Philippinesportal |
The following is a list of gods, goddesses, deities, and many other divine, semi-divine, and important figures from classical Philippine mythology and indigenous Philippine folk religions collectively referred to as Anito, whose expansive stories span from a hundred years ago to presumably thousands of years from modern times.
The list does not include creatures; for these, see list of Philippine mythological creatures.
The mythological figures, including deities (anitos and diwatas), heroes, and other important figures, in Anitism vary among the many ethnic groups in the Philippines. Each ethnic group has their own distinct pantheon of deities. Some deities of ethnic groups have similar names or associations, but remain distinct from one another. [1] The diversity in these important figures is exhibited in many cases, of which a prime example is the Ifugao pantheon, where in a single pantheon, deities alone are calculated to number at least 1,500. There are over a hundred distinct pantheons in the Philippines. [2]
Some ethnic groups have pantheons ruled by a supreme deity (or deities), while others revere ancestor spirits and/or the spirits of the natural world, where there is a chief deity but consider no deity supreme among their divinities. [3] Each ethnic group has their own general term used to refer to all deities or a sub-set of deities, of which the most widespread term among the ethnic groups in the country is anito. [4] The term itself can be further divided into ninuno (ancestral spirits) and diwata (gods, goddesses, and deities), although in many cases, the meaning of the terms differ depending on their ethnic association. [5] [6] [7]
The following figures continue to exist and prevail among the collective memory and culture of Filipinos today, especially among adherents to the native and sacred Filipino religions, despite centuries of persecution beginning with the introduction of non-native and colonial Christianity which sought to abolish all native faiths in the archipelago beginning in the late 14th century, and intensified during the middle of the 16th century to the late 20th century. This contact between native and foreign faiths later accumulated more stories, which also became part of both faiths, with some alterations. Deity, spirit, and hero figures continue to be viewed as important and existing among native faiths and the general Filipino culture. These perceptions of existence towards gods, goddesses, deities, and spirits in the sacred native Filipino religions, are the same as how Christians perceive the existence of their God and the same way Muslims perceive the existence of their Allah. [8] [9] [10] There have been proposals to revitalize the indigenous Philippine folk religions and make them the national religion of the country during the First Philippine Republic, but the proposal did not prosper, as the focus at the time was the war against Spanish and, later, American colonizers. [11]
Psychopomps are creatures, spirits, angels, demons, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife.
In Kapampangan mythology, Mayari is the goddess of the moon and ruler of the world during nighttime.
In the indigenous religion of the ancient Tagalogs, Bathalà/Maykapál was the transcendent Supreme God, the originator and ruler of the universe. He is commonly known and referred to in the modern era as Bathalà, a term or title which, in earlier times, also applied to lesser beings such as personal tutelary spirits, omen birds, comets, and other heavenly bodies which the early Tagalog people believed predicted events. It was after the arrival of the Spanish missionaries in the Philippines in the 16th century that Bathalà /Maykapál came to be identified with the Christian God, hence its synonymy with Diyós. Over the course of the 19th century, the term Bathala was totally replaced by Panginoón (Lord) and Diyós (God). It was no longer used until it was popularized again by Filipinos who learned from chronicles that the Tagalogs' indigenous God was called Bathalà.
Philippine mythology is rooted in the many indigenous Philippine folk religions. Philippine mythology exhibits influence from Indonesian, Hindu, Muslim, Shinto, Buddhist, and Christian traditions.
Tala, based on Hindu goddess Tara, is the name of the goddess of the morning and evening star in Tagalog mythology. Her origins are varied depending on the region. Golden Tara, the Majapahit-era gold statue of Hindu deity Tara or Tagalog adoption Tala was found in 1918 in Agusan. The legend of Tala has very close parallels to legends among non-Filipino cultures such as the India tribes of Bihar, Savara and Bhuiya, as well as the Indianized Semang.
