The wonderful colors of Adarna
February 2, 2003 | 12:00am
I would like to start this column by paying tribute to the unflagging support of chairman Ephraim Genuino and the board of directors of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) – Manuel Roxas, Domingo Calajate, Danilo Gozo, Luis Carlos and Philip Lo. Without the chairman’s support and the spadework of Dodie King, Ibong Adarna could never have taken flight to the provinces of Davao, Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao.
If I’m gushing, it is only because of the varied interests the project has elicited and what we left behind for the audience to chew on, which would make Yayot Garcia happy, too. Ali Bajunaid, vice president of Kalilangan Foundation in General Santos City, is hoping PAGCOR will consent to bring Ibong Adarna to there.
Another request came in from Samar, from a member of the Sa Aklat Sisikat Foundation’s Reading Program. Their main objective is to develop love of reading among grade 4 students who have access to 60 titles of Philippine children’s literature. A passport to record their reading achievements reflects the lessons they have learned. When a child finishes reading a book, he is given a feather which records his accomplishments. This feather is posted on the SAS Ibong Adarna mural placed on the school grounds. As a culmination for their project, Margie Barro and Becky Avelino have requested the enchnated Adarna to be staged in Calbayog.
Even Nueva Vizcaya’s Mayor Teodorico Padilla of Santa Fe needs a performance for their Kalanguyan Festival on March 15. The effervescent Tata Velasco, Del Miranda and Nini Carlos will take us to Zamboanga! Now we could be flying and swimming too.
For all these plans to materialize we’re gathering kind souls to sponsor the show. One of them is Aboitiz! News really travels far and wide.
Not being a theater person, I can only speak about clothes and mythological birds. At a glance, one can differentiate the Thai national dress from the Filipino, or a colorful Chinese embroidered silk fabric from an Indian gold embellished sari. Mix them all together and you get Adarna’s costumes – an Oriental blending that makes the eyes dance. Who conceptualized the clashing but complementary colors? I’d say it’s an Indian and Mongol influence.
The original costume design of Ibong Adarna was conceptualized by its director, Roobak Valle. His inspirations came from Mindanao in particular and Asia in general, plus a little Western influence. Believe it or not, Roobak is color blind!
With very limited production funds, the costumes came from the thrift stores and bangketas of Divisoria. This is how hard up the theater industry is. Everything on stage is low budget but never have producers, actors, directors let discouragements show on stage! As usual, Filipino ingenuity reigns supreme with low-priced meters of geena, taffeta, tetoron and cotton.
The queen’s wardrobe was definitely Mindanaoan and Korean-inspired. Most of the intricacies, particularly the golden fabrics, were bought from Maranaw traders in Quiapo.
Outside the kingdom of Berbanya, the costuming and set design influences were Asian. Chinese in the fan dance with the snake sequence similar to the dragon dance of Buddhist elements. The costumes of China were Indonesian-inspired with their Sri-Vijayan crown pointing upward and embellished with curly cues.
The shadow sequences were Japanese. For the mythical bird, the costume was in neon colors; the movements, modern ballet. Some nature lovers thought the costume should have been more elaborate. It would be better then if they could donate fabric. Please?
Cheap things can become beautiful items depending on who wears them. Beautiful items can appear cheap again depending on who dons them.
The political power’s rise of the different kingdoms of the Southeast Asian islands paved the way to the establishment of seats of government through the centuries. They were trade centers that developed into principal conduits of commercial goods, culture and art, religion, science, migration, settlements and regional politics.
Trade routes constantly changed in direction and importance, frequently depending on the prevailing pull of political power during those times – India being its coastal gateway to western and eastern civilization with China as a rich source of economic and cultural resources for both continents.
The Indianized migrants of Sri Vijaya and Majapahit empires came to our islands eventually, trading with us as well as Indo-China, Siam, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Java.
In pioneer capital trade ports, the great influence of Indian culture and Chinese civilization made headway integrating them into the natives’ respective indigenous cultures. As the existing trade routes became the medium for extending Mongol rule they eventually became the jumping board for Islamization.
Indian culture made their way into our legends, myths and epics in a style that ignored natural law by delving on fanciful imaginations. We and the Indians tended to divert in general from the concept of a perceptible objective order, differentiating not too sharply between the actual and the ideal or between fact, imagination and fantasy as in the Darangen and Ibong Adarna. Likewise our imagination transcended the bounds of ordinary world concepts. Language sought truth in the practice of ethics through the observance of rules of conduct that in living life correctly became their spiritual way to the truth.
Perhaps, the tendency to resort to extremes appeared better in stressing a point that gave rise to comparisons while the Greeks set a high value on moderation. They often quoted Solons’ maxim "nothing too much." In China too, the middle course was one of essential virtues in their epics. Indians, on the other hand, were likely to go to extremes, a feature of their way of thinking. This offers a sharp contrast to the Western trend to avoid excessive glorification of great heroes.
Whether Adarna’s author Jose dela Cruz or Hoseng Sisiw was influenced by the Indian concept in the Filipino classic Ibong Adarna in the early 19th century, we will never know. But for me, Ibong Adarna, Darangen and Indarapatra & Sulayman fall under the Indian dimensions of greatness and magnification.
Birds soaring into the sky were a source of inspiration to the ancient Indians who associated them with another denizen of the heavens – the sun. In India the sun was a searing force, drying up the land until the arrival of the blessed monsoon rains. As Hinduism developed, the sun’s power was represented in a mythological as a half-bird, half-man called Garuda, the vehicle of Indian gods. Garuda was also known as a devourer of serpents. Snake-bite victims appealed to him.
The boraq is of Arabic origin, a mythical half-woman, half-horse that brought Prophet Muhammed (Peace be upon him!) to heaven on his night journey starting from Masjid al Aksa in Jerusalem.
Another tale is the Maranaw’s magic rooster that helped a poor family, Lokes a Mama and Lokes a Babae and their only son Bagowamama, gain wealth. The rooster’s magic crowing produced gold and silver coins and yards and yards of textiles from its excretions, making Bagowamama a rich man. He built a palace rivaling that of the sultan. Under pain of death, the sultan forced Bagowamama to sell him the magic rooster. Bagowamama accepted after he was given the sultan’s daughter as a bride. Both lived happily ever after.
As dreams are an important outlet for the well-being of an individual – for without dreams or sleep we may go mad sooner or later – so are mythologies important to the perpetuation of a people’s culture and entertainment. This is what Ibong Adarna is all about. A dream in a legend. The king dreams his youngest son is killed and his sorrow gets him ill. Only a bird’s sweet voice will cure him.
This special regard of a bird is seen in the Maranaw culture. The Sari-manok story is pre-Islamic. One is of Raja Indarapatra falling in love with the goddess of the moon who used to come down every Friday to take a bath in a perfumed well. Eventually he followed her to the moon on the wings of the Sari-manok and vanished forever.
The Limoken, a forest mythical bird of the Tirurays with a beautiful melodious singing voice is a bird of omen for a number of mountain tribes in the Philippines. Her singing could not be ignored without the proper anting-anting.
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