Sandalwood was a trade item of considerable value in antiquity. Chau Ju-Kua (Zhao Rugua) stated concerning yellow (or "white") sandalwood (Santalum album) in the 12th century that "in burning it surpasses all other incenses."
In China and India, and generally among Buddhists and Hindus, sandalwood was prized as an aromatic, for carving, and as a medicine. The wood has been an important material for sacred sculpture among Buddhists and continues to be an important component of incense throughout East and South Asia.
Yellow Sandalwood
Santalum album was the primary sandalwood used in the ancient and medieval trade and was known as yellow or white sandalwood. The species is native from eastern Java to eastern Indonesia and was particularly abundant, in former times, in the islands of Timor and Sumba.
Timor appears to have been the main source of sandalwood prior to European colonization. Pigafetta exaggerated when he said "nowhere else is white sandalwood found" speaking about the island of Timor. De Orta stated that yellow sandalwood grew in Timor "where it is in greatest quantity and called chandam and is known by that name in all the lands around Malacca."
There is some confusion over whether Santalum album is native to South India. Early in the 20th century, C.E.C. Fisher, after studying the distribution and historical diffusion of the species, suggested that sandalwood was introduced into India during the pre-Christian era, and that it had to be reintroduced periodically. Fisher noted that yellow sandalwood in South India grew almost exclusively around villages or abandoned village sites. In other words, the sandalwood trees did not appear to grow in the wild.
Early Europeans like Duarte Barbosa, Cesar Fedrici, Ralph Fitch and Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, writing from the early to late 16th century, all agreed that Santalum album while in great demand in India, was generally shipped in from Timor. Barbosa, Fedrici and Rheede's Hortus Indicus Malabaricus all expressly suggest that yellow sandalwood did not grow in India.
Although yellow/white sandalwood is mentioned in both India and China in ancient times, the mention of Timor occurs only during the Sung Dynasty when it was called Ti-wu. Later in Ming times, Timor is known mostly as Ti-wen. This has brought up the question as to whether the ancient yellow sandalwood actually referred to some other wood like fragrant red sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus). However, the general lack of any literary evidence suggesting a medieval replacement of the ancient product; the description of yellow sandalwood and its unique properties, and the hoary differentiation of different types of sandalwood support the common view that Santalum album was traded in antiquity.
Medieval trade routes
As mentioned previously, including in the last blog post, Sanfotsi (Sanfoqi) had established something of a monopoly in sandalwood during at least some period of the Sung Dynasty.
However, a number of countries are listed in Sung sources as entrepots, possibly secondary to Sanfotsi, including Fo-lo-an and Tan-tan, both apparently located somewhere on mainland Southeast Asia.
Timor itself according to Sung sources was a dependency of Toupo, so Sanfotsi seems to have mainly acted as an entrepot for countries beyond this region. In Yuan times, both Sanfotsi and Toupo apparently disappear. At that time, Mindanao may have taken over the trade as successor to Toupo if we accept such an identification for the Yuan Dynasty country known as Min-to-lang.
Mindanao, possibly the Maranao and Cotabato nations, Butuan and Sulu were perfectly positioned to trade with areas like Maluku for cloves, nutmeg and mace; and with Timor for sandalwood. In latter times, they appear to have been middlemen for these southern areas in the trade with the northern entrepot of Luzon. From Luzon, these products reached the rest of Asia. This also seems to be the case during the Sung Dynasty with Toupo transferring the southern aromatics to the Sanfotsi entrepot.
During Spanish times, Luzon continued to act as an important sandalwood trading post, but with Santalum album going extinct in Timor, Pacific sandalwood species, particularly from Fiji, came into play in the Manila marketplace.
Sandalwood, princesses and goddesses
Sandalwood has an interesting connection with two goddesses -- Kuan-yin and Tara -- the two deities thought by many scholars to have a common origin.
Both Kuan-yin and Tara are viewed as emanations, forms, or as the female aspects of the god (Bodhisattva) Avalokitesvara by Buddhists. Both goddesses are seen as protectors of seafarers against harm from the ocean. Both have strong Tantric links, and both are specifically connected with stories of their origin in Southeast Asia.
Tara, and to a lesser extent, Kuan-yin are often placed in the island of Potala in the "Southern Ocean." On this island is said to be a famed sandalwood forest. In Tibetan tradition, the goddess is particularly associated with this forest in the form "Tara of the Sandalwood Forest."
There was also a Sandalwood Forest located in or south of Shambhala in Tibetan Buddhist texts, so there may be some conflation or confusion between the locations of Potala and Shambhala.
In the medieval Sadhanamala and the 6th-7th century Astanga Samgraha, a Tantric adept known as Nagarjuna, possibly referring to the great Mahayana philosopher of the same name, is said to have brought Tara and the alchemical mineral mercury from across the sea into India. This Tara, or rather worship of Tara, is known as Mahacina-tara, "Tara from Mahacina."
While the location of Mahacina may have been confused and used differently at times, I have noted earlier in this blog that the evidence points to its primary and most common usage was to describe and area extending through and including Tibet and mainland Southeast Asia. One Tara myth found in Hindu Tantrism claims that the goddess arises from the Milky Ocean -- when that sea was churned by the Gods and Demons. This Milky Ocean was also viewed geographically as far to the east of India. In the Ramayana, when the Varanas search for Sita in the eastern regions they travel through the Milky Ocean and related areas like the Golden Isle.
Likewise, Kuan-yin in her early form is known as Kuan-yin-Nan-hai or "Kuan-yin of the South Seas," a reference to the region of Southeast Asia.
There is even a story that Kuan-yin originated from an actual Buddhist princess that lived in a kingdom south of China called Hsing Lin. The text containing this story dates to the mid-12th century and is derived from materials about 150 years older. The story, however, is said in the text to take place during the time of the 7th century BCE monk Tao-hsüan.
The southern kingdom, according to this account, was said to stretch from India in the West to Fo-ts'i (佛齊)in the East. It was at Fo-ts'i that the princess known as Miao Shan, and also as "South Seas Kuan-yin" and "Kuan-yin with the Horse Head" was born.
The land known as Fo-ts'i 佛齊 may be a shortened reference to what later is known as San-fo-ts'i or 三佛齊.
Sanfotsi, as noted, was an important country in the sandalwood trade. One of the empire's dependencies known as Fo-lo-an was also described as a sandalwood entrepot. Now the Miao Shan story states that the princess became a staunch Buddhist, but had a falling out with her father, the king. She was said to have taken refuge at a Buddhist monastery, which in the Chinese story is located in China.
However, there is some evidence that this location may have been in Fo-lo-an, thus explaining the connection with the Southern Seas (Nan-hai).
According to Chau Ju-Kua, the Sanfotsi princes made a journey to offer incense to a "Holy Buddha" in Fo-lo-an during the Full Moon of the 6th month. The Ming encyclopedia known as the San-tsai Tu-hui describes this "Buddha" instead as two copper goddesses whose birthday was celebrated again on the 15th day of the 6th moon. This same day of the 6th month was said by Chau Ju-kua to be a good day for return voyages to China from places like Fo-lo-an and Poni, i.e., the summer monsoonal winds blew ships toward the north. The goddesses are mentioned as protecting Fo-lo-an from threats, i.e., pirates, that come from the sea.
Now in some locations of China, Kuan-yin's festival was held on the 19th day of the 6th month, so quite close to the date mentioned by Chau Ju-kua and the San-tsai Tu-hui. Also, in some locations of Tibet, like Kham, during the summer retreat known as Yarney that begins on the 15th day of the 6th month, people worship and thank Tara by making the Four Mandala Offering. According to Nagarjuna, "in the sixth month one consorts with the divine women of the gods."
Tara images
The text of the San-tsai Tu-hui also contains two engravings that are said to resemble the form of "Kuan-yin with the Horse's Head." The images have three heads with the horse head placed on a triple crown. De Groot also noted that the goddess figures matched that of Mat-tsu-po, a form of Miao Shan.
Chau Ju-Kua mentions two Buddhas that came flying in to Fo-lo-an, one with four arms and one with six arms. The form of Kuan-yin addressed here is known in two principal forms, four-armed and six-armed, so we can say with some certainity that these goddesses of Fo-lo-an were representations of Kuan-yin/Tara.
Fo-lo-an is mentioned as belonging to the Western Ship Route along with Annam and Cambodia. This would seem to indicate the Upper Coast of Indochina, a noted source of cinnabar and mercury, but other notices may suggest a location further down the coast possibly in modern day Malaysia or Thailand.
If we take the story of the princess as historical, then it would appear that a Fo-ts'i, i.e., Sanfotsi princess went to Fo-lo-an to practice Buddhism in a monastery. The latter country was a sandalwood trading partner with Fo-ts'i. Latter on after the death of the princess, Sanfotsi princes continued to come to Fo-lo-an during the summer (6th moon) to offer incense to icons of the ancient, probably related princess.
Tibetans also have a story of a princess known as Yeshe Dawa who embraces Buddhism and later becomes the goddess Tara. In connection with the sandalwood trade, according to a Buddhist story that explains Tara's role as sea goddess, a ship from the Isle of Jewels, loaded with a cargo of jewels, and one from the Isle of White Sandalwood, loaded with white sandalwood, were saved by Tara after a Buddhist layperson on board one of the ships prayed to the goddess. Note that the goddesses of Fo-lo-an also had a protective function against sea threats.
Thus, it can be suggested that at one time during the sandalwood trade when San-fo-ts'i and Fo-lo-an enjoyed a close relationship, a princess estranged from her father, the king, left to practice Buddhism on Fo-lo-an, somewhere on mainland Southeast Asia. In the story, she reconciles with her father later on, thus, explaining possibly the pilgrimage of the Sanfotsi princes to Fo-lo-an to offer incense to the images of the goddess. From Fo-lo-an, i.e., Mahacina, the goddess travels East and West as Tara and Kuan-yin. Nagarjuna is said to be the one that carries this form of worship to India. This goddess becomes closely associated with the Sandalwood Forest, an allusion to the ancient sandalwood trade.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Beyer, Stephan. The cult of Tārā: magic and ritual in Tibet. Berkeley [u.a.]: Univ. of California Pr, 1978.
Cordier, Henri, Gustaaf Schlegel, Edouard Chavannes, Paul Pelliot, J. J. L. Duyvendak, and Paul Demiéville. Tʻung pao. Tʻoung pao. International journal of Chinese studies. Leiden: E.J. Brill [etc.], 1890, 402-6.
Donkin, R. A. Between East and West : the Moluccas and the Traffic in Spices Up to the Arrival of Europeans. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, 248. Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society, 2003, 13-18, 160-2.
__. Dragon's Brain Perfume: An Historical Geography of Camphor. Brill's Indological library, v. 14. Leiden: Brill, 1999.
White, David Gordon. The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, 65-6.
Willson, Martin. In praise of Tārā: songs to the saviouress ; source texts from India and Tibet on Buddhism's great goddess. Women's studies. Boston, Mass: Wisdom Publ, 1996, 181-2.
Zhao, Rukuo, Friedrich Hirth, and William Woodville Rockhill. Chau Ju-Kua: His Work on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, Entitled Chu-Fanchï. New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp, 1966.
Showing posts with label Shambhala. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shambhala. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Etymology of "Sanfotsi" (三佛齊) (Article)
The location and identification of Sanfotsi (三佛齊) has been dealt with in articles likeThe Medieval Geography of Sanfotsi and Zabag , The Location of the Kingdom andThe Mihraj .
Some studies have shown that the name Sanfotsi could have applied to different regions within probably the same thallasocracy during the same time period. Palembang as interpreted as Sanfotsi is based mainly on Ming texts which state that Sanfotsi is also known as Pa-lin-fong. However, earlier texts list Pa-lin-fong as a dependency of Sanfotsi, which was located much further east in the Sea of Champa. Possibly in Ming times, China recognized some political elements of old Sanfotsi as present in Pa-lin-fong.
The placename Sanfotsi appears in the scholarly literature in many different forms: San-fo-ts'i, San-bo-tsai, San-fo-ch'i, San-fo-qi, etc., due to different pronunciation especially with regard to dialect of the three characters involved.
The 三 character with the Middle Chinese pronunciation of sam, means "three" and could be a reference to a tripartite understanding of the core region of Sanfotsi as forming three islands. However, at the same time sam/san may be part of the Chinese rendering of a foreign placename.
I would suggest that Sanfotsi is an attempted Chinese rendering of the national and geographical name Sambali initially probably in the Middle Chinese form sam-bot-ʒiej. Possibly it could have been also originally a Southern Chinese form similar to Cantonese saam-bat-zi.
Sambali in this case is the same medieval kingdom known to Tibetan Buddhists as Shambhala and to medieval Hindus as Sambhala.
The word "sambali" may derive from the local word samba "to worship" and also sambal "confluence of rivers." Sambal can also refer to joining together of rivers by building canals. In this sense, sambal by extension can mean "to make a pact" or to arrange/witness a pact based on the sealing of pacts by exchange of blood i.e. the mingling of the blood streams.
Either in relation to the idea of worship or maybe to that of splitting of rivers at a confluence, sambali also means "sacrificer, executioner" in southern Philippine languages, and can refer to any ritual killing involving decapitation.
An 18th century Spanish Tagalog dictionary lists sabang as a synonym of sambal. The related form sapang in Kapampangan means "estuary," the area in a river where saltwater and freshwater meet.
"Sapang" as a placename these days occurs as part of a conjoined forms as in "Sapang Kawayan" in Masantol, Pampanga. However, "sabang" at one time was a stand-alone word, and probably also "sapang."
I have suggested previously it is from sapang/sabang that the Arabs derived Zabag and Zabaj, the names of the central kingdom located in an estuary where the Mihraj was based.
In local legends of Masantol, the old Rajah of Macabebe/Masantol hailed from Malauli, a barangay of modern Masantol on the section of the Pampanga River where salty brackish water meets freshwater i.e. a sapang/sabang.
Before the Pinatubo eruption, north of Malauli the Pampanga River was flanked on both sides by rice fields. However, at Malauli, planting rice is no longer possible because of the salty water and fish-ponds replace the rice fields south along the river until one reaches the Manila Bay.
The word "malauli" itself probably refers to a canal connected to the river alongside which homes in the community are built. At one time, this may have been the official entry point into the kingdom of Sambali, and it is noted as a sacred place in local lore.
Malauli and the related mauli both mean "downstream" in modern Kapampangan and the latter has the additional meaning of "river mouth" and "South." For the ancient Kapampangans, the east was signified by Mount Arayat, and the South probably by Malauli and preserved in modern "mauli." Malauli was the entrance into the old sacred homeland and also the official port of the kingdom. The palace of the Mihraj itself was located right on the edge of a tidal area according to Arabic sources, and Chau Ju-Kua states: "The people [of Sanfotsi] either live scattered about outside the city, or on the water on rafts of boards covered over with reeds, and these are exempt from taxation."
Malauli ang Sagrada, a barangay (village) of Masantol, Pampanga. The Pampanga River is in the upper right-hand corner. The East is at the top of the picture. Click here for whole Google map.
Sanfotsi and Sambatyon
The name of the Sambatyon River is usually said to be derived from an unattested form of the "Sabbaticus" River through a dissimilation of the double labial consonant "bb".
However, there could also be a connection here with Sambali, Shambhala and Sambhala.
Through confusion brought on by the different pronunciations of 三佛齊, a rendering such as "Sam-bo-tsai" could easily evolve into Sambatyon: Sam-bo-tsai> Sam-bai-tso (through metathesis)> Sam-ba-to> Sambatyon. The adding of the final -n was common in Jewish adoption of foreign words with final "o" as in Nero> Neron and Apollo> Apollyon.
Also the name "Sambatyon" appears around Sung Dynasty times at about the same time as "Sambotsai".
Concepts of lost tribes sequestered by a river are quite appropriate to the thinking of both the people of the Sambali region and to that of the ancient Hebrews (ibhri "across the river") . The Austronesian dual society based on relationships involving one's location on the left bank, right bank, upstream, downstream, etc. merges with ancient concepts of the "lost brother" who separated by a body of water. For a people living in the region of Sundaland floods and conditioned at an early age to marine exploration, the concept of the "lost brother" and "returning hero" is rather natural.
The river of sand and stones is a fiery one and can be compared to the flaming sword that guards Eden. Indeed, medieval traditions place the Lost Ten Tribes in or near the ancient Paradise.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Fox, James J. The Poetic Power of Place: Comparative Perspectives on Austronesian Ideas of Locality, ANE E Press, 1997, http://epress.anu.edu.au/austronesians/poetic/html/frames.php.