Filipino shamans, commonly known as babaylan, were shamans of the various ethnic groups of the pre-colonial Philippine islands. These shamans specialized in communicating, appeasing, or harnessing the spirits of the dead and the spirits of nature. They were almost always women or feminized men. They were believed to have spirit guides, by which they could contact and interact with the spirits and deities and the spirit world. Their primary role were as mediums during pag-anito séance rituals. There were also various subtypes of babaylan specializing in the arts of healing and herbalism, divination, and sorcery.
Indigenous Philippine folk religions are the distinct native religions of various ethnic groups in the Philippines, where most follow belief systems in line with animism. Generally, these Indigenous folk religions are referred to as Anito or Anitism or the more modern and less ethnocentric Dayawism, where a set of local worship traditions are devoted to the anito or diwata, terms which translate to gods, spirits, and ancestors. 0.23% of the population of the Philippines are affiliated with the Indigenous Philippine folk religions according to the 2020 national census, an increase from the previous 0.19% from the 2010 census.
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people in the Philippines have a distinctive culture in society, and also have limited legal rights. Gays and lesbians are more tolerated than accepted in Filipino society. Despite recent events that have promoted the rights, general acceptance, and empowerment of the Filipino LGBT community, discrimination remains. Homosexuals in the Philippines are known as "bakla", though there are other terms to describe them. According to the 2002 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Survey, 11 percent of sexually active Filipinos between the ages of 15 and 24 have had sex with someone of the same sex. According to Filipino poet and critic Lilia Quindoza Santiago, Filipino culture may have a more flexible concept of gender. Kasarian is defined in less binary terms than the English word; kasarian means "kind, species, or genus".
Bernardo Carpio is a legendary figure in Philippine mythology who is said to be the cause of earthquakes. There are numerous versions of this tale. Some versions say Bernardo Carpio is a giant, as supported by the enormous footsteps he has reputedly left behind in the mountains of Montalban. Others say he was the size of an ordinary man. Accounts of the stories have pre-colonial origins, but the name of the hero was Hispanized during the Spanish colonization. The original name of the hero has been lost in time. All versions of the story agree that Bernardo Carpio had a strength that was similar to that of many strong men-heroes in Asian epics, such as Lam-ang.
A weather god or goddess, also frequently known as a storm god or goddess, is a deity in mythology associated with weather phenomena such as thunder, snow, lightning, rain, wind, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Should they only be in charge of one feature of a storm, they will be called after that attribute, such as a rain god or a lightning/thunder god. This singular attribute might then be emphasized more than the generic, all-encompassing term "storm god", though with thunder/lightning gods, the two terms seem interchangeable. They feature commonly in polytheistic religions, especially in Proto-Indo-European ones.
In Philippine history, the Tagalog bayan of Maynila was one of the most cosmopolitan of the early historic settlements on the Philippine archipelago. Fortified with a wooden palisade which was appropriate for the predominant battle tactics of its time, it lay on the southern part of the Pasig River delta, where the district of Intramuros in Manila currently stands, and across the river from the separately-led Tondo polity.
Indigenous Philippine shrines and sacred grounds are places regarded as holy within the indigenous Philippine folk religions. These places usually serve as grounds for communication with the spirit world, especially to the deities and ancestral spirits. In some cases, they also function as safeguards for the caskets of ancestors, as well as statues or other objects depicting divine entities.
Religions in pre-colonial Philippines included a variety of faiths, of which the dominant faiths were polytheist indigenous religions practiced by the more than one hundred distinct ethnic groups in the archipelago. Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam were also present in some parts of the islands. Many of the traditions and belief systems from pre-colonial Filipino religions continue to be practiced today through the Indigenous Philippine folk religions, Folk Catholicism, Folk Hinduism, among others.
The indigenous religious beliefs of the Tagalog people were well documented by Spanish missionaries, mostly in the form of epistolary accounts (relaciones) and entries in various dictionaries compiled by missionary friars.
Anito, also spelled anitu, refers to ancestor spirits, nature spirits, and deities in the Indigenous Philippine folk religions from the precolonial age to the present, although the term itself may have other meanings and associations depending on the Filipino ethnic group. It can also refer to carved humanoid figures, the taotao, made of wood, stone, or ivory, that represent these spirits. Anito is also sometimes known as diwata in certain ethnic groups.