My friend Ryan used to live in a house that had an enormous mango tree in front. One day they sent the family chauffeur up the tree to check for any ripe mangoes.

Guy climbs up, then comes back down saying there are no fruits at all.
The next day, he goes up the tree again. Ryan and his family are understandably puzzled (like, fruits don't appear overnight, ya know?) and ask him what's up. He tells them, "Just making sure."
He climbs the tree again the day after that. His excuse? "Exercise."
When he tries to go back up again on the fourth day, Ryan and his family start to get concerned and they insist he tell them the real reason he goes up there.
He says, "I have a girlfriend in the tree. Today I'm going up there to live with her for good."
When they forbid him, he freaks out and grabs a bolo (a large knife that's used as a gardening tool). He threatens to kill them if they stop him from going up the tree.
One of the maids (who, apparently, has a thing for the chauffeur) hurries and dumps a big bowl of salt over the guy's head. He goes very pale and then loses consciousness. When he wakes up, he can't remember anything about a woman up in the tree.

Sounds unbelievable, but in this country there are numerous accounts of humans falling in love with otherworldly beings and vice versa. In my dialect, we refer to these beings as tamawo, the closest translation of which would be "fairy" or "elf." In folklore, the tamawo are extremely gorgeous and light-skinned, and for all intents and purposes look just like humans except that they lack a filtrum (y'know, the groove between the nose and the upper lip). They live in luxurious palaces somewhere inside huge, old trees and are quite in the habit of courting the locals. They write love letters and present you with gifts. They're very gallant and old-fashioned suitors, actually. Definitely the type you can take home to Mother. Problem is, you're the only one who can see them.

They invite you to visit their palace, which is full of marvels and riches, and they ply you with food and drink. Their rice moves (eww). You aren't supposed to eat or drink anything, or else you will have to remain in their kingdom forever. I can draw some parallels here to Greek/Roman mythology--- Hades takes Persephone to the Underworld, she eats six pomegranate seeds and, as a consequence, has to stay there for six months every year.

Most accounts of a human girl falling in love with a tamawo state that the girl falls ill at some point of the courtship. This means the tamawo is now trying to take her with him into his kingdom once she dies (not so gallant anymore, I guess).

There have been many cases of young, healthy people suddenly coming down with a fever and dying, and when their graves are dug up for whatever reason, it is found that the coffin contains only a banana heart, with no trace of the corpse to be found anywhere. The tamawo has claimed his beloved and whisked her off to his kingdom.

I am not inclined to believe these stories, but most elders and rural folk attest to their veracity. Makes me wonder if there was any sort of phenomenon that could be the root of all this, or if it's simply a testament to the might of the human imagination.

Anyway, this post isn't meant to debate whether elves exist or not. I merely wanted to provide, to the best of my ability, a peek into one aspect of Philippine folklore.

Any parallels from other countries?

-Thea
(First post! Hi!)

Interesting story, and it certainly is odd, but right now no oppinion either way

(and welcome to UM, most ppl here aren't as nice as i am at times)

Thank you! Looking forward to good times here.

Your Welcome, and do you have any more possible information on this story? any backround on the myth or any way to prove it true?

cause if i've learned 1 thing here its to back up the statements that you make

but its still an interesting story thanks for posting it

All my information comes from oral tradition, alas. Stuff my parents, the household help and other people from rural areas told me. There really isn't much literature on the subject, but the tamawo is a common and well-accepted part of folklore. Personally, I'm a city girl who doesn't believe a word of it. Lol. Still, I thought it would be fun to share.

Welcome to the UM! I wish you many happy posts to come. Thanks for the topic.


That story is interesting, and I have heard many that are similar, most of them reporting eating their food, dancing with them, or interacting too much can often cause one to loose all sense of time, often resulting in being trapped forever until someone rescues them. Not a very pleasent thought. I too wonder if there is a grain of truth in any of these stories. They are very wide spread, and so many people used to believe in faeries, demons, 'the little folk', ect. you wonder what could have provoked them to belive so much.

Well, most eastern culture doesn't need any proof, or doesn't want any proof. The paranormal is a part of the people, in provinces, in subdivisions, even in cities. Its part of life, no need for any evidence. I know I don't want them proving to me that they exist, that's for sure.

Thank you!

Ah, yes, I forgot to include the "losing all sense of time" bit. Thanks for bringing it up. And I agree, you definitely have to wonder why this sort of belief has lasted so long and where it could possibly have come from. There are a lot of theories out there--- enough to make my head spin!

Lol neither do I!

