As they spread throughout the islands, Spanish conquistadors encountered a
variety of religions; during the sixteenth century, the areas now referred to as the
Luzon and Visayas cluster of islands were home to several belief systems that
were chronicled by the Christian friars and missionaries who came into contact
with them. Famed Philippine historian William Henry Scott (1994) recounts, for
instance, examples of Visayans who “worshiped nature spirits, gods of particular
localities or activities, and their own ancestors”;4 Bikolanos whose “female
shamans called baliyan . . . spoke with the voice of departed spirits, and
delivered prayers in song”;5 and Tagalogs whose pantheon included “Lakapati,
fittingly represented by a hermaphrodite image with both male and female parts,
[who] was worshipped in the fields at planting time.”6 Over time, however, Spain’s
colonial hegemony, power, and influence used to consolidate their rule spread
through the vehicle of Catholicism, supplanting or heavily influencing several of
the local spiritual traditions, which were transformed to fit the new religious
paradigm. In the 1560s, Spaniard Miguel López de Legazpi introduced Catholic
friars to the north. Christianity redefined the worldview and relationships of some
of the locals, implementing a social structure heavily based on Biblical
perspectives and injunctions. By the eighteenth century, indigenous people
caught practicing so-called pagan rituals were punished; local histories written on
bamboo or other materials were burned, and cultural artifacts were destroyed.
Church edifices dominated the landscape as the symbolic and psychological
center of the permanent villages and towns that sprung up around them. Once
firmly established, the Catholic Church, through various religious orders with their
own agendas, clearly shared power with Spain, and the two jointly administered
the colonization of the islands.
1887 portrait of Miguel López de Legazpi.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/p3lojk6. Statue of Rajah Sulayman on Roxas
Bouelvard, Manila. Source: http://tinyurl.com/lv95nwt.
However, Spanish Catholic colonial rule was incomplete. Domination of the
southern half of the archipelago proved impossible due in large part to the earlier
introduction of Islam in approximately 1380. Muslim traders traveled in and
around the southern islands, and over time, these merchants likely married into
wealthy local families, encouraging permanent settlements while spreading Islam
throughout the area. By the time of Spanish arrival in the sixteenth century, the
Islamic way of life was already well-established; for example, the Kingdom of
Maynila (site of present-day Manila) was ruled by Rajah Sulayman, a Muslim
who fought against Spanish conquest. Scholars agree that the Spanish arrival
profoundly affected the course of Philippine history. Had Magellan or other
colonizers never arrived or landed much later, they may have encountered a
unified Muslim country. As history would have it, however, Spain encountered
serious resistance in the Filipinas south, sowing the seeds of one of the oldest
and bitterest divisions in contemporary Philippine society. Spanish colonizers
soon realized they were against a strong, although not entirely uniform or unified,
Muslim people. The constant struggle to extend Spanish hegemony to the south
spawned the Spanish-Moro Wars, a series of long-standing hostilities between
Muslims and Spanish. From the late 1500s until the late 1800s, Spain attempted
to gain a foothold in the area— succeeding only to the extent that some soldiers
were eventually allowed by local leaders to maintain a small military presence.
Spanish colonial leaders, however, never dominated or governed the local area,
despite laying claim to the territory.
Gabriela Silang Monument on Ayala Avenue,
Manila. Source: Ayala Triangle website at http://tinyurl.com/kf5teob.
The Catholic Church, through various religious
orders with their own agendas, clearly shared
power with Spain, and the two jointly
administered the colonization of the islands.
