Pre-Hispanic Ilocano Epic: Life of Lam-ang (Biag ni Lam-ang)

Pre-Hispanic Ilocano Epic

Life of Lam-ang (Biag ni Lam-ang)

Biag ni Lam-ang is an epic drawn out from oral tradition handed down through countless generations in the same way the Greek’s Iliad and Odyssey were handed down through centuries to the modern world.

    Researched by Dr Abe V Rotor

Bronze Statue of Lam-ang subduing a giant crocodile, 

Capurpurawan, Burgos, Ilocos Norte.  Photo by the author 2010

The theme of the epic revolves around the bravery and courage of the main character portrayed by Lam-ang, who was gifted with speech as early as his day of birth, who embarked on a series of adventures which culminated in his heroic death and subsequent resurrection.

This series of adventures started with his search for his lost father who was murdered by the head-hunting Igorots in the Igorot country. While on his way, he met a certain Sumarang, whose name connotes obstruction, who tried to dissuade him from proceeding and who taunted him into a fight. The fight that ensued proved fatal to Sumarang as he was blown "three kingdoms" away with a spear pierced through his stomach. This encounter led to another when he met a nine-headed serpent who, like Sumarang earlier, tried to dissuade him from going any further. The serpent having been ignored challenged him into a fight which cost the serpent its heads.

Lam-ang went on until he found it necessary to rest and take a short nap. While asleep, he dreamed of his father's head being an object of festivities among the Igorots. He immediately arose and continued his journey until he found the Igorots indeed feasting over his father's head. He asked the Igorots why they killed his father, but the Igorots instead advised him to go home if he did not want to suffer the same fate which his father suffered. This was accompanied by a challenge to a fight, despite their obvious numerical superiority.

But Lam-ang, armed with supernatural powers, handily defeated them, giving the last surviving Igorot a slow painful death by cutting his hands and his ears and finally carving out his eyes to show his anger for what they had done to his father.

Satisfied with his revenge, he went home. At home, he thought of taking a swim in the Cordan River with the company of Cannoyan and her lady-friends. So he proceeded to Cannoyan's place in the town of Calanutian, disregarding her mother's advice to the contrary. On his way, he met a woman named Saridandan, whose name suggests that she was a woman of ill repute. He resisted her blandishments, for his feeling for Cannoyan was far greater for anyone to take.

When he reached Cannoyan's house, he found a multitude of suitors futilely vying for her hand. With the help of his pets - the cock and the dog - he was able to catch Cannoyan's attention. He asked her to go with him to the river along with her lady-friends. She acceded. While washing himself in the river, the river swelled, and the shrimps, fishes and other creatures in the river were agitated for the dirt washed from his body was too much. As they were about to leave the river, Lam-ang noticed a giant crocodile. He dove back into the water and engaged with the creature in a fierce fight until the creature was subdued. He brought it ashore and instructed the ladies to pull its teeth to serve as amulets against danger during journeys.

Back at Cannoyan's house, he was confronted by her parents with an inquiry as to what his real intention was. He had to set aside his alibi that he went there to ask Cannoyan and her friends to accompany him to the river, and told them, through his spokesman - the cock - that he came to ask for Cannoyan's hand in marriage. He was told that if he desired to marry Cannoyan, he must first be able to match their wealth, for which he willingly complied. Having satisfied her parents, he went home to his mother and enjoined her and his townspeople to attend his wedding which was to take place in Cannoyan's town.

The wedding was elaborate, an event that involved practically everyone in town. There were fireworks, musical band, and display of attractive items like the glasses, the mirror, the slippers, clothes and nice food. After the wedding, Lam-ang's party plus his wife and her townmates went back to their town of Nalbuan, where festivities were resumed. The guests expressed a desire to taste a delicacy made of rarang fish. Lam-ang was obliged to go to the sea and catch the fish.

Before going, however, his rooster warned that something unpleasant was bound to happen. This warning proved true, as Lam-ang was swallowed by a big bercacan, or shark-like fish. Cannoyan mourned and for a while she thought there was no way to retrieve her lost husband. But the rooster indicated that if only all the bones could be gathered back, Lam-ang could be brought to life again. She then enlisted the aid of a certain diver named Marcus, who was ready to come to her aid to look for the bones. When all of Lam-ang's bones were gathered, the rooster crowed and the bones moved. The dog barked, and Lam-ang arose and was finally resurrected.

