Indigenous practices - Babaylan/Hilot

[Sahaja]

 

Thought I’d share this on the Babaylan indigenous culture of the Philippines. I have participated in some of these rituals and found them both powerful and fascinating particularly seeing the connections to Indian and Chinese language, physical and spiritual cultivation and healing cultures that are part of it. My wife’s grandmother was a traditional practitioner of this  and the capabilities of her lineage appear to have been passed on to the women in my immediate family.  
 

The video talks about the indigenous experience in confronting Christianity and Islam  as well as the role of gender including transgender there. My guess is that many indigenous practices in other parts of the world went through similar processes where they interacted with/were changed by outside cultures trying to control them. In the modern era  the Babaylan culture mostly manifests as indigenous healing practices like manghihilot which are still widespread in the Philippines but there also still exists behind this those currently following the culture and practices of the Babaylan. My understanding this tradition was not only affected by Catholicism and Islam but also more recently by American Protestant missionaries who carved up the Philippines in the 20th century into areas of authority to proselytize and before Catholicism and Islam by Buddhist and Hindu  influences. These earlier Indian influences can be seen in the language, traditional scripts, as well as in the healing practices.  

 

 

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justjoseph responded to this

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[oak]

Glad to now know about the Babaylan. Thanks for sharing your experience and the video.