Creation story

LONG before the Westerners stepped on our fair shores and Darwin had not yet come around to challenge the biblical creation story, many people believed that the Garden of Eden was somewhere in the East. However, the exact place could not be pinpointed so one suggestion was that the Philippines was the Garden of Eden. To push things further it was even said that the forbidden fruit was not a crunchy red apple (from China and known to us today as "Delicious") but a luscious yellow Philippine mango. When I mentioned this in class everyone doubled up laughing except one who remarked that the legend was sensible because if Adam and Eve were Chinese they would have eaten the snake rather than the forbidden fruit.

For New Years Eve I went beyond all the biblical and Christmas stories and returned to pre-Spanish Philippine creation stories. We are all familiar with the story of Malakas and Maganda stepping out of a bamboo shaft and becoming the first man and woman in the Philippines. Why is the Philippine Adam "malakas" (strong)? What if he was tubercular? Why is the Philippine Eve "maganda" (beautiful)? What would our self-esteem as a people be if she were ugly? An example of the uses of mythology in politics can be seen in Malacañang where decorations allude to Malakas and Maganda, proof that the Marcoses, or at least their "sipsip" (fawning) and tasteless interior decorators, linked the occupants of the Palace and the Philippine Adam and Eve.

If you want more on this there is a rare and out of print book called Malakas at Maganda that traces the story of the Philippines in verse from Malakas and Maganda to Ferdinand and Imelda. The illustrations are even more fantastic -- Imelda like a goddess rising from the sea, Imelda's profile side by side with the ancient Egyptian beauty Nefertiti, even a nude, that is full breast exposure and frontal nudity, with Imelda's head. To their credit, at least, the Marcoses were so embarrassed they suppressed the book that has since become part of Marcos lore. It was one of the most beautiful books published in those days, a permanent record of sycophancy.

In 1582 Miguel de Loarca wrote an account of his impressions of the Philippines and thus handed down to us the Philippine creation story that has since been edited and watered-down for use in our textbooks and classrooms. The complete version follows:

"[They] believe that heaven and earth had no beginning and that there were two gods, one called Captan and the other Maguayen. They believe that the land breeze and the sea breeze were married; and that the land breeze brought forth a reed, which was planted by the god Captan. When the reed grew, it broke into two sections, which became a man and a woman. To the man they gave the name Sicalac, and that is the reason why men from that time on have been called lalac; the woman they called Sicauay, and thenceforth women have been called babayes. One day the man asked the woman to marry him, for there were no other people on the world; but she refused, saying that they were brother and sister, born of the same reed, with only one knot between them; and that she would not marry him, since he was her brother. Finally, they asked advice from the tunnies [fish?] of the sea, and from the doves of the air; they also went to the earthquake, who said that it was necessary for them to marry, so that the world might be peopled.

"They married and called their first son Sibo; then a daughter was born to them, and they gave her the name of Samar. This brother and sister also had a daughter called Lupuban. She married Pandaguan, a son of the first pair, and had a son called Anoranor. Pandaguan was the first to invent a net for fishing at sea; and, the first time when he used it, he caught a shark and brought it on shore, thinking that it would not die. But the shark died when brought ashore; and Pandaguan, when he saw this, began to mourn and weep over it -- complaining against the gods for having allowed the shark to die, when no one had died before that time. It is said that the god Captan, on hearing this, sent the flies to ascertain who the dead one was; but as the flies did not dare to go, Captan sent the weevil who brought back the news of the shark's death. The god Captan was displeased at these obsequies to a fish. He and Maguayen made a thunderbolt with which they killed Pandaguan; he remained thirty days in the infernal regions, at the end of which time the gods took pity on him, brought him back to life, and returned him to the world.

"While Pandaguan was dead, his wife Lubluban became the concubine of a man called Maracoyrun; and these people say was the time concubinage began in the world. When Pandaguan returned, he did not find his wife at home, because she had been invited by her friend to feast upon a pig that he had stolen; and the natives say that this was the first theft committed in the world. Pandaguan sent his son for Lubluban, but she refused to go home, saying that the dead do not return to the world. At this answer Pandaguan became angry, and returned to the infernal regions. The people believe that, if his wife had obeyed his summons, and he had not gone back at that time, all the dead would return to life."

Reading the above makes us rethink all the stories our teachers taught us in kindergarten.

Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu