Happy Pride Month! Read on to learn about Queer Mythology in Pre-colonial Philippines, inspired by our podcast episode on the history of queer/trans activism in the US. Find Episode 5 “On the Shoulders of Giants: Queer/Trans Legacies in the US” of At The Moment: Asian American News on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!
The Story of Sidapa & Libulan
The God of Death, Sidapa… lived alone on Mt. Madjaas. From there he could see the seven moon gods, each of who represents a phase of the moon. Many were captivated by their beauty, including Sidapa and Bakunawa, the sea dragon. Sidapa fell in love with the seven moon gods… He asked for the fireflies to light a path in the sky so the moons could find him. One of the moon gods, Libulan, came down on this firefly path to meet Sidapa, who showered him in love and gifts. But as their romance bloomed, Bakunawa grew furious; it rose from the sea and devoured the moons. But Sidapa saw it attacking and saved Libulan from its wrath. It is said that afterwards, they resided as husbands on Mt. Madjaas.
— Harriette Chan [1]
Nowadays, some queer and trans Filipinos look to pre-colonial mythologies and histories to reclaim their queer lineages. For instance, Libulan is sometimes referred as the patron god of homosexuality.
As oral traditions, these myths also change with time. Modern reinterpretations and retellings, such as Mala & the Mask of Gold by Jaime Martin Ko Atilano, keep these stories alive. [5]
The Story of Lakapati
Lakapati (or Ikapati) is the goddess of fertility and good harvest. She was also described as an androgynous, intersex, or transgender goddess. According to myth, she was one of the kindest deities, giving man the gift of agriculture. Pre-colonial Filipinos would offer sacrifices to her before planting a new field. Bathala can also be considered to be intersex as the name means “Man and Woman in One”.
— Harriette Chan [1]
As the story goes, Bathala and Lakapati lived together in the heavens, but Lakapati sensed that Bathala felt something was empty in his life. They decided to create something to make him happy, so they created a ball out of clay and banana blossom and gave it to Bathala. He was happy working and shaping the ball, forming rivers and mountains, and when Bathala finished it Lakapati thought it so beautiful that they placed the ball of clay in the sky, and so the Earth was created.
— Stephanie Gancayo [3]
From the Artists
“Gintong Biyaya ni Ikapati” or (The Golden Blessings of Ikapati) was an artwork more dedicated to our Filipino farmers who are experiencing harder life than ever during the pandemic. I used the deity Ikapati, as more with androgynous features, cause aside that she changes gender at times or per region, I wanted to represent both the men and women of agriculture in the country. Aside from that, I chose a precolonial character to represent the indigenous people who are still practicing animism.
— Tin Javier
With this piece, it was a part of a series I did with Filipino Precolonial Deities. I actually also did studies for Libulan and Sidapa, as they were more familiar to where I live, the Visayas. I find Lakapati particularly interesting as she is (I’ll use she as it was commonly assumed that she assumed a more feminine form) because she was a hermaphroditic goddess in ancient times. Basically an icon that underlines the fact that genders of the time were more open and tolerating. In fact there are priests called Catalonans which are the ones who worship her and her mediums to the locale, and they were also very androgynous. it is also worth noting that icons of androgyny and essentially in today’s culture — non-binary, queer, the LGBT community are represented in a way that provides to the people. They are worshipped as givers and patrons of beauty and radiance. Lakapati for instance is the deity for Agriculture and Fertility. It underscores the fact that her worship was for something essential such as sustenance for daily victuals, and even goes to the point of actual fertility, an Earth goddess, the symbol of reproduction and repopulation, which is in an early civilization context, an essential duty of mankind.
— Chevin Villaflor
Historical Examples of Queerness
In pre-colonial Philippines, “local men dressed up in women’s apparel and acting ‘like women’ were called, among other things, bayoguin, bayok, agi-ngin, asog, bido and binabae… To their native communities they were babaylan or catalonan: religious functionaries and shamans, intermediaries between the visible and invisible worlds to whom even the local ruler (datu) deferred. They placated angry spirits, foretold the future, healed infirmities, and even reconciled warring couples and tribes.” [2]
This history is also reflected in their language. In Tagalog, “siya” is a gender-neutral pronoun which is the only pronoun used to refer to a person. “Asawa” (spouse) or “kabiyak” (other half) are gender-neutral terms used to refer to one’s spouse. [4]
Despite these histories, Spanish colonialism and Catholicism ended traditional mythologies and cultural understandings of gender, introducing more rigid binary gender roles and enforcing heterosexual marriage as the norm.
Sources
[1] Chan, Harriette. “Queer Mythology in the Philippines”. Making Queer History. 19 December 2018.
[2] Garcia, Neil C. “Male Homosexuality in the Phillipines: a Short History”. International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter. November 2004.
[3] Gancayco, Stephanie. “The Transgender Goddess of the Tagalog”. HellaPinay via forthemotherlandph. 23 September 2018.
[4] Arias, Jacqueline. “On the Filipino gender-neutral language and our egalitarian origin”. Preen.ph. 4 June 2019.
[5] Atilano, Jaime Martin Ko. Mala & the Mask of Gold. 2020.
