Hinduism in the Philippines

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Philippine Hindus
0520jfErmita Paco Manila Romualdez Apacible Street United Avenuefvf 04.jpg
Hindu temple in Paco, Manila.
Total population
30,634 (2015) [1]
Scriptures
Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata, Upanishads
Languages
Indo-Aryan languages (Sanskrit, Hindi and Sindhi),
Butuanon, English, Ibanag, Kapampangan, Pangasinense, Tagalog, Visayan

Recent archaeological and other evidence suggests Hinduism has had some cultural, economic, political and religious influence in the Philippines. Among these is the 9th century Laguna Copperplate Inscription found in 1989, deciphered in 1992 to be Kawi script (from Pallava script) with Sanskrit words; [2] the golden Agusan statue (Golden Tara) discovered in another part of Philippines in 1917 has also been linked to Hinduism. [3]

Contents

Hinduism today

There is some growth in the religion as of late, although most temples cater to the same communities. Actual adherents of Hinduism are mostly limited to communities that include indigenous and native peoples, expatriate communities, as well as new converts. There are various ISKCON groups and popular Hindu personalities and groups such as Sathya Sai Baba, and Paramahansa Yogananda (SRF), Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (Ananda Marga) that can be found. The Ramakrishna Mission is also present as the Vedānta Society of the Philippines. [4] Hindu based practices like Yoga and meditation are also popular. There are also notable archery ranges named after characters in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata called "Kodanda Archery Range" (named after Lord Rama's bow Kodanda) and "Gandiva Archery" (named after Arjuna's bow Gandiva).

One source estimated the size of the Indian community in the Philippines in 2008 at 150,000 people, most of whom are Hindus and Christians.

At present, however, it is limited primarily to the immigrant Indian community, though traditional religious beliefs in most parts of the country have strong Hindu and Buddhist influences.

Over the last three decades, a large number of civil servants and highly educated Indians working in large banks, Asian Development Bank and the BPO sector have migrated to Philippines, especially Manila. Most of the Indian Filipinos and Indian expatriates are Hindu, Sikh or Muslims, but have assimilated into Filipino culture and some are Catholic . The community regularly conducts philanthropic activities through bodies such as the Mahaveer foundation, The SEVA foundation and the Sathya Sai organization. Most Hindus congregate for socio-cultural and religious activities at the Hindu Temple (Mahatma Gandhi Street, Paco, Manila), and the Radha Soami Satsang Beas center (Alabang, Muntinlupa, Metro Manila).

History

Hinduism expansion in Asia, from its heartland in Indian Subcontinent, to the rest of Asia, especially Southeast Asia, started circa 1st century marked with the establishment of early Hindu settlements and polities in Southeast Asia. Hinduism Expansion in Asia 2023.svg
Hinduism expansion in Asia, from its heartland in Indian Subcontinent, to the rest of Asia, especially Southeast Asia, started circa 1st century marked with the establishment of early Hindu settlements and polities in Southeast Asia.
The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (above) found in 1989 suggests Indian cultural influence in the Philippines by late 9th century AD, likely through Hinduism in Indonesia, prior to the arrival of European colonial empires in the 16th century. Laguna Copperplate Inscription.gif
The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (above) found in 1989 suggests Indian cultural influence in the Philippines by late 9th century AD, likely through Hinduism in Indonesia, prior to the arrival of European colonial empires in the 16th century.
The Agusan image, a golden statue of the Hindu-Buddhist deity, Tara, 9th century. Filippine, provincia di agusan, immagine hindu, statuetta in oro massiccio, xiii secolo.jpg
The Agusan image, a golden statue of the Hindu-Buddhist deity, Tara, 9th century.

The archipelagos of Southeast Asia were under the influence of Hindu Tamil Nadu and Indonesian traders through the ports of Malay-Indonesian islands. Indian religions, possibly an amalgamated version of Hindu-Buddhist arrived in Philippines archipelago in the 1st millennium, through the Indonesian kingdom of Srivijaya followed by Majapahit. Archeological evidence suggesting exchange of ancient spiritual ideas from India to the Philippines includes the 1.79 kilogram, 21 carat gold Hindu goddess Agusan (sometimes referred to as Golden Tara), found in Mindanao in 1917 after a storm and flood exposed its location. [5] The statue now sits in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, and is dated from the period 13th to early 14th centuries.

