Fun facts about Bulan, Libulan, Sidapa, Haliya and Mayari in Filipino myths
Fiction inspired by or based from precolonial Filipino mythologies, in a way, help preserve our ancestorsâ myths. Unfortunately, there are people out there who are spreading Filipino mythology-inspired stories reeking of modern concepts as actual precolonial myths either due to ignorance or a deliberate act to further personal biases or self-inserts influenced by the folly of identity representation - to make it look as if the very modern sociopolitical movement they are forcing into society was already a thing during our ancestorsâ time; take modern gender sensibilities, for example. Even worse are those who fetishize the myths. Itâs also lamentable that there are artists who spread poorly researched artwork on precolonial Filipino mythology and beliefs. These only confuse and misinform those who are new to Filipino mythology, doing further damage to what remains of our ancestorsâ myths. Centuries of colonization almost wiped out these myths and, sadly, today some of our own people are finishing what the colonizers started. With that in mind, let me present some facts to debunk the misconceptions some people are insinuating about the myths on Sidapa, Bulan, Libulan, Haliya and Mayari.
The Bulan/Libulan and Sidapa love story
The love story of Sidapa and Bulan or Libulan, that resulted to insinuations that they are âqueerâ deities with Bulan or Libulan being tagged as âpatron god of homosexualityâ is nothing but a modern fabrication. The tale is a hoax peddled online as actual precolonial Philippine mythology and belief. There arenât any old documents to prove that such a narrative is part of precolonial myths nor is the story featured in any oral tradition. The story is also borderline pedophilia. There are people who justify the narrative as a result of âevolving mythsâ or that it could be considered as a modern myth when in fact it is nothing but a certain group of people forcing their modern identity politics into our ancestorsâ myths. These people donât really give a damn about the culture behind our ancestorsâ myths. What matters to them is their own âcultureâ which they are projecting into the myths. Theyâre warping indigenous myths to conform with their own agenda, with their own culture just like what the colonizers did. I guess facts are irrelevant when a narrative is being pushed.
Sidapa was first recorded in Miguel Loarcaâs Relacion de las Islas Filipinas (1582), a report about the archipelago and itâs people. During Loarcaâs time the people of what is now Arevalo District, Iloilo City and neighboring villages believed that Sidapa was responsible for the length of an individualâs lifespan and that he had a huge tree up Mt. Madiaas in Antique Province. On the said tree he carved a notch every time a person was born to set the length of the said personâs life. According to Loarca he got such info through the nativesâ songs about their deities and ancestors, which they sang during communal gatherings, communal work and even during mundane tasks. There is no mention of Sidapa having an affair with a fellow deity. Also, he doesnât mention Sidapa being revered in neighboring Visayan islands.
In the Diccionario Mitologico de Filipinas, there is a theory that Sidapa (the name particularly) must have been originally Sri Pada, a name identified with the Hindu god Vishnu. Itâs not that far fetched considering that belief in Sidapa was only among the coastal people of precolonial Iloilo and some parts of Antique who were mostly descendants of Hindu Srivijayan migrants. Thereâs no mention of Sidapa in the Hinilawod or Sugidanon, epics of the inland and mountain people, the Sulod or Panay Bukidnon of Panay Island in Western Visayas. Blumentritt doesnât mention Sidapa having any affair.
Sidapa appears in the Tagalog tale âWhy the Cock Crows at Dawnâ in Damiana Eugenioâs The Myths where said deity is portrayed as a war god who turns a servant into a rooster after failing to wake him early in the morning many times. Thereâs no mention of Sidapa having an affair with another deity.
In Jocanoâs Outline of Philippine Mythology (1969), Sidapa is a female deity with a husband and lives in a place called Kamariitan. Again, no mention of Sidapa having an affair with a moon deity.
Bulan & Libulan arenât deities
There arenât any evidence that explicitly cite Bulan and Libulan as lunar deities revered by the natives back then. Even the title âpatron god of homosexualityâ is nothing but a modern embellishment resulting from the Sidapa and Bulan/Libulan love story hoax.
Thereâs no such thing as a Bulan deity in precolonial Bicolano myths. In 1754, Fr. Marcos de Lisboa published the Vocabulario dela lengua Bicol, a dictionary of Bicolano words, terms. It contains entries on Gugurang, Aswang & other supernatural and mythical entities but no entry on a youthful male moon deity. It has an entry about the moon, just the moon as it is.