Cannoyan embraced him. For his deep appreciation for the help of his pets - the cock and the dog - and of Marcus the diver, he promised that each other would get his or its due reward. And they lived happily ever after. ~

This synopsis is based on the transcription made by Jose Llanes from a recitation by memory of the poem by an old farmer, one Francisco Magana, from Bangui, Ilocos Norte, sometime in 1947. Of the six old versions of the epic which include a zarzuela (folk stage play) written by Eufemio L. Inofinada, the Llanes version ( 206 stanzas) and that of Leopoldo Yabes (305 stanzas) are the most popular. Many believe that the author of the epic is Pedro Bucaneg, a blind Ilocano poet who lived during the early part of Spanish colonization. On close examination the farmer’s (Magana) version pre-dates the Bucaneg’s “Hispanized” version, because the former clings more closely to ethnical culture, and is richer with indigenous and pagan influences. Historians believe that Biag ni Lam-ang is an epic drawn out from oral tradition handed down through countless generations in the same way the Greek’s Iliad and Odyssey were handed down through centuries to the modern world. Historians like H. Otley Beyer, Fox, Fay-Cooper Cole and Jose R. Calip believe in the pre-Hispanic origin of the poem. Calip in his doctoral dissertation, University of Santo Tomas, 1957, further stated that “it is not a product of any single mind but as a property of the people – a floating wisdom from the centuries into the generations.” Through a long, slow evolutionary process, it floated from one century to another, and grew into several versions retaining a lucid mirror of the people of the past, reflecting their own values, environment and culture. Reference: Lam-ang in Transition by Kenneth E. Bauzon, Philippine Social Sciences and Humanities Review, Vol XXXVIII, No. 3-4.

________________

Overview of the Epic: "Biag ni Lam-ang," which translates to "The Life of Lam-ang," is considered the first recorded Philippine folk epic and is a significant part of Ilocano literature. The poem is believed to have originated in pre-colonial times and was passed down orally before being transcribed in the 1600s, with Pedro Bucaneg often credited as its author.. The epic reflects the values, beliefs, and social structures of the Ilocano people and serves as a vital cultural artifact of the Philippines. Wikipedia/Internet

We are living in POSTMODERN times. 30 Global trends that are changing the way we live

Usapang Bayan 

30 Global trends that are changing the way we live

Dr Abe V Rotor

We are living in POSTMODERN times.  It means we are living tomorrow today. It means we are living under simultaneous eras and movements which never happened in our  history: Green revolution, Industrial revolution, Environmental Revolution, Information revolution, Women’s Liberation, Cyber communication, Space travel. 

1. Shrinking Nature - displacement of natural habitats with man-made settlements, wildlife is vanishing both in areas and biological diversity. Nature reserves cannot compensate for such loss, and will never be able to bring about ecological balance as a whole. "It is no longer us against Nature, instead it's we who decide what nature is and what it will be." says Paul Crutzen, Nobel Prize Awardee.

"The world in our hands"

2. Stressful modern living - the higher the status the more stressful life is. The social ladder takes us to the syndrome posed by Paulas' Hope for the Flowers. There is really nothing up there, but a stressful life at the apex of society. The stressors affecting the poor are different from those in higher society. Those suffering of high-status stress find it more difficult to adjust than their counterpart in lower society. PHOTO

3. Loss of privacy - Yet we always strive to retain our privacy even in public. No way: the computer has all the info about us - true or not; our relationships on various levels, more so with our public image. Hidden cameras are everywhere, on the other hand we too, intrude into the privacy of others. GPS gives us information about places, with minute details, often intruding to one's privacy similar to trespassing.

4. Aging gracefully and Niche Aging - Forget conventional wisdom; gray-haired societies aren't a problem. Longevity is increasing all over the world: the average age of a Japanese is 78 years with America following at its heels with 75 or 76 years. We are quite close to China with at least 70 years. Science and technology, socio-cultural and economic opportunities make ageing a privilege today.

In an article - Niche Aging, author Harriet Barovick said, "...the generic settlement model is starting to give way to what developers are calling affinity housing - niche communities where people as they advance in age opt to grow old alongside others who share a specific interest. Niche living is the latest step in the evolution of the planned retirement community.

