Nagas, Plesiosaurs and Rainbow Serpents

 

Nagas are the South Asian (Indian and Indonesian) equivalents of Dragons, and the name "Naga" simply means "Snake", In Indonesia the Nagas tend to be a very peculiar sort of snake with a distinct neck; shoulders with forefins, wings or legs; a short thick torso tapering down into what looks like a distinct tail also. In more elaborate depictions they are shown with several loops in the water following the head and neck in typical "Sea-Serpent" style. The range of size in depicted Nagas is very great, from less than human size (three feet?) to a very great size, perhaps over fifty feet long.

 

 

 

 I had seen a similar pattern to this Suma Islands textile [below] before from the Phillipines before but I did not have a photo for it. It occurred to me that the creature on the other textile had a body plan like a Plesiosaur. One of the styles of depiction on the other cloth had an enlarged "Snake Head" and this one has "Devil Heads" instead. at any rate, the heads are mostly symbolic, the important thing is that the depictions are not showing ordinary crocodiles but something different.

(The lizards shown in the center are possibly very large and unclassified monitor lizards)

 

Cast of a Plesiosaur fossil, to show the similar body plan.

 

The two Batak carved wooden panels below show something like the local version of the Tao-tieh (Taotie) Chinese dragon head and once again it seems that the spiral design behind the eyes represents the Euryapsid skull openings that Plesiosaurs have (but that snakes do not have) The pineal 'eye' may also be intended by thesmall diamond shape above the eyes but situated medially: the boxed-off area in front of the eyes may indicate the area where the nostrils are located.

It turns out that in Northern Australia the Rainbow Snake (also known in Southern India) is a local variation on the Naga design. I am borrowing the logo of the Aboriginal Northern Land Council (This is not meant in any way to be disrespectful, I just needed to illustrate the design). Compare to the body plan of the first Indonesian Naga at the top of this article. An earlier blog noted the comparison of the Rainbow Serpent's teeth to PLesiosaur teeth: I did not make the comparison myself but it is also a good argument.

And finally it seems that the Nagas of Indonesia carry over intio New Guinea and Melanesia, where some of the native names sound as if they are variations of "Naga" and "Naga Raja" (King-of-Serpents) in the sield below, the Naga is shown in an ambiguous way, either as the top half done X-ray style with the throat indicated from the mouth down and then a schematic herart (The curlicues at the ends of the jaws is a design also known from Indonesia) and then as the top half, showing the twi foreflippers in the same manner as the Rotomahana sighting off New Zealand in the 1800s: and it is also a stlyised profile with both head and tail ends up, and indicating both fore and rear flippers.

 The catline face at the top of the shield is also interesting and I wonder if there are local reports of "Phantom panthers" to go along with the catfaced design?

Here is a comparison of a Plesiosaur reconstruction by National Geographic

to compare to the "Winged Foreflippers" top-part sighting design.

 Such sightings are infrequent but have been recorded in the Baltic sea, in the North

Atlantic, near New Zealand, off the US East Coast, off the US West Coast and near Japan.

Orang Pendek (Human Pygmy Version) Sighted

Rangers sight pygmies in Way Kambas National Park

Oyos Saroso HN, The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung | Headlines | Sat, March 30 2013, 10:43 AM

 

Orang Pendek, Humanoid type

 

 

Rangers patrolling the Way Kambas National Park (TNWK) in Lampung claim to have sighted dozens of pygmies in a number of areas across the park.

According to them, the pygmies sport dreadlocks, measure no more than 50 centimeters tall and do not wear any clothing.

“A number of rangers claim the pygmies grow their dreadlocks down to their waist. The first sighting by the rangers was on March 17 at 6:40 p.m. local time,” said TNWK spokesman Sukatmoko.

He added that several rangers patrolling the park claimed the pygmies were seen moving to the PT Nusantara Tropical Fruit (NTF) plantation. They were seen running from the TNWK forest to the plantation.

“Apparently, many fruit trees, such as banana, guava and dragon fruit, are grown in the NTF plantation area. If the pygmies like fruit, they might have entered the plantation for food,” said Sukatmoko.

Forest rangers have secured a number of points at the border between TNWK and PT NTF, concerned that the safety of the pygmies is at stake due to the presence of many workers at the plantation.

