Tala, based on Hindu goddess Tara, is the name of the

goddess A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...

of the morning and evening star in Tagalog mythology. Her origins are varied depending on the region.

Golden Tara __NOTOC__ The Agusan image (commonly referred to in the Philippines as the Golden Tara in allusion to its supposed, but disputed, identity as an image of a Buddhist Tara) is a , 21-karat gold statuette, found in 1917 on the banks of the Wawa R ...

, the

Majapahit Majapahit (; (eastern and central dialect) or (western dialect)), also known as Wilwatikta (; ), was a Javanese people, Javanese Hinduism, Hindu-Buddhism, Buddhist thalassocracy, thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia based on the island o ...

-era gold statue of Hindu deity Tara or Tagalog adoption Tala was found in 1918 in Agusan.H. Otley Beyer, "Outline Review of Philippine Archaeology by Islands and Provinces," Philippine Journal of Science, Vol.77, Nos.34 (July–August 1947), pp. 205-374 The legend of Tala has very close parallels to legends among non-Filipino cultures such as the India tribes of

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

, Savara and Bhuiya, as well as the Indianized

Semang The Semang are an ethnic-minority group of the Malay Peninsula. They live in mountainous and isolated forest regions of Perak, Pahang, Kelantan and Kedah of Malaysia and the southern provinces of Thailand. The Semang are among the different eth ...

(Malay tribe). The most popular myth of Tala is that she is one of the three daughters of

Bathala In the indigenous religion of the ancient Tagalogs, Bathalà/Maykapál was the transcendent Supreme God, the originator and ruler of the universe. He is commonly known and referred to in the modern era as Bathalà, a term or title which, in ...

to a mortal woman. Her sisters include

Mayari Mayari is one of the many moon deities in Philippine mythology.The Philippines has multiple moon deities because of its diverse ethnolinguistic groups and rich pre-colonial unified belief systems. In Kapampangan people, Kapampangan mythology, M ...

, the goddess of the moon, and Hanan, the goddess of morning. She is known to have supported the creation of the Tagalog traditional constellations. Tala used light spheres or orbs to ferry men to safety at night. The natives' interpretation of these orbs shifted to being perceived as deadly beings that kill men or get humans to lose their way, by the influence of the Spanish-brought tradition of the santelmos. In another, more modern story, sun god Arao (probably Apolaki) and the

moon goddess A lunar deity or moon deity is a deity who represents the Moon, or an aspect of it. These deities can have a variety of functions and traditions depending upon the culture, but they are often related. Lunar deities and Moon worship can be foun ...

Buan (probably Mayari) both had large families of stars, but Buan believed her stars could not survive the heat of Arao. They both agreed to destroy their stars. While Arao devoured his, Buan hid hers in the clouds, where they would occasionally emerge. Upon seeing this, Arao was filled with rage and is eternally in pursuit of Buan, trying to destroy her.

Eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event which occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ...

s are explained by Arao getting close enough to bite her. At dawn, Buan hides the stars and brings them forth only when her eldest daughter, Tala (the

evening and morning star ''The Evening and the Morning Star'' was an early Latter Day Saint movement newspaper published monthly in Independence, Missouri, from June 1832 to July 1833, and then in Kirtland, Ohio, from December 1833 to September 1834. Reprints of edited ...

) says the sun is too far away to pursue them. Derived from this myth are the Tagalog words ''tala'', which means "bright star", '' araw'' (sun) and '' buwan'' (moon). In

Kapampangan Kapampangan, Capampañgan or Pampangan may refer to: *Kapampangan people, of the Philippines *Kapampangan language Kapampangan, Capampáñgan, or Pampangan, is an Austronesian language, and one of the eight major languages of the Philippines. ...

mythology, a deity named Tálâ is also present. For the Kapampangans, Tálâ is the bright star and the one who introduced wet-rice culture in

Pampanga Pampanga, officially the Province of Pampanga (; ; ), is a province in Central Luzon in the Philippines. Lying on the northern shore of Manila Bay, Pampanga is bordered by Tarlac to the north, Nueva Ecija to the northeast, Bulacan to the east, ...

. Felipe Pardo (Archbishop of Manila 1686-1688), in his letter, mentioned an

anito ''Anito'', also spelled ''anitu'', refers to ancestor spirits, nature spirits, and deities in the Indigenous Philippine folk religions from the precolonial age to the present, although the term itself may have other meanings and associ ...

, which the Tagalogs from Laguna still remembered, named ''Bulactala''. The meaning of the name is "Flower of Tala" which suggest that this ''anito'' is not a personification of ''Tala'' i.e. the planet

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

.POTET, Jean-Paul G. (2018). Ancient Beliefs and Customs of the Tagalogs. Lulu.com, 2018. ISBN 0244348731, 9780244348731. Page 166.

References

Tagalog goddesses Stellar goddesses {{Asia-myth-stub