Thursday, February 14, 2008

Maragtas

Maragtas refers to the Visayan tale where ten datus and their families from Borneo emigrated via rafts to Panay Island. These families were the ancestors of modern Visayans, and by extension, Filipinos.

How do historians know about events that occurred in the Philippines before the time of the Spaniards? How do they know the names of the people who lived then and the things they did if there are almost no authentic written documents from that era?

Much of what we know about the prehispanic era came to us through legends. These are stories that were not written but were spoken by each generation to its following generation. Many legends are usually nothing more than stories about the creation of the world, the first man and woman and such. It is easy to see that these are not meant to be regarded as fact. There are some legends that may have a been based on actual events but they are not reliable records of the past because legends can change with each telling. Often a teller's memory can be weak or mistaken or the teller may even add or remove parts of the story just to spice it up.

Although previously accepted by some historians, including the present authors, it has become obvious that the Maragtas is only the imaginary creation of Pedro A. Monteclaro, a Visayan public official and poet, in Iloilo in 1907. He based it on folk customs and legends, largely transmitted by oral tradition. M17E

It would be unfair to brand Pedro Monteclaro a hoaxer or his book a fraudulent document because he never claimed that Maragtas was anything more than a collection of legends. Any frauds involving his book were perpetrated by other later writers who misrepresented it as an authentic ancient document.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Culture Crash Comics

Culture Crash was a bi-monthly Filipino comic magazine published by Culture Crash Comics and J. C. Palabay Ent., Inc.. It features different stories of anime-styled comics drawn by their staff, these include Cat's Trail, Pasig, Solstice Butterfly, One Day, Isang Diwa and Kubori Kikiam. Aside from these series, the magazine also includes articles like Movie Reviews, Music Reviews, Special Events, and How We Draw which shows the staff's techniques on how they draw comics. In 2004, they released Issue 14, that was the last issue to be sold in the market.

Culture Crash Comics is a bi-monthly Filipino comic magazine. Jescie James L. Palabay, the publisher of the magazine states that the name is derived from a perception of Filipino culture, that is "basically a crash of cultures". It is basically a wordplay on the phrase clash of cultures. While the group's work standard is based on those established by publishers in the U.S., Europe and Japan, there is a strong, conscious effort to retain a Filipino character at the heart of the comic. The artwork is Japanese-inspired but the stories are uniquely and distinctly Filipino-based. Their anthology format was also inspired by the traditional way Filipino comics were published. One of their claim to fame is that they also created their own revolutionary process in making comics. They are also considered pioneers in standardizing the painted background style. The prototype for Culture Crash was the comic magazine Culture Shock, which was produced by the group Asiancore Komiks in 1996.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Villanelle

Villanelle is a poetic form which entered English-language poetry in the 1800s from the imitation of French models. Villanelle has only two rhyme sounds. The first and third lines of the first stanza are rhyming refrains that alternate as the third line in each successive stanza and form a couplet at the close. Villanelle is nineteen lines long, consisting of five tercets and one concluding quatrain.

Although the villanelle is usually labeled "a French form," by far the majority of villanelles are in English. Edmund Gosse, influenced by Théodore de Banville, was the first English writer to praise the villanelle and bring it into fashion with his 1877 essay "A Plea for Certain Exotic Forms of Verse." Gosse, Austin Dobson, Oscar Wilde, and Edwin Arlington Robinson were among the first English practitioners. Most modernists disdained the villanelle, which became associated with the overwrought formal aestheticism of the 1890s; i.e. the decadent movement in England. James Joyce included a villanelle ostensibly written by his adolescent fictional alter-ego Stephen Dedalus in his 1914 novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, probably to show the immaturity of Stephen's literary abilities. William Empson revived the villanelle more seriously in the 1930s, and his contemporaries and friends W. H. Auden and Dylan Thomas also picked up the form. Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle into that good night" is perhaps the most renowned villanelle of all. Theodore Roethke and Sylvia Plath wrote villanelles in the 1950s and 1960s, and Elizabeth Bishop wrote a particularly famous and influential villanelle, "One Art," in 1976. The villanelle reached an unprecedented level of popularity in the 1980s and 1990s with the rise of the New Formalism. Since then, many contemporary poets (for instance, John M. Ford) have written villanelles, and they have often varied the form in innovative ways.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Tigmamanukan

In Philippine mythology, the tigmamanukan was believed by the Tagalog people to be an omen bird. Although the behaviors of numerous birds and lizards were said to be omens, particular attention was paid to the tigmamanukan.

The roots of the word tigmamanukan can be traced to the word "manuk" or "manok." Today, this word means "Chicken", but in Pre-colonial Philippines (as documented by early explorers in the 1600s) it meant, more generally, any bird, lizard or snake that crossed one's path as an omen. Such encounters were called salubong.

According to San Buenaventura's 1613 Dictionary of the Tagalog Language, one of the few primary written sources for Philippine precolonial culture, the Tagalogs believed that the direction of a tigmamanukan flying across one's path at the beginning a journey indicated whether that journey would be successful or not. If it flew from right to left, the expedition would be a success. This sign was called "labay." (In some Filipino languages, "labay" today still means "proceed".) If the bird flew from left to right, the travelers would surely never return. It was also said that if a hunter caught a tigmamanukan in a trap, they would cut its beak and release it, saying "Kita ay iwawala, kun akoy mey kakawnan, lalabay ka." ("You are free, so when I set forth, sing on the right.").

