#sugidanon

[vajrapoet]

THE KNIGHT VAGRANT is out now on Royal Road! though patrons will always be at least 1-2 chapters ahead.

Below is the synopsis.

Death held them, once, for the quickest second. Until the Adamantine Path reaped its due.

Raxri Uttara the Once-Dead walks again, rejuvenated by the Medicine Awoken. Arisen, without memory, they must wander again this Wheel of Wandering. They must seek revelation from their past, understand again the vaunted world of the Utter Islands, and choose, ultimately, between vengeance or enlightenment.

And within that moment, let their enlightenment be that such a duality is delusion.

THE KNIGHT VAGRANT is the first volume of THEY WHO DANCE AGAINST THE HEAVENS, a new weird Bladepunk fantasy web novel set in the dharmic fantasy world of WANDERING, grounded on concepts from Esoteric Buddhism and Maritime Asia. Inspired by the likes of the Abhorsen Trilogy, Demigods and Semidevils, Florante at Laura, Elden Ring, Tears of the Kingdom, Wuxia, Westerns, and Vagrant Story, the web novel explores themes of vengeance, memory, being, violence, peace, forgiveness, and emptiness in the face of betrayal, wrath, and war.

THE KNIGHT VAGRANT follows RAXRI UTTARA, a once swordgendered being now having forgotten all their accomplishments in the past. They must needs wield the flame of remembrance to burn away the dirt of forgetfulness, so that they may arrive again at the truth.

Upon that peak, will they choose the right blade?

Giant cats turned into apartment complexes, ghost horse steeds that tire not, walking giant mechanical armors turned into public transportation, charnel wizards summoning the long-dead, witches wielding the Pureflame of Creation, the Machine God beginning its slick advance into forever progress... the Age of Furor is upon us.

The Latter Day of the Law.

As you walk your Path, Kill God Yourself.

over on the patreon I've released the first few chapters of THE KNIGHT VAGRANT, a new weird bladepunk fantasy web novel I've been outlining and researching for years now, stemming from a fascination of the pan-Asianness of Buddhism. It centers an amnesiac non-binary sage knight on the path to vengeant enlightenment

it has some exploration of how buddhism fused into local traditions, seasian buddhist ethics, the interconnectedness of maritime asia, the plausible intersection between esoteric buddhism and anarchism

though, really at its core, its a wuxia-silat-chivalric romance vengeance story drawing from water margin, new weird, clark ashton smith, jin yong, westerns, and even florante at laura

[vans3n]

day 1 .. lineart finally done around midnight .. hopefully we can start painting the wall by tomorrow .. #artatatria2 #sugidanon #binanog #streetart #mural #culture #iamiloilo #panaysugidanon #heritage #identity (at Atria/Ayala District Park Iloilo City)

[stoicaswang84]

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 ancestors' 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 ancestors' time; take modern gender sensibilities, for example. Even worse are those who fetishize the myths. It's 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 ancestors' 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 "queer" deities with Bulan or Libulan being tagged as “patron god of homosexuality” is nothing but a modern fabrication. The tale is a hoax peddled online as actual precolonial Philippine mythology and belief. There aren't 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 "evolving myths" 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 ancestors' myths. These people don't really give a damn about the culture behind our ancestors' myths. What matters to them is their own "culture" which they are projecting into the myths. They're 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

Sidapa was first recorded in Miguel Loarca’s Relacion de las Islas Filipinas (1582), a report about the archipelago and it’s people. During Loarca’s time the people of what is now Arevalo District, Iloilo City and neighboring villages believed that Sidapa was responsible for the length of an individual’s 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 person's life. According to Loarca he got such info through the natives' 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 doesn’t 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. It’s 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. There’s 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 doesn’t mention Sidapa having any affair.

Sidapa appears in the Tagalog tale “Why the Cock Crows at Dawn” in Damiana Eugenio’s 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. There's no mention of Sidapa having an affair with another deity.

In Jocano’s 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 aren't deities

There aren't any evidence that explicitly cite Bulan and Libulan as lunar deities revered by the natives back then. Even the title "patron god of homosexuality" is nothing but a modern embellishment resulting from the Sidapa and Bulan/Libulan love story hoax.

There’s 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 Castaño’s 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 – included in Castaño’s Breve Noticia – there is also no mention of Bulan as a deity.

In Ferdinand Blumentritt’s 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 Beyer’s Ethnography of the Bikol People (1923).

Libulan, on the other hand, is from an old Visayan creation myth titled "How the World was Made" from John Maurice Miller's 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 women’s game, which involved singing to the moon as described by Fr. Lisboa in his Vocabulario dela lengua Bicol (1754). Unfortunately, years later, scholars misinterpreted Lisboa’s 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, that's because there never was a Bicolano moon goddess named Haliya.

Mayari or Kulalaying?

Contrary to popular belief, Mayari is not the actual Tagalog goddess of the moon, it's 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 "Goddess of Combat, War, Revolution, Hunt, Weaponry, Strength" with her being reduced to just another name for Mayari.

Mayari is from F. Landa Jocano's 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 ancestors' 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.

