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© Marco Fernando. All rights reserved.

I made this image to show that Filipino like me still embraced some parts of our culture. I turned the rooster into a sarimanok. The Sarimanok is derived from a totem bird of the Maranao people, called Itotoro. According to the Maranao people, the Itotoro is a medium to the spirit world via its unseen twin spirit bird called Inikadowa. The Sarimanok is also believed to have originated from the Garuda of Hindu epic Ramayana adopted into Maharadia Lawana of Maranao people, which in turn was later adopted to an Islamic legend after Southern Philippines converted to Islam. According to the later Islamic legend, Muhammad found a rooster in the first of the seven heavens. The bird was so large its crest touched the second heaven. Its crow roused every living creature except man. Judgement day would come once this celestial rooster ceased to crow. A Maranao legend also says of a Sultan's daughter being swept by a colorful rooster that became a handsome young man and they were never seen ever again. The Sultan then created replicas of the bird to remember his daughter by.

TAGS: Philippines, Rooster