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Luzon gods

Anitun Tabu is the Tagalog goddess of the wind and rain.

Apo Laki is the Tagalog god of the sun and lord of war. He is the son of Bathala and brother of Mayari, but in the other myth his sister is Dian Masalanta and his parents were Anagolay and Dumakulem. He is identified to the Pangasinense god Ama-Kaoley.

Batala is a kingfisher considered sacred by early Kapampangans, the visit of which either hints of bad omen or good fortune.

Bathala, also known formally as Bathalang Maykapal or Maykapal is the Tagalogs chief god that is the creator of the universe and humanity. To the Cebuano people, he is known as Abba.

Dian Masalanta is the ancient Tagalogs goddess of love, pregnancy, childbirth.

Idianalé is the ancient Tagalogs goddess of animal hunsbandry.

Kimat is the lightning dog, owned by Tadaklan. When Kimat attacks, he comes down from heaven and bites whatever it is aimed at.

Lakan Bakod is the ancient Tagalog god of gardens who protect and watchover plants and sometimes the crops.

Lakan Pati (Ikapati) is the ancient Tagalogs deity of cultivated fields, a hermaphrodite. Her/his title is "The giver of food" and her/his worshippers pray to her/him to protect them from starvation. During the early period of Spanish Colonialization, Lakan Pati was used by evangelists as a native equivalent for the Holy Spirit.

Makiling in Kapampangan mythology does not have a consistent character. Some accounts say he is a deity dwelling in the Tagalog region, whose three sons courted the daughters of Suku in Mount Arayat. Some accounts say she is wife of Suku, who fetched her at Mount Makiling and back to Mount Arayat for them to live together as couples. The trail caused by the godly chariots became the Pampanga River. In a much older account, Makiling is the deity who brought the spirits out of the navel of the giant crocodile Dapu/Laut, the Sea, into the surface of the earth, using a bamboo raft (makiling is a type of bamboo). Thus, in this version, Makiling is responsible for bringing the first man and woman on earth, which in Kapampangan mythology are named Manalaksan (woodcutter) and Mangkukuran (potmaker).

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Baybayin or Alibata

Baybayin or Alibata (known in Unicode as the Tagalog script) is a pre-Hispanic Philippine writing system that originated from the Javanese script Old Kawi. The writing system is a member of the Brahmic family (and an offshoot of the Vatteluttu alphabet) and is believed to be in use as early as the 14th century. It continued to be in use during the Spanish colonization of the Philippines up until the late 19th Century. The term baybayin literally means syllables. Closely related scripts are Hanunóo, Buhid, and Tagbanwa.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Ifugao epic poetry

The Hud-Hud is about the life and heroism of the native Ifugao. The most prominent and well admired native Ifugao is Aliguyon of the Gohandan tribe.

Aliguyon possessed strange power and strength. He had the ability to travel to far away places without the need to rest, eat or sleep. He could also arrive in a place, after a long journey without feeling tired. Aliguyon had never been beaten in any fight or battle. He could catch and face any weapon from the air, and he could defeat his avenging foes.

In the beginning, Aliguyon only wanted to kill the enemies of his father. But after learning that his father didn't have enemies, Aliguyon was advised by his father to just use his strength and power to win a female rightful to become his wife and companion in life.

One extraordinary event in Aliguyon's life was his duel against Pumbakhayon, a warrior who had the same fighting strength and skills as Aliguyon. Pumbakhayon was from a nearby tribe called Daligdigan. Aliguyon and Pumbakhayon had a duel that lasted a year and a half. After a brief intermission, the two resumed their fight which lasted for another year and a half. Eventually, both men realized that they will not be able to beat each other. Therefore, they made a simple arrangement.

Aliguyon agreed to marry Bugan, a sister of Pumbakhayon. While Pumbakhayon married Aginaya, a sister of Aliguyon. The arrangement unified the tribes of Gohandan and Daligdigan. Here ended the story of the Hud-Hud epic.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Tanaga

The Tanaga is a type of short Filipino poem, consisting of four lines with seven syllables each with the same rhyme at the end of each line --- that is to say a 7-7-7-7 Syllabic verse, with an AAAA rhyme scheme as in this example:

In the Old Tagalog original:

"Catitibay ca tolos
sacaling datnang agos!
aco’I momonting lomot
sa iyo,I popolopot."

In the Modern Tagalog syllabication:
Katitibay ka Tulos
Sakaling datnang agos!
Ako'y mumunting lumot
sa iyo'y pupulupot.

Translation:
Oh be resilient you Stake
Should the waters be coming!
I shall cower as the moss
To you I shall be clinging.

It is almost considered a dying art form, but is currently being revived by the Cultural Center of the Philippines and National Commission of the Arts. Poetry groups, like the PinoyPoets who have been promoting Filipino poetry in English and the vernacular are also advocating the spread of this art form.