Philippine mythology is the body of myths, tales, and superstitions held by Filipinos, mostly originating from beliefs held during the pre-Hispanic era. Some of these beliefs stem from pre-Christian religion that was specially influenced by the Hind...
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Philippine mythology is the body of myths, tales, and superstitions held by Filipinos, mostly originating from beliefs held during the pre-Hispanic era. Some of these beliefs stem from pre-Christian religion that was specially influenced by the Hinduism and were regarded by the Spanish as "myth" and "superstition" in an effort to de-legitimize precolonial faith by replacing those native beliefs with colonial Catholic Christian myths and superstitions. Today, some of these precolonial beliefs are still held by Filipinos, especially in the provinces.
Filipino myth is incorporated from various sources, having similarities with Indonesian and Malay myths, as well as Christian traditions, such as the notion of Heaven (kaluwalhatian, kalangitan, kamurawayan), Hell (impiyerno, kasamaan), and the human soul (kaluluwa). Filipino mythology attempts to explain the nature of the world through the lives and actions of gods, goddesses, heroes, and mythological creatures. A majority of these myths were passed on through oral tradition.
Sources
Philippine mythology is known today primarily from the collection of oral traditions passed down from generation to generation. There are few surviving written accounts from the pre-colonial period, and even less is written regarding the mythology. Written accounts of mythological beliefs, however, persist, and multiple authors have compiled the more famous myths.
Due to the nature of the archipelago, having no central government or nation-state at the time before the arrival of the Spanish, there is no one definite mythology in the Philippines. Different regions were influenced by different cultures and so developed overlapping stories and beliefs, each with their own gods, goddesses and heroes. There is therefore no one canonical text that details a common mythology for the pre-colonial Filipino people.
There are secondary sources in the form of written works regarding the subject. Juan de Plasencia wrote the Relacion de las Costumbres de Los Tagalos in 1589, documenting the traditions of the Tagalog people at the time. Other accounts during the period are Miguel de Loarca's Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas and Pedro Chirino's Relacion de las Island Filipinas (1604).
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