Just in time for Halloween.. Folklore on Haunted Banyons
I just picked this up in a forum I hang out in and thought you might be interested in some
Philippino folklo Back in the Philippines, haunted trees are somewhat a common belief especially in the province (i.e., the countryside), and usually take the form of the anito (i.e. ancestral spirits) residing in the banyan tree. The banyan tree is a large tree with eerie sprawling roots that can be found in Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands including Hawaii. Back in 1976, I was roommates with another Filipino-American in Oakland, California who had never been to the Philippines being born and raised in Oakland. Around May 1976, he went on a two-month trip to his grandmother's nipa hut in the northern Philippines (his very first trip to the Philippines). One morning he got up to investigate the countryside near his grandmother's house and found a banyan tree with sprawling roots and decided to lay down in between some of the sprawling roots of the banyan tree to take a late morning nap in the shade of the tree. As he started to fall asleep, he heard voices speaking in Ilokano (the local languange there) up in the tree, then he heard the sound of bolos (Philippine machete) and axes chopping on the tree, after awhile he heard the tree starting to fall down - then his nephew woke him up and said "Uncle, uncle it's time to go to the afternoon prayer." My roommate looked at his watch and it was 1:55pm, but he felt so sick and nauseous, his nephew had to help him back to his grandmother's house. Upon entering the house, his grandmother looked at him, and asked him what was wrong. My roommate said, "I don't know, I feel sick, I just slept under a big tree." His grandmother said, "What tree?" He replied, "That tree over there with the sprawling roots" His grandmother scolded him, "Never, never sleep by that tree, it's haunted." She then asked her sons to go to the graveyard and gather a little burial cloth. She told my roommate to lay down on the banig (sleeping mat); and when her sons came back with the burial cloth, she rubbed the cloth on her grandson chanting some words in Ilokano, then told him that he would sleep for two minutes and then wake up feeling fine. My roommate told me "I'm not kidding, I woke up two minutes later and I was hungry." That same year, I met a Franciscan brother who had visited the San Francisco bay area to give a presentation on Mindanao after staying in Mindanao for over 20 years. The Franciscan brother was American, but he had stayed in Mindanao so long that his English had a heavy Bisaya accent (even heavier than mine). He showed some video about how the Franciscan brothers were helping the Bisaya farmers in Mindanao improve their life especially with farming and dealing with local authorities (somewhat corrupt back in those days); toward the end of the video, there was a shot of a banyan tree where you could see faces of the anito (ancentral spirits) in the branches speaking in Bisaya. The Franciscan brother then said, we don't try to discourage their ancient beliefs as they are woven into their Catholic beliefs and don't appear to be particularly harmful. -- (`'·.¸(`'·.¸*¤*¸.·'´)¸.·'´) «´¨`·.¤*katie**¤.·´¨`» (¸.·'´(¸.·'´*¤*`'·.¸)`'·.¸) Helena's Sim Estates http://www.simbella.com/helena/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HelenaSimEstates/ |
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