The Chinese “Ma-i” or Austronesian “Maya” or “Maaya” is the better name for the Philippine Islands…

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The topic on what should be the correct name which may collectively include most of the Philippine archipelago has always been controversial from time to time.

Of course, most Filipinos barely care much these days. For them they are Filipinos, the national name they’ve already accustomed to ever since they were born.

But it is not for small circles of so-called academe-scholar-historians and of course nationalist priders.

The Nationalist Priders (close to Hitler’s Nazis) have the tendency to choose the term “Maharlika” over all others. Maharlika being the name for the so-called pre-colonial Philippine nobility class. It suits the Nazi purpose of greatness and of class superiority.

As a name “Maharlika” may mean “great men” based on related Austronesian/Indic word contexts.

However, the main problem with Maharlika is that it actually would not cover many of Philippine minority groups who doesn’t have stratified class hierarchies within their tribes. Examples of those are the Muslims and Lumads of Mindanao, the Mountain people of Northern Luzon and other scattered tribesmen. Especially so-called Aeta groups all over the Islands.

Aside from the one I mentioned already. That is Maharlika being a term that is considered to be catering to right-wing groups particularly those identified with the Marcoses.

In my created Facebook group, Amangpulo, I too plunged on the subject and put out a few of my candidate names.

My first one would be Kapuluan or Islands/Archipelago. That is just rightly because it is obvious!!

And then of course the name of the group itself “Amangpulo” which means Father-Island or Original Island. From the latter I received some protests from feminists who argued “Inang-Bayan” is better :).

However, over the years my views have been changing from motifs I’ve been seeing from some other places and readings. Many of those aren’t even considered Filipino or Austronesian (the general cultural and language subgroupings where Filipinos and other Malayo-Polynesians are now grouped according to linguists and anthropologists).

I was particularly intrigued by what I read from history books pertaining to the name allegedly given by the Chinese to the Islands and some say in particular to Mindoro Island. That name is “Ma-i”.

For many years already I’ve been obscenely connecting Greeks, other European mythologies and all other mythologies with pre-Hispanic Philippine belief systems and with the Philippine itself. Now, there are and there would be a tremendous amount of academic people who have zero adherence to that style.

But as you see my previous articles connect Atlas or Atlantis with Taal, perhaps saying Taal is Atlas or Bathala is Zeus/Jesus. Also, that Atlantis or Eden could be non-other than Taal itself. And Taal could actually be a goddess of some sort and not precisely a male deity. Maybe an Athena or the female form of Tala (star). Word and name puns are confusing! Of course, they may actually have no connection whatsoever at all.

But come to think of it, Atlas has a daughter named “Maia” one of the Pleiades. And from Maia and Zeus was born Hermes- the Messenger of the Gods. In Austronesian, Japanese and other cultures you may find many gods and goddesses which has a form something like xM-ya. Samples are Kapampangan Mayari, Japanese Amaterasu, Hindu Maia, Latvian Mara.

Maia is also sometimes referred to as a mother-goddess. Related names are Gaea, Rhea, Juno, Demeter, Medea etc. It is very probable the names Maria and/or Maryam is related as a Mother of God or The Mother of All.

In Maori there is a saying that the Earth or the Land is a mother that never dies. Ma-i or Maya or Maia does not just refer to the mother but also and more aptly with Earth or the land itself.

The Chinese has heard that the people they met in the islands call their land “Ma-i” or of that sort. Much of the article is in this Wikipedia stuff.

The word connections and the Chinese chronicles make me conclude that therefore Maya is the more correct name that would collectively include much of the Philippine archipelago.

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loreto

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http://loretobagio.com

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