Lipset, David. Mangrove man: dialogics of culture in the Sepik estuary, Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 25-28. Also see Oppenheimer's Eden in the East on the "Two Brothers."
Some studies have shown that the name Sanfotsi could have applied to different regions within probably the same thallasocracy during the same time period. Palembang as interpreted as Sanfotsi is based mainly on Ming texts which state that Sanfotsi is also known as Pa-lin-fong. However, earlier texts list Pa-lin-fong as a dependency of Sanfotsi, which was located much further east in the Sea of Champa. Possibly in Ming times, China recognized some political elements of old Sanfotsi as present in Pa-lin-fong.
The placename Sanfotsi appears in the scholarly literature in many different forms: San-fo-ts'i, San-bo-tsai, San-fo-ch'i, San-fo-qi, etc., due to different pronunciation especially with regard to dialect of the three characters involved.
The 三 character with the Middle Chinese pronunciation of sam, means "three" and could be a reference to a tripartite understanding of the core region of Sanfotsi as forming three islands. However, at the same time sam/san may be part of the Chinese rendering of a foreign placename.
I would suggest that Sanfotsi is an attempted Chinese rendering of the national and geographical name Sambali initially probably in the Middle Chinese form sam-bot-ʒiej. Possibly it could have been also originally a Southern Chinese form similar to Cantonese saam-bat-zi.
Sambali in this case is the same medieval kingdom known to Tibetan Buddhists as Shambhala and to medieval Hindus as Sambhala.
The word "sambali" may derive from the local word samba "to worship" and also sambal "confluence of rivers." Sambal can also refer to joining together of rivers by building canals. In this sense, sambal by extension can mean "to make a pact" or to arrange/witness a pact based on the sealing of pacts by exchange of blood i.e. the mingling of the blood streams.
Either in relation to the idea of worship or maybe to that of splitting of rivers at a confluence, sambali also means "sacrificer, executioner" in southern Philippine languages, and can refer to any ritual killing involving decapitation.
An 18th century Spanish Tagalog dictionary lists sabang as a synonym of sambal. The related form sapang in Kapampangan means "estuary," the area in a river where saltwater and freshwater meet.
"Sapang" as a placename these days occurs as part of a conjoined forms as in "Sapang Kawayan" in Masantol, Pampanga. However, "sabang" at one time was a stand-alone word, and probably also "sapang."
I have suggested previously it is from sapang/sabang that the Arabs derived Zabag and Zabaj, the names of the central kingdom located in an estuary where the Mihraj was based.
In local legends of Masantol, the old Rajah of Macabebe/Masantol hailed from Malauli, a barangay of modern Masantol on the section of the Pampanga River where salty brackish water meets freshwater i.e. a sapang/sabang.
Before the Pinatubo eruption, north of Malauli the Pampanga River was flanked on both sides by rice fields. However, at Malauli, planting rice is no longer possible because of the salty water and fish-ponds replace the rice fields south along the river until one reaches the Manila Bay.
The word "malauli" itself probably refers to a canal connected to the river alongside which homes in the community are built. At one time, this may have been the official entry point into the kingdom of Sambali, and it is noted as a sacred place in local lore.
Malauli and the related mauli both mean "downstream" in modern Kapampangan and the latter has the additional meaning of "river mouth" and "South." For the ancient Kapampangans, the east was signified by Mount Arayat, and the South probably by Malauli and preserved in modern "mauli." Malauli was the entrance into the old sacred homeland and also the official port of the kingdom. The palace of the Mihraj itself was located right on the edge of a tidal area according to Arabic sources, and Chau Ju-Kua states: "The people [of Sanfotsi] either live scattered about outside the city, or on the water on rafts of boards covered over with reeds, and these are exempt from taxation."
Malauli ang Sagrada, a barangay (village) of Masantol, Pampanga. The Pampanga River is in the upper right-hand corner. The East is at the top of the picture. Click here for whole Google map.
Sanfotsi and Sambatyon
The name of the Sambatyon River is usually said to be derived from an unattested form of the "Sabbaticus" River through a dissimilation of the double labial consonant "bb".
However, there could also be a connection here with Sambali, Shambhala and Sambhala.
Through confusion brought on by the different pronunciations of 三佛齊, a rendering such as "Sam-bo-tsai" could easily evolve into Sambatyon: Sam-bo-tsai> Sam-bai-tso (through metathesis)> Sam-ba-to> Sambatyon. The adding of the final -n was common in Jewish adoption of foreign words with final "o" as in Nero> Neron and Apollo> Apollyon.
Also the name "Sambatyon" appears around Sung Dynasty times at about the same time as "Sambotsai".
Concepts of lost tribes sequestered by a river are quite appropriate to the thinking of both the people of the Sambali region and to that of the ancient Hebrews (ibhri "across the river") . The Austronesian dual society based on relationships involving one's location on the left bank, right bank, upstream, downstream, etc. merges with ancient concepts of the "lost brother" who separated by a body of water. For a people living in the region of Sundaland floods and conditioned at an early age to marine exploration, the concept of the "lost brother" and "returning hero" is rather natural.
The river of sand and stones is a fiery one and can be compared to the flaming sword that guards Eden. Indeed, medieval traditions place the Lost Ten Tribes in or near the ancient Paradise.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Fox, James J. The Poetic Power of Place: Comparative Perspectives on Austronesian Ideas of Locality, ANE E Press, 1997, http://epress.anu.edu.au/austronesians/poetic/html/frames.php.
Lipset, David. Mangrove man: dialogics of culture in the Sepik estuary, Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 25-28. Also see Oppenheimer's Eden in the East on the "Two Brothers."
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Sambatyon River (Article)
The Sambatyon River is described in Jewish and Christian literature as a river of sand and rocks that stops flowing or solidifies on the Sabbath day. A similar river known as the Wadi al-Raml "River of Sand" is found in Islamic literature. This river was closely linked with the "lost" Ten Tribes of Israel.
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, the first use of the name "Sambatyon" occurs in the Targum of pseudo-Jonathan to Ex. xxxiv. 10: "I will remove them from there and place them beyond the River Sambation."
Some think the name "Sambatyon" may be related to an earlier Sabbaticus river mentioned by Josephus and Pliny described as flowing according to a weekly schedule but Josephus states the river flows only on the Sabbath opposite what is said in other traditions. Neither Pliny or Josehphus describe a river of sand or stones. Josephus links the river with Jews during the time of Titus but not specifically with the Ten Tribes. Since the earliest times there has been disagreement on whether the Sambatyon and Sabbaticus rivers were related.
The first mention of a river of sand and stones connected in some way with the "lost tribes" actually occurs in Islamic literature. A group known as the "people of Moses" is mentioned in the Quran, and the commentator Muqatil bin Sulayman (767 CE) associates them with the lost tribes. He further places the people of Moses, numbering 70,000, beyond a river of sand in China. Several hadith tell of how the people of Moses dug a tunnel from the Temple Mount to or beyond China where they lived pious lives, and where Muhammed introduced them to Islam during his "night journey."
Muqatil b. Sulayman called the land of the people of Moses by the name Ardaf. The name resembles the location Arzaf mentioned in 4 Ezra 13 as the place to which the Ten Tribes escaped.
The Jewish traveler Eldad Hadani around the ninth century CE, mentions the people of Moses (beney Mosheh) living beyond the river of sand giving a complete tale combining many elements of the Hebrew and Islamic versions. Again, the Sambatyon River acts as a barrier sequestering the Ten Tribes and preventing their return to Israel.
Jewish texts like Pesikta Rabbati and Genesis Rabbah mention the tunneling story but in this case it is God who creates a tunnel from the land beyond Sambatyon which allows the Ten Tribes to return to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
Eldad Hadani describes the thunderous noise made by the Sambatyon:
This and similar descriptions have led researchers like David Kaufmann to suggest that the flowing sand and stones were caused by volcanic action. In Ma'ase Nissim, Gershon Halevi states while traveling in India that two days from Seviliah he encountered the Sambatyon:
Google satellite view of a modern-day "river of sand," the
Pasig River near Mt. Pinatubo south of Clark Field.
Pictures of the Sacobia-Bamban river
http://www.clarkab.org/photos/a35.jpg
http://pubs.usgs.gov/pinatubo/punong1/fig9b.jpg
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Singer, Isidore; Alder, Cyrus; (eds.) et al. The Jewish Encyclopedia, Funk and Wagnalls, New York, 1901-6.
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, the first use of the name "Sambatyon" occurs in the Targum of pseudo-Jonathan to Ex. xxxiv. 10: "I will remove them from there and place them beyond the River Sambation."
Some think the name "Sambatyon" may be related to an earlier Sabbaticus river mentioned by Josephus and Pliny described as flowing according to a weekly schedule but Josephus states the river flows only on the Sabbath opposite what is said in other traditions. Neither Pliny or Josehphus describe a river of sand or stones. Josephus links the river with Jews during the time of Titus but not specifically with the Ten Tribes. Since the earliest times there has been disagreement on whether the Sambatyon and Sabbaticus rivers were related.
The first mention of a river of sand and stones connected in some way with the "lost tribes" actually occurs in Islamic literature. A group known as the "people of Moses" is mentioned in the Quran, and the commentator Muqatil bin Sulayman (767 CE) associates them with the lost tribes. He further places the people of Moses, numbering 70,000, beyond a river of sand in China. Several hadith tell of how the people of Moses dug a tunnel from the Temple Mount to or beyond China where they lived pious lives, and where Muhammed introduced them to Islam during his "night journey."
Muqatil b. Sulayman called the land of the people of Moses by the name Ardaf. The name resembles the location Arzaf mentioned in 4 Ezra 13 as the place to which the Ten Tribes escaped.
Ezra has a dream where a fire-breathing messianic figure arises from the stormy sea and carves a great mountain for an apocalyptic battle. After vanquishing a great host that had come against him on the mountain with a stream of fire from his mouth, the savior figure calls another "peaceable" multitude, an event widely interpreted as indicating the return of the Ten Tribes.
And, whereas, thou sawest that He gathered another peaceable multitude unto Him; those are the Ten Tribes which were carried away out of their own land in the time of Osea (Hoshea) the King whom Shalmaneser the King of Assyria led away captive, and he carried them over the waters, and so they came into another land. But they took this counsel among themselves, that they should leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country. where never mankind dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land. And they entered into the Euphrates by the narrow passage of the river; for the Most High then showed signs for them, and held still the flood till they were passed over. Through that region there was a long way to go, a journey of a year and a half; and that country is called Arzaf [Latin Arzareth]. "Then they dwelt there until the last times; and now, when they are about to come again, the Most High will stop the channels of the river again, so that they may be able to pass over."
The Jewish traveler Eldad Hadani around the ninth century CE, mentions the people of Moses (beney Mosheh) living beyond the river of sand giving a complete tale combining many elements of the Hebrew and Islamic versions. Again, the Sambatyon River acts as a barrier sequestering the Ten Tribes and preventing their return to Israel.
Jewish texts like Pesikta Rabbati and Genesis Rabbah mention the tunneling story but in this case it is God who creates a tunnel from the land beyond Sambatyon which allows the Ten Tribes to return to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
Eldad Hadani describes the thunderous noise made by the Sambatyon:
"...the river is full of large and small stones, thundering with stormlike, deafening noises by day and by night; it can be heard a day's journey away. The river flows with its noisy stones and sand all the six days of the week; on the Sabbath it ceases and rests until the termination of the Sabbath."
This and similar descriptions have led researchers like David Kaufmann to suggest that the flowing sand and stones were caused by volcanic action. In Ma'ase Nissim, Gershon Halevi states while traveling in India that two days from Seviliah he encountered the Sambatyon:
The belief that the Ten Tribes were held back both by the Sambatyon and also the Euphrates, and were able to cross these rivers only with the intervention of God brings to mind verses in Revelation which tell of the drying of the Euphrates to make way for the Kings of the East. In some accounts of Prester John, who is closely linked with the Ten Tribes beyond the river of sand/stones, it is said that his failure to reach Jerusalem was caused by his inability to cross the Euphrates.
At some locations, I noticed a fire burning; other places appeared as rising smoke, and I was told that this is the smoke of the Gay Hinnom, like the mountains of Sicily in Italy. As we approached the town, which is near the Sambatyon, we heard turbulent, thundering noises. The closer we came to the town, the more deafening the noises became. Upon my inquiry I was told that this was the roar of the Sambatyon.
Google satellite view of a modern-day "river of sand," the
Pasig River near Mt. Pinatubo south of Clark Field.
Pictures of the Sacobia-Bamban river
http://www.clarkab.org/photos/a35.jpg
http://pubs.usgs.gov/pinatubo/punong1/fig9b.jpg
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Singer, Isidore; Alder, Cyrus; (eds.) et al. The Jewish Encyclopedia, Funk and Wagnalls, New York, 1901-6.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
King of the East (Glossary)
Jewish, Zoroastrian, Christian and to a lesser extent Muslim traditions all possess a theme of the "King of the East" as a key player in apocalyptic times.
The ultimate origin of this belief in the region may come from the Egyptian concept of the throne on the "Island of Fire" i.e., Ta-Neserser. On this island was found the Primeval Hill from which the Sun and the Bennu Bird rise in the furthest East, and it was here that the dead traveled by ship where they entered the opening to the Underworld.
The food and herbs of Ta-Neserser filled the body with "magic," and at least by the Middle Kingdom period, the aromatics and products of Punt appear connected in some way with the Island of Fire. The throne in the latter location is associated with a serpent or cobra, and the Lord of Punt in the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor, which in this case refers to the location of spices like cassia and cinnamon, appears as a giant snake. Aromatics like cassia and cinnamon continued to be associated with an eastern Paradise or "Elysian Fields" in regional cultures influenced by Egypt for thousands of years.
The Book of the Dead depicts what might be called a "volcanic apocalypse" of fire and flood after which renewal begins again from the throne of the Island of Fire. As discussed in this blog, the theme of one or a few survivors after a cataclysmic flood repopulating the earth is quite a familiar theme in Southeast Asian mythology.
Concepts of cyclic change that began at least by the Middle Kingdom in Egypt appear to have contributed to Egyptian millennarianism in the first few centuries before the era among gnostic and Jewish apocalyptic sects. Interestingly at about the same time in China to the East, ideas of a future millennarian age initiated by a reincarnation of Laozi also come to fore. This was at about the same time that the Fangshi wizards preached the wisdom of venturing to Penglai, the isle of immortals. During this period, there is evidence of contact between East and West both overland via the Silk Road and by sea via the maritime spice routes.
Concepts of both a savior king and a destructive king of the "antichrist" type are clearly present during this period.
King from the Sun
The Potter's Oracle and the Sibylline Oracles both refer to a messianic "King from the Sun" who conquers Rome, which many interpret to mean a "King from the East," i.e., the direction of the sunrise.
This identification is strengthened by other works of around this time like the Oracles of Hystaspes and Phlegon's account in Mirabilia.
Phlegon tells of how the slain Syrian Bouplagus after the defeat of Antiochus III at Thermopylae appears to the Roman soldiers warning them that an angered Zeus would send a "bold-hearted race" to bring their defeat and contrition. Another prophecy tells of the the Roman general Publius who went into a prophetic frenzy foretelling the destruction of Rome and conquest of the world by peoples coming from "Asia where the sun rises." According to the story, Publius also foretold that he would be eaten by a wolf, which comes true except that his head is left to declare his prophecies about Rome would also come to past.
Hystaspes is mentioned by Lactantius, Justin, Clement and Aristokritos. He is sometimes said to be the father of Darius, but in another account he is a Median who lives before the "Trojans were born." According to Ammianus, Hystaspes went to study with the Brahmins of "Upper India" where he learned about astronomy, astrology and other mysteries. All the sources agree that Hystaspes tells of Rome's descent into a time of trouble, while Justin refers to the destruction of the world by fire before the coming of an oriental savior king.
The Oracles of Hystaspes have so much in common with the apocalyptic Bahman Yasht of Persia that F. Cumont and G. Widengren have suggested an Iranian source for the former. It is worthwhile to note here that the Bahman Yasht more specifically locates the King of the East in the "direction" of China and the Indies, something dealt with in greater detail in Pahlavi and New Persian messianic literature.
The Persian connection is important because it was from Iran that both Zoroastrian and Nestorian Christianity expanded in the Sassanian period. The Nestorian synod of 410 CE mentions a "Metropolitan of the Islands, Seas and Interior of Dabag, Chin and Machin" (Zabag or Insular Southeast Asia, China and mainland Southeast Asia), who was seated at the Iranian port of Bushehr.
