The fearless princess
(Mindanao)
Who had a beautiful daughter
named Princess Yimbungan, whose beauty was so breathtaking that all the
handsome gods of the lakes and mountains vied for her affections and wanted to
marry her. But her father loved his daughter so much, that he did not want to
give her hand in marriage to any suitor, for he could not bear the thought of
her leaving home.
The handsome god of Mount
Apo loved Yimbungan very much and was angry when the Manobo Chief refused to
allow him to marry his beautiful daughter. Now it was an age old tradition that
the Manobo chief was obliged to give a large going to the god of Mount Apo
after the yearly harvest. Because the god was so angry at not being allowed to
marry yimbungan, he ordered her father the chief, to deliver the gong seven
days before the usual. If this gong was not delivered on time, then the Manobo
chief and his people would suffer a terrible fate a t the hands of the god of
Mount Apo.
The anxious chief gathered his councils of advisers together to discuss
how could they passively find a way of making the large gong on time. Work on
the gong began immediately. A huge fire was built with a large cooking
suspended high above it. Into the pot, which was high above their heads, the
villagers threw metal trinkets and pots and pans. The chief and the council of
advisors chanted and prayed around the blazing fire, as it grew in intensity
and melted the metal inside the cooking pot.
Once the metal had become boiling liquid, it was poured from the pot and
into a clay mould in the shape of a huge gong. Which was the size two men in
diameter.
When the metal had set and
the gong and the gong was removed from its mould, the chief struck the metal
from the large stick. But to his horror, the gong did not produce a sound! They
would have to start it all over and make the gong again.
But the second gong turned
out as disastrously as the first gong because this time, when the villagers
removed the villagers removed the gong from its clay mould, it shattered into
ten thousand tiny pieces. Time was now running for the delivery of the gong.
The worried chief called his shaman and
asked him to find a way in making a gong which would produced a beautiful sound
and which would not break in pieces.
The old shaman closed his eyes and went into a
deep trance so that he could communicate with the gods to find a way of making
the gong. After several hours, the shaman awoke from his trance, with a worried
look on his face. When the chief ask the shaman what advice the god had given him,
the shaman began to shake and tremble. He told the chief that he was unable to
repeat what advice the god had given him. No matter how many times the chief
ask him, still the shaman trembled and refused to reveal whatever the god had
told him during his trance.
Princess Yimbungan saw that
the shaman was trembling and refused to speak of his ordeal during his trance
and so she took him aside and begged to tell her what the gods had said to him,
for the sake of his father and the tribe. At first he was hesitant, but
eventually the shaman agreed to tell the secret to Yimbungan, as long as the
promised not to tell her father or any of his advisors. Yimbungan agreed to the
shaman’s terms and he whispered to her the advice that he had been given the
gods.
Yimbungan went to her father and asked that she be allowed to supevise the
next casting of the gong because she was the only one who knew the secret of
how to produce the perfect musical instrument. Her father agreed and Yimbungan
immediately ordered the villagers to stoke up a huge and prepare the large pot
high above it, into which they threw hundreds of trinkets and pans and pots.
When the boiling, molten was at just the right temperature, Yimbungan
asked for a ladder so she climbed up to the top of the cooking pot to check the
mixture. When Yimbungan reached the top of the ladder, she stopped for a moment
and looked down at her father below. “I love you, father” she whispered. And
then to everyone’s horror, Yimbungan leaped of the ladder and plunged into the
bubbling, liquid metal where she was consumed in an instant in flames. Her
father and villagers cried out in dismay but could do nothing to save the
beautiful Yimbungan.
As the grief-stricken chief fell to his knees with his head in his
hands, the shaman came over to him and placed a reassuring hand on his
shoulder. “Do not be sad,” said the shaman. “The gods told me that the only way
to produce a perfect mixture for the gong was if the flesh and blood of a
beautiful princess was added when it reached just the right temperature. Your
daughter sacrificed her life to produced the most beautiful musical instrument
in the land.
The beautiful gong was
offered to the god of mount Apo within the deadline he had given. He was
surprised at the beauty of the gong and at the sweet sound it made when it was struck.
But he became sad when he learned that the beautiful Princess Yimbungan, whom
he loved so dearly, had sacrificed her life to produce the gong.
From his domain, high above
the clouds, the god of mount Apo declared, “this gong contains the blood and
flesh of my beloved princess Yimbungan.” I will turn this beautiful gong into a
beautiful river which will sustain the people of the land surrounding it, for
eternity. In return you must always remember the courage and the sacrifice of
the beautiful princess Yimbungan that she may live forever in your hearts.”
The god of mount Apo threw the gong from up
above the clouds to the land below. As soon as the gong struck the land, there
was a blinding flash and in an instant, the gong had become a flowing river
which sparkled in the sun.
Ever since that day, the
yimbungan River, which has since become known as the yimbungan River has
provide the Manobo people with an abundance of fish and means of transportation,
so that they will never forget the ultimate sacrifice made by their beautiful
princess.