5. "Immortal" Food - Food that virtually last forever (by increasing the shelf life), while there is a current trend which is the opposite. Go natural - food, clothing, energy, housing, and practically anything we eat and use everyday. (See article, Living Naturally, in this Blog)

6. Black Irony - Blackness has many 

connotations and implications - principally, historical and religious. Black means race, hell, disease, death, hopelessness, discrimination. But all these cannot not be grossly weighed as negative or destructive. Today when we talk of black we may be referring to the colored athletes who dominate many sports, great leaders of movements like Wangari who planted millions of trees in Kenya, and not to look far, President Obama of the US, and the living hero of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. Racial discrimination - racism and apartheid - may soon be a thing of the past. It is because man is created equal beneath their skin, and in fact, by circumstance, the colored races have proved superiority over the non-colored: in schools, scientific discoveries, business, technology - name it and you have a colored standing out.

7. "Handprints, not Footprints" - a more encouraging way to conceptualize our impact in our handprints; the sum of all the reductions we make in our footprints." Says the brainchild of this idea, a Harvard professor. We can reduce the impact of living against the environment - less CO2, less CFC, less non-biodegradables and other synthetics, less pesticides, etc. On the other side of the equation would be the number of trees we plant, our savings on electricity and water. Lesser pollutants, if not arresting pollution itself - and the like.

8. "Your head is in the cloud" - The best way to explain this is in the article written by Annie Murphy Paul. To quote: "Inundated by more information that we can possibly hold in our heads, we're increasingly handing off the job of remembering to search engines and smart phones." Never mind memorizing the multiplication table, or Mendeleev's Periodic Table of Elements. Spelling of a word, its homonym, antonym? Check it out on the computer. Presto! it will correct the word automatically. Search Love, and it comes in a thousand-and-one definitions. Assignment? Search, download, print, submit - just don't forget to place your name. Psychologists are back to the drawing board about learning. They have proposed a new term - transactive memory, a prelude to blending natural and artificial intelligence.

9. The rise of Nones - Nones are people who have no religious affiliation. More and more people are dissociating from organized religions, a kind of freedom to feel more devoted to God, of moving away from the scandals of the church, and money-making religions . For most, they are not rejecting God. They are rejecting organized religion as being rigid and dogmatic. However, a survey in the US showed that spiritual connection and community hasn't be severed by this new trend. Forty percent (40%) of the unaffiliated are fairly religious, and many of them are still hoping to eventually find the right religious home.

10. Living alone is the new norm PHOTO - Solitary living is spreading all over the world. It is the biggest social change that has been long neglected. Living solo is highest in Sweden (47%), followed by Britain (37%). Following the list in decreasing order are Japan, Italy, US, Canada, Russia, South Africa, Kenya, and Brazil (10%). Living alone helps people pursue sacred modern values - individual freedom, personal control and self realization. In Lonely American, however, Harvard psychiatrists warn of increased aloneness and the movement toward greater social isolation, which are detrimental to health and happiness to the person, and in the long run, to the community and nation.

11. Common Wealth - National interests aren't what they used to be. Our survival requires global solutions. The defining challenge of the 21st century will be to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate on a crowded planet. Global warming, acid rain, El Niño, don't know political boundaries.

12. The End of Customer Service - With self-service technology, you'll never have to see a clerk again. It is an era of self-service - from filling up gas to banking to food service. Swipe your ID card to enter an office or a school campus. Credit cards abound, so with many kinds of coupons, all self service.

13. The Post-Movie-Star Era. Get ready for more films in which the leading man is not"he" but "Who?" Goodbye James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Fernando Poe Jr. Welcome Nemo in Finding Nemo PHOTO, Xi in Gods Must be Crazy.

14. Reverse Radicalism . Want to stop terrorism? Start talking to terrorists who stop themselves. Conflicts arising from radicalism can be settled through peaceful rather than by bloody means.

15. Kitchen Chemistry . Why the squishy art of cooking is giving way to cold, hard science? There are specialized courses in culinary art, with the chef as central figure with a degree. Hom,e economics has grown into Hotel and Restaurant Management.