King of the East in Christianity
Not surprisingly there arose some counter propaganda to the Jewish, gnostic and Persian oracles against Rome.
One example is the Tiburtine Sibyl of the fourth century CE that prophesied a King of the Romans and Greeks known as Constans who conquers the world for Christianity before the coming of the Antichrist. Such oracles later morphed into beliefs of a French Catholic king who would bring the world to Rome culiminating in the 16th century book of prophecies Mirabilis Liber.
The King of the East was contrarily often associated in Christian millennarian works with the Antichrist, and this concept is not foreign to earlier works like the Potter's Oracle. That both destruction and renewal would be associated with the Orient agrees well with the Egyptian descriptions of the cyclic Island of Fire.
However, Christian millennarian also adopted and adapted the earlier views of the King of the East as savior. Commodian, for example, writes of "Nero redivivus," the reincarnated Nero who brings misery to Rome and the world as the Antichrist but is vanquished by King Apollyon of the East.
The general concept of ex Oriente lux "From the East, the light; from the East, the Saviour," was a powerful theme that helped bring about the latter popularity of Prester John, the King of the Indies.
Sambatyon River and the Ten Tribes
The tales of Prester John were closely associated with a legendary river known as the Sambatyon beyond which supposedly were found the lost Ten Tribes of Israel.
By at least the fourth or fifth century, we find in the rabbinical literature and the Alexandrian Romance of Pseudo-Callisthenes mention of a river of sand and/or stones that ceases flowing on the Sabbath day.
Early Muslim sources also mention the river of sand and connect it with the "people of Moses" (qawm Musa). The people of Moses are mentioned twice in the Quran (7:159, 17:104) as living at the edge of the world and who in the future will be reunited with the other children of Israel.
Latter commentaries on these verses state that Muhammed converted the people of Moses on his trip to heaven, and that they will ally themselves with Muslims against Rome in the end-times. Muqatil b. Sulayman (767 CE) commenting on 17:104 states that the people of Moses live in China on the far side of a river of sand that solidifies on the Sabbath, and gives them the name Ardaf or Ardaq.
Against this tradition, was a version which has Dejjal, the Muslim Antichrist arising in Bartayil (also Bartail, Bratayil, etc.) an island where clove buds are found situated in or near Zabag. Dejjal is supposed to lead an army of renegade Jews in a final war against Muslims. Thomas Suarez believes the strange horse from the sea, a familiar apocalyptic motif connected with Bartayil, is linked with the Chinese sea-goddess Kuanyin who often takes the form of a horse. Kuanyin in her final incarnation as Miao Shan was the daughter of the King of Hsing Lin, whose empire stretched from the western boundary of India eastward and south of Siam through Insular Southeast Asia.
A parallel Jewish tradition to that of the "people of Moses" developed in the beney Mosheh "children of Moses" said to have been transported to the edenic land of Havilah in the East where they live on the east side of the Sambatyon River flowing with sand and rocks but congealing on the Sabbath. To this was added the story that on the Sabbath a great wall of fire formed around the river.
One belief arose claiming the beney Mosheh possessed a written form of the Torah superior to the Rabbanate oral traditions and copied according to some from the stone tablets of Moses himself.
Centuries later, Prester John, in the various letters attributed to him, regularly claims both the river of sand and the Ten Tribes belong to his empire. In the same sense, he lays claim to another apocalyptic people, the biblical nations of Gog and Magog.
The Ten Tribes are sometimes described as vast in number having 10 cities to every one in Prester John's realm. So much so that the king found it necessary to station garrisons at the river of sand to prevent the Israelites from conquering the world. At other times they are said to ally themselves with Prester John in his battles against Muslims and others. They frequently send friendly traders to the king's land.
Jews in the West had various opinions about Prester John, some considering him an enemy holding back the Ten Tribes from reunification with the Jews. Many associated the coming of the lost tribes with the advent of the Messiah.
In the middle of the 15th century, at about the same time we hear of the de Conti's last reports of activity from a Prester John of the East Indies and also a possible embassy from that king to the Vatican, Jewish writings circulated about wars between the Prester John and the Ten Tribes.
Numerous explanations have given for what historical facts, if any, may explain the beliefs in the Ten Tribes and the Sambatyon River. The need to link these motifs with a king in the east may simply relate to the fact that both the Ten Tribes and the King of the East themes are integral to apocalyptic beliefs in the region.
It may be there is some connection with the Jewish communities in the more remote areas of China -- the southern coastal cities of Quanzhou (Zaiton), Canton, Ningpo and Yangzhou. Merchants from Fujian Province and other parts of South China settled at trading posts like the Parian in Manila and other Southeast Asian ports, and it may be these merchants were conflated with the Chinese Jews, if no real association existed.
Although the information on the King of the East as a savior or as antichrist is often confused, a consistent theme linking the monarch with the geography, aromatics, cosmology and other characteristics of the "East Indies" persists through the ages from the earliest times.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Buitenwerf, Rieuwerd. Book III of the Sibylline Oracles and Its Social Setting, Brill Academic Publishers, 2003, pp. 273-5.
Goldfish, Matt. The Sabbatean Prophets, Harvard University Press, 2004, p. 31.
Halkin, Hillel. Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel, Houghton Mifflin Books, 2004, p. 109.
MacGing, Brian C. The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus, Brill Academic Publishers, 1986, pp. 103-4.
Mingana, Alphonse, "The early spread of Christianity in India," Bulletin of the John Rylands Library X 1926, p. 455.
Reeves, John C. Trajectories in Near Eastern Apocalyptic: A Postrabbinic Jewish Apocalypse Reader, SBL, 2005.
Werner, E.T.C. Myths and legends of China, Courier Dover
Publications, 1994, p. 253. The manuscript containing the story of Miao Shan was given by the abbot of Hsiang-shan monastery to Chiang Chih-ch'i, the Ju-Chou prefect, in 1100 CE. The abbot had received the work from a monk who had come on pilgrimage to Hsiang-shan.
The ultimate origin of this belief in the region may come from the Egyptian concept of the throne on the "Island of Fire" i.e., Ta-Neserser. On this island was found the Primeval Hill from which the Sun and the Bennu Bird rise in the furthest East, and it was here that the dead traveled by ship where they entered the opening to the Underworld.
The food and herbs of Ta-Neserser filled the body with "magic," and at least by the Middle Kingdom period, the aromatics and products of Punt appear connected in some way with the Island of Fire. The throne in the latter location is associated with a serpent or cobra, and the Lord of Punt in the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor, which in this case refers to the location of spices like cassia and cinnamon, appears as a giant snake. Aromatics like cassia and cinnamon continued to be associated with an eastern Paradise or "Elysian Fields" in regional cultures influenced by Egypt for thousands of years.
The Book of the Dead depicts what might be called a "volcanic apocalypse" of fire and flood after which renewal begins again from the throne of the Island of Fire. As discussed in this blog, the theme of one or a few survivors after a cataclysmic flood repopulating the earth is quite a familiar theme in Southeast Asian mythology.
Concepts of cyclic change that began at least by the Middle Kingdom in Egypt appear to have contributed to Egyptian millennarianism in the first few centuries before the era among gnostic and Jewish apocalyptic sects. Interestingly at about the same time in China to the East, ideas of a future millennarian age initiated by a reincarnation of Laozi also come to fore. This was at about the same time that the Fangshi wizards preached the wisdom of venturing to Penglai, the isle of immortals. During this period, there is evidence of contact between East and West both overland via the Silk Road and by sea via the maritime spice routes.
Concepts of both a savior king and a destructive king of the "antichrist" type are clearly present during this period.
King from the Sun
The Potter's Oracle and the Sibylline Oracles both refer to a messianic "King from the Sun" who conquers Rome, which many interpret to mean a "King from the East," i.e., the direction of the sunrise.
This identification is strengthened by other works of around this time like the Oracles of Hystaspes and Phlegon's account in Mirabilia.
Phlegon tells of how the slain Syrian Bouplagus after the defeat of Antiochus III at Thermopylae appears to the Roman soldiers warning them that an angered Zeus would send a "bold-hearted race" to bring their defeat and contrition. Another prophecy tells of the the Roman general Publius who went into a prophetic frenzy foretelling the destruction of Rome and conquest of the world by peoples coming from "Asia where the sun rises." According to the story, Publius also foretold that he would be eaten by a wolf, which comes true except that his head is left to declare his prophecies about Rome would also come to past.
Hystaspes is mentioned by Lactantius, Justin, Clement and Aristokritos. He is sometimes said to be the father of Darius, but in another account he is a Median who lives before the "Trojans were born." According to Ammianus, Hystaspes went to study with the Brahmins of "Upper India" where he learned about astronomy, astrology and other mysteries. All the sources agree that Hystaspes tells of Rome's descent into a time of trouble, while Justin refers to the destruction of the world by fire before the coming of an oriental savior king.
The Oracles of Hystaspes have so much in common with the apocalyptic Bahman Yasht of Persia that F. Cumont and G. Widengren have suggested an Iranian source for the former. It is worthwhile to note here that the Bahman Yasht more specifically locates the King of the East in the "direction" of China and the Indies, something dealt with in greater detail in Pahlavi and New Persian messianic literature.
The Persian connection is important because it was from Iran that both Zoroastrian and Nestorian Christianity expanded in the Sassanian period. The Nestorian synod of 410 CE mentions a "Metropolitan of the Islands, Seas and Interior of Dabag, Chin and Machin" (Zabag or Insular Southeast Asia, China and mainland Southeast Asia), who was seated at the Iranian port of Bushehr.
King of the East in Christianity
Not surprisingly there arose some counter propaganda to the Jewish, gnostic and Persian oracles against Rome.
One example is the Tiburtine Sibyl of the fourth century CE that prophesied a King of the Romans and Greeks known as Constans who conquers the world for Christianity before the coming of the Antichrist. Such oracles later morphed into beliefs of a French Catholic king who would bring the world to Rome culiminating in the 16th century book of prophecies Mirabilis Liber.
The King of the East was contrarily often associated in Christian millennarian works with the Antichrist, and this concept is not foreign to earlier works like the Potter's Oracle. That both destruction and renewal would be associated with the Orient agrees well with the Egyptian descriptions of the cyclic Island of Fire.
However, Christian millennarian also adopted and adapted the earlier views of the King of the East as savior. Commodian, for example, writes of "Nero redivivus," the reincarnated Nero who brings misery to Rome and the world as the Antichrist but is vanquished by King Apollyon of the East.
The general concept of ex Oriente lux "From the East, the light; from the East, the Saviour," was a powerful theme that helped bring about the latter popularity of Prester John, the King of the Indies.
Sambatyon River and the Ten Tribes
The tales of Prester John were closely associated with a legendary river known as the Sambatyon beyond which supposedly were found the lost Ten Tribes of Israel.
By at least the fourth or fifth century, we find in the rabbinical literature and the Alexandrian Romance of Pseudo-Callisthenes mention of a river of sand and/or stones that ceases flowing on the Sabbath day.
Early Muslim sources also mention the river of sand and connect it with the "people of Moses" (qawm Musa). The people of Moses are mentioned twice in the Quran (7:159, 17:104) as living at the edge of the world and who in the future will be reunited with the other children of Israel.
Latter commentaries on these verses state that Muhammed converted the people of Moses on his trip to heaven, and that they will ally themselves with Muslims against Rome in the end-times. Muqatil b. Sulayman (767 CE) commenting on 17:104 states that the people of Moses live in China on the far side of a river of sand that solidifies on the Sabbath, and gives them the name Ardaf or Ardaq.
Against this tradition, was a version which has Dejjal, the Muslim Antichrist arising in Bartayil (also Bartail, Bratayil, etc.) an island where clove buds are found situated in or near Zabag. Dejjal is supposed to lead an army of renegade Jews in a final war against Muslims. Thomas Suarez believes the strange horse from the sea, a familiar apocalyptic motif connected with Bartayil, is linked with the Chinese sea-goddess Kuanyin who often takes the form of a horse. Kuanyin in her final incarnation as Miao Shan was the daughter of the King of Hsing Lin, whose empire stretched from the western boundary of India eastward and south of Siam through Insular Southeast Asia.
A parallel Jewish tradition to that of the "people of Moses" developed in the beney Mosheh "children of Moses" said to have been transported to the edenic land of Havilah in the East where they live on the east side of the Sambatyon River flowing with sand and rocks but congealing on the Sabbath. To this was added the story that on the Sabbath a great wall of fire formed around the river.
One belief arose claiming the beney Mosheh possessed a written form of the Torah superior to the Rabbanate oral traditions and copied according to some from the stone tablets of Moses himself.
Centuries later, Prester John, in the various letters attributed to him, regularly claims both the river of sand and the Ten Tribes belong to his empire. In the same sense, he lays claim to another apocalyptic people, the biblical nations of Gog and Magog.
The Ten Tribes are sometimes described as vast in number having 10 cities to every one in Prester John's realm. So much so that the king found it necessary to station garrisons at the river of sand to prevent the Israelites from conquering the world. At other times they are said to ally themselves with Prester John in his battles against Muslims and others. They frequently send friendly traders to the king's land.
Jews in the West had various opinions about Prester John, some considering him an enemy holding back the Ten Tribes from reunification with the Jews. Many associated the coming of the lost tribes with the advent of the Messiah.
In the middle of the 15th century, at about the same time we hear of the de Conti's last reports of activity from a Prester John of the East Indies and also a possible embassy from that king to the Vatican, Jewish writings circulated about wars between the Prester John and the Ten Tribes.
In that year [1454], on the third day of the month of Nissan [early spring], there arrived here to the holy city of Jerusalem wise and respected elders from the lands of the Children of the East, and also men from the land of Babylonia, from the lands of Persia and Media, from India, from China, and from Yemen...which is as far from Jerusalem as the place of the Children of the East, five months' journey; and from there to our brothers, the Children of the Sambatyon River, is five months. They brought us letters from the heads of communities in the above-mentioned places...Know that the Sambatyon river stopped flowing altogether in the year 1453, at the beginning of the year, on the very first day of the month of Tishri. Our brothers are there battling the war of the blessed God, and they have a great and pious and exceedingly strong king who fights the battles of the Lord every single day with the great Christian king, Prester John of India. The great and pious king of our people captured many lands from him, and killed many thousands of his people...So gird yourselves and strengthen others in the name of the Lord God, for the Redeemer has been revealed, and he is about to redeem us with the help of blessed God.
Numerous explanations have given for what historical facts, if any, may explain the beliefs in the Ten Tribes and the Sambatyon River. The need to link these motifs with a king in the east may simply relate to the fact that both the Ten Tribes and the King of the East themes are integral to apocalyptic beliefs in the region.
It may be there is some connection with the Jewish communities in the more remote areas of China -- the southern coastal cities of Quanzhou (Zaiton), Canton, Ningpo and Yangzhou. Merchants from Fujian Province and other parts of South China settled at trading posts like the Parian in Manila and other Southeast Asian ports, and it may be these merchants were conflated with the Chinese Jews, if no real association existed.
Although the information on the King of the East as a savior or as antichrist is often confused, a consistent theme linking the monarch with the geography, aromatics, cosmology and other characteristics of the "East Indies" persists through the ages from the earliest times.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Buitenwerf, Rieuwerd. Book III of the Sibylline Oracles and Its Social Setting, Brill Academic Publishers, 2003, pp. 273-5.
Goldfish, Matt. The Sabbatean Prophets, Harvard University Press, 2004, p. 31.
Halkin, Hillel. Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel, Houghton Mifflin Books, 2004, p. 109.
MacGing, Brian C. The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus, Brill Academic Publishers, 1986, pp. 103-4.
Mingana, Alphonse, "The early spread of Christianity in India," Bulletin of the John Rylands Library X 1926, p. 455.
Reeves, John C. Trajectories in Near Eastern Apocalyptic: A Postrabbinic Jewish Apocalypse Reader, SBL, 2005.
Werner, E.T.C. Myths and legends of China, Courier Dover
Publications, 1994, p. 253. The manuscript containing the story of Miao Shan was given by the abbot of Hsiang-shan monastery to Chiang Chih-ch'i, the Ju-Chou prefect, in 1100 CE. The abbot had received the work from a monk who had come on pilgrimage to Hsiang-shan.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Kalacakra Millenarian Timeline (Article)
Kalacakra millenarian views of history and the future as found in Tibetan Buddhism center on three key dates. The first is the transmission of the Kalacakra doctrine to Sucandra by the Buddha. Historians tend to look at this as a legendary event.
