The name 'Dios Buhawi' functions in the sources as a sobriquet adopted by or applied to Ponciano Elofre (sometimes spelled Elopre), a cabeza de barangay of Zamboanguita, Negros Oriental. In the late 19th century Elofre rallied people against forced taxation and expanded his movement to include religious freedom, directing a revival of the ancient rites of the babaylan. One source glosses the epithet as Hiligaynon for 'Tornado/Whirlwind God,' but the provided materials present the label as an honorific or title within a politico-religious movement rather than as the origin of a supernatural cosmology.
Contemporary accounts emphasize Elofre's personal presentation: he reputedly dressed in female clothing and was described as effeminate in the manner associated with asog shamans. The supplied sources do not give any supernatural or nonhuman physical description for 'Dios Buhawi.'
The recorded 'abilities' of Dios Buhawi are political and ritual: charismatic leadership, organizing armed resistance against Spanish colonial authorities, rallying followers (the babaylanes—reported at roughly 2,000 in one account), and directing the revival and celebration of pre‑Spanish babaylan rites. The sources do not attribute supernatural powers or magical feats to him.
Weaknesses
- othermilitary suppression by colonial forces
Wards
None recorded.
Papa Legba
The loa (spirit) of the crossroads in Haitian Vodou — gatekeeper between the human world and the world of the spirits. No other loa can be contacted until Papa Legba is first greeted and asked to open the gate.
Papa Legba
The loa (spirit) of the crossroads in Haitian Vodou — gatekeeper between the human world and the world of the spirits. No other loa can be contacted until Papa Legba is first greeted and asked to open the gate.
Aguingay
Aguingay (also Agingay) is a legendary woman from the Bulusan epic of Sorsogon, Philippines. Presented as a mortal of exceptional beauty and tragic fate, her life and death are etiologically linked to local landscape features (Mt. Bulusan and two lakes) and commemorated in an annual festival.
Alan
A class of non‑human spirit-beings in Tinguian (Philipine) folklore associated with reproductive wastes and springs; said to transform discarded menstrual blood, afterbirth, or miscarried tissue into human children whom they rear, and to dwell in fine houses near springs. Key described features include wings and backward-pointing fingers and toes.
Amalanhig
Amalanhig are Visayan undead beings in Philippine folk belief, described as aswang who failed to transfer their monstrosity or power before death and who rise from graves to attack living humans. Accounts portray them as externally human in appearance with enlarged upper canines and as predators that bite, feed with a pointed tongue in some tellings, or — in an alternative variant — tickle victims to death.
Angalo
Angalo is a primordial culture-hero and giant in Ilocano mythology credited with shaping the landscape of Luzon and explaining natural phenomena; narratives present him as the first man and an ancestral figure whose bodily acts produced mountains, valleys, seas, and celestial features.
Anggitay
A Philippine folkloric female equid–human hybrid often described with the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a horse. Frequently compared to the Greek centauride and sometimes presented as a female counterpart to the tikbalang; traditionally associated with an attraction to gemstones and jewelry and with a local homeland in Santo Tomas, Batangas in some accounts.
Anito
Anito is a category of non‑human and post‑human spiritual beings in indigenous Philippine animistic worldviews, encompassing ancestor spirits, nature spirits/local deities, and sometimes carved effigies (taotao) that house or represent those spirits. They mediate relations between the living and the unseen world, functioning as household guardians, owners of places, intercessors, or occasional agents of harm when offended.
Aswang
The most feared supernatural being in Philippine folklore — a shape-shifting monster that appears human by day but transforms at night to prey on pregnant women and children.
Bakla
Bakla is a Philippine social and gender category—commonly an assigned‑male‑at‑birth person who adopts a feminine gender expression and is often treated as a third gender. Historically some bakla served as indigenous ritual specialists (babaylan, katalonan), but the term itself denotes a social identity, not a supernatural being.
Bakunawa
A dragon- or serpent-like mythic being from Philippine tradition associated with the moon and eclipses; its actions explain lunar eclipses and some natural phenomena and were integrated into ritual practice and calendrical knowledge.
Bal-Bal
A Philippine folkloric undead/monster that steals corpses from funerals and graves and feeds on them, noted for keen scent for dead bodies, sharp claws and teeth, foul breath, and reportedly leaving a banana‑tree trunk in the coffin as a substitute for the stolen corpse.
Bathalà
In pre‑colonial Tagalog religion Bathalà (also Maykapál) functions as the transcendent supreme creator-preserver — the originator and ruler of the universe. The lexeme also served as an honorific applied to lesser tutelary spirits and portentous phenomena, and was later syncretized with the Christian Dios after Spanish contact.
Batibat
The Batibat is a vengeful, tree-dwelling female spirit in Philippine (Ilocano and Tagalog) folklore associated with causing suffocative sleep afflictions, nightmares, and sleep paralysis when trees that house it are felled and used near human sleeping spaces.
Community Record
- [1]Dios Buhawi. Wikipedia, 'Dios Buhawi'wiki
- [2]Pulahan. Wikipedia, 'Pulahan' (contextual comparison: 'dios-dios')wiki
- [3]Wikidata: Dios Buhawi. Wikidata entry for Dios Buhawi / Ponciano Elofreother