Bathala
Encyclopedia
In ancient Tagalog
Theology Bathala (Batala) was the Supreme Being; the Omnipotent Creator of the universe. Antonio de Morga
, among others, thought that Bathala meant an omen bird (Tigmamanukin
/Fairy-bluebird), but the author of the Boxer Codex
(1590 b, 379) was advised not to use it in this sense because they did not consider it God but only his messenger. It was after the arrival of the Spanish missionaries on the Philippines
in 16th century that Bathala came to be identified as the Christian God
.Thus Bathala in Filipino is synonymous to Diyos (God
) or Dibino (Divine, e.g. Mabathalang Awa
), according to J.V. Panganiban
(Diksyunaryo-Tesauro Pilipino-Ingles) in some Visayan languages Bathala means God.
in “Relacion de las Islas Filipinas” (1595-1602) was perhaps a combination of two different spellings of the name from older documents such as “Badhala” in “Relacion de las Costumbres de Los Tagalos” (1589, Juan de Plasencia
) and “Batala” in “Relacion de lasYslas Filipinas” (1582, Miguel de Loarca), the latter was supposedly the correct spelling in Tagalog (or Filipino) since the letter “h” was silenced in Spanish
. Bathala or Batala was apparently derived from Sanskrit
“bhattara” (noble lord) which appeared as the sixteenth-century title “batara” in the southern Philippines and Borneo
. In Indonesian language
“batara” means “god”, its feminine counterpart was “batari”. It may be worth noting that in Malay
“betara” means holy, and was applied to the greater Hindu
gods in Java
, and was also assumed by the ruler of Majapahit.
(Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippines Culture and Society); "Loarca and Chirino
said that the Tagalogs recognized a creator god they called Bathala (Batala) though other informants named the god of the Tagalogs as “Molayri” (Molaiari) or “Diwata” (Dioata)". Some scholars believed Molayri was actually May-ari which means “owner”, however it could also be May-yari which means “the one who made”. As for the name Diwata it should be noted that it was also a name of the Supreme Being in other Filipino ethnic tribes, it was also a term for deity in other Philippine languages such as the Visayan. Linguists trace the origin of the term “diwata” to Hindu word Devata which also means deity.
(1590b, 367) about Bathala according to the heathen Tagalogs: They (the Tagalogs) said that this god of theirs was in the air before there was heaven or earth or anything else, that he was ab eterno (from eternity) and not made or created by anybody from anything, and that he alone made and created all that we have mentioned simply by his own volition because he wanted to make something so beautiful as the heaven and earth, and that he made and created one man and one woman out of the earth, from whom have come and descended all the men and their generations that are in the world.
Aniteria
was the term coined by the Spanish missionaries to denote the religion of the heathen Tagalogs which means worship of anitos, as they observed that despite their belief and respect to the Omnipotent Bathala they offer their prayers and sacrifices to the ancestral spirits called anitos. Miguel de Loarca (Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas, 1582) asked them why the sacrifices were offered to the anitos, and not to Batala, they answered that Batala was a great lord, and no one could speak to him directly because he live in heaven (Kaluwalhatian), so he descended the anitos to provide for them. In ancient Tagalog beliefs the kaluluwa (soul
) of a living person becomes an anito
(ghost
or Ethereal being
) after death to serve Bathala and intercede in behalf of the living mortals, a belief which is quite similar to Folk Catholicism
.
) of Aniteria were condemned by the friars and missionaries as witches and were forced to convert to Christianity, the ancestral and nature spirits worshipped by the heathen Tagalogs were demonized
, some of whom were identified to some Biblical demons, the term anito became synonymous to “idol
”. The Spanish missionaries believed that the anitos were demons who trick and deviates the heathen Tagalogs from the worship of God. The deity Bathala was the only one who was not demonized because of his similarity to the Christian concept of the Creator God. According to Sir John Bowring (A Visit to the Philippine Island) "the priests have been generally willing to recognize the name Bathala as not objectionable in substitution for Dios (God)".