16. Geoengineering . Messing with Nature caused global warming. Messing with it more might fix it. Can we ignite a volcano to cool the earth like the eruption of Mt Pinatubo did twenty years ago? Scientists believe we can divert an approaching typhoon out of its path. Better still abort it at its early stage. PHOTO 

Mt Pinatubo crater lake, Zambales

17.Curing the "Dutch Disease." How resource-rich nations can unravel the paradox of plenty PHOTO Internet. It's true, oil-rich nations in the Middle East - and Holland, and lately Nigeria, where the term was developed - are not growing fast in terms of Gross Domestic Products (GDP). Now compare this is non-oil rich nations like China and Vietnam, which are growing close to 10 percent annually in GDP.

18. Women's Work. Tapping the female entrepreneurial; spirit can pay big dividends. Women's Lib brought the female species at par - if not excel - with its counterpart. More and more women are occupying high positions in government and industries. Women may soon have higher literacy rates than men.

19. Beyond the Olympics. Coming: Constant TV coverage of global sporting events. Boxing grew into various titles, football games in various tournaments fill the TV screen. New sports and games are coming out. PHOTOS Internet

20. Jobs Are the New Assets. A sampling of fast-growing occupations - Actuaries, financial analyst, computer programmer, fitness trainer, biophysicists, translators, manicurists, marriage counselors, radiologists. Need a design for your product? Give it to an IT graduate with a background in design. Need a kind of product or service not found in the mall or supermarket, search the Internet. Entrepreneurs have taken over much of the functions of big business. Unemployment has given rise to this new breed - the entrepreneurs.

21. Recycling the Suburbs. Environmentalists will celebrate the demise of sprawling suburbs, which left national addicted to cars. Infrastructures will be converted in favor of "green", town centers, public libraries, museums, sports centers, parks. 

Tree stump along Quirino Ave MM represents hundreds of trees cut down by San Miquel Corp, contractor of a huge infrastructure project. Internet

Notice the gas stations along NLEX and South Road, they have transformed into a complex where motorists can enjoy their brief stopover. More and more countries are imposing regulation to green the cities, from sidewalks to rooftops. Hanging Gardens of Babylon, anyone. If this was one of the wonders of the ancient world, why certainly we can make a replicate - perhaps a bigger one - given all our modern technology and enormous available capital.

22. The New Calvinism. More moderate evangelicals are exploring cures for doctrinal drift, offering some assurance to " a lot of young people growing up in sub-cultures of brokenness, divorce, drugs, sexual temptations, etc."

23. Reinstating the Interstate, the Superhighways. These are becoming a new network of light rail and "smart power" electric grid. This is the alternative to car culture that thrives on fossil fuel and promotes suburban sprawl.

24. Amorality. Amorality - "non-moral sensitive" or "neutral morality' - whatever 

you may call it, this thinking has revolutionized our attitudes toward age. There are people who "refuse to grow old," people who wish to be resurrected from hiscryonized corpse. PHOTO Internet

25. Africa , Business Destination. Next "economic miracle" is in the black continent. Actually it has began stirring the economic consciousness of investors and developers                                                            

                         

26. The Rent-a-Country. Corporate Farming, an approach pioneered by the Philippines in the 60's and 70s, is now adopted by giant companies to farm whole valleys, provinces, island, of countries other than their own. Call it neo-colonialism, - these are food contracts, the latest new green revolution, more reliable food security.

27. Biobanks. Safe deposits - freezers full of tissues for transplants, cryotude for blood samples, liquid nitrogen storage for sperms and eggs, test-tube baby laboratories and clinics. Welcome, surrogate motherhood, post-menopausal technology, in-situ cloning, multiple birth technology, and the like.

28. Survival Stores. Sensible shops selling solar panels, electric bicycles, power generators, energy food bars, portable windmill, etc. Attributes: living off the grid, smart recycling, sustainability, consume less, self-sufficiency, basic+ useful, durable lifetime guarantee, hip + cool community, independent, responsible, co-op, brand-free, out of the oven, goodness-driven, health fitness, meditation, bartering, sharing, socialistic capitalism.

                           

Postmodern architecture. Bird’s nest stadium, Beijing China Internet

29. Ecological Intelligence. There are guidelines now available to judge products on their social and environmental impact. This is new culture characterized by environment-consciousness, environment-friendliness. Here life-cycle assessment and clean-up corporate ecology become an obligation. We are going back - happily and beautifully to a simple and natural lifestyle.

