I apologize for my long absence from Mythology Worlds, but since I got a new job, I've been getting acclimated to my brand new work environment.
Yesterday, I received a new package from Universal Yums.
The country of the month is:
Taiwan
I would showcase a myth from the indigenous people of Taiwan to make this country unique...but sadly, I have not yet found a native Taiwanese myth to make it stand out from the rest of the world.
However, one thing I do know about early Taiwanese history is that the ancestors of the Austronesian peoples came from there!
From the island country southeast of China, the Austronesians spread into the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
These places engendered:
The supreme Indonesian/Malaysian deity Batara Guru
(a.k.a. Shiva, a great example of Hindu influence on this culture)
Rangda, the hag queen of Balinese myth
(May have been based on an 11th-century queen who is said to have wiped out half her kingdom with a magical plague)
The Mythical Creatures of the Philippines
(Tikbalang, the Horse-Man; Manananggal, the Half-Bodied Vampire; Kapre, the Wild Tree-Dweller, and many others)
The Austronesians spread eastward to colonize the Pacific Islands...becoming the Micronesians and the Polynesians.
Micronesian myths include the trickster Olifat; who is said to have given sharks their teeth, stingrays their venomous barbs; and scorpionfish their deadly spines.
The Polynesian island region includes New Zealand, Hawaii, Easter Island, and all the islands in between.
Throughout Polynesia, some very common characters include:
The Great Goddess Hina
The Trickster/Demigod Hero Maui
Tiki, the First Man and First God
The story of Papa (Mother Earth), Rangi (Father Sky), and their six god-sons is unique to the Maori indigenous people of New Zealand.
Pele, the fire goddess; is said to dwell in Mount Kilauea, in Hawaii.
On Rapa Nui (Easter Island), the creator god is known as Makemake
The ceremonial ritual of the egg hunt was in honor of him.
And, no...I did not make that up!
It's an actual part of Easter Islander culture!
The Austronesians also sailed westward across the Indian Ocean, and settled on the island of Madagascar...where they mingled with Bantu settlers from mainland Africa.
That's why, in Madagascar, they speak Malagasy--an Austronesian language.
Hopefully, I'll find a mythological story from Madagascar
...perhaps one about lemurs.
This blog post is the first of what I hope will blossom into a series of posts about mythology stories from different cultures belonging to the same language family.
Perhaps I'll make a post about mythologies from the Indo-European language group?
That would be Greek, Roman, Celtic, Norse, Slavic, Persian, Hindu, and a few others
A post for Native American language families, however, would be a nightmare to make given how many different American Native language families there are!
Stay tuned, and have a legendary day!
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