page_title: Philippine mythology
section_title: Other monster figures and familiars in Philippine mythology
hierarchical_section_title: Philippine mythology / Other monster figures and familiars in Philippine mythology
caption_attribution_description: English: The rotation of Visayan Philippine bakunawa, as explained in Mansueto Porras' Signosan (1919)
context_page_description: Philippine mythology is the body of myths, tales, and belief systems held by Filipinos, originating from various cultures and traditions of the peoples of what eventually became the Philippines. Philippine mythology is incorporated from various sources, having similarities with Indonesian and Malay myths, as well as Hindu, Muslim, Shinto, Buddhist, and Christian traditions, such as the notion of heaven, hell, and the human soul. Philippine mythology attempts to explain the nature of the world through the lives and actions of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures. The majority of these myths were passed on through oral tradition, and preserved through the aid of community spiritual leaders or shamans and community elders.
  The mythologies and indigenous religions of the Philippines have historically been referred to as Anitism, meaning "ancestral religion". Other terms used were Anitismo, a Hispano-Filipino translation, and Anitería, a derogatory version used by most members of the Spanish clergy.
context_section_description: There are also specific figures in Anitism which are not humans. Many of which are monsters from epics and poems, while others are deities, demigods, or humans that turned into non-human forms due to a variety of causes or are originally non-human in form. There are also beings that are essentially non-human messengers, divine familiars, or folkloric animal humanoids. A few of these figures are:
  Bacobaco – a great "sea turtle" who bore into the top of Pinatubo, creating a great crater and emitting great flames, huge rocks, mud, ashes, smoke and deafening noise in the process; stories say that if Bacobaco comes out of the volcano, horrible things will happen
  Kurita – an amphibious animal with several limbs who survived on land and sea and lives at Mount Kabalalan from Maguindanao mythology; eats humans and exterminates all animal life near it
  Kasili – a fish-like snake being who wraps itself around the world; Eugpamolak Manobo, also called Manama and Kalayagan, the supreme deity of the Bagobo people, gave life to Kasili during the world's creation
  Dogong – a gigantic creature that looks like a mermaid with a human head and body of a sea cow but much larger and lives in the coast of Iloilo; guards a large sacred bivalve (‘’taklobo’’) with a shining pearl that night mariners mistake for a light house, causing them to drown
  Kayumang – a giant crab that sometimes bites the giant eel, Kasili, causing Kasili to wriggle and produce earthquakes from Bagobo beliefs; there is also a similar crab named Kagang who does that same to a different earthquake-producing eel
  Tarabusar – a humungous human-like creature who lived in Mount Matutum according to Maguindanaoan beliefs
  Rabot – a ferocious half-human half-monster that could magically turn people into rock; slew by the Bicolano epic hero Bantong using his bolo
  Bakunawa – a serpent being present in various distinct mythologies; a beautiful sea goddess who turned into a serpent deity after her love was spurned in Bicolano, and Panay mythologies, while in Bisaya mythology, she played and swallowed six of the seven moons, leaving only one in the end; in one myth, Bakunawa is said to have swallowed most of the moons in anger because her sister, an ancient sea turtle, was killed by humans; another myth states that Bakunawa fell in love with a village girl and swallowed the moon in anger because the village chief burned the girl's house
  Pah – a bird of prey as big as a house in Maguindanaon beliefs; it spreads its wings to cause darkness on the ground; lived at Mount Bita and the eastern parts of Lanao
  Pilandok – a mischievous, cunning, and trickster human-standing chevrotain in Molbog beliefs, who is sometimes helpful; a different Pilandok is present in Maranao beliefs; the Maranao Pilandok is not a humanoid creature, but a human who was also a cunning and mischievous trickster
  Lakivot – a huge talking civet who can carry a person on his back; defeated the one-eyed ogassi monsters and the garden-protecting busaw in search for the "flower of gold"; transformed into a handsome young man upon the shaving of his civet eyebrow
  Oryol – a Bicolano demigod naga, daughter of the evil god Asuang; fought the hero Handyong in an epic war, which ended with the two becoming lovers due to mutual respect for each other's capabilities; aided Handyong in defeating a race of wicked giant crocodiles that plagued ancient Ibalon
  Limokan – the bird familiar of the Manuvu god Manama; took fertile soil from the maligned god Ogassi; in Mandaya beliefs, a different human-speaking bird with the same name is said to have laid two eggs which hatched the first man and woman; the first egg was laid at the mouth of river Mayo, where the woman was hatched, while the other was laid near the source of the river
  Sinogo – one of the three winged giant messengers (the other two being Dalagan and Guidala) of the Bisaya supreme god, Kaptan, and the favorite of the god due to his handsome face; stole Kaptan's magic shell and was later imprisoned in modern-day Tañon Strait; due to Kaptan's love for him, Sinogo retained a crocodile
caption: The rotation of Bakunawa in a calendar year, as explained in Mansueto Porras' Signosan (1919)
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