Origin Myths of the Tagalogs | BATHALA the Creator

Who is BATHALA?

In ancient mythology among the Tagalogs, there was a creator, a supreme god. He was known as Bathala Maykapal or Lumikha. According to F. Landa Jocano’s Outline of Philippine Mythology (1969), Bathala is the grand conserver of the universe – the caretaker of nature and the creatures of the earth. “Hence the beautiful word “bahala” or “mabahala” meaning “to care.” From this evolved the Filipino attitude of “bahala na” or “Let Bathala take care of it” which gives a person tremendous courage in the face of danger.”

We can only speak about the worship of Bathala with varying degrees of certainty. Most of the foundations of Philippine Mythology are rooted in documentation by the Spanish. This creates a bit of a dilemma. The same documentation that re-enforces mythological stories about gods and creation are one and the same with the documentation that is being used to discredit belief in folkloric creatures (I’ll speak more on this in a future article). Using this documentation, we know that pre-Spanish Tagalogs on Luzon “worshipped” Bathala, the creator. We also know that, for a time, Bathala was incorporated into Christian teaching by the friars in order to assist with converting the population to Christianity.

 

The following is a compilation of what we have learned so far about Bathala.  This will be a fairly long article, so I have divided it into sections:

The First Coconut Tree and the Creation of Man
THE CREATION STORY (Tagalog)
BATHALA and his adversary, SITAN
ANITO: Communicating with BATHALA
Etymology of “BATHALA”

The First Coconut Tree and the Creation of Man

There were three gods, Bathala, Ulilangkalulua, and Galangkalulua. Bathala, a very large giant, ruled the earth; Ulilangkalulua, a very large snake, ruled the clouds; and Galangkalulua, a winged head, wandered from place to place. In fact, each of these gods thought that he was the only living being in the universe.

The earth was composed of hard rocks. There were no seas and no oceans. There were also no plants and no animals. It was indeed a very lonely place. Bathala, its true inhabitant, had often wanted to have some companions, but he wondered how he could provide these companions with food, drink, and shelter, when there was nothing on earth but rocks.

What was true of Bathala was also true of Ulilangkalulua. In his kingdom, Ulilangkalulua saw nothing but white clouds. His solitary condition led him to visit other places. He often came down on earth and enjoyed himself climbing high mountains and entering deep caves.

As he was at the top of a very high hill one day, he saw someone sitting on a large stone down below him. He was greatly amazed, and it was a very long time before he could speak. At last he said, “Sir, tell me who you are.”

“I am Bathala, the ruler of the universe,” answered the god. Ulilangkalulua was filled with anger when he heard these words. He approached Bathala and said, “If you declare yourself to be the ruler of all things, I challenge you to a combat.”

A long struggle took place, and after the fighting had gone on for about three hours Ulilangkalulua was slain. Bathala burned his body near his habitation.

Not many years after this event Galangkalulua, the wandering god, happened to find Bathala’s house. Bathala received him and treated him kindly. Thus, they lived together for many years as true friends.

Unfortunately, Galangkalulua became sick. Bathala did not sleep day and night to take care of his friend. When Galangkalulua was about to die, he called Bathala and said, “You have been very kind to me, and I have nothing to repay your kindness with. But if you will do what I tell you, there is a way in which I can benefit you. You once told me that you had planned to create creatures of the same appearance as you in order that you might have subjects and companions, and that you had not been successful because you did not know how you could supply them with all the necessary things. Now, when I die, bury my body in Ulilangkalulua’s grave. From this grave will appear the things that will satisfy you.”

Bathala did what Galangkalulua told him, and Galangkalulua’s promise was fulfilled. From the grave grew a plant whose nut contained water and meat. Bathala was very anxious to examine the different parts of the tree because he had never seen such a thing before. He took a nut and husked it. He found that its inner skin was hard and that the nut itself resembled the head of his friend, Galangkalulua. It had two eyes, a flat nose, and a round mouth. Bathala then looked at the tree itself and discovered that its leaves were really the wings of Galangkalulua and its trunk the body of his enemy, Ulilangkalulua.

Bathala was now free to carry out his plan. He created the first man and woman. He built a house for them, the roof and walls of which were made of the leaves of the coconut and the posts of which were coconut tree trunks. Thus this couple lived happily under the coconut palm for many years until the whole world was crowded with their children. These children still use the coconut for food and clothing, the leaves for making mats, hats, and brooms, and the fiber for rope and other things.

 

• In the 1920’s, Roberto Laperal shared the following story with Henry Otley Beyer: “In former times the sky was very low and could be touched with the hand; when men were playing, they would strike their heads against it whenever they jumped upward. This made them impatient, and one day they began to throw stones at the sky. The great god Bathala was very angry and removed the sky to its present position.”

• An excerpt from the Boxer Codex (1590b, 367) about Bathala according to the Tagalogs: “They said that this god of theirs was in the air before there was heaven or earth or anything else, that he was ab eterno (from eternity) and not made or created by anybody from anything, and that he alone made and created all that we have mentioned simply by his own volition because he wanted to make something so beautiful as the heaven and earth, and that he made and created one man and one woman out of the earth, from whom have come and descended all the men and their generations that are in the world.”

