🌙✨️ I recently got asked on Facebook, "How would our pre-colonial ancestors know what a lion was?" They brought up a good point, as lions don't exist in the Philippines. So how was Arimaonga seen as lion like?
Well, while today Arimaonga is seen as a giant playful lion, they originally were a tiger.
Ok, but Ligaya, there are no tigers in the Philippines. True, today there aren't any native species of tigers. However, doesn't mean they didn't exist before. Excavations in Palawan have unearthed bone fragments of a tiger that once roamed the island of Palawan. Whose to say that they didn't also reach the other islands of what is now known as the Philippines?
Further more, we can look to linguistics. Arimaonga derives from the Malay word, "harimau" which means tiger. It's no coincidence as Malay was the lingua franca of maritime Southeast Asia, including the Philippines. Historical records state that our ancestors, especially those who were traders, spoke Malay, as they were able to understand and communicate with those from other islands in maritime SEA.
And that's today's lesson on mythologies from the Philippines. 🇵🇭
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