[thebaronmunchausen]

gusto kong idagdag ang mga natatanging gawa ni Alicia Magos dahil siya ang naglagay ng Panay Bukidnon sa kultural na mapa. 

Tikum Kadlum

Amburukay

Derikaryong Pada

Pahagunong Sugidanon

lahat ito ay ang mga inipong epiko ng Panay mula sa mga binukot at ilang mga natitirang chanters tulad ni Frederico Caballero. Idadagdag ko rin ang mga libro ni Damiana Eugenio dahil sya ang unang nag-ipon ng lahat ng mga kwentong bayan, mito, epiko at bugtong mula sa iba’t ibang bahagi ng bansa. sumangguni sa UP Press para sa impormasyon sa mga libro nila Magos at Eugenio.

hi po! i was wondering if you could recommend some articles or books about visayan mythology, especially those of panay and negros island. also, articles or books about the history of those places before the spanish colonization. thank you so much!

Yup I have a couple. I'm Bisayan myself with my moms family coming from Aklan. Here are a few good sources to read.

- The Boxer Codex (Bisayans Chapter only) This is a scan of my copy of one of the English editions of the Boxer Codex manuscript. (Because lets face it, these books are not cheap and are hard to find)

- The Muñoz text of Francisco Alcina’s History of the Bisayan Islands (1668), translation by Paul S. Lietz (note: The link only brings you to the page of the 4 volumes. However, only volume 3 is available online.

- Relation de las Yslas Filipinas in 1582 by Miguel de Loarca (have to scroll down a bit for the English translations)

- Chants, Gongs and Ancestral Memories of the Panay Bukidnon, Philippine Islands

- Panay mountains host good vs evil rituals (old newspaper clipping I found from 2002 in the Philippines Daily Inquirer)

Edit: I also just wanted to point out that the original name of the island of Negros was Buglas, which is the name I prefer to use when talking about the island.

[greenpapayaartprojects]

You are the Footprints

Since it is VIVA ExCon season (16), I cannot help but recall our situation several months before launching VIVA ExCon 15 in Roxas City on November 8, 2018. Here’s one incident that refuses to die in my memory.

During a meeting with our partners from Roxas — Annie Villaruz (director of the Gerry Roxas Training and Convention Center) and Cheche del Rosario (director of The Water Tank Museum) — in Papaya’s office in Quezon City, Annie suggested that we invite Greg Atienza to seek his professional help in finding big corporate sponsors. Since we were desperately looking for funds, I readily said yes; Greg, after all, had a sterling career in advertising since the ‘80s and became a marketing guru. As a personal friend of Tony del Rosario, the former governor of Capiz who was a major supporter of VIVA ExCon, Greg was instrumental in launching the successful TRIAKSYON, the first Capiz international triathlon in Roxas, in 2017.

Greg, who resides in Alabang, made the effort to drive all the way to Quezon City to hear and learn about VIVA ExCon. If only for that, I was already grateful, but at the same time hopeful for him to eventually bring in a major corporate sponsor.

Greg patiently sat through the meeting, trying to understand the nuances of an artists-led festival. But what caught me unprepared was his question: “What footprints will the festival leave behind after the exhibitions have been packed-up and the corporate banners rolled-down?” I started to mumble how art and cultural activities are slow burning processes, their impacts might most likely be abstract in the beginning and will require time and distance for the beneficiaries — the art community and the public — to understand and evaluate, and even later, appreciate much better. But Greg wanted to hear something concrete and tangible, something like a piece of sculpture or a marker that a prospective corporate sponsor could spend for and maybe leave its logo on. That was something I was not ready to promise him as I honestly did not know then how that works. A few months after that meeting, Annie informed me that Greg won’t be able to help VIVA ExCon. I could only blame myself as perhaps I failed to convince him.

A few days ago, after watching the Capiz Report aired during the first day of the V-Con for VIVA ExCon 2020 / DASUN Recalibrated, I told myself without hesitation, “Finally, I see the footprints of VIVA ExCon.” Undeniably, Marika Constantino’s co-learning and co-creation space KANTINA; Shane Martinez, Hazel Fegarido, and Maru Alayon’s EyeCan Creatives; 036 project composed of Jason Rufino, Kalayn, and Mark Omega; and the activities in The Water Tank Museum (which has turned into a relief center since the start of the pandemic) under Cheche have all become remarkable footprints.

On the third day of V-Con in Bacolod last Sunday, we saw the same footprints in Bantayan Island as well. DAKOgamay was invited to be VIVA ExCon’s Island Coordinators for Bantayan Island. With Jake Atienza as Island-Coordinator, they saw it as an opportunity to engage Bantayan’s arts community and formed a core group with April Villacampa, Roberth Fuentes, Mary Alinney (Khokhoi) Villacastin, Delio Quiamco Delgado, Kent John Almohallas Batiancila, and Malaysia-national Rini Hashim who interned for VIVA this year. 