A study of this image was made by Dr. F. D. K. Bosch, of Batavia, in 1920, who came to the conclusion that it was made by local workmen in Mindanao, copying a Ngandjuk image of the early Madjapahit period – except that the local artist overlooked the distinguishing attributes held in the hand. It probably had some connection with the Javanese miners who are known to have been mining gold in the Agusan-Surigao area in the middle or late 14th century. The image is apparently that of a Sivaite goddess, and fits in well with the name "Butuan" (signifying "phallus").

—  H. Otley Beyer, 1947 [3]

Juan R. Francisco suggests that the golden Agusan statue may be a representation of goddess Sakti of the Siva-Buddha (Bhairava) tradition found in Java, in which the religious aspect of Shiva is integrated with those found in Buddhism of Java and Sumatra. The Rajahnate of Butuan, in present-day Agusan del Norte and Butuan, used Hinduism as its main religion along with indigenous Lumad nature-worships. A Hindu Tamil King of the Rajahnate of Cebu was also recorded. [6] In the nearby Rajahnate of Sanmalan in the Zamboanga peninsula, the Chinese recorded a tribute mission from its ruler named Rajah Chulan who may be a Tamil from the Chola Dynasty too as Chulan is the local pronunciation of the Chola surname. [7] [8] This theory is corroborated by linguistics and genetics as Zamboanga is, according to anthropologist Alfred Kemp Pallasen the linguistic homeland of the Sama-Bajau people, and genetic studies also show that they have Indian admixture. [9]

Another gold artifact, from the Tabon Caves in the island of Palawan, is an image of Garuda, the bird who is the mount of Vishnu. The discovery of sophisticated Hindu imagery and gold artifacts in Tabon Caves has been linked to those found from Oc Eo, in the Mekong Delta in Southern Vietnam. [10] These archaeological evidence suggests an active trade of many specialized goods and gold between India and Philippines and coastal regions of Vietnam and China. Golden jewelry found so far include rings, some surmounted by images of Nandi – the sacred bull, linked chains, inscribed gold sheets, gold plaques decorated with repoussé images of Hindu deities. [10] [11]

In 1989, a laborer working in a sand mine at the mouth of Lumbang River near Laguna de Bay found a copper plate in Barangay Wawa, Lumban. [5] This discovery, is now known as the Laguna Copperplate Inscription by scholars. It is the earliest known written document found in the Philippines, dated to be from the 9th century AD, and was deciphered in 1992 by Dutch anthropologist Antoon Postma. [2] The copperplate inscription suggests economic and cultural links between the Tagalog people of Philippines with the Javanese Medang Kingdom, the Srivijaya empire, and the Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms of India. Hinduism in the country declined when Islam was introduced by traders from Arabia which was then followed by Christianity from Spain. [5] This is an active area of research as little is known about the scale and depth of Philippine history from the 1st millennium and before.

Folklore, arts and literature

Many fables and stories in Filipino Culture are linked to Indian arts, such as the story of the monkey and the turtle, the race between deer and snail (slow and steady wins the race), and the hawk and the hen. Similarly, the major epics and folk literature of Philippines show common themes, plots, climax and ideas expressed in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. [12]

According to Indologists Juan R. Francisco and Josephine Acosta Pasricha, Hindu influences and folklore arrived in Philippines by about 9th to 10th century AD. [13] There is a Maranao version of the Hindu Epic Ramayana known as Maharadia Lawana (King Rāvaṇa [14] ).

Language

With the advent of Spanish colonialism in the 16th century, the Philippines became a closed colony and cultural contacts with other Southeast Asian countries were limited, if not closed. In 1481, the Spanish Inquisition commenced with the permission of Pope Sixtus IV and all non-Catholics within the Spanish empire were to be expelled or to be "put to the question" (tortured until they renounced their previous faith). With the re-founding of Manila in 1571, the Philippines became subject to the King of Spain, and the Archbishop of New Galicia (Mexico) became the Grand Inquisitor of the Faithful in Mexico and the Philippines. In 1595, the newly appointed Archbishop of Manila became the Inquisitor-General of the Spanish East Indies (i.e., the Philippines, Guam, and Micronesia), and until 1898 was active against Protestants, Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims. As was the case in Latin America and Africa, forced conversion was common and any refusal to submit to Church authority was seen as both rebellion against the Pope and sedition against the Spanish Crown, which was punishable by death.

