This is still about the Austronesian house design, as a mirror of the tripartite cosmos he believed in ...
In one rendition of the tripartite cosmos (e.g., by the Higaonons and Manobos of Mindanao), a huge snake was supposed to have been placed by the gods on the central post or column that supports the earth, as the earth's protector. And the movement of this snake is supposed to be the cause of earthquakes.
For the Higaonons still, the earth is supposed to be carried by a giant bird called a galura. The letters 'l' and 'r', and 'r' and 'd' are sometimes interchangeable in our languages; hence the galura is probably the same as the garuda. The flapping of the galura's wings is supposed to be the cause of strong winds.
Back to the snake coiled on the supporting column of the middle-world or earth -- in Maranaw houses, the extension of floor beams (i.e., the panolong) would often have naga carvings, as illustrated below. One can easily imagine thus, the extension of the naga's body as being invisibly coiled around the houses' columns or stilts. And this imagery once again mirrors the guardian naga's coiling around the huge post that supports the middle-world or earth.
|