By now, Facebook and Instagram posts about how the group of artists have organized the exhibition “Panlantawon” must have circulated around. An offsite component of VIVA ExCon DASUN put up in Byay Hubahib during the conference in November, “Panlantawon” is a long-term program (to run until July 2021) meant to consolidate their community by making the program a hub for dialogue, experimentation, and establishing connections locally and with other islands. My conversations with siblings Jake Atienza and Martha Atienza of DAKOgamay reinforced our shared belief in community building and self-organization.

With the absence of a proper infrastructure and governmental/institutional support system, and the near impossibility of getting corporate sponsorships (a reality in small places like Roxas and Bantayan), artists are learning to cope by self-organizing and building stronger communities. The absence of galleries, especially commercial ones, should not deter the development of a socially-responsive contemporary art practice. More than galleries and museums, the community is a far more important “infrastructure” that needs to be nurtured.

Over the last decade, there have been various discussions on self-organization as a theory, a method, or a political action. This has become visibly apparent in the programs of independent spaces and initiatives located in cities and localities with underdeveloped economies in Southeast Asia. These activities which come from an emergent infrastructure (i.e. the communities) have given rise to a series of interrelated topics and fields of study such as environmental hazards, labor issues, alternative education, open source programming, rural regeneration, and cultural democracy. Artists need not be preoccupied with producing "art" alone but use art as a process to produce something the larger community needs. The bottom line is, artists should practice in the service of society. If their presence brings no positive impact on communities, then what is there to come together for?

You, and your communities, are the footprints of VIVA ExCon. If only the meeting with Greg happened today.

Norberto Roldan November 19, 2020

Images:

1. KANTINA series of artist talks: Leiff Antonino, Jorg Manalo, Kalayn Calvez, Hazel Fegarido, Shane Martinez, Jason Rufino. Photo courtesy of KANTINA.

2. KANTINA Pressed Flower Craft workshop facilitated by Lissa Boluso for the "Looking for Another Family" exhibition at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Seoul, Korea. Photo courtesy of KANTINA.

3. Online round table discussion of artists and curators from the "Looking for Another Family" exhibition at the MMCA Seoul. This included Katherine Nuñez from 98B COLLABoratory, Gabriel Villegas from HUB | Make Lab, and Marika Constantino from KANTINA. Photo courtesy of KANTINA.

4-5. “Pamulong” project at the Ang Panublion Museum initiated by 036 project. Photo courtesy of Ang Panublion.

6. EyeCan Webinar DAGOSO with Liby Limoso’s talk on Panay Sugidanon. Photo courtesy of Shane Martinez.

7. Crops for Creatives project of Ang Panublion / The Water Tank Museum. Photo courtesy of Ang Panublion.

8. Bantayanons attend VIVA ExCon’s conference, a chance to meet artists, friends from Bantayan and our neighboring islands. Photo courtesy of DAKOgamay.

9. In the foreground is Delio Quaiamco Delgado’s “Bantoi: Subiran kag Isla” (2020), a series of works featuring imagined worlds using driftwood. In the background are Pedro Ilusorio’s wood-carved goggles sold locally and used by fishermen who fish out in Bantayan’s once-rich marine waters. Photo courtesy of DAKOgamay.

10. April Villacampa runs “Pulong Bantayanon,” a Facebook page where she shares the artwork of Bantayanon artists. Beyond this, it is a way for Villacampa to explore her interest in the connections between Bantayan’s people, tradition, and culture, bound by Bantayanon’s language. Photo courtesy of DAKOgamay.

If you can: https://greenpapaya.art/donation  

[hellapinay]

We're proud to share our founder Stephanie Gancayco's brand @haliya.co which launched this past week. The PANUBOK Fall 2017 collection is the culmination of over a year of collaboration with Regina "Ambing" Villanueva, a master Panay Bukidnon manugtubok (embroiderer) in Garangan, Iloilo, Philippines. Pieces were designed in New York and embroidered in Garangan, combining contemporary silhouettes with traditional panubok (Panay Bukidnon embroidery) motifs inspired by nature and characters and events from the Sugidanon epic, an ancient story that has been passed down through generations of epic chanters. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Panay Bukidnon School of Living Traditions, which passes on panubok, dance, music, and epic chanting to the next generations. Check out the full lookbook, learn more about Panay Bukidnon culture and the meanings of the embroidery motifs used in the collection, and shop at www.haliya.co 🌴 Photography: @6161810 MUA: @elyssamarieee Styling: @rapisoffensive Models: @teresita.malaya and Elyssa Marie Rivera (at Chemistry Creative)

[vans3n]

kadlum. a dog sigil for protection. based on the black dog Tikum Kadlum in the Sugidanon epic of the Panay Bukidnon people of Panay island #sigil #panaysugidanon #panaybukidnon #baybayin #badlit #filipino #iloilo #sigilmagick #ilostrado (Iloilo City, Philippines) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvixhMSn2WV/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1hsrkcdx50hkq

[vans3n]

another sigil. Bagsang the seven headed serpent from the Sugidanon epic of the Panay Bukidnon people of Panay. script is in Badlit. #sigil #panaybukidnon #panaysugidanon #serpent #dragon #mythology #sigilmagick (Iloilo City, Philippines) https://www.instagram.com/p/BviZ7ujHa0D/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=wye8pf5hl6ue