Bathala was worshipped as a minor deity, represented by a small idol image which they always carried for good luck, according to Lisboa
(1628, 61) “they say it was an anito that brought good luck to one it accompanied”. Thus if a man was never hit by objects thrown at him, he was said to be “batalaan”.
Invocation to Bathala
1. Bathala, origin of the first creatures,
Lives in the high mountains;
In your two hands
Resides the generator-
Maniliw, who is a witch.
Tall like the trunk
Of the coconut;
Solid like rock;
Voracious like fire;
Fierce, more than the mad perverse dog.
From your breast
The generator Lulid
Went forth.
It is he
Who does what he likes;
Who darkens
More than the night-
Like the stalk of the Palay;
And Sometimes
As if by means of rays of light,
Shoots the witches like an arrow.
Your living among the pygmies.
Destroy, oh, those bad characters
Of the generator Kamakala.
2. Bathala, thou art, oh, little bird, Adarna!
Oh thou, who art nestled in that encumbered home-
The abode of hawks and eagles,
Descend, we pray thee, to earth,
With all thy multicolored feathers
And thy silken, feathery tail-
Descend! Descend!-to earth.
Oh, thou bright-winged, little bird!
Celestial gift arth thou, prepared for the earth-
Our life’s source, our mother devoted.
Verily, thou hast suffered pains in those confines
Of mountains craggy and precipitous-
Searching for lakes of emerald, now vanished.
Ferocious animals
Art thine, mother
Oh, venerable Mount Kanlaon-
The ruler of the people of the mountain.
Original version with Tagalog translation, from “Panitikan ng Pilipinas; Binagong Edisyon” by Jose Villa Panganiban, Consuelo T. Panganiban, Genovera E. Manalute, Corazon E. Kabigting.
Bathala, pinunuan sang mga
una nga mga inanak,
Dito mag estar sa mga layog
Sa anang alima na tagsa
Si amay Maniliw nga tamaw
nga,
Malayog anay sang puno ka
niug,
Mabakod angay sa bantiling,
Kag masupong angay sa
kalayo,
Mabangis labi a madal nga
Bany-aga nga ayam.
Sa amang kilid lumsit.
Si ama Lulid Amo;
Siya ang mag sumunod
Kon tunay sa boot niya,
Nga mag bulit labing
Kagab-ihon mapilong…
Tagalog Translation
Bathalang pinagmulan ng
mga unang nilikha,
Nakatira ka sa mga bundok
Sa kamay mo nakalagay
Si Maniliw, na mangkukulam
Matayog kang parang puno
ng niyog;
Matigas na parang bato,
Masiklab na parang apoy,
Mabangis na higit sa
Asong nahihibang.
Sa dibdib mo lumabas
Ang manlilikhang Lulid Amo;
Siya ang nakagagawa
At nagbibigay dilim
Na higit sa gabi…
Tagalog people
The Tagalog people are an ethnic group in the Philippines. The name Tagalog comes from either the native term tagá-ilog, meaning 'people living along the river', or another native term, tagá-alog, meaning 'people living along the ford', a ford being a shallow part of a river or stream where people,...
Theology Bathala (Batala) was the Supreme Being; the Omnipotent Creator of the universe. Antonio de Morga
Antonio de Morga
Antonio de Morga Sánchez Garay was a Spanish lawyer and a high-ranking colonial official in the Philippines, New Spain and Peru. He was also a historian. He published the book Sucesos de las islas Filipinas in 1609, one of the most important works on the early history of the Spanish colonization...
, among others, thought that Bathala meant an omen bird (Tigmamanukin
Tigmamanukan
In Philippine mythology, the Tigmamanukan was believed by the Tagalog people to be an omen bird. Although the behaviors of numerous birds and lizards were said to be omens, particular attention was paid to the tigmamanukan.-Origin of the name:...