Linguistic influence left lasting marks on every Philippine language. Below are some borrowed terms, which were often Buddhist and Hindu concepts, with the original Sanskrit; some of the words in many Philippine languages are loaned from Sanskrit and Tamil. [15] The conservative nature of these loanwords and shared correspondence with Malay suggest that many of these loanwords were borrowed from an earlier form of Classical Malay that preserved the distinction between several Sanskrit phonemes. [16]

Tagalog

Statue depicting Shiva as Nataraja. Nataraja.jpg
Statue depicting Shiva as Nataraja .

Kapampangan

Cebuano

Tausūg

Ibanag

Common to many Philippine languages

Hindu temples

There are Hindu temples in Manila city including Hari Ram Temple (Paco) and Saya Aur Devi Mandir Temple (Paco). There is a Hindu temple called "Indian Hindu Temple" in Cebu City, Philippines. There is a Hindu Temple in Baguio City, Philippines called "Baguio Hindu Temple". In Davao City, it has a Hindu temple and Sikh gurdwara inside a single building called "Davao Indian Temple".

See also

Related Research Articles

Baybayin is a Philippine script. The script is an abugida belonging to the family of the Brahmic scripts. Geographically, it was widely used in Luzon and other parts of the Philippines prior to and during the 16th and 17th centuries before being replaced by the Latin alphabet during the period of Spanish colonization. It was used in the Tagalog language and, to a lesser extent, Kapampangan-speaking areas; its use spread to the Ilocanos in the early 17th century. In the 19th and 20th centuries, baybayin survived and evolved into multiple forms—the Tagbanwa script of Palawan, and the Hanuno'o and Buhid scripts of Mindoro—and was used to create the constructed modern Kulitan script of the Kapampangan and the Ibalnan script of the Palawan people. Under the Unicode Standard and ISO 15924, the script is encoded as the Tagalog block.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laguna Copperplate Inscription</span> 10th-century inscription found in the Philippines

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription is an official acquittance certificate inscribed onto a copper plate in the Shaka year 822. It is the earliest known calendar-dated document found within the Philippine Islands.

Tala, based on Hindu goddess Tara, is the name of the goddess of the morning and evening star in Tagalog mythology. Her origins are varied depending on the region. Golden Tara, the Majapahit-era gold statue of Hindu deity Tara or Tagalog adoption Tala was found in 1918 in Agusan. The legend of Tala has very close parallels to legends among non-Filipino cultures such as the India tribes of Bihar, Savara and Bhuiya, as well as the Indianized Semang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buddhism in the Philippines</span> Overview of the role of Buddhism in the Philippines

Buddhism is a minor religion in the Philippines. It is practiced by 2% of the population in 2020, primarily by Filipinos of Chinese descent.

Indian Filipinos are Filipinos of Indian descent who have historical connections with and have established themselves in what is now the Philippines. The term refers to Filipino citizens of either pure or mixed Indian descent currently residing in the country, the latter a result of intermarriages between the Indians and local populations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agusan image</span>

The Agusan image is a 2 kg (4.4 lb), 21-karat gold statuette, found in 1917 on the banks of the Wawa River near Esperanza, Agusan del Sur, Mindanao in the Philippines, dating to the 9th–10th centuries. The figure, approximately 178 mm (7.0 in) in height, is of a female Hindu or Buddhist deity, seated cross-legged and wearing a richly-adorned headdress and other ornaments on various parts of the body. It is now on display in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tondo (historical polity)</span> City-state in what is now Manila, Philippines, from c. 900 to 1589

In early Philippine history, the Tagalog settlement at Tondo sometimes referred to as the Kingdom of Tondo, was a major trade hub located on the northern part of the Pasig River delta, on Luzon island. Together with Maynila, the polity (bayan) that was also situated on the southern part of the Pasig River delta, had established a shared monopoly on the trade of Chinese goods throughout the rest of the Philippine archipelago, making it an established force in trade throughout Southeast Asia and East Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maynila (historical polity)</span> Major historical polity in Luzon

