MEBUYAN
Type Gallery Work
Show THE END IS NIGH
Gallery Light Grey Art Lab Gallery
In the Bagobo myths of the Southern Philippines, Mebuyan is an earth goddess and the queen of the underworld. The myth begins when Mebuyan refuses to ascend to heaven with her kin. She drills down with her rice mortar and descends into the earth while she speaks of death--her journey below mimics a burial. All the while, some of the rice she brought with her falls to the ground. As the rice is her sacred gift, the dead will then follow her into the earth and not to heaven. Thus, for Bagobos and many Filipinos who have adopted the superstition, dropping rice is a bad omen that may bring death to the household.
Beneath the earth, she receives the dead at the entrance of the underworld and bathes them in the waves of a black river that flows through her realms.
They say Mebuyan's body is full of breasts and nipples with which she breastfeeds her many children, who are all born dead. She feeds them until they gain the strength to travel the tiresome path to Gimokudan, the residence of souls.