According to Kalacakra tradition, Sucandra brought the Kalacakra system to Shambhala where it was passed on by seven kings of the Sakya dynasty in that country.
Then comes the next key date when the Kulika dynasty arises with the Rigden King Manjushrikiirti. One of the most noteworthy deeds of this first Kulika king was to merge the different castes into a single equal "vajra" caste.
Next, the Tibetan Calendar begins in 1027 CE when the Kalacakra system is brought to India and Tibet by either the 12th or 17th Kulika king according to different traditions. The texts state that the calendar starts 403 years after the leader of a people known as the Lalos institutes a new type of astrology. This takes us to the year 624 CE or about two years after the Hijra of the Islamic calendar.
25 Kulika kings
Kalacakra texts state that 25 Rigden kings will reign before an apocalyptic war that ushers in a new golden age. The antagonists are the Lalos, apparently a term for peoples who expand their religious systems through violence.
Each Rigden is given an approximate reign of 100 years, so the full period of the Kulika Dynasty is approximately 2500 years.
A period of 25 reigns of 100 years each can find some basis in the native mensuration systems found in the Philippines and also possibly more broadly in early Austronesian society.
Ifugao peoples retained a quinary (base 5) counting system that they used together with a base 10 system. The quantity of five was known as hongol. When counting base 5, after one reaches five sets of five, one must had a new word to a word number and a new digit to a numeral. Five fives or 25 is known in the Ifugao system as dalan.
Dalan is an interesting word that normally means "way, path, road." So after one counts five fives, the "way" of counting is finished and one starts over again. The imagery is linear although the counting is cyclic.
Remnants of base 5 counting can also be found among the Christianized Filipinos in the dry measure system where five gantas equal one pati, and five pati or 25 ganta equal one caban.
The number five is of importance in Philippine social systems also because most clan genealogies include five generations. These five generations are often visualized in the form of a human body.
Among the Kapampangans, the great-grandparent is known as apung qng tud "grandparent of the knee." The great-great-grandparent is known as apung qng talampacan "grandparent of the sole of the foot." The Tagalogs knew the great-grandchild as apo sa tuhod "grandchild of the knee" and the great-great-grandchild as apo sa talampakan "grandchild of the sole."
Ilocanos saw the present generation as likened to the waist area, while the two preceding generations were characterized as the shoulders and head, and the two successive generations as the knees and soles.
According to researchers, the Ifugao usually kept genealogies going back from 15 to 30 generations. It may be at one time, that it was common to keep at least 25 generations in memory i.e., one dalan or circuit of generations. Noble families may have kept longer genealogies as the Spanish mention the 'genealogies of gods,' which likely refers to the chiefly families tracing their alleged divine descent.
The dalan unit (also daan) in the indigenous decimal systems denotes a quantity of 100. There is some evidence that dalan also referred in early times to one's "path of life" to mean both the course and the duration. For example, the term dalan sa kinabuhi "path of life" in Sugbuanon.
Samosir Batak has the term dalan ngolu literally "path of life" but also meaning "field" to express an agricultural mode of living.
In Tongan, the cognate word hala can mean "death, especially that of the king," in the sense probably of death as the completion of life's path.
If the 100-year reigns of the Rigden Kings are viewed as decimal dalan, then a quinary dalan consisting of five "bodies" of five reigns each would equal 25 reigns lasting 2,500 years.
So, the Kulika Dynasty could be seen as a quinary dalan of decimal dalans.
Reincarnated ancestors
De Jesus letter on beliefs of tranmigration in the Philippines rightly mentions the crocodile which was known as nunu and dapu "grandfather." The early Filipinos believed in the return of great heroes, for example, the culture-hero/god Lumauig was believed by Igorot peoples to one day return and restore the old order.
During revolutionary times, different peasant leaders claimed to be reincarnations of heroes like Jose Rizal or Father Jose Burgos. Felipe Salvador, who led a sectarian peasant revolt in Central Luzon, declared he was the second coming of Christ.
In addition to reincarnation, there was a belief in the inheriting of the spirit-double of -- or guidance by the spirit of -- a deceased ancestor. In Kapampangan this is known as mana ning kaladua.
The mid-17th century hermaphroditic priest Tapar of Panay, who wore the "garb of a woman," claimed that he was under the command of the nonos, the departed ancestors. He called himself "Eternal Father" and appointed among his followers persons known as the Son, Holy Ghost and "Maria Santisima."
The "humble origins" mentioned by Nicholas Tarling above could also mask a submerged ancient lineage as in the prophecies of Ratu Adil and Satria Piningit "Hidden Warrior" in Indonesia. The rural messiah is also indicated by Hindu texts that declare Kalki would be born in a "village" known as Sambhala. Some Kalacakra traditions also claim that both the king and kingdom of Shambhala would be unknown initially to the Lalos, despite the latter having gained control of much of the earth.
Dual ages
If we look at the 2,500 period from the standpoint of the dualistic views held in the region, it would be logical that this period would have a dual counterpart age. Thus the two periods would be equal to 5,000 years.
Buddhist tradition does mention that the period of decline after the death of the Buddha would last 5,000 years consisting of five 1000 year periods. However, after the ordination of women, this period was cut in half to five 500 year periods equaling 2,500 years! We might view this from the dualism standpoint as indicating that the ordination of women allowed the cancellation of the female half of the period of decline. Chinese millenarian sects often saw two ages before the golden age. Among some of these sects, these ages were known as the Blue Sun and the Red Sun, indicating respectively yin and yang.
Some Kalacakra traditions also mention a 5,000 year period but in this case broken up into the 700-year Sakya Dynasty of Shambhala, the 2,500 year Kulika Dynasty, and a 1,800 year golden age after the final battle with the Lalos.
Concepts of generational time perceived in the form of a human body has other reflexes in the Philippine region. In the Tagalog language, for example, the words tao "people," katawan "body," and taon "year" are all derived from the same root. The Kapampangan word banua can mean "heaven" as a place inhabited by the gods, stars and planets, but originally from an early Austronesian word denoting a territory inhabited by people. Banua also means "year" in Kapampangan.
The Bisayan god Laon, was a god of time, and laon denotes the passage of time. He is often described with pantheistic traits as pervading all things or forming the substance of all things.
Aspects of genealogical and solar time were obviously important in the region, but it was also suggested previously that there were may have been some pragmatic reasons involved in the formation of the Kalacakra timeline. Muslim traders began establishing themselves increasingly along the eastern African coast progressively moving southward during the 10th century and threatening the spice trade of Shambhala (Suvarnadvipa). It was about in the late 10th century that we see evidence of propaganda efforts by Suvarnadvipa to draw other political entities into the fray.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Blair, Emma Helen, James Alexander Robertson, Edward and Gaylord Bourne. The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803;: explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands..., The A.H. Clark Company, 1903, vol. 36. p. 318; vol. 38, p. 218.
De Beuclair, Inez. Three genealogical stories from Botel Tobago: A contribution to the folklore of the Yami, ND, http://www.sinica.edu.tw/~dlproj/article/ET-t/ET23.html (Chinese Traditional Big5 encoding).
Conklin, Harold and Pugguwon Lupaih. Ethnographic Atals of Ifugao: a Study of Environment, and Society in Northern Luzon, Yale University Press, 1980, p. 11.
According to Kalacakra tradition, Sucandra brought the Kalacakra system to Shambhala where it was passed on by seven kings of the Sakya dynasty in that country.
Then comes the next key date when the Kulika dynasty arises with the Rigden King Manjushrikiirti. One of the most noteworthy deeds of this first Kulika king was to merge the different castes into a single equal "vajra" caste.
Next, the Tibetan Calendar begins in 1027 CE when the Kalacakra system is brought to India and Tibet by either the 12th or 17th Kulika king according to different traditions. The texts state that the calendar starts 403 years after the leader of a people known as the Lalos institutes a new type of astrology. This takes us to the year 624 CE or about two years after the Hijra of the Islamic calendar.
25 Kulika kings
Kalacakra texts state that 25 Rigden kings will reign before an apocalyptic war that ushers in a new golden age. The antagonists are the Lalos, apparently a term for peoples who expand their religious systems through violence.
Each Rigden is given an approximate reign of 100 years, so the full period of the Kulika Dynasty is approximately 2500 years.
A period of 25 reigns of 100 years each can find some basis in the native mensuration systems found in the Philippines and also possibly more broadly in early Austronesian society.
Ifugao peoples retained a quinary (base 5) counting system that they used together with a base 10 system. The quantity of five was known as hongol. When counting base 5, after one reaches five sets of five, one must had a new word to a word number and a new digit to a numeral. Five fives or 25 is known in the Ifugao system as dalan.
Dalan is an interesting word that normally means "way, path, road." So after one counts five fives, the "way" of counting is finished and one starts over again. The imagery is linear although the counting is cyclic.
Remnants of base 5 counting can also be found among the Christianized Filipinos in the dry measure system where five gantas equal one pati, and five pati or 25 ganta equal one caban.
The number five is of importance in Philippine social systems also because most clan genealogies include five generations. These five generations are often visualized in the form of a human body.
Among the Kapampangans, the great-grandparent is known as apung qng tud "grandparent of the knee." The great-great-grandparent is known as apung qng talampacan "grandparent of the sole of the foot." The Tagalogs knew the great-grandchild as apo sa tuhod "grandchild of the knee" and the great-great-grandchild as apo sa talampakan "grandchild of the sole."
Ilocanos saw the present generation as likened to the waist area, while the two preceding generations were characterized as the shoulders and head, and the two successive generations as the knees and soles.
According to researchers, the Ifugao usually kept genealogies going back from 15 to 30 generations. It may be at one time, that it was common to keep at least 25 generations in memory i.e., one dalan or circuit of generations. Noble families may have kept longer genealogies as the Spanish mention the 'genealogies of gods,' which likely refers to the chiefly families tracing their alleged divine descent.
The dalan unit (also daan) in the indigenous decimal systems denotes a quantity of 100. There is some evidence that dalan also referred in early times to one's "path of life" to mean both the course and the duration. For example, the term dalan sa kinabuhi "path of life" in Sugbuanon.
Samosir Batak has the term dalan ngolu literally "path of life" but also meaning "field" to express an agricultural mode of living.
In Tongan, the cognate word hala can mean "death, especially that of the king," in the sense probably of death as the completion of life's path.
If the 100-year reigns of the Rigden Kings are viewed as decimal dalan, then a quinary dalan consisting of five "bodies" of five reigns each would equal 25 reigns lasting 2,500 years.
So, the Kulika Dynasty could be seen as a quinary dalan of decimal dalans.
Reincarnated ancestors
Some of them worshiped a certain bird, others the crocodile; for holding the same fancy regarding the transmigration of souls as was held by Pythagoras in his palingenesis, they believed that, after certain cycles of years, the souls of their forefathers were turned into crocodiles.
-- Pablo de Jesus Letter to Gregory XIII
De Jesus letter on beliefs of tranmigration in the Philippines rightly mentions the crocodile which was known as nunu and dapu "grandfather." The early Filipinos believed in the return of great heroes, for example, the culture-hero/god Lumauig was believed by Igorot peoples to one day return and restore the old order.
During revolutionary times, different peasant leaders claimed to be reincarnations of heroes like Jose Rizal or Father Jose Burgos. Felipe Salvador, who led a sectarian peasant revolt in Central Luzon, declared he was the second coming of Christ.
In addition to reincarnation, there was a belief in the inheriting of the spirit-double of -- or guidance by the spirit of -- a deceased ancestor. In Kapampangan this is known as mana ning kaladua.
The mid-17th century hermaphroditic priest Tapar of Panay, who wore the "garb of a woman," claimed that he was under the command of the nonos, the departed ancestors. He called himself "Eternal Father" and appointed among his followers persons known as the Son, Holy Ghost and "Maria Santisima."
Throughout Southeast Asia the belief that even a person of humble origins could acquire extraordinary powers and claim a special relationship with the supernatural could give rise to sudden eruptions of localized religious movements when prophecies, dreams, magic, amulets, claims of invulnerability and secret revelations provided a potent weaponry.
-- Nicholas Tarling, The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia
The "humble origins" mentioned by Nicholas Tarling above could also mask a submerged ancient lineage as in the prophecies of Ratu Adil and Satria Piningit "Hidden Warrior" in Indonesia. The rural messiah is also indicated by Hindu texts that declare Kalki would be born in a "village" known as Sambhala. Some Kalacakra traditions also claim that both the king and kingdom of Shambhala would be unknown initially to the Lalos, despite the latter having gained control of much of the earth.
Dual ages
If we look at the 2,500 period from the standpoint of the dualistic views held in the region, it would be logical that this period would have a dual counterpart age. Thus the two periods would be equal to 5,000 years.
Buddhist tradition does mention that the period of decline after the death of the Buddha would last 5,000 years consisting of five 1000 year periods. However, after the ordination of women, this period was cut in half to five 500 year periods equaling 2,500 years! We might view this from the dualism standpoint as indicating that the ordination of women allowed the cancellation of the female half of the period of decline. Chinese millenarian sects often saw two ages before the golden age. Among some of these sects, these ages were known as the Blue Sun and the Red Sun, indicating respectively yin and yang.
Some Kalacakra traditions also mention a 5,000 year period but in this case broken up into the 700-year Sakya Dynasty of Shambhala, the 2,500 year Kulika Dynasty, and a 1,800 year golden age after the final battle with the Lalos.
Concepts of generational time perceived in the form of a human body has other reflexes in the Philippine region. In the Tagalog language, for example, the words tao "people," katawan "body," and taon "year" are all derived from the same root. The Kapampangan word banua can mean "heaven" as a place inhabited by the gods, stars and planets, but originally from an early Austronesian word denoting a territory inhabited by people. Banua also means "year" in Kapampangan.
The Bisayan god Laon, was a god of time, and laon denotes the passage of time. He is often described with pantheistic traits as pervading all things or forming the substance of all things.
Aspects of genealogical and solar time were obviously important in the region, but it was also suggested previously that there were may have been some pragmatic reasons involved in the formation of the Kalacakra timeline. Muslim traders began establishing themselves increasingly along the eastern African coast progressively moving southward during the 10th century and threatening the spice trade of Shambhala (Suvarnadvipa). It was about in the late 10th century that we see evidence of propaganda efforts by Suvarnadvipa to draw other political entities into the fray.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Blair, Emma Helen, James Alexander Robertson, Edward and Gaylord Bourne. The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803;: explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands..., The A.H. Clark Company, 1903, vol. 36. p. 318; vol. 38, p. 218.
De Beuclair, Inez. Three genealogical stories from Botel Tobago: A contribution to the folklore of the Yami, ND, http://www.sinica.edu.tw/~dlproj/article/ET-t/ET23.html (Chinese Traditional Big5 encoding).
Conklin, Harold and Pugguwon Lupaih. Ethnographic Atals of Ifugao: a Study of Environment, and Society in Northern Luzon, Yale University Press, 1980, p. 11.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Narayana (Glossary)
The deity Narayana appears as a form of the Hindu god Visnu fused together with the Vedic primordial being known as Purusa. Narayana is often depicted as floating on a bed of serpents in the Milky Ocean, an imagery found also in the Vedas were a cosmic Yaksha (tree spirit) floats on the primordial waters prior to creation.
Narayana can be broken down etymologically into nara "man" and ayana "coming, arrival," in reference to the deity as the cosmic man and pantheistic cause of creation. The word "nara" might also refer to water and Narayana's association with the ocean.
During the rainy season in the summer months, Narayana is said to fall asleep on the Milky Ocean, connecting his name also to the coming or arrival of water i.e. the summer rains.
Narayana and Pangu/Panhu
Like Narayana in the form of Purusa, the Chinese primordial being Pangu is portrayed as a cosmic being from which the world is created. Panhu, the dog king, is probably identical with Pangu, both having the same father Hundun -- the cosmic dumpling or gourd that floats on the ocean.
The dog-shaped Hundun, and the imagery of Panhu swimming across the flood, or over the ocean to the Dog Tumulus Country (Quan-feng-kuo), brings to mind Narayana's floating over the Milky Ocean.
Indeed, the dog imagery associated with Pangu, appears as horse imagery in association with Narayana. While Narayana as Purusa is closely linked with the Asvamedha horse sacrifice, the lei dog sacrifice to Shang-ti has some related pantheistic aspects.
