenmüller, Wilhelm, Gmelins Handbuch der Anorganischen Chemie, System Nummer 62, GOLD, Lieferung 1 und 2, Verlag Chemie GMBH, Weinbaum, 1950.

Jagor, Fedor. The Former Philippines Through Foreign Eyes. Teddington, Middlesex: The Echo Library, 2007.

Lane, Edward William. The Thousand and One Nights', Commonly Called The Arabian Nights' Entertainments. A New Translation from the Arabic, with Copious Notes, vol. 1. New York: Bigelow, Smith & Co, 1900. Lisboa, Márcos de. Vocabulario De La Lengua Bicol. 1865, , 480-1.

Alonso de Méntrida, and Joaquín García-Medall. Vocabulario de la lengua bisaya, hiligueina y haraya de la isla de Panay y Sugbú y para las demás islas : 1637. Tordesillas (Valladolid): Instituto Interuniversitario de Estudios de Iberoamérica y Portugal, Universidad de Valladolid, 2004.

Sánchez de la Rosa, Antonio. Diccionario Español-Bisaya (y Bisaya-Español) : para las provincias de Sámar y Leyte. Manila: [s.n.], 1914.

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

Villegas, Ramon N. Ginto: History Wrought in Gold. [Manila]: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Gold Collection, 2004.

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

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

More on Tumbaga

2010-01-07T17:41:00.000-08:00

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

Blust's theory is published in the following article:

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

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

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

Blust's evidence

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuob of the Caribs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Manila Galleons

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

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

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

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

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

Origin of tumbaga

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pre-Columbian explanation

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

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

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

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

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

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Balance of Nature

2010-01-01T10:42:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

The Pinatubo Ayta

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One with nature

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

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

-- Pablo de Jesus Letter to Gregory XIII

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Non-human ancestors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When Mother Nature strikes back

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tumbaga and Alchemy

2009-12-12T17:26:00.000-08:00

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

-- Rumi

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

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

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

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

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

Tumbaga, gold-copper alloy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tumbaga trail

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

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

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

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

Alchemy Isles

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

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

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

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

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dugong bone mounds found on Persian Gulf coast

2009-11-13T14:31:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
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Excavation uncovers ritual site

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

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

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

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

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

Read rest of the article...

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References

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

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

Philippine mtDNA, the Polynesian Motif, and Austronesian expansion

2009-11-12T15:11:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
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Mol Biol Evol. 2009 Sep 15. [Epub ahead of print]

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

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

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

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