/Fairy-bluebird), but the author of the Boxer Codex
Boxer Codex
The Boxer Codex is a manuscript written circa 1595 which contains illustrations of Filipinos at the time of their initial contact with the Spanish. Aside from a description of and historical allusions to the Philippines and various other Far Eastern countries, it also contains seventy-five colored...
(1590 b, 379) was advised not to use it in this sense because they did not consider it God but only his messenger. It was after the arrival of the Spanish missionaries on the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
in 16th century that Bathala came to be identified as the Christian God
God in Christianity
In Christianity, God is the eternal being that created and preserves the universe. God is believed by most Christians to be immanent , while others believe the plan of redemption show he will be immanent later...
.Thus Bathala in Filipino is synonymous to Diyos (God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
) or Dibino (Divine, e.g. Mabathalang Awa
Divine Mercy
The Divine Mercy is a Roman Catholic devotion to the merciful love of God and the desire to let that love and mercy flow through one's own heart towards those in need of it...
), according to J.V. Panganiban
Jose Villa Panganiban
Jose Villa Panganiban: JOSE VILLA PANGANIBANLexicographer, professor, linguist, poet, playwright, author, lyricist. Jose Villa Panganiban was a prolific writer, with over 1,000 works to his name...
(Diksyunaryo-Tesauro Pilipino-Ingles) in some Visayan languages Bathala means God.
Etymology
The spelling of the name “Bathala” given by Pedro ChirinoPedro Chirino
Pedro Chirino was a Spanish historian who spent 12 years in the Philippines as a Jesuit missionary at the beginning of the 17th century. He established a boarding school at Tigbauan in 1592, but the work he is most remembered for is his Relación de las Islas Filipinas , a record of life in 17th...
in “Relacion de las Islas Filipinas” (1595-1602) was perhaps a combination of two different spellings of the name from older documents such as “Badhala” in “Relacion de las Costumbres de Los Tagalos” (1589, Juan de Plasencia
Juan de Plasencia
Juan de Plasencia was a Spanish friar of the Franciscan Order.He spent most of his missionary life in the Philippines, where he founded numerous towns in Luzon and authored several religious and linguistic books, most notably, the Doctrina Cristiana , the first book ever printed in the...
) and “Batala” in “Relacion de lasYslas Filipinas” (1582, Miguel de Loarca), the latter was supposedly the correct spelling in Tagalog (or Filipino) since the letter “h” was silenced in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. Bathala or Batala was apparently derived from Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
“bhattara” (noble lord) which appeared as the sixteenth-century title “batara” in the southern Philippines and Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
. In Indonesian language
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
“batara” means “god”, its feminine counterpart was “batari”. It may be worth noting that in Malay
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
“betara” means holy, and was applied to the greater Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
gods in Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
, and was also assumed by the ruler of Majapahit.
Other names
Since the name Bathala was Sanskrit in origin some scholars such as Isabelo delos Reyes believed that Maykapal was the indigenous name (or term) for the Supreme Being of the Tagalogs. Dr. Jose Rizal doubted that the Tagalog God was named Bathala. Most historians and scholars however accepted that the Tagalog God was properly called Bathalang Maykapal (God the Creator) as stated in Relacion de las Islas Filipinas (1595-1602), and could be either address simply as Bathala (God) or Maykapal (Creator). According to William Henry ScottWilliam Henry Scott (historian)
William Henry Scott was a historian of the Gran Cordillera Central and Prehispanic Philippines. He personally rejected the description anthropologist as applying to himself.-Early life:...
(Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippines Culture and Society); "Loarca and Chirino
Pedro Chirino
Pedro Chirino was a Spanish historian who spent 12 years in the Philippines as a Jesuit missionary at the beginning of the 17th century. He established a boarding school at Tigbauan in 1592, but the work he is most remembered for is his Relación de las Islas Filipinas , a record of life in 17th...
said that the Tagalogs recognized a creator god they called Bathala (Batala) though other informants named the god of the Tagalogs as “Molayri” (Molaiari) or “Diwata” (Dioata)". Some scholars believed Molayri was actually May-ari which means “owner”, however it could also be May-yari which means “the one who made”. As for the name Diwata it should be noted that it was also a name of the Supreme Being in other Filipino ethnic tribes, it was also a term for deity in other Philippine languages such as the Visayan. Linguists trace the origin of the term “diwata” to Hindu word Devata which also means deity.