I think I'm safe, though. Them elves seem to go only for the village lasses.

hey i had a huge mango tree in my front and backyard, but the story involve huge tree here is not including cute gorgeous elf. most of them are creepy creature


and welcome to UM

Thank you, I can already tell I'll like it here.

Oh, we have creepy creatures in mango trees too! We call them kapre and they're hairy and they smoke cigars. What about yours?

I guess the chauffeur got lucky.

Wow! that is a really cool story. It'd be really interesting if it was true. Perhaps it is?

After I read the part where you are not supposed to eat or drink anything, I remembered, I once saw an episode of "Sabrina The Teenage Witch: the Animated Series" where one of the characters met some elves and ate food and got entranced by them, etc.

no... i dont want to talk about that creepy things in the tree.

Im still neutral on this topic for now...

Hey, I actually think I saw that episode while flipping through channels. Hmmm...

First of all,welcome to UM!!!Despite what DS said *ahem* most of us are nice.'Most' of us Just don't post constantly about one specific subject*cough*DC*cough*(and don't spend to much time in the 'Religion vs. Skepticism' thread) and everyone will like you

That's a really cool story.I've always loved those kind of urban(or rural) legends.When i was young(like young young)i thought that there were little spiders and little things dancing and jumping around on my bookshelf at night.I would sit there and watch them while i was falling asleep.I could just barely see them enough in the dark to know they were there
The closest parallel here that i can think of is when i told my little brother there were man-eating monkeys in the trees at a campground we were staying at Poor kid ran up on a slide and wouldn't come down.

This sounds exactly like the European versions of faeries and what not, living in trees, luring unsuspecting people to their dooms, etc. It's funny how different cultures can come up with similar folklore like that.

HI !! welcome to UM. Enjoyed what you shared, really interesting.
I live in Singapore, another South east asian country.
And hell yes we have our freaky tales too.

Every singaporean wouldnt want to disturb any wandering spirit, its almost a must to say, "sorry" or "excuse me" before bathing a plant in your golden shower.
okay let me share one of the most feared ghost/apparation/spirit thingamagiggy in S'pore.
Called the Pontianak.
"The Pontianak is the female vampire- even more fearsome then your ordinary western vampire- of Asian origin. She's believed to be the spirit of a woman who died in childbirth. She relishes all types of blood, but the blood of a newborn is supposed to be the most preferred blood. She kills pregnant women and eats the fetus. There is no known way of killing this vile creature, but to stop it, one must drive a nail into it's neck-the creature will change back to the woman it once was - or one must disrobe. But to do such a thing, the person must posses an ugly body. It's said that the pontianak is fearful of sharp objects. It's also said that if one were to tie a red thread from a banana tree (the Pontianak's home) to the foot of the person's bed, the Pontianak would have to do the person's bidding, trapped. "

There are tons and tons of stories and videos and images if you do a quick search.


In folklore, Pontianak often appears as a beautiful and at times seductive woman, usually accompanied by the strong scent of frangipani. According to myth, men who are not wary will be killed or castrated when she morphs into a hideous being; she will also eat babies and harm pregnant women and has been said to cause miscarriages.(wiki)
Its known that pregnant women are usually targetted.

So imagine walking home alone, and suddenly catching a strong wiff of frangipani ( for those that dont know, it smellls like sweet perfume) , with no sight of anything with flowers around, it makes it pretty creepy.


Pontianaks are assiociated with banana tree's, its said that they reside in them in the day .
its also said that if you want to see one, hang a red towel/ string on the tree and wait till midnight.

oh yeah, and this b**** can fly. but just her head, with her entrails following behind. o.o.


if you guys are interested you could check out www.spi.com.sg and check out the ghastly ghoulies we have down here in singapore.

break a leg

she's international badass creepy thing.! in malay the name also pontianak, in indonesia called ****ilanak

Thanks for posting that interesting story.Yes,in the West we have similar stories of fairies and such.About them taking a human baby and in it's place putting one of their own,which is called a changeling.About how you must not eat or drink anything they offer you or you will be trapped with them forever,etc.
The fact that such stories can be found in Europe and in the Phillipines,and the stories are very similar to each other suggest to me that there is some sort of truth to these tales and defintely the phenomemon is world wide,not isolated. They sound almost like alien abductions but are different too.
There may indeed be earth or nature spirits all around us,that we cannot see unless they manifest themselves to us.

you nice ha! mr leader of the world!

cool post and welcome i would love to know more about thses things

Oh you're a mean one! I would never do that to my little brother. NEVER!!!
*crosses fingers behind back and looks around shiftily*

That sounds exactly like what we call in the philipines "mananangal" maybe the philipine mananangals visit singapour and vice versa

I love that show!