Bulan as a deity is even absent in Fr. Jose Castañoâs Breve Noticias acerca del origin, religion, creencias y supersticiones de los antiguos Indios del Bicol, a cultural monograph on ancient Bicolanos published in late 19th century.
In the original written record of the Bicolano epic Ibalon â included in Castañoâs Breve Noticia â there is also no mention of Bulan as a deity.
In Ferdinand Blumentrittâs Diccionario Mitologico de Filipinas (1895), there is no mention of a Bicolano deity named Bulan.
The only mention of Bulan - as a primordial entity representative of the moon - is in the Bicolano creation myth included in H. Otley Beyerâs Ethnography of the Bikol People (1923).
Libulan, on the other hand, is from an old Visayan creation myth titled âHow the World was Madeâ from John Maurice Millerâs Philippine Folklore Stories (1904).
Libulan as a deity having some sort of an affair with Sidapa was shown in the television series Indio where Sidapa expressed admiration to Libulan (a female character in the series).
Thus, claims of Bulan, Libulan and Sidapa as queer deities from precolonial Filipino myths are nothing but the result of a hoax fooling a lot of people who are new to Philippine mythology and folklore or the deliberate act of a group of people to further their own agenda.
The misconception with Haliya
Unfortunately, the so-called masked goddess of the moon who battled the moon-eating bakunawa in Bicolano mythology is not really a moon goddess nor a lunar entity. Haliya was originally halea (pronounced as hali-a or halya), an ancient Bicolano womenâs game, which involved singing to the moon as described by Fr. Lisboa in his Vocabulario dela lengua Bicol (1754). Unfortunately, years later, scholars misinterpreted Lisboaâs description and wrote it down as a song-dance ritual to drive away the eclipse-causing bakunawa. This misinterpretation was adapted and further embellished by later works particularly in Bikol Literary History where halea is portrayed as a moon goddess battling the bakunawa.
There is no mention of a goddess called Haliya from the various writings of Spanish missionaries who documented the culture, ways of the natives of Bicol nor is there a documented oral tradition about such a goddess in various ethnographic works from later scholars. Why are there numerous mentions of the bakunawa - the creature the goddess Haliya supposedly battles with - from old writings and oral lore but never a mention of a Haliya moon goddess? Well, thatâs because there never was a Bicolano moon goddess named Haliya.
Contrary to popular belief, Mayari is not the actual Tagalog goddess of the moon, itâs Kulalaying (Colalaiyng in Spanish) a.k.a. Dalaga nasa Buwan; as documented in the Noceda-Sanlucar Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala (1754) and the letters of Felipe Pardo, former archbishop of Manila (1686-1688). So, yeah, some anito/diwata worship revivalists today have been paying reverence to the wrong Tagalog lunar goddess, no thanks to those flowery, poorly-researched posts about Mayari online. Imagine Kulalaying rolling her eyes every time someone posts about Mayari with the following modern embellishments âGoddess of Combat, War, Revolution, Hunt, Weaponry, Strengthâ with her being reduced to just another name for Mayari.
Mayari is from F. Landa Jocanoâs Notes on Philippines Divinities (1968). Unfortunately, on some of his entries on Tagalog deities including Mayari, Jocano forgot cite any source for them nor did he mention if he got their myths from oral tradition. Even after the entries were incorporated into his book, Outline of Philippine Mythology (1969), sources for some of the Tagalog deities including Mayari were not cited. Mayari is probably derived from Apo Namalyari or Malayari, the supreme deity of precolonial Sambal, Aeta and Kapampangans on the Zambales range. Some Aeta communities in Zambales still revere Apo Namalyari to this day. Even the story of Mayari and Apolaki (Tagalog god of the sun and war) fighting over who should rule may have been derived from the battle for supremacy between Apo Namalyari, also known as a moon god and Sinukwan or Aring Sinukuan, the Kapampangan god of the sun, war and death.
Myths and legends were essential to our ancestorsâ indigenous culture. Unfortunately, many people today even modern media are treating indigenous pre-colonial culture as a mere pool from which they could fish out characters and ideas for them to appropriate to fit their biases and modern sensibilities.
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