In Philippine history, the Tagalog bayan of Maynila was one of the most cosmopolitan of the early historic settlements on the Philippine archipelago. Fortified with a wooden palisade which was appropriate for the predominant battle tactics of its time, it lay on the southern part of the Pasig River delta, where the district of Intramuros in Manila currently stands, and across the river from the separately-led Tondo polity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Butuan (historical polity)</span> Precolonial Philippine polity

Butuan, also called the Rajahnate of Butuan and the Kingdom of Butuan, was a precolonial Bisaya polity (lungsod) centered around northeastern Mindanao island in present-day Butuan, Philippines. It was known for its gold mining, gold jewelry and other wares, and its extensive trade network across maritime Southeast Asia and elsewhere. Over its long history the lungsod had direct trading relationships with the ancient civilizations of China, Champa, Đại Việt, Pon-i (Brunei), Srivijaya, Majapahit, Kambuja, and even Persia as well as areas now comprised in Thailand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Philippines (900–1565)</span>

The recorded history of the Philippines between 900 and 1565 begins with the creation of the Laguna Copperplate Inscription in 900 and ends with the beginning of Spanish colonization in 1565. The inscription records its date of creation in 822 Saka. The discovery of this document marks the end of the prehistory of the Philippines at 900 AD. During this historical time period, the Philippine archipelago was home to numerous kingdoms and sultanates and was a part of the Indosphere and Sinosphere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cebu (historical polity)</span> Historical polity in the Philippines

The Rajahnate of Cebu or Cebu also called as Sugbu, was an Indianized Raja monarchy Mandala (Polity) on the island of Cebu in the Philippines prior to the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. It is known in ancient Chinese records as the nation of Sokbu (束務). According to Visayan oral legend, it was founded by Sri Lumay or Rajamuda Lumaya, a minor prince of the Tamil Chola dynasty. He was sent by the Chola emperor from southern India to establish a base for expeditionary forces, but he rebelled and established his own independent polity. The capital of the nation was Singhapala (சிங்கப்பூர்) which is Tamil-Sanskrit for "Lion City", the same rootwords with the modern city-state of Singapore.

Religions in pre-colonial Philippines included a variety of faiths, of which the dominant faiths were polytheist indigenous religions practiced by the more than one hundred distinct ethnic groups in the archipelago. Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam were also present in some parts of the islands. Many of the traditions and belief systems from pre-colonial Filipino religions continue to be practiced today through the Indigenous Philippine folk religions, Folk Catholicism, Folk Hinduism, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Luzon</span>

The history of Luzon covers events that happened in the largest island of the Philippine Archipelago, Luzon. Luzon wrested the record of having the oldest man ever discovered in the Philippines with discovery of the Callao Man in 2007, which predated the Tabon Man by around 20,000 years. The written history of Luzon began in around 900 AD with the discovery of the Laguna Copperplate Inscription in 1989. After that, Luzon began to appear in the annals of the Chinese and Japanese. One example would be the Ming Shilu, wherein Luzon appeared in 22 records. Luzon was split among Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms, Muslim principalities, and ethnoreligious tribes, who had trading connections with Borneo, Malaya, Java, Indochina, India, Okinawa, Japan and China before the Spanish established their rule. As a result of the Spanish–American War, Luzon became American territory. In the Second World War, Luzon saw one of the fiercest battles during the Japanese occupation. Luzon, apart from being the largest island, had been the economic and political center of the Philippines ever since the country entered the Western Calendar, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, and the country's largest metropolis, Metro Manila.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Indian influence on Southeast Asia</span>

Southeast Asia was in the Indian sphere of cultural influence from 290 BCE to the 15th century CE, when Hindu-Buddhist influences were incorporated into local political systems. Kingdoms in the southeast coast of the Indian subcontinent had established trade, cultural and political relations with Southeast Asian kingdoms in Burma, Bhutan, Thailand, the Sunda Islands, Malay Peninsula, Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, and Champa. This led to the Indianisation and Sanskritisation of Southeast Asia within the Indosphere, Southeast Asian polities were the Indianised Hindu-Buddhist Mandala.

Old Tagalog, also known as Old Filipino, is the earliest form of the Tagalog language during the Classical period. It is the primary language of pre-colonial Tondo, Namayan and Maynila. The language originated from the Proto-Philippine language and evolved to Classical Tagalog, which was the basis for Modern Tagalog. Old Tagalog uses the Tagalog script or Baybayin, one of the scripts indigenous to the Philippines.

