[Kissmet]

vboytan on Jun 15 2008, 07:13 AM, said:

Man, those things are creepy. I actually thought about trying to fight one in face to face combat. But after hearing about what it did to the roof, forget it!
Also try checking out the mananangal.

Oh yeah, mananangals are scary!!!! My brother in law once spoek to a mananagal LOL. I swear. We'll whatever, I know no onw owuld believe anyway. But I know what I know. LOL

[Eigan]

Not much to add to the aswang discussion, but I will say that the Philippines has a very rich folklore on the supernatural and the unknown. I lived there for 10 years before my family and I immigrated to Hawaii. I vividly remember those types of stories. The last time I had visited the Philippines was about 10 years ago. Reading this topic made me recall some of my childhood events, which is comforting (I think).

While there, I lived most of my life in Manila, but I also took trips to Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte, which were my parents' birthplaces. Because of that, I had been exposed to many stories from different areas of the country growing up as a child. Manila was more urbanized and progressive; Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte had more rural surroundings, so I had my fair share of tales originating from different environments. Some were interesting, and have already been discussed on this topic: the aswang, the manananggal, the white lady, the tianak/tiyanak, etc. Obviously, some of these scared the heck out of me as a child. An overactive imagination can wreak havoc in a child's mind, and it certainly did occasionally in mine.

What V'alentine says about tales being intertwined with fiction and reality is true, at least based on my personal experience. Besides stories, they are also well-represented in movies. Of course, since I was a curious child, I had to watch these films, unprepared that it would give me nightmares later on. Just to illustrate some of the quirkiness of Philippine movies:

1) The tianak, for instance, is basically a demon child. Imagine Chucky from the Child's Play movies, but turned up quite a bit of notches on the diabolical scale. Essentially, it's like a little bald baby with big, barren round eyes, body drenched in blood, who likes to scurry around in the dark and bite stuff unsuspectingly. Yeah, not exactly adorable. It's like a cross between Chucky and the Leprechaun from those awful Leprechaun movies, but with emphasis on the menace and not so much on campy humor. I somehow liked those tianak movies though, as a kid. For that matter, exposure to those movies kinda desensitized me to the Child's Play movies later on. I'm sorry, it just doesn't compare. That doesn't necessarily mean that one is better than the other; it's just different scare tactics were used and involved and the levels of horror are distinct, unique, and cater to different audiences. And, I'm getting off topic now, so on to the next...

2) This isn't really folklore, but it does demonstrate the richness of the movies then:
Does anyone remember the Zuma movies? Those were brutally scary. Basically it was these green-skinned, superhuman monster that had a snake? snakes? donned over his shoulder and nestled around his neck. I think it had snake heads on both ends? o_O Obviously, I was young and dismissed the logic in this, but I was impressionable and not so critically-minded then, and frankly, seeing that creature just scared the hell out of me. It's quite glaringly obvious how odd that snake thing is now, but I didn't think too much about it then. Anyway, I think this creature also drank blood and ate hearts and stuff, and seemed to enjoy inflicting pain. Essentially, it was like a green-skinned, Rambo-like bad dude that couldn't be stopped. I remember having nightmares about that movie.

There are others that are part of the culture as well: the duende (little dwarves/I think they're also interpreted to be little fairies), and I'm sure there are many others that I can't recall right now.

Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's just an aftereffect of the stories and movies, but I've also had my share of weirdness/supernatural events occurring while living there. As a result, I always have these scary/weird stories to tell when the opportunity presents itself. Is it just me, or do the Filipinos who responded on this topic also have their own share of events?

Some may get the impression that I had just about the most horrible childhood seeing these movies, but honestly, it was something that my family would watch during gatherings with relatives and lots of food. They were reserved for special occasions. We were warned beforehand. If we didn't like it, we had the option to leave and play outside or something. I liked these movies, and it wasn't like I was forced to watch these horror flicks, so I stuck around to watch them. If anything, a combination of stories and movies sparked my curiosity for the supernatural and the unknown. And honestly, I think I turned out well, considering

[project-reveal]

wow scary stuff haha

[Quarantined]

Hahaha, "ASSWANG!"

[oslove]

Eigan on Mar 28 2009, 09:38 PM, said:

Not much to add to the aswang discussion, but I will say that the Philippines has a very rich folklore on the supernatural and the unknown. I lived there for 10 years before my family and I immigrated to Hawaii. I vividly remember those types of stories. The last time I had visited the Philippines was about 10 years ago. Reading this topic made me recall some of my childhood events, which is comforting (I think).


[...]

Thanks for this post from you; I want to commend you as one not frivolous poster out to God knows for what purpose except to be infantilistic and a discredit to infants.


I wrote several posts in this thread, but my emphasis was to the was it an American anthropologist to be cautious about scams in the Philippines and not get himself embroiled in any sex connected trouble which can be most embarrassing back in his US hometown.