 

30. Ecomigration - As global warming continues and the sea level rises more and more low lying areas will be swallowed up by the sea. Before this happens, people will have to move to safer grounds. This phenomenon is happening to many island in the Pacific, among them the Kiribati and Micronesia groups of islands. PHOTO Internet

Participants pose with resource speaker Dr Abe V Rotor 

(center), LAWIN officers, and Barangay coordinators. 

Lagro, QC

References: Living with Nature in Our Times AVRotor; Time Magazine, March 24, 2008 and March 23, 2009; Time Magazine March 12, 2012 Please visit website avrotor.blogspot.com  

Acknowledgement with Gratitude: Internet photos as indicated

(Past lesson Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid 738 KHz AM with Ms Melly Tenorio); Seminar Workshop with author as resource person.

False Inflorescence

Living with Nature Garden

False Inflorescence

Dr Abe V Rotor

Deceiving flowers - but for what reason?

Fancy though elegant looking; 

Nature's full of conceit, deceit, and joke

to the unwary and unbelieving.

Bougainvillea atop Norfolk Pine

Bees and butterflies are attracted

     to flowers they pollinate,

       perceive their colors and patterns

     as those of a host or mate.

 

Spike inflorescence of a fortune plant.

Rise up with a star growing in your garden,

     and meet the sun every morning;

a symbol of luck need not the real thing;

     just think of a little corner of Eden.

“Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues 

all the utilities of the world.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Insects in verses: Insects, insects everywhere! In celebration of Insect Week June 22 -26, 2026:

Insects in verses

Insects, insects everywhere!

If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land. Within a few months. - E. O. Wilson

Dr Abe V Rotor

Precariously perched, oh Dragonfly;

     your doom awaits below;

a leap away or two, and time ticks,

     for there's no tomorrow.

 

Bird droppings, these caterpillars assume;

     to deceive their enemies;

until they emerge - long secret preserved,

     mystery to the scientists.

 

Anona fruit borers feast in numbers -

     their survival, yet their doom;

when too many, and fruits are few,

     and there's not enough room.

 

Bagworm, turtle in the insect world;

carries its house as it roams around,

bit by bit builds a beautiful mansion,

only to abandon it in the final round.

 

Green like a leaf and slim like snake,

      this caterpillar bold and free;

Pavlov could be wrong to insects,

     and Charles Darwin in mimicry.

 

Cicada, it's the male shrilling in the trees,

     love call to the females on the run;

then a would-be bride or two come close

     to Romeo and Caruso rolled into one.

 

Cotton Stainer - guess what is the first dye,

     but its saliva in the cotton boll;

ever wonder how designs of fabric are made,

     but stains in colors, hues and all.

 

Oriental cockroach - filthiest of all insects,

     yet catholic a cleaning habit it got;

of millions of germs it carries and spreads,

     it too, disposes more through its gut.

 

Termites, how canny, deceitful;

     disguised as coy and shy;

yet could bring a house crushing

     down amidst fear and cry.

 

Nature's executioner - preying mantis;

     killer by instinct, pious in look,

yet friendly to gardens and farms,

     devouring pest in every nook.

 

Psylla lice - the scourge of ipil-ipil trees,

     epidemic to the imported varieties,

wiping out plantations in the seventies,

     save the indigenous lowly species.

 

A butterfly makes a garden

     with sunrise in union,

plants to bloom to carry on

     the next generation.

Wasp pollinator - enigma of procreation

     of a fig by co-evolution;

by rule, one cannot live without the other

     in Nature's strictest order.

 

         Stinkbug, how divergent its life is

     with inviting coloration,

repugnant odor, to attract and repel,

     for freedom and admiration.

 

Tiger moth, remote mimicry

     of a dreadful brute;

if threat is preserved this way

     what then is truth?

 

Rhinoceros beetle, fierce looking male,

     all bluff in a dangerous world;

the female coy and naïve her strategy,

     both stronger than the sword.

 

Leafhoppers - minute yet destructive

     in countless number;

sipping the vitality of plants

     turning them green to amber.

-----------
"How still the woods seem from here, yet how lively a stir the hidden animals are making; digging, gnawing, biting, eyes shining, at work and play, getting food, rearing young, roving through the underbrush, climbing the rocks, wading solitary marshes, tracing the banks of the lakes and streams! Insect swarms are dancing in the sunbeams, burrowing in the ground, diving, swimming,—a cloud of witnesses telling Nature's (creation)." - John Muir