Aniteria
An excerpt from the Boxer CodexBoxer Codex
The Boxer Codex is a manuscript written circa 1595 which contains illustrations of Filipinos at the time of their initial contact with the Spanish. Aside from a description of and historical allusions to the Philippines and various other Far Eastern countries, it also contains seventy-five colored...
(1590b, 367) about Bathala according to the heathen Tagalogs: They (the Tagalogs) said that this god of theirs was in the air before there was heaven or earth or anything else, that he was ab eterno (from eternity) and not made or created by anybody from anything, and that he alone made and created all that we have mentioned simply by his own volition because he wanted to make something so beautiful as the heaven and earth, and that he made and created one man and one woman out of the earth, from whom have come and descended all the men and their generations that are in the world.
Aniteria
Veneration of the dead
Veneration of the dead is based on the belief that the deceased, often family members, have a continued existence and/or possess the ability to influence the fortune of the living...
was the term coined by the Spanish missionaries to denote the religion of the heathen Tagalogs which means worship of anitos, as they observed that despite their belief and respect to the Omnipotent Bathala they offer their prayers and sacrifices to the ancestral spirits called anitos. Miguel de Loarca (Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas, 1582) asked them why the sacrifices were offered to the anitos, and not to Batala, they answered that Batala was a great lord, and no one could speak to him directly because he live in heaven (Kaluwalhatian), so he descended the anitos to provide for them. In ancient Tagalog beliefs the kaluluwa (soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
) of a living person becomes an anito
Anito
Anito is the collective name for Pre-Hispanic belief system that exists in the Philippines. It is also the name for spirits, which may include deceased ancestors and nature-spirits or diwatas. Native Filipinos usually keep statues to represent these spirits and to ask guidance and even magical...
(ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
or Ethereal being
Ethereal being
Ethereal beings, according to some belief systems and occult theories, are mystic entities that usually are not made of ordinary matter. Despite the fact that they are believed to be essentially incorporeal, they do interact in physical shapes with the material universe and travel between the...
) after death to serve Bathala and intercede in behalf of the living mortals, a belief which is quite similar to Folk Catholicism
Folk Catholicism
Folk Catholicism is any of various varieties of Catholicism as actually practiced in Catholic communities around the world. Practices that are identified by outside observers as "folk Catholicism" vary from place to place, and often vary as well from official Roman Catholic Church doctrine.Some...
.
Christianity
After the conversion of the Tagalogs to Christianity during the Spanish colonization of the Philippines the shamans (catalonaKatalonan
A Katalonan is a priest or priestess of the old Tagalog animistic religion. These priestesses were either female, or male transvestites...
) of Aniteria were condemned by the friars and missionaries as witches and were forced to convert to Christianity, the ancestral and nature spirits worshipped by the heathen Tagalogs were demonized
Demonization
Demonization is the reinterpretation of polytheistic deities as evil, lying demons by other religions, generally monotheistic and henotheistic ones...
, some of whom were identified to some Biblical demons, the term anito became synonymous to “idol
Idolatry
Idolatry is a pejorative term for the worship of an idol, a physical object such as a cult image, as a god, or practices believed to verge on worship, such as giving undue honour and regard to created forms other than God. In all the Abrahamic religions idolatry is strongly forbidden, although...
”. The Spanish missionaries believed that the anitos were demons who trick and deviates the heathen Tagalogs from the worship of God. The deity Bathala was the only one who was not demonized because of his similarity to the Christian concept of the Creator God. According to Sir John Bowring (A Visit to the Philippine Island) "the priests have been generally willing to recognize the name Bathala as not objectionable in substitution for Dios (God)".