Shang-ti refers to the Shang dynasty kings' sacrifice of their ancestors and was specifically connected with the location of the Fusang Tree. Instituted by Shun (Di Jun), the Shang-ti ritual was closely connected with dogs and rice, and the lei sacrifice mirrors some of the imagery of the Pangu/Panhu story of dismemberment during the world's creation.
In the Asvamedha, a swimming dog is sacrificed during the opening ceremony. Rice also plays an important part in the Vedic horse ritual. Wendy Doniger notes the rice links mentioned in the Satapatha Brahmana:
During the Mahisi ritual of the Asvamedha sacrifice, fried rice grains are thrown at the horse. Rice also plays an important part in an Assam horse ritual in which a dance with a horse image lasts throughout the night after which the body of the image is thrown into a river and the head preserved for another year. During the river ritual, rice is eaten by the participants.
Horse's head
There are various tales of Visnu having a horse's head and human body. Not surprisingly these horse forms are closely linked with Narayana-Purusa.
Narayana is said to have taken the form of the sage Vadavamukha, the submarine mare's head that devours the salty waters of the ocean turning them into fresh water. He also is associated with Hayasiras, the horse-headed deity who saves the Vedic texts after they are stolen by demons.
Kalki, the final avatar of Visnu, is also associated with Narayana and often portrayed with a horse's head.
Kalki with horse's head, source: http://www.karma2grace.org/encyclopedia/Kalki.html
Narayana as horse-headed Hayagriva, source: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/vasu/cambodia/museeguimet/hayagriva.htm
In China, Panhu, the culture hero who brings rice agriculture, and his descendents in Quan-feng-kuo are often described as having dogs' heads. In medieval times, the Dog Tumulus Country is conflated with Fusang, where we now find the dog-headed men together with the associated kingdom of women.
That this is not a coincidence is also supported by the fact that both Narayana and Panhu are located in the same general region, and at times in the same specific area. If we equate the Vourukasha Sea with the Milky Ocean as we have done previously using the story of Trita, then we know that at least in medieval times these oceans were identified with the "Sea of Chin."
Malaysia and the Philippines retain concepts, now confined to the area of demonology, that could explain the theme of animal and bird-headed humans. The Penanggalan in Malaysia and the Manananggal in the Philippines are now a type of vampire known to detach their heads from their bodies. These heads, often trailed by the person's entrails, fly around at night and come back to rejoin the body during the day.
Thus, the flying detached heads are quite similar to the principle of the kaladua or spirit-double but with a more anthropomorphic twist. The names of both head-detaching creatures are derived from the word tanggal which means "to detach or remove." As the kaladua spirit roams away from the body mostly at night so the detached head flies from the body of the Penanggalan, Manananggal and the Asuang.
In the case of a bird or animal double, the head represents the person's other self. So for the Asuang, the detached head is in principle that of a dog. While in modern Christianized culture, the Asuang has become an enemy of children and childbirth, originally it can confidently be said that the situation was reversed. The dog was seen as a protector of children, something that still survives in the use of dog-teeth necklaces to protect young ones from evil, including protection from the Asuang!
Indian lore often explains the horse's heads of gods and sages as coming after the original head is cut off. Various explanations are given for this procedure. In some cases, the human head is seen to represent bodily desire, while the horse's head contains the knowledge of the Vedas. Some view the horse's head as a symbol of the Sun.
However, even with other animal incarnations of Visnu, we see often that they are sometimes represented as humans with animal heads. This indicates the idea of a double nature.
Sa-Huynh-Kalanay bicephalous pendants may connect with this idea of the double self. There are other indications of dual thinking in this culture including the lingling-o earrings with decorations at each of the four quadrants, and the hexagonal and octagonal cut jade beads.
Object of pilgrimage
Classical sources mention journeys to the eastern island of Svetadvipa to visit Narayana by personages such as Narada, Trita, Rama, Ravana, and the four Kumaras.
Such pilgrimages may link with the Tibetan Buddhist journeys to Shambhala, which in Hindu tradition is linked with horse-headed Kalki. Indeed the Garuda Purana mentions Shambhala as a pilgrimage destination:
Despite the number of Tibetan guidebooks for journeys to Shambhala, the location is not specifically mentioned in the Kalacakratantra as a pilgrimage destination. It may have been included in the location of Suvarnadvipa, that is listed as one of the pilgrimage sites known as upamelapaka in the Kalacakratantra.
Mention has been made of expeditions by Chinese emperors and kings to find the fabled island of Penglai. In messianic Buddhist-Daoist texts that started appearing in the sixth century CE, savior kings known as Prince Moonlight (Yueguang tongzi) and the King of Light (Mingwang) came into being. Writings like the Scripture of the Monk Shouluo and the Scripture of the Realization of Understanding Preached by the Boddhisattva Samantabhadra told of voyages to Penglai to visit Prince Moonlight's kingdom.
The messianic king of Penglai may be the same as the Rigden king of Shambhala, who also figured in millenarian prophecy. Penglai is frequently mentioned together with Fusang in Chinese texts, and the latter seems to be fused with Dog Tumulus Country in the latter literature. Today, for example, Chinese often ascribe the origin of Taiwan's indigenous people either or equally to Panhu and/or the inhabitants of Penglai, as the related locations are hard to distinguish from each other.
Shambhala's rigden kings were identified with incarnations of Visnu in Kalacakra texts. For example, the commentator Mipham says Rigden Manjushrikirti is the same as the Matsya or fish incarnation of Visnu. So, the Shambhala kings are easily connected to Narayana also and to the savior Kalki.
Messianic kingdom
Hindu texts say that Kalki, the last avatar of Visnu, comes from the village of Sambhala (Shambhala), and many researchers equate this with Tibetan prophecies of the messianic king Raudracakrin, the 25th Rigden of Shambhala.
Both Raudracakrin and Kalki are said to arrive on horseback, and Kalki is often portrayed as a horse or as a human with a horse's head. Raudracakrin defeats his enemies using the meditation of the "best of horses." Prince Moonlight also marches into the final battle on a "dragon-horse."
"Kulika," the name of Raudracakrin's dynasty and also possibly the name "Kalki" are derived from the words kaula and kula, derivatives of which can refer to "family" and "birth" and also mean "dog."
kulika -- "one of good family, noble birth"
kauleya -- "sprung from a good family, a dog"
kauleyaka -- "sprung from a noble family, pertaining to family, a dog"
kauleyakuTumbini -- "dog's wife, bitch"
kauleyakah -- "dog" (kula + dhakan, Panini As.t.a-dhya-yi- 4.2.96)
Chinese millenarian views date back at least to the sage Mencius who claimed that about every 500 years a sage would arise to restore the natural order. Daoists fused their seer Lao Tzu with the primordial Pangu/Panhu and beliefs arose that Lao Tzu would reincarnate periodically as the savior Li Hong during degenerate times.
Li Hong evolved together with the Buddhist-Daoist Prince Moonlight and the King of Light, the latter two possibly being the same person. These beliefs came to incorporate also the doctrine involving the coming Buddha known as Maitreya. Predicted dates for the coming of Li Hong and Prince Moonlight often matched.
According to the prophecies, a time of cosmic decay would arise leading eventually to a great final battle between divine and demonic troops. Prince Moonlight appears from his kingdom in Penglai, predicting the coming events and instructing in the means of salvation. Those elect few who hear his words are saved as Prince Moonlight leads them to Penglai, or in other versions to the Tushita Heaven, to escape the coming tribulation.
Some have claimed the millennial conflict betrays Manichean influence although cataclysmic dualistic battles are found in some of the oldest Chinese literature. In the Yaodian, which Joseph Needham has dated to between the eighth and fifth centuries BCE on philological grounds, but with astronomical data going back to the third millennium BCE, Emperor Yao battles the flood-ravaging demon Gong-gong. After defeating Gong-gong the earth is titled toward the Southeast causing rivers to flow into a maelstrom and hole in the Earth located in the Southeastern Ocean and known as the Weilu.
Likewise in the Huainanzi of the Han Dynasty, we hear of the battles of the fire and water gods before Nu Gua raises the sky from the earth.
After Prince Moonlight's apocalyptic victory, a new world is reconstructed having great peace and opulence.
The advanced millenarian movements in China were concentrated mostly in the South, with the first center at Nanjing. Cults like the White Lotus tradition were concentrated mainly in northern Fujian and northern Jiangxi. Later the messianic movements became strongly centered in southeastern coastal regions like Fujian and eastern Guangdong.
Hindu, Buddhist and Chinese millennial beliefs thus tend to cluster around Narayana or his cognates, and around the specific locations of the Milky Ocean and Svetadvipa, which act as a backdrop for the Visnu incarnations and as birthplace for the final messianic avatar. The geographic reference is of great importance and like Penglai and Shambhala the precise location is somewhat "hidden" adding to its mystery and allure.
Prester John's communications starting in the 12th century laid claim to the Indies including the Garden of Eden, which in the view of the Ptolemaic astronomers of Muslim Spain, would rest 180 degrees east of the Fortunate Isles in the Sea of Chin. According to Prester John himself, it was from his kingdoms that the final battle would break out, and there one could find both the lost Ten Tribes and apocalyptic Gog and Magog nations. A descendent of Prester John would lead the battle ushering in the Second Coming. Such messages sparked a new wave of voyages in search of the Milky Ocean and the island of Narayana.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Doniger, Wendy. Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts, University of Chicago Press, 1980, p. 155.
Ownby, David. "Chinese Millenarian Traditions: The Formative Age," The American Historical Review 104.5 (1999): 38 pars. 14 Nov. 2006 <http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr//104.5/ah001513.html>.
Narayana can be broken down etymologically into nara "man" and ayana "coming, arrival," in reference to the deity as the cosmic man and pantheistic cause of creation. The word "nara" might also refer to water and Narayana's association with the ocean.
During the rainy season in the summer months, Narayana is said to fall asleep on the Milky Ocean, connecting his name also to the coming or arrival of water i.e. the summer rains.
Narayana and Pangu/Panhu
Like Narayana in the form of Purusa, the Chinese primordial being Pangu is portrayed as a cosmic being from which the world is created. Panhu, the dog king, is probably identical with Pangu, both having the same father Hundun -- the cosmic dumpling or gourd that floats on the ocean.
The dog-shaped Hundun, and the imagery of Panhu swimming across the flood, or over the ocean to the Dog Tumulus Country (Quan-feng-kuo), brings to mind Narayana's floating over the Milky Ocean.
Indeed, the dog imagery associated with Pangu, appears as horse imagery in association with Narayana. While Narayana as Purusa is closely linked with the Asvamedha horse sacrifice, the lei dog sacrifice to Shang-ti has some related pantheistic aspects.
Shang-ti refers to the Shang dynasty kings' sacrifice of their ancestors and was specifically connected with the location of the Fusang Tree. Instituted by Shun (Di Jun), the Shang-ti ritual was closely connected with dogs and rice, and the lei sacrifice mirrors some of the imagery of the Pangu/Panhu story of dismemberment during the world's creation.
In the Asvamedha, a swimming dog is sacrificed during the opening ceremony. Rice also plays an important part in the Vedic horse ritual. Wendy Doniger notes the rice links mentioned in the Satapatha Brahmana:
The Adhvaryu cooks the priests' mess of rice; it is seed he thereby produces...For when the horse was immolated, its seed went from it and became gold; thus, when he gives gold (to the priests) he supplies the horse with seed...For the ball of rice is seed, and gold is seed; by means of seed he thus lays seed into that (horse and sacrificer) (SB 14.1.1.,1-4)
During the Mahisi ritual of the Asvamedha sacrifice, fried rice grains are thrown at the horse. Rice also plays an important part in an Assam horse ritual in which a dance with a horse image lasts throughout the night after which the body of the image is thrown into a river and the head preserved for another year. During the river ritual, rice is eaten by the participants.
Horse's head
There are various tales of Visnu having a horse's head and human body. Not surprisingly these horse forms are closely linked with Narayana-Purusa.
Narayana is said to have taken the form of the sage Vadavamukha, the submarine mare's head that devours the salty waters of the ocean turning them into fresh water. He also is associated with Hayasiras, the horse-headed deity who saves the Vedic texts after they are stolen by demons.
Kalki, the final avatar of Visnu, is also associated with Narayana and often portrayed with a horse's head.
Kalki with horse's head, source: http://www.karma2grace.org/encyclopedia/Kalki.html
Narayana as horse-headed Hayagriva, source: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/vasu/cambodia/museeguimet/hayagriva.htm
Thus did the blessed Hari [Visnu] assume in days of old that grand form having the equine head. This, of all his forms, endued with puissance, is celebrated as the most ancient. That person who frequently listens or mentally recites this history of the assumption by Narayana of the form equipt with the equine head, will never forget his Vedic or other lore.
-- Mahabharata 12:47
In China, Panhu, the culture hero who brings rice agriculture, and his descendents in Quan-feng-kuo are often described as having dogs' heads. In medieval times, the Dog Tumulus Country is conflated with Fusang, where we now find the dog-headed men together with the associated kingdom of women.
That this is not a coincidence is also supported by the fact that both Narayana and Panhu are located in the same general region, and at times in the same specific area. If we equate the Vourukasha Sea with the Milky Ocean as we have done previously using the story of Trita, then we know that at least in medieval times these oceans were identified with the "Sea of Chin."
Malaysia and the Philippines retain concepts, now confined to the area of demonology, that could explain the theme of animal and bird-headed humans. The Penanggalan in Malaysia and the Manananggal in the Philippines are now a type of vampire known to detach their heads from their bodies. These heads, often trailed by the person's entrails, fly around at night and come back to rejoin the body during the day.
Thus, the flying detached heads are quite similar to the principle of the kaladua or spirit-double but with a more anthropomorphic twist. The names of both head-detaching creatures are derived from the word tanggal which means "to detach or remove." As the kaladua spirit roams away from the body mostly at night so the detached head flies from the body of the Penanggalan, Manananggal and the Asuang.
In the case of a bird or animal double, the head represents the person's other self. So for the Asuang, the detached head is in principle that of a dog. While in modern Christianized culture, the Asuang has become an enemy of children and childbirth, originally it can confidently be said that the situation was reversed. The dog was seen as a protector of children, something that still survives in the use of dog-teeth necklaces to protect young ones from evil, including protection from the Asuang!
Indian lore often explains the horse's heads of gods and sages as coming after the original head is cut off. Various explanations are given for this procedure. In some cases, the human head is seen to represent bodily desire, while the horse's head contains the knowledge of the Vedas. Some view the horse's head as a symbol of the Sun.
However, even with other animal incarnations of Visnu, we see often that they are sometimes represented as humans with animal heads. This indicates the idea of a double nature.
Sa-Huynh-Kalanay bicephalous pendants may connect with this idea of the double self. There are other indications of dual thinking in this culture including the lingling-o earrings with decorations at each of the four quadrants, and the hexagonal and octagonal cut jade beads.
Object of pilgrimage
Classical sources mention journeys to the eastern island of Svetadvipa to visit Narayana by personages such as Narada, Trita, Rama, Ravana, and the four Kumaras.
Such pilgrimages may link with the Tibetan Buddhist journeys to Shambhala, which in Hindu tradition is linked with horse-headed Kalki. Indeed the Garuda Purana mentions Shambhala as a pilgrimage destination:
"...the village of Shambhala is a good place of pilgrimage. The sanctuary of Narayana is a great shrine, whereas a pilgrimage to holy forest Vadarika leads to the emancipation of self."
Despite the number of Tibetan guidebooks for journeys to Shambhala, the location is not specifically mentioned in the Kalacakratantra as a pilgrimage destination. It may have been included in the location of Suvarnadvipa, that is listed as one of the pilgrimage sites known as upamelapaka in the Kalacakratantra.
Mention has been made of expeditions by Chinese emperors and kings to find the fabled island of Penglai. In messianic Buddhist-Daoist texts that started appearing in the sixth century CE, savior kings known as Prince Moonlight (Yueguang tongzi) and the King of Light (Mingwang) came into being. Writings like the Scripture of the Monk Shouluo and the Scripture of the Realization of Understanding Preached by the Boddhisattva Samantabhadra told of voyages to Penglai to visit Prince Moonlight's kingdom.
The messianic king of Penglai may be the same as the Rigden king of Shambhala, who also figured in millenarian prophecy. Penglai is frequently mentioned together with Fusang in Chinese texts, and the latter seems to be fused with Dog Tumulus Country in the latter literature. Today, for example, Chinese often ascribe the origin of Taiwan's indigenous people either or equally to Panhu and/or the inhabitants of Penglai, as the related locations are hard to distinguish from each other.
