The Naga in Naga

The meaning of the name Naga, our city, has lately changed. For a long time, we have associated the name to the presence of Narra trees, the local name for which is said to be Naga.

The development of scholarship focusing on Southeast Asia and the indigenous communities in the region has brought about a new awareness among researchers from the Philippines. Where before the tendency was to look to the West, i.e. Europe, in learning about themselves, the new post-colonial thinkers, started to examine the world around them, a position that enabled them to focus on things that were then taken for granted. Myths and folklore that were - by theory and by discrimination - considered false stories and indicative of primitive thinking - were started to be sourced as explanations for both the origin and nature of things. Local knowledge started to lose its stigma of being inferior and began to gain currency in terms of authentic wellspring of ideas.

Now the theory of the tree is fading and in its place, like some kind of imperial image, the dragon or snake is the new explanation for the name of this city.

The dragon or snake is called "Naga" in the Southeast Asian myths, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia, two countries that are natural kin to the cultures of the Philippines.

This development in the origin myth of the city is important especially in the light of the coming tercentenary celebration of the belief in the Lady of Peñafrancia, a figure that can be imagined both as deity in the pantheon of Southeast Asian belief systems and an icon of such power and magnitude when viewed in the dominant Marian devotion.

The "Naga" is interesting because it is, as Robert Wessing of Leiden University points out, one of the "symbolic animals in the land between the Waters." These animals serve as "markers of place and transition."

The "Naga" is not easy to categorize: it is described in many stories as an underground being but later in the more articulated tales, it becomes a feathered snake, one that is capable of flight. Whatever it is, the Naga is a powerful creature that possesses the splendor of negative and positive energies. When offended, it can cause flooding; when appeased it is the harbinger of peace and prosperity.

The word "naga" which means serpent is found in Indian mythology. According to Stutley and Stutley, the Nagas are sometimes depicted as half-human, half-serpent. These beings are illustrated as sometimes wearing a crown. This is most revealing because the Bakunawa is also pictured that way in Bikol almanacs, where the Naga/Bakunawa is the main element in geomancy or earth magic, or our own Feng Shui. The parallelism is strong because in many Indian tales, the Nagas are considered to be the guardians of wealth and prosperity. In our Kalendaryong Bikol, the great Serpent demarcates the points of prosperity and wellness. The secret of a good life, good living, and good housing is how one is able to position the dwelling place in relation to the head or the tail of the Serpent.

As a creature, the Naga is closely identified with bodies of water or the river.

The Bikol River with its tributary Naga River completes the mystery of the Naga, the mythical being, and Naga, the place.

In the same paper, which saw publication in the Asian Folklore Studies of the Nanzan Institute of Religion and Culture, Wessing spoke of the "the cosmologically ideal location for a village or court is between or at the confluence of two rivers." Does Naga qualify for this cosmic ideal?

The place called Naga, as history would put it, was not really this city as we have now. This was Nueva Caceres and Naga, the settlement, was across the River.

The mythologist asks: Did the Serpent guard the old settlement and remained there while the new faith brought a new divinity to bless the new land?