Malay is spoken by a minority of Filipinos, particularly in the Palawan, Sulu Archipelago and parts of Mindanao, mostly in the form of trade and creole languages, such as Sabah Malay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Filipinos of Malay descent</span> Ethnic group

Malays played a significant role in pre-Hispanic Philippine history. Malay involvement in Philippine history goes back to the Classical Era with the establishment of Rajahnates as well as the Islamic era, in which various sultanates and Islamic states were formed in Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago, and around Manila.

The Indian influences in early Philippine polities, particularly the influence of the Srivijaya and Majapahit thalassocracies on cultural development, is a significant area of research for scholars of Philippine, Indonesian, and Southeast Asian history, and is believed to be the source of Hindu and Buddhist elements in early Philippine culture, religion, and language. Because the Indonesian thalassocracies of Srivijaya and Majapahit acquired many of these Hindu and Buddhist elements through Indianization, the introduction of such elements to early Philippine cultures has sometimes been referred to as indianization. In more recent scholarship, it is termed localization, as in, e.g., localization of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs. Some scholars also place the Philippine archipelago within the outermost reaches of the Indosphere, along with Northern Vietnam, where the Hindu and Buddhist elements were not directly introduced by Indian travellers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archaeology of the Philippines</span>

The archaeology of the Philippines is the study of past societies in the territory of the modern Republic of the Philippines, an island country in Southeast Asia, through material culture.

References

  1. ↑ "Philippines, Religion And Social Profile". thearda.com. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
  2. 1 2 Postma, Antoon. (1992), The Laguna Copper-Plate Inscription: Text and Commentary, Philippine Studies, 40(2):183–203
  3. 1 2 H. Otley Beyer, "Outline Review of Philippine Archaeology by Islands and Provinces," Philippine Journal of Science, Vol.77,Nos.34 (July–August 1947),pp. 205–374
  4. ↑ "Branch Centres - Belur Math - Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission".
  5. 1 2 3 Golden Tara Government of the Philippines
  6. ↑ Juan Francisco (1963), A Note on the Golden Image of Agusan, Philippine Studies vol. 11, no. 3 (1963): 390—400
  7. ↑ John N. Miksic (September 30, 2013). Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea, 1300_1800. NUS Press. pp. 147–. ISBN   978-9971-69-574-3.
  8. ↑ Marie-Sybille de Vienne (March 9, 2015). Brunei: From the Age of Commerce to the 21st Century. NUS Press. pp. 47–. ISBN   978-9971-69-818-8.
  9. ↑ Larena, Maximilian; Sanchez-Quinto, Federico; Sjödin, Per; McKenna, James; Ebeo, Carlo; Reyes, Rebecca; Casel, Ophelia; Huang, Jin-Yuan; Hagada, Kim Pullupul; Guilay, Dennis; Reyes, Jennelyn (March 30, 2021). "Multiple migrations to the Philippines during the last 50,000 years". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118 (13): e2026132118. Bibcode:2021PNAS..11826132L. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2026132118 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   8020671 . PMID   33753512.
  10. 1 2 Anna T. N. Bennett (2009), Gold in early Southeast Asia, ArcheoSciences, Volume 33, pp 99–107
  11. ↑ Dang V.T. and Vu, Q.H., 1977. The excavation at Giong Ca Vo site. Journal of Southeast Asian Archaeology 17: 30–37
  12. ↑ Maria Halili (2010), Philippine History, ISBN   978-9712356360, Rex Books, 2nd Edition, pp. 46–47
  13. ↑ Mellie Leandicho Lopez (2008), A Handbook of Philippine Folklore, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN   978-9715425148, pp xxiv – xxv
  14. ↑ Manuel, E. Arsenio (1963), A Survey of Philippine Folk Epics, Asian Folklore Studies, 22, pp 1–76
  15. ↑ "The Indian in the Filipino - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos". Archived from the original on June 21, 2015. Retrieved August 12, 2015.
  16. ↑ Adelaar, K. Alexander (1994). "Malay and Javanese loanwords in Malagasy, Tagalog and Siraya (Formosa)" (PDF). Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia.

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