Philippine Mythical Creatures Facts & Worksheets

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Mythical creatures possess supernatural abilities that are beyond normal reality. From the hairy kapre and mischievous tiyanak to fearsome tikbalang and enchanted duwendes, hundreds of diverse mythological creatures occur in the mythologies of the Philippines. These creatures consist of beasts, monsters, and enchanted beings of more than 140 ethnic groups in the country.

See the fact file below for more information on the Philippine Mythical Creatures or alternatively, you can download our 24-page Philippine Mythical Creatures worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

GENERAL TERMS

• Aside from their specific name, some mythical creatures are also introduced through a genetic term that covers other similar supernatural creatures.
• Aswang is the bracket term given to shape-shifting creatures that turn into a number of forms, such as the blood-sucking vampire, self-segmenting viscera sucker, man-eating weredog, revengeful or evil-eye witch, and the carrion-feeding ghoul.
• Sirena generalizes water creatures with a human-like upper body and the body of a fish from the waist down, just like the merfolks.
• Duwende classifies small magical beings that inhabit the land.
• Engkanto groups highly attractive, enchanted, human-like environmental beings without any philtrum (the vertical groove between the base of the nose and the upper lip). They usually emit the scent of flowers.
• Higante categorizes giant humanoid creatures that wander on land.

MULTO

• Multo originates from the Spanish word muerto, which means “dead”.
• A go-to creature when something eerie happens, a multo, or “ghost” in English, is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that reveals itself to the living.
• It varies from an invisible, see-through, or slightly visible presence, nebulous, or slender shape to realistic, human-like forms. Anthropologists relate this notion to early beliefs that the multo is a person within a person, or the person’s spirit.
• A White Lady is classified as a multo, known to appear in a number of rural and remote areas. She is assumed to have experienced a tragic death or suffered trauma in life. Common backstories of a White Lady involve themes of losing a child or husband, unlike the Lady in Red ghost, who is linked to a neglected lover or prostitute.

KAPRE

• The kapre is a creature described as a tree giant, standing around seven to nine feet tall. A big, black, terrifying, hairy, creature of muscular stature with glowing red eyes, the kapre enjoys lounging on trees as he puffs his fine cigar that never burns out.
• It is said that it prefers to dwell in big trees, such as acacias, mangoes, bamboo, and banya, or balete in a Philippine context.
• It is also believed to be nocturnal and omnivorous, and it does not necessarily have evil intentions.
• A kapre may even reach out to people to offer friendship or if it is captivated by a woman. It is also a mischievous creature and is believed to play pranks on humans, frequently making tourists and hikers become lost and disoriented on their way to the mountains or into the woods.

NUNO SA PUNSO

• A Tagalog word for an “old man of the mound”, a nuno is a dwarf-like nature spirit of the elderly. It is characterized as a tiny old man with a long beard, different from a duwende or dwarf in Philippine mythology.
• When a tree is to be cut down, or a piece of virgin ground is disturbed, or in many other instances, permission is requested from the nuno to avoid bad luck that would come from angering it. He is believed to dwell in places such as underneath large rocks or in trees, riverbanks, caves, or a backyard.
• Nunos have the supernatural ability to curse trespassers. They can cause swelling or pain to any part of the intruder’s body, make them vomit blood or urinate black fluid, and cause excessive hair growth on the back.
• To counter a nuno’s curse, victims are taken to an albularyo, a Philippine practitioner of traditional medicine who will perform different forms of divination called pagtatawas. The victim’s family members are sometimes asked to offer something to the nuno, such as fruits or other food, drink, or material objects.
• As protectors of the Earth, nunos are able to sense good and evil.

