The Creation:   Bilaan (Mindanao) and Chinese

One may not exist without the power of the creator. This blog will tell you how the Bilaan also known as Mindanao was wonderfully created by the creator. Together let's venture the story behind the creation of Mindanao and how it connects to the famous Chinese story of creation of the God Pangu.

"Bilaan Tribe"
Photo not mine

The Story of the Creation Bilaan (Mindanao)

             In the very beginning there lived a being so large that he cannot be compared with any known thing. His name was Melu, and when he sat on the clouds, which were his home, he occupied all the space above. His teeth were pure gold, and because he was very cleanly and continually rubbed himself with his hands, his skin became pure white. The dead skin which he rubbed off his body was placed on one side in a pile, and by and by this pile became so large that he was annoyed and set himself to consider what he could do with it.

         Finally Melu decided to make the earth; so he worked very hard in putting the dead skin into shape, and when it was finished he was so pleased with it that he determined to make two beings like himself, though smaller, to live on it.

          Taking the remnants of the material left after making the earth he fashioned two men, but just as they were all finished except their noses, Tau Tana from below the earth appeared and wanted to help him.

        All went well until one day a great rain came, and the people on the earth nearly drowned from the water which ran off their heads into their noses. Melu, from his place on the clouds, saw their danger, and he came quickly to earth and saved their lives by turning their noses the other side up.

           Melu did not wish any assistance, and a great argument ensued. Tau Tana finally won his point and made the noses which he placed on the people upside down. When all was finished, Melu and Tau Tana whipped the forms until they moved. Then Melu went to his home above the clouds, and Tau Tana returned to his place below the earth. 

             The people were very grateful to him, and promised to do anything he should ask of them. Before he left for the sky, they told him that they were very unhappy living on the great earth all alone, so he told them to save all the hair from their heads and the dry skin from their bodies and the next time he came he would make them some companions. And in this way there came to be a great many people on the earth.

Pangu/ Panku

Photo not mine

The Story of Pangu:

           In the beginning, there was nothing in the universe except a formless chaos. This chaos coalesced into a cosmic egg for about 18,000 years. Within it, the perfectly opposed principles of Yin and Yang became balanced, and Pangu emerged (or woke up) from the egg. Pangu is usually depicted as a primitive, hairy giant who has horns on his head and wears fur. Pangu began creating the world: he separated Yin from Yang with a swing of his giant axe, creating the Earth (murky Yin) and the Sky (clear Yang). To keep them separated, Pangu stood between them and pushed up the Sky. With each day, the sky grew ten feet (3 meters) higher, the Earth ten feet thicker, and Pangu ten feet taller. This task took yet another 18,000 years.


            After the 18,000 years had elapsed, Pangu died. His breath became the wind, mist and clouds; his voice, thunder; his left eye, the sun; his right eye, the moon; his head, the mountains and extremes of the world; his blood, rivers; his muscles, fertile land; his facial hair, the stars and Milky Way; his fur, bushes and forests; his bones, valuable minerals; his bone marrow, sacred diamonds; his sweat, rain; and the fleas on his fur carried by the wind became animals.

The comparison of the two creation stories:

             
           In the Story of the Creation of Bilaan in Mindanao, it is comparable to the Chinese Mythology which is the Pangu. In the story Pangu, there was nothing in the universe except formless chaos and Pangu emerged from the egg. He was usually depicted as a primitive and a hairy giant. He then created the world by separating the Sky and Earth and stood for 18,000 years. He became weaker and died, and from his own body, there comes the wind, the thunder, the mountains and so the other elements of the earth especially the human which was created from his fleas. The story of Melu and Pangu are both indigenous and was developed by the ancestors, in which both are ancestral mythologies of the Chinese and the Bilaan people. In the story of Pangu, he was the first man who created heaven and earth, same as Melu who created the earth. Unlike Pangu, Melu created two beings like himself, though smaller to live on the earth which was created by him. He even saved the people and gave them other companions. In Pangu, he did not witnessed his own creation especially the humans living in the earth. Still he died leaving with great honor. We have different stories, regardless how we are created, it is very important that we preserved each stories that was created by our ancestors.