Looking back now to your childhood horror for aswangs and kindred monsters or not so fearsome weird characters like duendes (small less than one inch folks), have you come to the realization that after all these centuries no one has ever been brought to the precinct as an aswang and stayed alive for DNA testing?

Or at least even any cadaver remains also for DNA examination.



My own conclusion is that all these stories are basically entertainment of the scare me stiff kind.


Thanks for a good read.



Oslove

[Kissmet]

Quarantined on Mar 29 2009, 07:38 PM, said:

Hahaha, "ASSWANG!"

[topskepticgirl1]

Very interesting, I myself have not heard of this but am curious are you a short story writter?

[Kissmet]

topskepticgirl1 on Apr 12 2009, 02:31 AM, said:

Very interesting, I myself have not heard of this but am curious are you a short story writter?

Who are you asking topskeptic?

[Prizma]

I have never heard of the Aswang legend until I happened upon this post. I am going to have to ask my step-mother about it, since she is from the Phillipeans too . I find it to be very fascinating, based on what I have read on this forum thus far. Perhaps I have misunderstood some of the stories, but it sounds like the Aswang intermarries/interbreeds with humans? If so then why, especially if they eat us? Just curious.

[Kissmet]

Prizma on Apr 12 2009, 05:24 PM, said:

I have never heard of the Aswang legend until I happened upon this post. I am going to have to ask my step-mother about it, since she is from the Phillipeans too . I find it to be very fascinating, based on what I have read on this forum thus far. Perhaps I have misunderstood some of the stories, but it sounds like the Aswang intermarries/interbreeds with humans? If so then why, especially if they eat us? Just curious.

They do not inter, marry with humans, being an "aswang" is like a curse. It is being passed on form one generation to another. It is believed that when an aswang dies, it vomits out a small stone, this has the curse. The aswang will then give it to the next of kin, usually a son or a daughter, who would then become the next aswang.

This post has been edited by Kissmet31: 13 April 2009 - 03:54 AM

[Prizma]

Oh Ok! Thank you so much for the clarifaction!

[Kissmet]

Prizma on Apr 13 2009, 05:09 AM, said:

Oh Ok! Thank you so much for the clarifaction!

No problem.

[Monstrman52]

Some people say children have a sixth sense about things and as we get older we tend to lose that sense and think things are false but in all actuality they're going on right in front of us.

[c.annqp]

I came across this forum page just yesterday. I registered to this site just to reply. Im a Filipina residing here in NC. I am currently researching articles about ASWANG. I heard several stories about it since I was a kid. i do believe in ASWANG though I never had a chance to experience an actual attack. Before the Filipinos were converted to Catholics when the Spanish came, there were tribes that practice witchcraft, and I believe that ASWANG spring forth from dark rituals done by some of these tribes. Why am I searching stuff about ASWANGS? I was chatting with my brother last night and he was telling me that they think our house is being visited by an ASWANG. Ok, just a little bit of history: when I was young, I would be asked by my mom to check-out the owl outside the house. That owl would be there every time my mom is pregnant. So during her pregnancy with my brother and sister, we would wee that owl. Now, old folks believe that ASWANGs could change appearance, usually an animal form. Well, my mom is not really a believer of such stuff, but what the heck, she followed certain precautions like bringing salt when she goes out at night (because salt drives away evil stuff) and put garlic at doorsteps (some believe that ASWANGs can't stand the smell of it). One time, we saw the owl outside. My mom was confused because she's not pregnant. After a few days, our helper (who's staying at our place) told us that she's pregnant and needs to resign from her work. Coincidence? Could be, but we really didn't pay attention to it. That was 18 years ago. With modern times, who would think there are ASWANGS, right? So, I'm going back to my brother's chat. They got an additional maid since I left and she's staying at our place and she's pregnant. Recently, they would hear bird-lizard-like sounds. They didn't pay attention to it since we do have lots of animal sound around the place (but it's their 1st time to hear that). The sounds at night became frequent, and this time when sound starts to faint, they would hear thudding sound on the roof like a big animal is walking. We do have cats back home so at first they thought those were cats on mating call. But as days pass, the bird-lizard-like sound became more frequent, and the thudding sounds would last until ALMOST sunrise. From what I know about ASWANG, they have this "tik-tik" with them that produces sound when the ASWANG is near. A loud sound is the ASWANG is still far and a faint sound when it's already there. The maid is not really a believer so she won't put garlic or salt near her. After my brother told me about this, I went online to check ASWANG experiences to compare what they are experiencing. And I saw this post from 2008. IF YOU'RE STILL READING THE POSTS, PLS REPLY TO ME. you said you're from roanoke, that's NC right? Maybe you could tell me more infos from the research you got.

This post has been edited by c.annqp: 05 November 2009 - 05:10 AM