TIKBALANG

• A half-man and half-horse creature in Philippine mythology known for lurking in mountains and forests, the tikbalang, or tigbalang, is a demon horse possessing a horse’s head and hooves and the body of a human.
• Tikbalangs scare travelers, causing misorientation and playing tricks on humans, such as making them go back to an arbitrary path no matter how far they go or turn.
• To prevent this from happening, a traveler should wear their shirt inside out, ask permission from the tikbalang to pass by, or stay silent while in the forest in order to not disturb or offend the creature.
• A common Filipino saying claims that rain from a clear sky represents a tikbalang getting married, or in Tagalog, “may kinakasal na tikbalang”.
• In some ethnic groups, the tikbalang can transform itself into a humanoid or can even turn invisible to humans.

TIYANAK

• A baby who died after receiving baptismal rites, the tiyanak is a vampire-like creature that cries in the jungle to lure unwary travelers.
• After death, these babies go to a place known as Limbo, a chamber of hell that unbaptized dead people fall into, and they are converted into evil spirits and allowed to return to the mortal realm in the form of flesh-eating goblins.
• The tiyanak can also be the child of a woman and a demon, or an aborted fetus that comes back to life to take revenge on its mother.

TIKTIK

• Also called a wakwak, the tiktik is a vampiric, bird-like creature that is believed to grab humans at night as its prey.
• The tiktik is often characterized as having long razor-sharp talons and a pair of wings that resemble those of a bat. It uses its talons or claws to make incisions on its victims to pull the heart out. Its wings are also assumed to be as sharp as a knife.
• It produces a sound by flapping its wings whilst flying as it searches for its victims. The louder the sound, the farther it is from its victim; however, if the sound becomes faint, the tiktik is close and ready to attack.

MANANANGGAL

• An aswang that can fly after detaching itself from the lower half of its body, the manananggal is characterized as terrifying, sometimes hideous, and is usually depicted as a female with gigantic bat-like wings.
• The term manananggal originates from the Tagalog word tangal, meaning to “remove” or “separate”.
• Legend says the manananggal loves to prey on sleeping, pregnant women, using its long and slender proboscis-like tongue to suck the hearts of fetuses or the blood of someone sleeping.
• It also haunts and annoys newlyweds or couples in love. Due to being left at the altar, grooms-to-be are among its primary victims.
• The lower torso remains standing and is the more vulnerable of the two halves. Sprinkling salt or rubbing crushed garlic or ash on top of the lower torso causes death to the creature, as the upper torso would not be able to reattach itself and would just vanish by sunrise.

SIGBIN

• Believed to look like a hornless goat with huge ears and a long flexible tail, the sigbin is a creature that comes out at night to absorb the blood of victims from the shadows. It is also said that the sigbin walks backwards with its head lowered between its back legs.
• The sigbin can turn invisible to other creatures, especially to humans.
• Based on legend, there are families referred to as Sigbinan, or those who own a sigbin, whose members have the power to order these creatures and are believed to store the sigbin in jars made of clay.

MANGKUKULAM

• Known as a Philippine witch, the mangkukulam uses black magic and other related sorcery, and she is believed to include diverse kinds of people with different cultural backgrounds depending on the ethnic group they are associated with.
• The mangkukulam is different from what the Western people think of as a witch, given that each ethnic tribe in the Philippines has its own definition and practices connected to witches.
• What makes mambabarang different from a mangkukulam is that the former uses magical insects, which are released after incantations, to cause harm to victims.

Philippine Mythical Creatures Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Philippine Mythical Creatures across 24 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Philippine Mythical Creatures worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the mythical creatures which possess supernatural abilities that are beyond normal reality. From the hairy kapre and mischievous tiyanak to fearsome tikbalang and enchanted duwendes, hundreds of diverse mythological creatures occur in the mythologies of the Philippines. These creatures consist of beasts, monsters, and enchanted beings of more than 140 ethnic groups in the country.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

• Philippine Mythical Creatures Facts
• Classify That Creature
• Mythical Creature Search
• Mga Aswang
• Creature Quiz
• Chosen Creature
• Scary Spotted
• Spooky Alphabet
• Creatures of the Water
• Creature Project
• Creature Comics

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Link will appear as Philippine Mythical Creatures Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, February 10, 2021