The Creation Story (Tagalog)

When the world first began there was no land, but only the sea and the sky, and between them was a kite. One day the bird which had nowhere to alight grew tired of flying about, so she stirred up the sea until it threw its waters against the sky. The sky, in order to restrain the sea, showered upon it many islands until it could no longer rise, but ran back and forth. Then the sky ordered the kite to alight on one of the islands to build her nest, and to leave the sea and the sky in peace.

Now at this time the land breeze and the sea breeze were married, and they had a child which was a bamboo. One day when this bamboo was floating about on the water, it struck the feet of the kite which was on the beach. The bird, angry that anything should strike it, pecked at the bamboo, and out of one section came a man and from the other a woman.

Then the earthquake called on all the birds and fish to see what should be done with these two, and it was decided that they should marry. Many children were born to the couple, and from them came all the different races of people.

After a while the parents grew very tired of having so many idle and useless children around, they wished to be rid of them, but they knew of no place to send them to. Time went on and the children became so numerous that the parents enjoyed no peace. One day, in desperation, the father seized a stick and began beating them on all sides.

This so frightened the children that they fled in different directions, seeking hidden rooms in the house—some concealed themselves in the walls, some ran outside, while others hid in the fireplace, and several fled to the sea.

Now it happened that those who went into the hidden rooms of the house later became the chiefs of the islands; and those who concealed themselves in the walls became slaves. Those who ran outside were free men; and those who hid in the fireplace became negroes; while those who fled to the sea were gone many years, and when their children came back they were the white people.

Bathala and his adversary, Sitan

Bathala’s adversary is believed to be “Sitan”, guardian of Kasamaan and the keeper of all souls therein. His task was to lead man to sin and destruction. The relationship between Bathala and Sitan was first documented by Juan de Plasencia in 1589. How much of this can be taken as certainty and how much is a Christian interpretation will always be up for debate, but the concept of “hell” certainly predates the Spanish arrival in the region.  The Tagalogs “Kasamaan” may have more in common with Naraka – a place of temporary torment in Hinduism – than it does with the eternal damnation in Christianity.

ANITO: Communicating with Bathala

Anito is used to refer to spirits, deceased ancestors, nature-spirits nymphs and diwatas. Ancient Filipinos kept statues to represent these spirits, ask guidance and magical protection.  Trees, rocks, ,bodies of water, and animals were believed to be animated by an anito.

In 1582, de Loarca gave us, in a certain manner, a clearer idea about Anitos. “They are the assistants, the ministers of Batala, who sends them on earth to help men. These helpers are called: Anitos. The nature of the Anito is such that he comes on earth, deals with men and speaks in his behalf to Batala.” It is a fact that the early Filipinos counted their ancestors among the anitos. Ancestors were certainly regarded as higher beings yet as previously stated, only the servants of Bathala.

Etymology of “Bathala”

(wikipedia) The spelling of the name “Bathala” given by Pedro Chirino in “Relaciön de las Islas Filipinas” (1595-1602) was perhaps a combination of two different spellings of the name from older documents such as “Badhala” in”Relacion de las Costumbres de Los Tagalos” (1589, Juan de Plasencia) and “Batala” in “Relacion de lasYslas Filipinas” (1582, Miguel de Loarca), the latter was supposedly the correct spelling in Tagalog since the letter “h” was silent in Spanish. Bathala or Batala was apparently derived from Sanskrit “bhattara” (noble lord) which appeared as the sixteenth-century title “batara” in the southern Philippines and Borneo. In Indonesian language “batara” means “god”, its feminine counterpart was “batari”. It may be worth noting that in Malay “betara” means holy, and was applied to the greater Hindu gods in Java, and was also assumed by the ruler of Majapahit.

Since the name Bathala was Sanskrit in origin, some scholars such as Isabelo delos Reyes believed that Maykapál (“Creator”) was the indigenous term for the Supreme Being of the Tagalogs. Dr. José Rizal doubted that the Tagalog god was named Bathala. Most historians and scholars however accepted that the god was properly called Bathalang Maykapál (“God the Creator”) as stated in Relación de las Islas Filipinas (1595-1602), and could be addressed simply as Bathala (God) or Maykapál (Creator). According to William Henry Scott (Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippines Culture and Society); “Loarca and Chirino said that the Tagalogs recognised a creator god they called Bathala (Batala) though other informants named the god of the Tagalogs as “Molayri” (Molaiari) or “Diwata” (Dioata)”. Some scholars believed Molayri was actually May-ari (“owner”), however it could also be May-yari which means “One that made”. As for the name Diwata it should be noted that it was also a name of the Supreme Being in other Filipino ethnic tribes, it was also a term for deity in other Philippine languages such as Visayan. Linguists trace the origin of the termdiwata to Hindu term Devata (Devanagari: देवता), which also refers to deities. The word Bathala is came from Javanese Sri Batara Guru which also known as “Shiva” in Hinduism.