Siuálâ Ding Meángûbié

Crime against Nature

Acacia trees line the highway between Angeles City and San Fernando. Photo by Rey Maniago (From the Facebook album: End of an Era).

Call me strange... call me an old fashioned tree-hugging hippie... but the killing of trees have always sent chills down mine spine since I was a kid. For the past few days now, the Philippine government, through its local agents, has been murdering the trees that line the highway between Angeles and San Fernando for its road widening project. You can always build roads...but you can never replace the lives of thousands of tree that have been there since our grandparents' time.

Posted on: July 22,2009 07:07 PM  |  comments ( 179 )  |  » read more

Name Card (名刺)

I'm just so proud of the young Kapampangan artist Bruno (Alexandre Dayrit Tiotuico) who personally designed my name card (名刺) that you see here. Looks like a poster for my first violin concerto at the Suntory Hall. Imagine me wearing a tuxedo...haha!

Visit Bruno's photo page at http://brunotiotuico.multiply.com/

Posted on: June 01,2009 11:27 PM  |  comments ( 6 )  |  » read more

Kamikakushi (神隠し): Parallels in Kapampangan and Japanese folklore

The concept of kamikakushi (神隠し) as presented in the anime Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し) by Miyazaki Hayao (宮崎駿) contains a striking parallel to the concept of menunu in Kapampangan folklore. The Kapampangan ancestral spirits or nunu are similar in many ways to the Japanese kami (神). In Miyazaki's anime, the child's parents turned into pigs after they greedily helped themselves to a sumptuous feast that was prepared for the spirits. In the Kapampangan folklore, Apung Sinukuan, the Kapampangan Sun God and Lord of Mount Alaya, turned the greedy humans who took advantage of his hospitality and desecrated his mountain into the first pigs.

Posted on: May 27,2009 11:19 AM  |  comments ( 45 )  |  » read more

Today's Typhoon (台風)

Sattelite Map of Tropical Storm Emong from P.A.G.A.S.A.

Technically speaking, today's tropical storm is not a Bagyu or a Typhoon (台風) because it did not generate from the Bagyuan direction (S.E.) in the Pacific Ocean. Technically, in Kapampangan this is called a Sigua, because it is generated in the Siguaran direction (S.W.) which is in the South China Sea. Sigua are quite rare. Strange to even imagine that a Typhoon class tropical storm can be generated in the South China Sea.

Anyway, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services (PAGASA) should be familiar with the indigenous terms related to specific weather conditions. Not all tropical storms are generically termed Bagyu or Typhoons. Indigenous fishing communities, like the Kapampangan people living in the delta are particular about storms, winds and wind directions. It is misleading  to tell a fisherman that this storm comes from the Pacific Ocean (by calling it Bagyu) when it actually comes from the opposite side of the bay.

Posted on: May 06,2009 10:41 PM  |  comments ( 129 )  |  » read more

ヴォイス～命なき者の声

Who would have thought that they would translate my  name Siuálâ ding Meángûbié (Voice of the Departed) into Japanese, 命なき者の声 (Inochi Nakimono no Koe), and use it as a title for a TV Drama?

びっくりした...

ヴォイス～命なき者の声

Posted on: May 06,2009 08:43 PM  |  comments ( 2 )  |  » read more

Daya ding Magdarame

Bloody bamboo flagella (whip) photographed by Brunu (Alexandre) Dayrit Tiotuico, April 2009.

Last Good Friday, 10 April 2009, I went with young Kapampangan artists Borj Meneses, Allan David, Brunu Tiotuico and Dennis Guiwan to witness the annual Pamagparaya kareng Magdarame (Bleeding of the Flagellants) at the Pampang Public Market Area in Barangay Lourdes Northwest, Angeles City. I used to be fascinated with the event and always made it a point to tour my visiting foreign friends to the area every Good Friday.

But this year I just found it a bit makapangablad (dreadful) and makariri (gross..."eeewy," ngana pin Borj). The atmosphere was like Cebu's Sinulog Festival gone bloody mad...literally...very bloody. Everything was surreal. The streets as far as the eye can see are caked with dried blood under the extra heat of the summer sun...with the occassional fresh pools of blood here and there. The walls, posts, and street stalls selling food are also caked with droplets of blood splattered by hundreds of magdarame (flagellants). The whole street is packed by gangs of magdarame from end to end. You see a young magdarame sitting by the food stalls, still caked in blood, drinking a softdrink with his girlfriend, while another magdarame has his arm around his buddy, magdarame sharing jokes, rubbing bloody flesh to bloody flesh. In the background you could smell the scent of roasting meat from the countless barbecue stalls that line the streets. The barbecue sauce was just too dark red for comfort. It's just like Tidtad Massacre (Copyright Teytey Bermudo and Tito & Toti Tanganco) gone wild.

I've seen lots of festivals where people splash each other with water (San Juan-an in Betis, Libad nang Apung Iru in Apalit and Songkran in Thailand), or the Indian festival where they pelt you with coloured dusts, or those Japanese festivals where they rub your face and clothes with mud or soot...but a festival where you spray, sprinkle, splash and rub blood at each other? As an advocate of Kapampangan culture, I would not like the  age old tradition to die out...but would it be a bother for the understaffed and underbudgetted Department of Health to at least test all participants for HIV before they allow them to become magdarame?

Kit Tayag, a young Kapampangan artist from Angeles City, Philippines, still practices pámagdaráme, the ritual flagellation practiced by young Kapampangan Catholics during Holy Week. Photo by Jon Tanganco, April 6, 2009.

Visit Bruno Tiotuico's Photo Page at http://brunotiotuico.multiply.com/

Visit Jon Tanganco's Photo Page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lajon

Posted on: July 22,2009 07:17 PM  |  comments ( 3 )  |  » read more

Batikan a Magdarame

Kit Tayag, a young Kapampangan artist from Angeles City, Philippines, still practices pámagdaráme, the ritual flagellation practiced by young Kapampangan Catholics during Holy Week. Photo by Jon Tanganco, April 6, 2009.

MAGDARÁME (var. SASALIBATBAT), the Kapampángan word for Catholic devotees who flagellate themselves during MALÉLDO or “Holy Week.” It comes from the word DÁME, which means “to commiserate” or “join in one’s suffering.” The practice is accompanied by the chanting of the TAGULÉLE, the indigenous Kapampangan lamentation. The practice coincides with the traditional practice of PARÁYÂ or blood offering to the earth mother INDÛNG TÍBÛAN during KALÉLDO (the peak of summer) as a prayer for the coming of the rainy season.

BATIK is the Kapampangan word for tattoo. BATIKAN is an expert in any field whose exploits are commemorated as tattoos on his body.

See Related Articles:

Kapampangan Tattoo

Sulat Kapampangan

Visit Jon Tanganco's Photo Page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lajon

Visit Kapampangan Tattoo Artist Marlon Maristela at htttp://www.tattoobymarlon.com

Posted on: July 22,2009 07:16 PM  |  comments ( 8 )  |  » read more

Oddity of Oddities

Ever wondered why Japan's victory over the combined Philippine and American forces in Bataan and Corregidor sixty seven years ago is celebrated by the Philippines as its "Araw ng Kagitingan" (Day of Valour)? And why of all victory celebrations, it is the victors who are scorned and ashamed to attend it?

Posted on: May 03,2009 05:02 AM  |  comments ( 4 )  |  » read more