Well, my friend swears it's true. But you know how friends can be. Lol. I'm still adopting a healthy degree of skepticism, but then again, this is the Philippines. Weird things happen here which no one can really explain.

Yes, it's quite fascinating. A possible explanation I can think of is that when the Spaniards colonized the Philippines a long time ago, a bit of their mythology rubbed off, although I don't know if Spain has any similar legends.

On the story of the Tamawo, I've had first-hand experience with someone who ate the food of the Tamawo. Note: If you check my post history you will see I'm very much skeptical of almost everything. However, one summer in my youth I saw some odd things that I have yet to explain away.

When I was in the Philippines one summer we had a maid who would often take naps under the mangrove tree in our side yard. My grandmother (who was a very superstitious, Catholic lady) told her not to because of the people that lived in the tree that protected our family. I could wax prose all day long, but I'll make it short: Maid ignored grandmother, fell asleep under the tree, met a male and female Tamawo, and ate their food. She went quite mad soon thereafter, and I actually saw her physically throw one of our house-boys across a room. It took 3 of them to physically restrain her and tie her to a bed until the police came.

Again, long story short: 2 exorcisms and one visit from a "Fairy Speaker" later, the maid eventually gets sent off to the insane asylum and never fully recovers. We also found out later that month that she had been stealing from us, lending a strange credence to my grandmother's story that the Tamawo protected our family.

However, it was pretty easy to explain away that she just went totally flippin' crazy and gained high levels of physical strength, and that's pretty much what I did and mostly forgot about the mystical aspect of it. However, years later my grandmother was involved in a lengthy legal battle in which she lost the house to the original owners. Their son went to live in the house, and eventually he stopped answering phone calls. The police were dispatched to the house to find out if there was any ill-doing, and they found him on our porch, just staring at the mangrove tree and unresponsive to anything but the most basic physical stimuli. I never heard what became of him. Today the house and the mangrove tree remain in their hands, and we've never been back since.

I've never seen them myself, but there were always a lot of weird things around that house. I've never been very superstitious, but there were a lot of weird sounds in the night, and I always just had the creepiest feelings in that house from time to time that I've never felt in any other place.

Oddly enough, the Tamawo that were described as living in our mangrove tree were not light-skinned, but black as night (but with similar features you described), very beautiful, and with bluish tints in their black hair.

That's really interesting! Sounds a lot like the Philippine manananggal, a winged woman whose upper body separates from the lower half at night to go hunting; she is also especially fond of pregnant women. Also, the name Pontianak is similar to tiyanak, which in Philippine folklore is a monster in the form of a human infant.

And on an unrelated note, I love Singapore. I had so much fun the last time I went there.

I agree! Who knows what else is out there? There's so much science cannot explain, although I am quite a big fan of science in itself.

As I said in another reply, I think it might also have something to do with the fact that Spain colonized the Philippines, so maybe my ancestors picked up a few of those European myths.

That's very creepy! I also have another friend whose maid went crazy once, on Halloween, although they say it was demonic possession and not a tamawo-related incident.

At any rate, we should all just stay the heck away from these mango and mangrove trees. Lol.

I have never heard of dark-skinned tamawos! They've always been described to me as being white as paper. Interesting. Maybe it depends on the region?

It may well depend on the region. My dad had strange experiences as a child that he can't quite explain that involved a red-colored (skin and hair) Tamawo falling in love with his brother; apparently my dad's brother was very good looking as a young man (not so much now). This Tamawo lived in a river that my dad and brother would have to ford on their way to school, and she would spread her cloak across the river for my dad's brother to walk across so he wouldn't get his feet wet.

My dad's a hardcore scientist (geneticist) and when I ask him to explain what he saw from a scientific perspective, he just says "Well, it's the Philippines...there's weird stuff in the forest there."

One thing I don't get about this myth is couldn't ppl just look up into the tree and see there isn't a palace in it???

yes S'pore rocks man. haha
if ya'll are interested in more ghoulies in s'pore check out www.spi.com.sg

If you took the concept of "Elf-hills" from Irish mythology and supplanted it with "Elf-trees", you'd get the same thing. Basically, they don't exist in our [visible] reality but are reached through some kind of portal that you can't see either.

Yeah, 100% unbelievable. Still hard for me to write off what I saw, but memory is funny in the way it preserves some details and kills others. If only I'd had a portable video cam in those days...

Excellent explanation. Your description provided further depth of my own knowledge, and I thank you.

I've not seen elf hills or tamawo, but I once saw an animal I can't explain. It didn't belong. And memory is odd that way.