Thread by @HTTPaladin

#SinaUna: Tikbalang and Survival

Today I'm gonna talk about the Tikbalang its history to give an idea of how dense some of this stuff is to filter through and research.

I'll be doing a giveaway of the Avernus Dice & Miscellany box. Info to win at the end of the thread.

So the current image of the Tikbalang is that of a strong, muscular bipedal horse monster, sometimes demon, and sometimes its referred to as a creature, sometimes as a specific entity. But this over muscular, brutish image is relatively new, popularized by comics in the 1990s.

But this can be seen as reclaiming the image of the Tikbalang, as it was used by the Spanish when they came, to demonize their beliefs and to scare the Filipinos into staying indoors at night. A way to control, to attack beliefs indirectly.

Father Juan de Plasencia, during the early days of Spanish Occupation, documented that the Tikbalang has always been a long-held belief of the Filipino people.

And in the book Barangay, by historian W. H. Scott, whose sources are primarily 16th-17th century Spanish Documents:

But that isn't the end of this. Lets change directions and start from the beginning.

Around 3000 BCE, there was Animism in the Philippines, which is the belief that everything has a spirit, or the belief that humans are not the only thing with an awakened existence.

In 2000 BCE, Hayagriva, the horse-headed avatar of Vishnu, had its image made. And in Buddhism, Hayagriva was changed to have a horse head appear above a crown of flames, and Hayagriva's old image was given to Horse-Face, one of the guards to the doors of hell.

When Chinese Trade came to the Philippines, the Chinese came on horse back, and through cultural exposure its believed that around 1000-1200 CE, the image of Hayagriva was adopted into the Tikbalang in their cultural belief. It was an exchange, an evolution, a natural thing.

And then the Spanish happened.

But then as I said, comics made this newer image of what the Tikbalang is. While Trese and Skyworld helped solidify it, it was the work of Arnold Arre and his comic, Mythology Class, that made the current modern image.

But what IS a Tikbalang?

Its a spirit that leads you stray and plays tricks on you. Turn your shirt inside out, ask permission to pass by out loud, or stay quiet so as not to disturb it, and you can pass through its territory undisturbed.

Its a spirit who can be tamed by leaping onto it and hanging on until it is exhausted and admits defeat, then make an anting-anting, or talisman, from spines on its mane. Or by plucking three golden hairs from its mane, before it eats you. In either account, it will serve you.

Its a spirit that's existed in the mythology since the beginning, and has only evolved and adapted either as a means of growth or as a means to survive. Its one of the spirits that we can actually learn a great deal about, as some are even harder to research.

This book is an endeavor to find the honesty behind our mythos, to do our best to remove the layers of history, to learn all that we can about our culture. In doing so, we hope we show you a mythos that vivid and wild, and one we feel you should have the ability to learn about.

You may have seen it before, but our own Director, @M_Incantation is doing the art for the book.

While doing my research, I found this twitter post made nearly a year ago from @E1eanor_Spence, who has a very good anatomical showcase of the Tikbalang.

https://twitter.com/E1eanor_Spence/status/1069723011371188224

As promised, today we have a giveaway of the Avernus Dice & Miscellany box. All you have to do to enter is LIKE and RETWEET the FIRST POST in this thread.

We'll choose a winner on Monday, September 23rd during that day's #SinaUna thread. Good luck to everyone who enters!