mayari

I’m having trouble remembering a Filipino woman soldier who fought in one of the wars. Sorry if this is too vague, but I’m hoping that maybe you’ve heard of her.

But I distinctly remember hearing that she wore white (maybe a dress but not really) to battle and wore makeup while leading troops

Thanks!

So I think you are actually thinking about 2 different Filipina warriors. The one who wore white into battle was Henerala Agueda Kahabagan, aka the Joan of Arc of the Tagalog. She was the only female general in the Katipunan and fought in the Philippine Revolution and Philippine-American War.

The other Filipina warrior who was very feminine, wore makeup, especially her signature bright red lipstick, and painted her nails before leading her troops into battle was Remedios Paraiso-Gomez aka Kumander Liwayway, who passed away in 2014. She was one of the highest ranking female commanders in the anti-Japanese army, Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon (or Hukbalahap) and was known for both her fierceness as a leader and her femininity in battle.

What's the best way to be able to study multiple mythologies from different parts of the Philippines?

I'm an artist who has a story idea that mainly involves gods of different mythologies and finding information on anything outside of greek and norse is difficult.

I want to learn more about ones from the philippines since they're the main cast. The main cast is tagalog and I'm planning to study more mythologies from other parts of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao but I only have acess to online. ;w;

Hi there! So there are only a minor few books that talks about the different deities and mythologies of the Philippines. One book I highly recommend getting is Ancient Beliefs and Customs of the Tagalogs by Jean-Paul G. Potet. It discuses various beliefs, deities, and practices of the Tagalog. The first part is brief descriptions of various topics, from witchcraft, the spirits, deities, beliefs in having more than one soul, what they believed and did for the afterlife and mourning, offerings, the type of music and songs they played during ceremonies/rituals to the anito which were called pandot, some prayers, taboos, etc. The majority of the book however is in a dictionary format, where he lists terms and describes them and refers to and lists the original historical written source from Spanish manuscripts and records as well as the earliest Tagalog dictionaries when the beliefs and practices were still being practiced.

The book also lists several Tagalog deities that were known and worshiped in the Laguna Bay area based on the Spanish record by Felipe Pardo, the archbishop of Manila from 1680-1689. He wrote about the different beliefs and practices of the area and listed many deities that are not well known today compared to lets say Lakapati and Diyan Masalanta to name a few. These deities included:

I go more into depth on the Tagalog deities on my blog post here.

https://thepinaywriter.com/the-tagalog-deities-who-are-they/

As for Bisayan mythology, there is no modern book discussing the practices and mythologies. All the information is scattered from the various historical records and dictionaries. One of the main records on Bisayan precolonial culture, their beliefs, and practices is Francisco Alcina's Historia de las islas e indios visayas (1668). You can find volume 3 online in English.

Other records where you can find information on the deities and practices of the Philippines you can find listed here.

https://thepinaywriter.com/resources/

I actually need to update this list, but this is a good start.

Also another highly recommended book to get is the English translation of the Boxer Codex Manuscript. You can get it on Amazon for like $23. It discusses several beliefs and deities in the chapters for the Tagalog. There is also info on the Bisayans and other groups in the Philippines.