Bicol
In ancient BicolBicol
Bikol or Bicol may refer to:*Bicol Region, the administrative region in the Philippines*Bikol languages, the languages spoken in the Bicol region*Bikol language, the standard language*Bicolano people, the ethnic group...
Bathala was worshipped as a minor deity, represented by a small idol image which they always carried for good luck, according to Lisboa
Mark of Lisbon
Mark of Lisbon , properly Marcos da Silva, was a Portuguese Franciscan, historian, and the Bishop of Porto.While visiting the main convents of the Franciscan Order in Spain, Italy, and France, Mark collected a number of original documents about the order's history at the instance of the minister...
(1628, 61) “they say it was an anito that brought good luck to one it accompanied”. Thus if a man was never hit by objects thrown at him, he was said to be “batalaan”.
Zambales
Some scholars also identified Bathala to Mallari (Mayari) a Zambal deity, though according to San Nicolas (1664, 420) Bathala Mey kapal (Maykapal) was also listed among their deities, whose false genealogies and fabulous deeds they celebrated in certain tunes and verses like hymns, according to William Henry Scott this may due to the influences of the Tagalogs in their culture or beliefs.Visayas
An ancient Visayan invocation from the book “Philippine Literature: From Ancient Times to the Present” by Teofilo del Castillo Y Tuazon and Buenaventura S. Medina Jr.This invocation was translated by Pacita C. Inocencio-Nievera.Invocation to Bathala
1. Bathala, origin of the first creatures,
Lives in the high mountains;
In your two hands
Resides the generator-
Maniliw, who is a witch.
Tall like the trunk
Of the coconut;
Solid like rock;
Voracious like fire;
Fierce, more than the mad perverse dog.
From your breast
The generator Lulid
Went forth.
It is he
Who does what he likes;
Who darkens
More than the night-
Like the stalk of the Palay;
And Sometimes
As if by means of rays of light,
Shoots the witches like an arrow.
Your living among the pygmies.
Destroy, oh, those bad characters
Of the generator Kamakala.
2. Bathala, thou art, oh, little bird, Adarna!
Oh thou, who art nestled in that encumbered home-
The abode of hawks and eagles,
Descend, we pray thee, to earth,
With all thy multicolored feathers
And thy silken, feathery tail-
Descend! Descend!-to earth.
Oh, thou bright-winged, little bird!
Celestial gift arth thou, prepared for the earth-
Our life’s source, our mother devoted.
Verily, thou hast suffered pains in those confines
Of mountains craggy and precipitous-
Searching for lakes of emerald, now vanished.
Ferocious animals
Art thine, mother
Oh, venerable Mount Kanlaon-
The ruler of the people of the mountain.
Original version with Tagalog translation, from “Panitikan ng Pilipinas; Binagong Edisyon” by Jose Villa Panganiban, Consuelo T. Panganiban, Genovera E. Manalute, Corazon E. Kabigting.
Bathala, pinunuan sang mga
una nga mga inanak,
Dito mag estar sa mga layog
Sa anang alima na tagsa
Si amay Maniliw nga tamaw
nga,
Malayog anay sang puno ka
niug,
Mabakod angay sa bantiling,
Kag masupong angay sa
kalayo,
Mabangis labi a madal nga
Bany-aga nga ayam.
Sa amang kilid lumsit.
Si ama Lulid Amo;
Siya ang mag sumunod
Kon tunay sa boot niya,
Nga mag bulit labing
Kagab-ihon mapilong…
Tagalog Translation
Bathalang pinagmulan ng
mga unang nilikha,
Nakatira ka sa mga bundok
Sa kamay mo nakalagay
Si Maniliw, na mangkukulam
Matayog kang parang puno
ng niyog;
Matigas na parang bato,
Masiklab na parang apoy,
Mabangis na higit sa
Asong nahihibang.
Sa dibdib mo lumabas
Ang manlilikhang Lulid Amo;
Siya ang nakagagawa
At nagbibigay dilim
Na higit sa gabi…