THE news that Mayon and Taal, the country’s first and second most active volcanoes, are acting up at about the same time is a blunt reminder that the earth is a dynamic ball of fire and molten rock in its core, and that the Philippines sits right in the center of the Pacific Rim of Fire.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) has raised Alert Level 2 over Mayon Volcano in Albay as sulfur dioxide emissions increased and hot rocks fell from the summit’s lava dome.
Over in the Batangas-Cavite area, Taal Volcano has been emitting over 5,800 tons of sulfur dioxide a day and volcanologists confirmed that there was upwelling of hot volcanic fluids in the main crater. Phivolcs said the volcano’s plume emissions reached 3,000 meters high, endangering aviation and the health of residents in Balete, Laurel, and Agoncillo in Batangas due to the volcanic smog.
As this happens, yet another volcano on Negros Island, the Kanlaon which has been under Alert Level 1 since 2020, showed an increase in volcanic earthquakes and sulfur dioxide emission.
‘They believe that throwing these offerings in the volcano will bring blessings and good luck courtesy of the gods…’
As the Philippines has 24 active and 276 inactive volcanoes, Filipinos are already accustomed to living near these zones of fire and boiling mud. But in neighboring Indonesia where volcanoes are numerous and even more active and turbulent, thousands of Hindu worshippers still genuinely believe — in this day and age of computers, AI, and the Internet — that the gods of Mount Bromo in eastern Java could be appeased and cajoled by tossing livestock, food, fruit and other offerings including cash.
The centuries-old religious tradition Yadnya Kasada festival is sustained year after year by thousands of Tengger tribe members from the highlands, with goats, chickens, vegetables carried on their backs, with one senior tribesman even tagging at a baby calf. They believe that throwing these offerings in the volcano will bring blessings and good luck courtesy of the gods, hoping that good health and a bountiful harvest would enable them to return the following year for the same routine.
But villagers around Mount Bromo have more mundane and practical concerns, as they scamper with pocket nets and containers to catch the goodies being tossed from the peak of the volcano. The scene is so interesting and amusing to watch that local and foreign tourists visit the place every year.
The festival was inspired by 15th century folklore from the Majapahit kingdom, a Javanese Hindu-Buddhist empire that stretched across Southeast Asia, including what was to become the Philippines. The legend says a princess, Roro Anteng, and her husband, unable to bear children after years of marriage, begged the gods for help. They were promised 25 children with the understanding that they would sacrifice their young child by throwing him into Mount Bromo.
Both the Tenggerese and the Java villagers are putting their lives on the line by their presence in restless Mount Bromo, for religious and economic reasons, respectively. The Filipinos living near Mayon, Taal, and Kanlaon just want to lead normal lives, doing whatever is needed to survive, and waiting for assistance from the government, for they know that the gods of their ancestors have left these volcanoes long, long ago.