Shambhala's rigden kings were identified with incarnations of Visnu in Kalacakra texts. For example, the commentator Mipham says Rigden Manjushrikirti is the same as the Matsya or fish incarnation of Visnu. So, the Shambhala kings are easily connected to Narayana also and to the savior Kalki.
Messianic kingdom
Hindu texts say that Kalki, the last avatar of Visnu, comes from the village of Sambhala (Shambhala), and many researchers equate this with Tibetan prophecies of the messianic king Raudracakrin, the 25th Rigden of Shambhala.
Both Raudracakrin and Kalki are said to arrive on horseback, and Kalki is often portrayed as a horse or as a human with a horse's head. Raudracakrin defeats his enemies using the meditation of the "best of horses." Prince Moonlight also marches into the final battle on a "dragon-horse."
"Kulika," the name of Raudracakrin's dynasty and also possibly the name "Kalki" are derived from the words kaula and kula, derivatives of which can refer to "family" and "birth" and also mean "dog."
kulika -- "one of good family, noble birth"
kauleya -- "sprung from a good family, a dog"
kauleyaka -- "sprung from a noble family, pertaining to family, a dog"
kauleyakuTumbini -- "dog's wife, bitch"
kauleyakah -- "dog" (kula + dhakan, Panini As.t.a-dhya-yi- 4.2.96)
Chinese millenarian views date back at least to the sage Mencius who claimed that about every 500 years a sage would arise to restore the natural order. Daoists fused their seer Lao Tzu with the primordial Pangu/Panhu and beliefs arose that Lao Tzu would reincarnate periodically as the savior Li Hong during degenerate times.
Li Hong evolved together with the Buddhist-Daoist Prince Moonlight and the King of Light, the latter two possibly being the same person. These beliefs came to incorporate also the doctrine involving the coming Buddha known as Maitreya. Predicted dates for the coming of Li Hong and Prince Moonlight often matched.
According to the prophecies, a time of cosmic decay would arise leading eventually to a great final battle between divine and demonic troops. Prince Moonlight appears from his kingdom in Penglai, predicting the coming events and instructing in the means of salvation. Those elect few who hear his words are saved as Prince Moonlight leads them to Penglai, or in other versions to the Tushita Heaven, to escape the coming tribulation.
Some have claimed the millennial conflict betrays Manichean influence although cataclysmic dualistic battles are found in some of the oldest Chinese literature. In the Yaodian, which Joseph Needham has dated to between the eighth and fifth centuries BCE on philological grounds, but with astronomical data going back to the third millennium BCE, Emperor Yao battles the flood-ravaging demon Gong-gong. After defeating Gong-gong the earth is titled toward the Southeast causing rivers to flow into a maelstrom and hole in the Earth located in the Southeastern Ocean and known as the Weilu.
Likewise in the Huainanzi of the Han Dynasty, we hear of the battles of the fire and water gods before Nu Gua raises the sky from the earth.
After Prince Moonlight's apocalyptic victory, a new world is reconstructed having great peace and opulence.
The advanced millenarian movements in China were concentrated mostly in the South, with the first center at Nanjing. Cults like the White Lotus tradition were concentrated mainly in northern Fujian and northern Jiangxi. Later the messianic movements became strongly centered in southeastern coastal regions like Fujian and eastern Guangdong.
Hindu, Buddhist and Chinese millennial beliefs thus tend to cluster around Narayana or his cognates, and around the specific locations of the Milky Ocean and Svetadvipa, which act as a backdrop for the Visnu incarnations and as birthplace for the final messianic avatar. The geographic reference is of great importance and like Penglai and Shambhala the precise location is somewhat "hidden" adding to its mystery and allure.
Prester John's communications starting in the 12th century laid claim to the Indies including the Garden of Eden, which in the view of the Ptolemaic astronomers of Muslim Spain, would rest 180 degrees east of the Fortunate Isles in the Sea of Chin. According to Prester John himself, it was from his kingdoms that the final battle would break out, and there one could find both the lost Ten Tribes and apocalyptic Gog and Magog nations. A descendent of Prester John would lead the battle ushering in the Second Coming. Such messages sparked a new wave of voyages in search of the Milky Ocean and the island of Narayana.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Doniger, Wendy. Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts, University of Chicago Press, 1980, p. 155.
Ownby, David. "Chinese Millenarian Traditions: The Formative Age," The American Historical Review 104.5 (1999): 38 pars. 14 Nov. 2006 <http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr//104.5/ah001513.html>.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Svetadvipa (Glossary)
Svetadvipa's spiritual importance in Hinduism and especially among the Vaisnava sect is found in its description as the home of Narayana.
Narayana is the manifestation of the god Visnu linked with the avataras, or worldly descents of Visnu. Narayana is said to live on Svetadvipa, and to sleep floating on the Milky Ocean that surrounds the island.
Because of Narayana's location here, Svetadvipa was considered a place of pilgrimage by the sages and epic heroes. Rama comes to the island to make offerings to the ancestors, and the sage Narada came to visit Narayana.
Location
Svetadvipa is always located by Hindu texts in the Milky Ocean.
The Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavatapurana, Laghubhagavatamrta and Brhat Samhita all mention the location of the Milky Ocean and place it in the general direction of the East.
When the Vanara allies of Rama in the Ramayana set out to search the four regions of the world -- East, South, West and North -- for Sita, they visited the Milky Ocean while in the eastern region.
The latter Hindu astronomers like Bhaskara and Lalla also place the Milky Ocean in the southern latitudes. According to the Laghubhagavatamrta, it was placed south of the Salt Sea that surrounded Jambudvipa (Indian subcontinent):
The southern orientation in relation to the Salt Sea might refer either to the Sunda Strait or the Strait of Malacca, both of which are rather southward in latitude when compared to India.
So the Milky Ocean would then be the South China Sea.
According to the Mahabharata, this sea became colored like milk after a great eruption-like event connected with the churning episode and Mount Mandara.
The name could also refer to the phenomenon of bioluminescence as often occurs in the tropical oceans caused usually by marine mollusks and crustaceans like the salpa and pyrosoma, and also sometimes by the accumulation of dead animal tissue in the sea. This occurrence is called a "milk sea" to this day.
George Bennett while traveling through Southeast Asia in the 19th century describes the phenomenon:
However, bioluminscence is rather common in all tropical seas, and the Mahabharata links the sea's color with the deposits of ash and debris flowing down rivers from the flaming Mandara into the ocean.
The ash turns not only the sea white, but the surrounding region the same color, and hence the name Svetadvipa, the "White Island." Similar descriptions of whiteness, are given for the isle of the immortals, Penglai, in Chinese literature.
Svetadvipa is also specifically set in the East by the Mahabharata, Bhagavatapurana and Laghubhagavatamrta. It is said to be located in the northern portion of the Milky Ocean.
In Iranian literature, the Varkash Sea, where the White Haoma grows, appears to equate to the Milky Ocean.
Muslim geographers placed the regions around the Varkash Sea like Kangdez, the fortress of the immortals, in the furthest East Indies. Al-kashi, in the 15th century even gives coordinates for the locations.
According to tradition, King Indrakyumna found a vata tree log (Ficus bengalensis linn, Ficus indicus) from Svetadvipa from which the first image of Jagannatha was made at the famous temple in Puri.
The idea of the log god Jagannatha floating over the sea from Svetadvipa reminds us the story mentioned above of Narayana (Visnu) sleeping on a bed of snakes in the Milky Ocean during the four months of the rainy season.
It is during the summer monsoons that winds from the southeast bring storms to East India and then across India in a northwesternly direction.
Jagannatha images like this one are now made with trees like the Nimba. The original image is said by tradition to have come from a log that floated across the sea from Svetadvipa to Orissa in Eastern India. Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaurangapada/sets/72057594050803121/
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Bennett, George. Wanderings in New South Wales, Batavia, Pedir Coast, Sumatra, and China., 1834.
Narayana is the manifestation of the god Visnu linked with the avataras, or worldly descents of Visnu. Narayana is said to live on Svetadvipa, and to sleep floating on the Milky Ocean that surrounds the island.
Because of Narayana's location here, Svetadvipa was considered a place of pilgrimage by the sages and epic heroes. Rama comes to the island to make offerings to the ancestors, and the sage Narada came to visit Narayana.
Location
Svetadvipa is always located by Hindu texts in the Milky Ocean.
The Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavatapurana, Laghubhagavatamrta and Brhat Samhita all mention the location of the Milky Ocean and place it in the general direction of the East.
When the Vanara allies of Rama in the Ramayana set out to search the four regions of the world -- East, South, West and North -- for Sita, they visited the Milky Ocean while in the eastern region.
The latter Hindu astronomers like Bhaskara and Lalla also place the Milky Ocean in the southern latitudes. According to the Laghubhagavatamrta, it was placed south of the Salt Sea that surrounded Jambudvipa (Indian subcontinent):
"East of Sumeru (Mt. Meru) is the ocean of milk, in which there is a white city on a white island where the Lord can be seen sitting with his consort, Laksmiji on a throne of Sesa. That feature of Visnu also enjoys sleeping during the four months of the rainy season. The Svetadvipa in the milk ocean is situated south of the ocean of salt."
The southern orientation in relation to the Salt Sea might refer either to the Sunda Strait or the Strait of Malacca, both of which are rather southward in latitude when compared to India.
So the Milky Ocean would then be the South China Sea.
According to the Mahabharata, this sea became colored like milk after a great eruption-like event connected with the churning episode and Mount Mandara.
The name could also refer to the phenomenon of bioluminescence as often occurs in the tropical oceans caused usually by marine mollusks and crustaceans like the salpa and pyrosoma, and also sometimes by the accumulation of dead animal tissue in the sea. This occurrence is called a "milk sea" to this day.
George Bennett while traveling through Southeast Asia in the 19th century describes the phenomenon:
Perhaps the beauty of this luminous effect is seen to the greatest advantage, when, the ship lying in a bay or harbour, in tropical climates, the water around has the appearance of a sea of milk. An opportunity was afforded me when at Carite, near Manilla, in 1830, of witnessing for the first time this beautiful scene. As far as the eye could reach on the extensive bay of Manilla, the surface of the tranquil water was one sheet of this dull, pale phosphorescence, and brilliant flashes were emitted instantly on any heavy body being cast into the water, or when fish sprang from it, or swam about. The ship seemed, on looking over its side, to be anchored in a sea of liquid phosphorus; whilst in the distance the resemblance was that of an ocean of milk.
However, bioluminscence is rather common in all tropical seas, and the Mahabharata links the sea's color with the deposits of ash and debris flowing down rivers from the flaming Mandara into the ocean.
The ash turns not only the sea white, but the surrounding region the same color, and hence the name Svetadvipa, the "White Island." Similar descriptions of whiteness, are given for the isle of the immortals, Penglai, in Chinese literature.
Svetadvipa is also specifically set in the East by the Mahabharata, Bhagavatapurana and Laghubhagavatamrta. It is said to be located in the northern portion of the Milky Ocean.
In Iranian literature, the Varkash Sea, where the White Haoma grows, appears to equate to the Milky Ocean.
Muslim geographers placed the regions around the Varkash Sea like Kangdez, the fortress of the immortals, in the furthest East Indies. Al-kashi, in the 15th century even gives coordinates for the locations.
According to tradition, King Indrakyumna found a vata tree log (Ficus bengalensis linn, Ficus indicus) from Svetadvipa from which the first image of Jagannatha was made at the famous temple in Puri.
The idea of the log god Jagannatha floating over the sea from Svetadvipa reminds us the story mentioned above of Narayana (Visnu) sleeping on a bed of snakes in the Milky Ocean during the four months of the rainy season.
It is during the summer monsoons that winds from the southeast bring storms to East India and then across India in a northwesternly direction.
Jagannatha images like this one are now made with trees like the Nimba. The original image is said by tradition to have come from a log that floated across the sea from Svetadvipa to Orissa in Eastern India. Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaurangapada/sets/72057594050803121/
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Bennett, George. Wanderings in New South Wales, Batavia, Pedir Coast, Sumatra, and China., 1834.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Sambali (Glossary)
In the Kapampangan language, Sambali is the name both for the land now known as Zambales and of the people native to that land, the Sambals.
Bergano also gives the definition cadahalso (cadalso) probably referring to a platform or similar structure built for a solemn occasion. In this sense it is derived from the root word samba "to worship."
An eerie landscape in the otherwise lush Zambales province caused by the Mount Pinatubo eruption.
In Bergano's dictionary, he gives the definition "poner las manos debajo del pecho con inclinacion, haciendo reverencia, y de aqui, adorar," noting especially the placement of the hands beneath the chest in an inclined position during worship. He also offers as meanings of the word "place of worship" from which it also became the modern word for "church" along with the derived form simbahan in many Philippine languages.
The 18th century Tagalog dictionary of de Noceda and Sanlucar gives the definition "nacion llamada" for sambali as opposed to "nacion Tagala" for Tagalog. Sambali thus was once a word for a specific nation in the region, but unfortunately no further information is related by the authors.
Semantic connections of Sambali, then, suggest the region was considered sacred, something we would link specifically with Mount Pinatubo, and at one time was also possibly connected with national identity in this region.
Shambhala
It has been suggested in this blog that the name Sambali is linked with Sanskrit Shambhala, also written as Zambhala or Sambhala.
Some linguistic corruption may account for the sound differences. In this regard, we can note the related Sanskrit word sambhali or zamphali, the feminine form of sambala.
Sanskrit literature describes Shambhala as a grama, a town or village. The abridged form of the Kalacakratantra locates Shambhala in the Lesser Jambudvipa (Jambuling), which is south of Greater Jambudvipa, or the Indian subcontinent.
One of the kings of Shambhala, Sripala (Shripala) is praised as coming from the "Southern Ocean," which in this cases appears as a reference to Suvarnadvipa the "Islands of Gold."
Sripala, who in one Tibetan tradition is credited with bringing the Kalacakra doctrine to India, may be the same as the person named Pindo, whom the great sage Atisa claimed as a teacher. This Pindo is also connected with both Suvarnadvipa and Yavadvipa.
The pilgrimage to Shambhala appears to come under Suvarnadvipa as one of the 24 pilgrimage sites (pithas) and the seemingly the only extra-Greater Jambudvipa one. Specifically, Suvarnadvipa was one of the upamelapakas said generally to be two or four in number, with the other locations in the Greater Jambudvipa region.
The Kailasa mountain and Sita river of Shambhala are those of the Lesser Jambudvipa and not those north of the Greater Jambudvipa (Indian subcontinent).
According to al-Biruni, the islands known to the Indians as Suvarnadvipa, were called Zabag by the Muslims, a location in the "Sea of Champa" or the South China Sea off the coast of central Vietnam. Other works agree with this location of Zabag, many describing Zabag as adjacent to the coast of southern China.
Description
Modern Sambali is a province in central Luzon, Philippines, bordered by the provinces of Bataan, Pampanga, Pangasinan and Tarlac. It's western coast meets the sea.
The province is dominated by the mineral-rich and forested Zambales Mountains, which include the volcano, Mount Pinatubo.
Original ethno-linguistic groups of Sambali are the various divisions of Ayta, Sambal and Bolinao. However, in recent centuries many other groups have migrated to the province.
A Spanish writer in 1880 described the province in these terms:
The large populated agricultural neighbor of Sambali/Zambales is Pampanga where many of the Zambales inhabitants traded at places like Porac. The rivers of Pampanga were also historically the main approach to Sambali before the building of modern ports on the western coast.
When the Spanish came, the mostly semi-nomadic inhabitants caused a lot of trouble and were nearly impossible to "civilize." The province was one of the few areas in the Philippines where the Inquisition was implemented to some degree, but without much success.
The native high priest of the Sambal was known as Bayoc and he conferred priesthood to other Sambals. The Bayoc alone could make sacrifices to Malyari the highest god of the Sambali range, who lived in Mount Pinatubo.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Bergaño, Diego Vocabulario de la lengua Pampangan en romance: Diego Bergaño, Manila : Imp. de Ramirez y Giraudier, 1860, p. 203.
Monier-Williams, Monier. Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford, 1899.
Noceda, Juan [José] de. Vocabulario de la lengua tagala: compuesto por varios religiosos doctos y graves, y coordinado por el P. Juan de Noceda y el P. Pedro de Sanlucar. Ultimamente aumentado y corregido por varios religiosos de la orden de Augustinos calzados, Reimpreso en Manila,: Impr. de Ramirez y Giraudier, 1860, p. 561.
