Bakunawa

**Bakunawa** (バクナワ *Bakunawa*) is an dragon cursed spirit that can eat celestial bodies.

## Appearance

Bakunawa is a humongous white dragon that resembles a serpent with its head being adorned with fins. It is usually depicted with a characteristic looped tail and a single horn on the nose.

## History

Bakunawa existed more than 2000 years as a cursed spirit although it became feared and sometimes worshipped at some point during the 14th and 16th centuries.

According to a poem written by Fernando Buyser based on the Apocalipsis, a story based on his existence:

"According to the ancient folks, when Bathala created the Moon[1], he created seven of it so that each would illuminate one night of the week[ 2]. The nights were bright and ever so beautiful because of these seven “Queens who continuously shone in the night sky."

But the joy of the people on earth didn't last, and the beauty of the sky was no more when one night a terrifying creature, that coiled around the world like an evil serpent, as Saint John told about in Apocalipsis[3], envied the beautiful creations of the Almighty, and to the great dismay of the people on earth, swallowed sixof the Moons. This serpent was named Bakunawa.

When Bathala saw the creature devouring all but one Moon, He planted bamboos on the remaining Moon. From afar, they looked like “stains” on the surface of the Moon.

To the people's despair at the loss of the six Stars, they learned to heavily guard themselves so that the one last Moon would not be taken and destroyed by the frightening Serpent. One night the whole world panicked at the deafening scream of the people and, the banging of drums among other objects that people could get a hold of to produce loud noise and sharp echoes as they saw the Moon being attacked by the Bakunawa. Children, big people, the elderly, women and men all cried:

“Return our Moon” among other unpleasant words. This was the only sound heard throughout the world that night. Cries and moans blended together, and took over the hearts of the people who feared that the world would end if they lost the only Moon they had left. The people came out of their houses and kneeled on the ground to pray that they would not be deprived of their Moon. It was a pity sight to behold that our brothers and sisters did not understand then what “Eclipse” was. The loud noises stopped as they saw the Bakunawa finally spit out the Moon.

The joy of the people at the return of the Moon could not be described that night. They lifted their hearts to the sky like flowers and uttered their praises of gratefulness to the Almighty who owned all creations.

Up until this time of progress, many still believed in the Bakunawa, and a lot still screamed: “Return our Moon”[4] and those in the mountainous regions and shores\* still practiced this when an eclipse occurred. This was proven to us in the recent eclipses that had happened in our towns".

Its fate and current whereabouts are unknown.

## Abilities and Powers

**Overall Skill Level**: Bakunawa's grade level is unclassified due to it not being controlled by anyone, although, it is powerful enough to devour anything such as moons with a single bite. Its power is enough to scare the entire world and with its size alone, it could encircle the entire world.

**Celestial Devouring of the Seven Moons** (天を貪る七つの月の, *Tennōmusariboku nanatsu no tsuki no*): Its main ability is the ability to devour Celestial Bodies (天体, *Tentai*, Lit. meaning 'Heavenly Body') which allows it to grow in power in a borderline perennial (permanent) manner through either eating celestial bodies or making contact with the Moon. Even a cursed spirit as powerful as Ganesha could not truly stand up to this dragon's might in terms of physical potency. Its horn glows brightly, signifying the technique's activation and using its horn can cause eclipses that block out the sun and moon. By swinging its tail, it can cause eclipses, earthquakes, rains and wind.

## Weakness

Pots and pans: To keep the moons from completely being swallowed by the Bakunawa, ancient Filipinos would go out of their homes with pans and pots, and would bang on them with great force to make noise in order to scare the Bakunawa into spitting out the moon back into the sky. Some of the people in the villages would play soothing sounds with their musical instruments, in hopes that the dragon would fall into a deep sleep. Thus, the brave men of the village hoped that while the dragon was hypnotized by the musical sounds they could somehow slay the dragon. Although the dragon was known as a "moon eater" it was also known as a "man eater".

## Trivia

Bakunawa is a creature from Filipino mythology who is said to cause natural disasters. It is the Filipino equivalent to the World Serpent or the Vritra, a dragon-like entity from Hindu mythology.

The poem mentioned in the 'History' section comes from Mga Sugilanong Karaan, published by Fernando Buyser, a Filipino West Visayan monk in 1926.