Visayan culture?

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

Dear Melvin,

 

Could you tell us a little bit about Visayan culture and language? I am not familiar with what it is.

[melvin]

Hare Krishna!

I was born on the 3rd of November 1957 on

this elongatedly shaped island christened

by historians as Sugbu or Sebu or Cebu, a

name I can not even trace from whom or to

whom it`s attributed to when Magellan, a

sea voyager of Portugese descent empowered

by the Spanish government to counquer lands

from the eastern part of the world for the

glory of Victoria, the Queen of Spain du-

ring that era, discovered this very idyllic

tropical island inhabited by a people whose

way of living to survive depended on the

resources this island queen had to offer, a

very abundant marine life and verdant fo-

rests filled with fruit trees, birds and

wild animals.

Since Cebu island`s inhabitants, the Sugbu-

wanons, took care of her as if it were their

Reyna(Queen) she, with her unlimited poten-

tials, therefore attracted people from the

other lands and began trading with them her

fruits picked from trees her grateful oc-

cupants had grown and nurtured. These ex-

changes, in other words, had transformed

this Queen island of Southern Philippines

a business hub of the Orient where traders

from different cultures managed to savor

and smell the aroma of her products. Hence,

history would show that it became a part

of Shri Visaya Majapahit Empire, a kingdom

ruled by Muslim Datus and Rajas. Here, I

think, my dear Prabhu, the Visayan culture

was derived, a civilization whose people

believed in diwatas, mythic gods, supers-

tition, and in a God whom they worshipped

as Bathala, which means Child( Bata)God(

Allah). Today, this ChildGod is worshipped

as the Sr. Sto. Nino, the island`s patron

saint.

We, Sugbuwanons, therefore speak Visayan,

a dialect spiced with sanskrit texts. An

example of which is the word " Maya " or

" Rama ", words we used regularly, the for-

mer named after a town located north of the

island and the latter, a name of promiment

families residing, since time immemorial,

on the island.

To learn more about our culture, I really

have to refer you to my friend, Mr. Juanito

V. Jabat, the publisher of the local daily,

The Freeman here in Cebu because he can

provide you more solid information regarding

our Visayan culture. His e-mail address is

editorial@thefreeman.com. Or if you can`t

contact him, just ask for Jerry Tundag or

Noel Pangilinan, the newspaper`s editors.

Their web site is www.thefreeman.com. You

can begin from here. Hare Krishna!