Wallace, Vesna A. The Inner Kalacakratantra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual, Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 81.
Bergano also gives the definition cadahalso (cadalso) probably referring to a platform or similar structure built for a solemn occasion. In this sense it is derived from the root word samba "to worship."
An eerie landscape in the otherwise lush Zambales province caused by the Mount Pinatubo eruption.
In Bergano's dictionary, he gives the definition "poner las manos debajo del pecho con inclinacion, haciendo reverencia, y de aqui, adorar," noting especially the placement of the hands beneath the chest in an inclined position during worship. He also offers as meanings of the word "place of worship" from which it also became the modern word for "church" along with the derived form simbahan in many Philippine languages.
The 18th century Tagalog dictionary of de Noceda and Sanlucar gives the definition "nacion llamada" for sambali as opposed to "nacion Tagala" for Tagalog. Sambali thus was once a word for a specific nation in the region, but unfortunately no further information is related by the authors.
Semantic connections of Sambali, then, suggest the region was considered sacred, something we would link specifically with Mount Pinatubo, and at one time was also possibly connected with national identity in this region.
Shambhala
It has been suggested in this blog that the name Sambali is linked with Sanskrit Shambhala, also written as Zambhala or Sambhala.
Some linguistic corruption may account for the sound differences. In this regard, we can note the related Sanskrit word sambhali or zamphali, the feminine form of sambala.
Sanskrit literature describes Shambhala as a grama, a town or village. The abridged form of the Kalacakratantra locates Shambhala in the Lesser Jambudvipa (Jambuling), which is south of Greater Jambudvipa, or the Indian subcontinent.
One of the kings of Shambhala, Sripala (Shripala) is praised as coming from the "Southern Ocean," which in this cases appears as a reference to Suvarnadvipa the "Islands of Gold."
Sripala, who in one Tibetan tradition is credited with bringing the Kalacakra doctrine to India, may be the same as the person named Pindo, whom the great sage Atisa claimed as a teacher. This Pindo is also connected with both Suvarnadvipa and Yavadvipa.
The pilgrimage to Shambhala appears to come under Suvarnadvipa as one of the 24 pilgrimage sites (pithas) and the seemingly the only extra-Greater Jambudvipa one. Specifically, Suvarnadvipa was one of the upamelapakas said generally to be two or four in number, with the other locations in the Greater Jambudvipa region.
The Kailasa mountain and Sita river of Shambhala are those of the Lesser Jambudvipa and not those north of the Greater Jambudvipa (Indian subcontinent).
According to al-Biruni, the islands known to the Indians as Suvarnadvipa, were called Zabag by the Muslims, a location in the "Sea of Champa" or the South China Sea off the coast of central Vietnam. Other works agree with this location of Zabag, many describing Zabag as adjacent to the coast of southern China.
Description
Modern Sambali is a province in central Luzon, Philippines, bordered by the provinces of Bataan, Pampanga, Pangasinan and Tarlac. It's western coast meets the sea.
The province is dominated by the mineral-rich and forested Zambales Mountains, which include the volcano, Mount Pinatubo.
Original ethno-linguistic groups of Sambali are the various divisions of Ayta, Sambal and Bolinao. However, in recent centuries many other groups have migrated to the province.
A Spanish writer in 1880 described the province in these terms:
There are more populous and more civilized provinces whose commerial and agricultural progress has been more pronounced, but nowhere is the air more pure and transparent, the vegetation more luxuriant, the climate more agreeable, the coasts more sunny, and the inhabitants more simple and pacific.
The large populated agricultural neighbor of Sambali/Zambales is Pampanga where many of the Zambales inhabitants traded at places like Porac. The rivers of Pampanga were also historically the main approach to Sambali before the building of modern ports on the western coast.
When the Spanish came, the mostly semi-nomadic inhabitants caused a lot of trouble and were nearly impossible to "civilize." The province was one of the few areas in the Philippines where the Inquisition was implemented to some degree, but without much success.
The native high priest of the Sambal was known as Bayoc and he conferred priesthood to other Sambals. The Bayoc alone could make sacrifices to Malyari the highest god of the Sambali range, who lived in Mount Pinatubo.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Bergaño, Diego Vocabulario de la lengua Pampangan en romance: Diego Bergaño, Manila : Imp. de Ramirez y Giraudier, 1860, p. 203.
Monier-Williams, Monier. Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford, 1899.
Noceda, Juan [José] de. Vocabulario de la lengua tagala: compuesto por varios religiosos doctos y graves, y coordinado por el P. Juan de Noceda y el P. Pedro de Sanlucar. Ultimamente aumentado y corregido por varios religiosos de la orden de Augustinos calzados, Reimpreso en Manila,: Impr. de Ramirez y Giraudier, 1860, p. 561.
Wallace, Vesna A. The Inner Kalacakratantra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual, Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 81.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Mount Arayat (Glossary)
Rising majestically over an expansive flat plain, Mount Arayat commands views from all directions over much of Central Luzon.
Located between east and northeast from Angeles City, about the same distance from the latter that Pinatubo extends to the west-southwest from that city.
Once famed forests have lost a good bit of their cover but still provide refuge to guerillas as they have through much of history. The mountain has been an important base for underground military activity since World War II.
Spiritually-inclined people have also made pilgrimages to this mountain since the earliest memories often walking many miles to commune with fellow seekers on its slopes. Here is the home of Apung Sinukuan, the sun god. Herbs from this mountain are believed to have special healing qualities. The name of Arayat indicates that it was located towards the East in the geomantic view of the ancient Kapampangans who live around its slopes.
Unlike Pinatubo which is difficult or impossible to make out from most densely-populated areas of Luzon, Arayat's imposing profile is inescapable.
Mt. Arayat rises over the flat plains of Pampanga. Picture taken from Clark Field. (Source: Brian Rueger, www.usefilm.com/image/403491.html)
However, Arayat is likely a secondary or back arc to the Western Central Luzon arc that includes Mt. Pinatubo to the West. Pinatubo's basalt magmas though are more like those of Arayat than the neighboring volcanoes with which it forms the same primary arc.
Volcanologists believe that Pinatubo's magmas involve a mixing of the basement rock Zambales Ophiolite and the secondary arc mantle. Possibly the sub arc mantle is even that related directly to Arayat.
Arayat's last major eruption is something of a mystery. It is known to have been "active" during the Holocene (present) period, but the exact nature of this actiivty is not well-known.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Pallister, John S. , Richard P. Hoblitt, Gregory P. Meeker, Roy J. Knight, and David F. Siems. "Magma Mixing at Mount Pinatubo: Petrographic and Chemical Evidence from the 1991 Deposits", Fire and Mud, 1991, http://pubs.usgs.gov/pinatubo/pallister/index.html
Located between east and northeast from Angeles City, about the same distance from the latter that Pinatubo extends to the west-southwest from that city.
Once famed forests have lost a good bit of their cover but still provide refuge to guerillas as they have through much of history. The mountain has been an important base for underground military activity since World War II.
Spiritually-inclined people have also made pilgrimages to this mountain since the earliest memories often walking many miles to commune with fellow seekers on its slopes. Here is the home of Apung Sinukuan, the sun god. Herbs from this mountain are believed to have special healing qualities. The name of Arayat indicates that it was located towards the East in the geomantic view of the ancient Kapampangans who live around its slopes.
Unlike Pinatubo which is difficult or impossible to make out from most densely-populated areas of Luzon, Arayat's imposing profile is inescapable.
Mt. Arayat rises over the flat plains of Pampanga. Picture taken from Clark Field. (Source: Brian Rueger, www.usefilm.com/image/403491.html)
However, Arayat is likely a secondary or back arc to the Western Central Luzon arc that includes Mt. Pinatubo to the West. Pinatubo's basalt magmas though are more like those of Arayat than the neighboring volcanoes with which it forms the same primary arc.
Volcanologists believe that Pinatubo's magmas involve a mixing of the basement rock Zambales Ophiolite and the secondary arc mantle. Possibly the sub arc mantle is even that related directly to Arayat.
Arayat's last major eruption is something of a mystery. It is known to have been "active" during the Holocene (present) period, but the exact nature of this actiivty is not well-known.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Pallister, John S. , Richard P. Hoblitt, Gregory P. Meeker, Roy J. Knight, and David F. Siems. "Magma Mixing at Mount Pinatubo: Petrographic and Chemical Evidence from the 1991 Deposits", Fire and Mud, 1991, http://pubs.usgs.gov/pinatubo/pallister/index.html
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Glossary: Zambales Mountains (Sambal)
Zambales is the name of a mountain range and corresponding biogeographic zone along the eastern edge of Zambales Province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines.
The Philippine islands are located between the northward-moving Philippine Sea Plate and the relatively stationary Asian region. The Zambales Mountains are formed at the subduction of the Asian plate at the Manila Trench. Mt. Pinatubo is the most well-known peak in this range.
An exposed area of ocean crust and mantle known as an ophiolite is found in Zambales. The Zambales Ophiolite boundary can easily be distinguished as the differing rock types of the ocean crust and mantle bring about contrasting vegetation. Two differing blocks within the ophiolite, the Coto and Acoje blocks, and evidence of lava mixing, give the Zambales area a highly heterogeneous geochemistry.
"We suggest that the array of geochemical data from the Zambales ophiolite can be explained in terms of processes observed in present-day convergent plate margins, such as the Marianas or Lau Basin in the western Pacific. Complicated plate boundaries which have existed for long periods of time, including closely opposing and changing subduction systems, the rifting of arcs, and the formation of backarc basins may result in the superposition of one lava type on another or may produce many small domains in the upper mantle sources for subduction-related lavas, some of which become extremely depleted or secondarily enriched. Magmas derived from such a heterogeneous mantle will display ranges in geochemical characteristics, possibly similar to those observed in the Zambales ophiolite." (Evans et al., 1991)
Mt. Pinatubo's 1991 eruption produced dacite lava consisting of a mixing of Zambales ophiolite melt with sub-arc mantle melt.
High variance in the geological makeup might help account for region's rich mineral resources. The area was known in early times for its magnetic iron deposits. More recently the Coto block of the ophiolite has become the world's largest producer of refractory chromite, and also a good source of platinum. Nickel and chromite are found at the Acoje block.
Dizon mine near the border with Pampanga is noted for its copper-gold-silver deposits. Non metallic minerals such as sandstones, Zambales jade, serpentine, pumice, white clay, rock aggregate, salt, stones, cobbles, boulders, and silica quartz are found in abundance.
Non-pumicitic lahar is a component of concrete mixes, while non-magnetic lahar is the primary component of fired "Lahar Porcelain."
Pinatubo's eruption expelled large quantities of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, the most ever recorded and nearly three times that of El Chinchon, its nearest competitor. Pumices in the area often have very high sulfur content. The source of all this sulfur is a matter of dispute. Some believe the sulfur may have been contained in remnants of previous sulfur-rich eruptions.
Source: http://www.environmentalprotectionofasia.com/masterplan/index.htm
Biodiversity
Despite it's relatively small land area, the Zambales Mountains have long been known for their natural beauty and biological diversity.
Although studies in this area are preliminary at best, some 61 endemic plants species have been found, of which 39 are endemic to Mt. Pinatubo alone.
About 50 species of moss thrive in the thick moss forests that were once considered inpenetrable. These forests have long been famed for their valuable tropical hardwoods, and today produce some of the most prized orchids in the international flower trade.
At one time, the area abounded in native deer species but these were wiped out during the colonization period due to deerskin trade with Japan and China. Now, the principal mammal species are monkeys, bats, including the Luzon pygmy fruit bat, and various rodents including a newly-discovered member of the tweezer-beaked Rhynchomys family.
Southern Zambales near Subic is the largest roosting refuge for bats in the world.
The town of Balincaguin in eastern Zambales, now known as Mabini, means "Home of Bats" in the native Sambal language.
The two largest bats in the world, the Golden-crowned Flying Fox (Acerodon jubatus) and the Giant Fruit Bat (Pteropus vampyrus), find their most important roosting ground in southern Zambales near Subic.
Source: http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/mammals/large_flying_fox.htm
As might be expected in a rainforest region, Zambales is home to a dazzling variety of insects including many rare butterflies. At Subic, a tourist spot known as the "Butterfly Garden" showcases an enclosed butterfly farming exhibit.
While some areas of the vast Mt. Pinatubo watershed are still biologically sterile, most regions have recovered since lahar flows stopped in 1997. Aquatic ecosystems including fish, vegetation, insects, algae, crustaceans and the like have returned.
The greening of Mt. Pinatubo
With standing freshwater swamps and pools, Zambales is a paradise for reptiles and amphibians. At one time, frogs and snakes constituted the most important source of protein for some indigneous peoples living here.
Zambales western seacoast is an important marine conservation area with sea turtle nesting areas and mangrove forests. To the east, just south of the sister volcano Mt. Arayat are the Candaba wetlands, a major nesting area for migratory birds in the Philippines.
Indigenous peoples
The two indigenous peoples of the Zambales Mountains are the Ayta and Sambal. The Sambal live mostly in the northern part of the province while the Ayta live around Pinatubo.
Many Ayta were displaced after the 1991 eruption, but slowly some have been returning to the region. While most now practice root agriculture, they still have a fondness for hunting, and gathering honey, fruits and wild plants.
The Sambal, like the Ayta, fiercely resisted the Spanish invaders. Their conversion to Christianity was only accomplished through the rare implementation of the Inquistion in the Philippines. The Sambal priests continued to practice their old ways even after outwardly taking on Catholic practices.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Brown, R. M., J. W. Ferner, R. V. Sison, P. C. Gonzales, and R. S. Kennedy. 1996. Amphibians and reptiles of the Zambales mountains of Luzon Island, Philippines. Herpetological Natural History 4:1-17.
Evans, Cynthia A.; Casteneda, Gerry; Franco, Helen. "Geochemical complexities preserved in the volcanic rocks of the Zambales Ophiolite, Philippines," Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 96, Issue B10, 1991, p. 16251-16262.
The Greening of Mt. Pinatubo, http://www.environmentalprotectionofasia.com/greenpinatubo/.
Yumul, G.P., Jr., 1996. Rare earth element geochemistry of a supra- subduction zone ophiolite: The Zambales Ophiolite Complex. Tectonophysics 262, 243-262.
The Philippine islands are located between the northward-moving Philippine Sea Plate and the relatively stationary Asian region. The Zambales Mountains are formed at the subduction of the Asian plate at the Manila Trench. Mt. Pinatubo is the most well-known peak in this range.
An exposed area of ocean crust and mantle known as an ophiolite is found in Zambales. The Zambales Ophiolite boundary can easily be distinguished as the differing rock types of the ocean crust and mantle bring about contrasting vegetation. Two differing blocks within the ophiolite, the Coto and Acoje blocks, and evidence of lava mixing, give the Zambales area a highly heterogeneous geochemistry.
"We suggest that the array of geochemical data from the Zambales ophiolite can be explained in terms of processes observed in present-day convergent plate margins, such as the Marianas or Lau Basin in the western Pacific. Complicated plate boundaries which have existed for long periods of time, including closely opposing and changing subduction systems, the rifting of arcs, and the formation of backarc basins may result in the superposition of one lava type on another or may produce many small domains in the upper mantle sources for subduction-related lavas, some of which become extremely depleted or secondarily enriched. Magmas derived from such a heterogeneous mantle will display ranges in geochemical characteristics, possibly similar to those observed in the Zambales ophiolite." (Evans et al., 1991)
Mt. Pinatubo's 1991 eruption produced dacite lava consisting of a mixing of Zambales ophiolite melt with sub-arc mantle melt.
High variance in the geological makeup might help account for region's rich mineral resources. The area was known in early times for its magnetic iron deposits. More recently the Coto block of the ophiolite has become the world's largest producer of refractory chromite, and also a good source of platinum. Nickel and chromite are found at the Acoje block.
Dizon mine near the border with Pampanga is noted for its copper-gold-silver deposits. Non metallic minerals such as sandstones, Zambales jade, serpentine, pumice, white clay, rock aggregate, salt, stones, cobbles, boulders, and silica quartz are found in abundance.
Non-pumicitic lahar is a component of concrete mixes, while non-magnetic lahar is the primary component of fired "Lahar Porcelain."
Pinatubo's eruption expelled large quantities of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, the most ever recorded and nearly three times that of El Chinchon, its nearest competitor. Pumices in the area often have very high sulfur content. The source of all this sulfur is a matter of dispute. Some believe the sulfur may have been contained in remnants of previous sulfur-rich eruptions.
Source: http://www.environmentalprotectionofasia.com/masterplan/index.htm
Biodiversity
Despite it's relatively small land area, the Zambales Mountains have long been known for their natural beauty and biological diversity.
Although studies in this area are preliminary at best, some 61 endemic plants species have been found, of which 39 are endemic to Mt. Pinatubo alone.
About 50 species of moss thrive in the thick moss forests that were once considered inpenetrable. These forests have long been famed for their valuable tropical hardwoods, and today produce some of the most prized orchids in the international flower trade.
At one time, the area abounded in native deer species but these were wiped out during the colonization period due to deerskin trade with Japan and China. Now, the principal mammal species are monkeys, bats, including the Luzon pygmy fruit bat, and various rodents including a newly-discovered member of the tweezer-beaked Rhynchomys family.
Southern Zambales near Subic is the largest roosting refuge for bats in the world.
The town of Balincaguin in eastern Zambales, now known as Mabini, means "Home of Bats" in the native Sambal language.
The two largest bats in the world, the Golden-crowned Flying Fox (Acerodon jubatus) and the Giant Fruit Bat (Pteropus vampyrus), find their most important roosting ground in southern Zambales near Subic.
Source: http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/mammals/large_flying_fox.htm
As might be expected in a rainforest region, Zambales is home to a dazzling variety of insects including many rare butterflies. At Subic, a tourist spot known as the "Butterfly Garden" showcases an enclosed butterfly farming exhibit.
While some areas of the vast Mt. Pinatubo watershed are still biologically sterile, most regions have recovered since lahar flows stopped in 1997. Aquatic ecosystems including fish, vegetation, insects, algae, crustaceans and the like have returned.
The greening of Mt. Pinatubo
With standing freshwater swamps and pools, Zambales is a paradise for reptiles and amphibians. At one time, frogs and snakes constituted the most important source of protein for some indigneous peoples living here.
Zambales western seacoast is an important marine conservation area with sea turtle nesting areas and mangrove forests. To the east, just south of the sister volcano Mt. Arayat are the Candaba wetlands, a major nesting area for migratory birds in the Philippines.
Indigenous peoples
The two indigenous peoples of the Zambales Mountains are the Ayta and Sambal. The Sambal live mostly in the northern part of the province while the Ayta live around Pinatubo.
Many Ayta were displaced after the 1991 eruption, but slowly some have been returning to the region. While most now practice root agriculture, they still have a fondness for hunting, and gathering honey, fruits and wild plants.
The Sambal, like the Ayta, fiercely resisted the Spanish invaders. Their conversion to Christianity was only accomplished through the rare implementation of the Inquistion in the Philippines. The Sambal priests continued to practice their old ways even after outwardly taking on Catholic practices.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Brown, R. M., J. W. Ferner, R. V. Sison, P. C. Gonzales, and R. S. Kennedy. 1996. Amphibians and reptiles of the Zambales mountains of Luzon Island, Philippines. Herpetological Natural History 4:1-17.
Evans, Cynthia A.; Casteneda, Gerry; Franco, Helen. "Geochemical complexities preserved in the volcanic rocks of the Zambales Ophiolite, Philippines," Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 96, Issue B10, 1991, p. 16251-16262.
The Greening of Mt. Pinatubo, http://www.environmentalprotectionofasia.com/greenpinatubo/.
Yumul, G.P., Jr., 1996. Rare earth element geochemistry of a supra- subduction zone ophiolite: The Zambales Ophiolite Complex. Tectonophysics 262, 243-262.
Monday, December 12, 2005
Glossary: Sapa
Words related to sapa and saba occur widely throughout insular Southeast Asia as placenames were they are derived from a root having meanings such as "estuary, river-mouth, creek, brook, canal, place where fish enter."
The words sapa and saba may be the origin of the Arabic Zabag. Michael Jan de Goeje and Gabriel Ferrand, followed by Paul Wheatley, Roger Blench, Waruno Mahdi and others, believe that Zabag was derived from an earlier Sabag.
Sabag, in turn, was an Arabization of the word Savaka the Tamil name for the people of Zabag. The suffix "-ka" here would be a common one in Sanskrit and Prakrit used to describe a people from a certain locality, thus Yona-ka means "people or person from Yona (Greece)."
Savaka would then mean "people from Sapa/Saba" or "the people who dwell in estuaries or at river-mouths."
De Goeje and Ferrand suggested that a group mentioned in early Islamic texts known as the Sayabidja or Sayabiga, were pre-Islamic settlers in the Sind and Persian Gulf from Zabag. Sayabiga was stated to be the plural form of Saibagi which in one text is said to be pronounced sometimes as Sabag.
The Sayabiga were described as leaders of "marines" in warships, soldiers, prison and treasury guards and mercenaries. They were noted as faithful to those they served.
Apparently they had come from southern India and settled in the Sind where they became closely associated with another group known as the Zutt or Zott. Others were found at various locations along the Persian Gulf coast during the time of Caliph Abu Bakr.
Eventually the Zutt and Sayabiga, both apparently known as buffalo herders, are found at various locations serving mostly in military or police capacity including Bahrain and Basra. Both groups were devout Shi'as.
Sayabiga and the Assassins
Earlier in this blog, it was noted that Nusantao influence in Europe during medieval times may have flowed significantly through the Templars. The Templar connection in the Middle East might have been through the group famously known as the Assassins, a "fanatical" Shi'ite sect holed up in the mountains of Syria.
The Caliph Muawiya settled groups of Zutt and Sayabiga in Antioch after he had deposed the Shah of Iran. These folk acted mainly as buffalo herders and were again forced to move when the Greeks conquered the area.
Some were said to have ended up in Syria. The Zutt of Syria became the Dom Gypsies.
The possible link between the Zutt and Sayabiga with the Assassins has been suggested by Ivanow who noticed the infusion of "Tantric" elements into certain sects of Islam:
Ivanow suggested that this influence might be connected with the migrations from the Sind discussed above although he mentions only the Zutt. "Persian darwishes show remarkably strong ties with similar organisations in India, chiefly in Sind, and it is quite possible that certain ideas could have been imported through such channels. It appears, however, that such importations would have been made at an early date."
When the Assassin holdouts in Syria were destroyed by the Mongols, the vast majority of the group went to India where they placed themselves eventually in the service of the Aga Khan.
If some Sayabiga found their way into the Assassin group it could easily explain the Templar link with Zabag. Although admittedly there is no way to know whether these Shi'ite Sayabiga maintained any ties or loyalty to their old homeland.
However, such a relationship would not be any stranger than that which existed between the Templars and the Assassins. The former were consistently accused of conspiring with the latter even though both groups represented what are generally considered as the most fanatic defenders of their respective religions.
Even the Templar founder Hugh de Payens was accused of responsibility in forging the pact between Baldwin II of Jerusalem and the Assassins. When Christian fortunes waned in the Holy Land many in Europe cast a suspicious eye on the Templars.
The historian M. Von Hammer has even suggested that the Templars modeled themselves after the Assassin order. He cites similar organization, dress, and practices. Godfrey Higgins later noted that both groups had certain gnostic and tantric beliefs in common. Both seemed to have deistic and pantheistic leanings.
The two groups had similar colors which had great significance to the heraldry-conscious medieval Europeans. They both wore white garments, the Assassins with a red girdle and the Templars with a red cross. Both orders were divided into three classes: the Assassins into the Fedavee, Dais and Refeek, and the Templars into the knights, chaplains and servers. The Templar master and priors would conform to the Assassin sheik and Dais al-Kebir.
Most controversial was the so-called "tribute" payed by the Assassins to the Templars. Although the latter claimed to have forced the hand of the Assassins in this matter, the question of the payment never failed to raise suspicion.
Whatever the ultimate reason for the destruction of the Templars in France, no doubt their curious relationship with the Assassins had helped in the final decision against them.
If we take it then that the Sayabiga and Zutt were among the members of the Assassins and responsible for Tantric elements in their doctrine, the passing of Nusantao knowledge would have survived mainly in Portugul. It was here that the Templar order was able to persist through nothing more than a subtle name change.
Like the heathen Flegtanis of Toledo who acted as informant of Kyot and, through the latter, Wolfram von Eschenbach, the Sayabiga acted as informants of the Templars.
The Templars of Portugal, or Knights of Christ as they became known after the holocaust in France, constituted the driving force behind the country's advances in maritime navigation.
The Sayabiga hypothesis thus lies on the similarity of the name with Savaka and Zabag, their marine and mercenary nature which closely resembles the behavior of the Luções centuries later in Southeast Asia, their settlements along coastal areas, and their Tantric linkages (Suvarnadvipa/Zabag). The relationship between the Sayabiga and the Assassins and the latter's links with the Templars are fuzzy but this explanation would solve the riddle of Templar and Assassin tantric/Indic influence.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Barber, Malcolm. The Trial of the Templars, Cambridge University Press, 2003.
William and Robert Chambers, "Secret societies of the Middle Ages," Chambers Papers for the People, Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers, 1850.
de Goeje, Michael Jan. Memoires d'histoire et de geographie orientales, No. 3, Leiden, 1903.
Ferrand, Gabriel. E.J. Brill's First Encyclopedia of Islam s.v. "Sayabidja" (p. 200-1), The Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1927, 1993.
Ivanow, W. "Satpanth," Collectanea Vol. 1. 1948, Published for the Ismaili Society by E. I. BRILL, Onde Rijn, 33a, Leiden, Holland.
Wasserman, James. The Templars and the Assassins, Muze Inc., 2005.
For Sayabiga, see also: Wheatley, Paul The Places Where Men Pray Together: Cities in Islamic Lands, Seventh Through the Tenth Centuries, The University of Chicago Press, 2001, p. 44; Blench, Robert and Matthew Spriggs. Archaeology and Language III: Artefacts, Language and Texts, London: Routledge, 1999, p. 271.
The words sapa and saba may be the origin of the Arabic Zabag. Michael Jan de Goeje and Gabriel Ferrand, followed by Paul Wheatley, Roger Blench, Waruno Mahdi and others, believe that Zabag was derived from an earlier Sabag.
Sabag, in turn, was an Arabization of the word Savaka the Tamil name for the people of Zabag. The suffix "-ka" here would be a common one in Sanskrit and Prakrit used to describe a people from a certain locality, thus Yona-ka means "people or person from Yona (Greece)."
Savaka would then mean "people from Sapa/Saba" or "the people who dwell in estuaries or at river-mouths."
De Goeje and Ferrand suggested that a group mentioned in early Islamic texts known as the Sayabidja or Sayabiga, were pre-Islamic settlers in the Sind and Persian Gulf from Zabag. Sayabiga was stated to be the plural form of Saibagi which in one text is said to be pronounced sometimes as Sabag.
The Sayabiga were described as leaders of "marines" in warships, soldiers, prison and treasury guards and mercenaries. They were noted as faithful to those they served.
Apparently they had come from southern India and settled in the Sind where they became closely associated with another group known as the Zutt or Zott. Others were found at various locations along the Persian Gulf coast during the time of Caliph Abu Bakr.
Eventually the Zutt and Sayabiga, both apparently known as buffalo herders, are found at various locations serving mostly in military or police capacity including Bahrain and Basra. Both groups were devout Shi'as.
Sayabiga and the Assassins
Earlier in this blog, it was noted that Nusantao influence in Europe during medieval times may have flowed significantly through the Templars. The Templar connection in the Middle East might have been through the group famously known as the Assassins, a "fanatical" Shi'ite sect holed up in the mountains of Syria.
The Caliph Muawiya settled groups of Zutt and Sayabiga in Antioch after he had deposed the Shah of Iran. These folk acted mainly as buffalo herders and were again forced to move when the Greeks conquered the area.
Some were said to have ended up in Syria. The Zutt of Syria became the Dom Gypsies.
The possible link between the Zutt and Sayabiga with the Assassins has been suggested by Ivanow who noticed the infusion of "Tantric" elements into certain sects of Islam:
"We find numerous parallels in such widely differing ethnic, linguistic and social groups as the sects of Ali-Ilahi of Kurdistan, Nusayris of Syria, and Tantric cults, more particularly those of the worshippers of Shakti in India, in addition to avowedly mobile and wandering darwish organizations. It looks as if there is, after all, a mysterious connection between all these. The Tantric cults are believed to be the remnants of the ancient, pre-Aryan religion of India, gradually submerged, modified and partly re-modeled by orthodox Hinduism, the religion of the invaders."
Ivanow suggested that this influence might be connected with the migrations from the Sind discussed above although he mentions only the Zutt. "Persian darwishes show remarkably strong ties with similar organisations in India, chiefly in Sind, and it is quite possible that certain ideas could have been imported through such channels. It appears, however, that such importations would have been made at an early date."
When the Assassin holdouts in Syria were destroyed by the Mongols, the vast majority of the group went to India where they placed themselves eventually in the service of the Aga Khan.
If some Sayabiga found their way into the Assassin group it could easily explain the Templar link with Zabag. Although admittedly there is no way to know whether these Shi'ite Sayabiga maintained any ties or loyalty to their old homeland.
However, such a relationship would not be any stranger than that which existed between the Templars and the Assassins. The former were consistently accused of conspiring with the latter even though both groups represented what are generally considered as the most fanatic defenders of their respective religions.
Even the Templar founder Hugh de Payens was accused of responsibility in forging the pact between Baldwin II of Jerusalem and the Assassins. When Christian fortunes waned in the Holy Land many in Europe cast a suspicious eye on the Templars.
The historian M. Von Hammer has even suggested that the Templars modeled themselves after the Assassin order. He cites similar organization, dress, and practices. Godfrey Higgins later noted that both groups had certain gnostic and tantric beliefs in common. Both seemed to have deistic and pantheistic leanings.
The two groups had similar colors which had great significance to the heraldry-conscious medieval Europeans. They both wore white garments, the Assassins with a red girdle and the Templars with a red cross. Both orders were divided into three classes: the Assassins into the Fedavee, Dais and Refeek, and the Templars into the knights, chaplains and servers. The Templar master and priors would conform to the Assassin sheik and Dais al-Kebir.
Most controversial was the so-called "tribute" payed by the Assassins to the Templars. Although the latter claimed to have forced the hand of the Assassins in this matter, the question of the payment never failed to raise suspicion.
Whatever the ultimate reason for the destruction of the Templars in France, no doubt their curious relationship with the Assassins had helped in the final decision against them.
If we take it then that the Sayabiga and Zutt were among the members of the Assassins and responsible for Tantric elements in their doctrine, the passing of Nusantao knowledge would have survived mainly in Portugul. It was here that the Templar order was able to persist through nothing more than a subtle name change.
Like the heathen Flegtanis of Toledo who acted as informant of Kyot and, through the latter, Wolfram von Eschenbach, the Sayabiga acted as informants of the Templars.
The Templars of Portugal, or Knights of Christ as they became known after the holocaust in France, constituted the driving force behind the country's advances in maritime navigation.
The Sayabiga hypothesis thus lies on the similarity of the name with Savaka and Zabag, their marine and mercenary nature which closely resembles the behavior of the Luções centuries later in Southeast Asia, their settlements along coastal areas, and their Tantric linkages (Suvarnadvipa/Zabag). The relationship between the Sayabiga and the Assassins and the latter's links with the Templars are fuzzy but this explanation would solve the riddle of Templar and Assassin tantric/Indic influence.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Barber, Malcolm. The Trial of the Templars, Cambridge University Press, 2003.
William and Robert Chambers, "Secret societies of the Middle Ages," Chambers Papers for the People, Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers, 1850.
de Goeje, Michael Jan. Memoires d'histoire et de geographie orientales, No. 3, Leiden, 1903.
Ferrand, Gabriel. E.J. Brill's First Encyclopedia of Islam s.v. "Sayabidja" (p. 200-1), The Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1927, 1993.
Ivanow, W. "Satpanth," Collectanea Vol. 1. 1948, Published for the Ismaili Society by E. I. BRILL, Onde Rijn, 33a, Leiden, Holland.
Wasserman, James. The Templars and the Assassins, Muze Inc., 2005.
For Sayabiga, see also: Wheatley, Paul The Places Where Men Pray Together: Cities in Islamic Lands, Seventh Through the Tenth Centuries, The University of Chicago Press, 2001, p. 44; Blench, Robert and Matthew Spriggs. Archaeology and Language III: Artefacts, Language and Texts, London: Routledge, 1999, p. 271.
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