“We will try to anticipate the situation with the help of local residents and PT NTF employees. If they come across the pygmies, they should not harm them,” he said.

Sukatmoko said that based on information conveyed by forest rangers, the group of pygmies consisted of around 15 individuals. When the rangers spotted them, the pygmies, believed to be an isolated group of people, were walking through a swamp.

“The rangers monitored their presence for around 15 minutes from a distance of around 35 meters. When the rangers were about to approach them, they immediately hid behind trees and vanished. They ran very fast,” said Sukatmoko.

He added that on March 20, patrolling rangers sighted the pygmies again in the same place, but this time they observed from further away and for a shorter time.

Sukatmoko said his office was unsure whether the pygmies had always lived in TNWK, or whether they were newcomers from other islands. To record their presence, the TNWK center has installed surveillance cameras in the forest.

“We can record pictures of the pygmies at night. After it’s proven they exist, we will immediately inform the Forestry Ministry, or even the President,” he said.

Sukatmoko promised his office would protect the pygmies and not disturb them.

“We believe they really exist in TNWK. We’re making strenuous efforts to find them. In the event that we do, we hope the government protects them. Our rangers have seen them with their own eyes, but have yet to take pictures of them,” he said, adding the center had allowed academics and researchers to trace and study the group.

Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) Lampung chapter campaign director Mukri Friatna said the pygmies had been sighted in a number of forests in Indonesia, such as in Kerinci Seblat (West Sumatra), Liang Bua (Flores) and Bone (South Sulawesi).

“In Kerinci Seblat, they are known as the orang pendek [short people], in Flores as homo floresiensis, and in Bone as members of the Oni tribe. In Mount Kerinci, the creature is depicted as having inverted legs but is very agile among the dense foliage,” said Mukri.

TNWK, located in East Lampung, covers 125,000 hectares. The forest, more than 40 percent of which has been damaged, is home to the Sumatran elephant, rhinoceros, tigers and a number of other rare wildlife species.

 

 

Alternative Info on the Orang Pendek

Alternative Info on the Orang Pendek

While browsing the internet and looking for folk art of Indonesian Nagas, I came across an art dealer's site which displayed this little woodcarving of a "Dwarf" (Pygmy)from the Banyuwangi region of Java: and the Banyuwangis claim to have been the ancestors of Balinese art. Here is the link to the page but the dealer is clearly only guessing as to the actual nature and meaning of the piece:
http://www.mcdurieux.com/indostan/indo/f033.html


Actually, after looking over this carving I was struck by several similarities to the famous description of the Sedapa (Orang Pendek)by Van Heerwarden in 1918, especially in the detailed description of the facial features. I have always felt from Van Heerwarden's description that there were populations of human pygmys involved in the sightings on Sumatra as well as more than one type of unknown apes. There are supposedly populations of Pygmies in the Andaman Islands, Malaysia, elsewhere in Indonesia and in the Phillipines, and from this wood carving's appearance, the Pygmies of Sumatra are of a very similar appearance.

Quoting from Ivan Sanderson's Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life, pages 221-224:


Meanwhile, there was Mr. Van Heerwarden timber-cruising from the other side (the northeast) of the Barisans in Palembang province, but down in the swamp forests by the coast near the Banjoe-Asin River. In 1918 he spotted two series of tracks on the banks of a small creek in the Musi River district; one larger than the other, as if of a mother and child, as he remarks. These were perfectly human but exceedingly small. Later he discovered that a Mr. Breikers had also found such tracks in the same area. He then started making serious inquiries among—and this is of considerable significance in view of the Indonesian Government's statement given above—the Kubus; and he found three who had all, but unknown to the others, seen Gugus (i.e. Sedapas, or Orang Pendeks) in that region. Their descriptions agreed perfectly in that they were about 5 feet tall, walked erect, were clothed in black hair that formed a mane, and had prominent teeth. Van Heerwarden later heard that a hunter had found a dead one and tried to carry it back to his village but its body was much decomposed and the hunter himself died shortly afterward. Another, he learned, was said to have been spotted in a river and surrounded by locals in canoes but it dived adroitly and escaped.

By this time Mr. van Heerwarden was convinced that there really was some small hairy Hominid in these forests and he devoted much time to inquiries among the local hunters as to where they were most frequently seen. In time he was directed to a particular spot and decided to do exactly the right thing—namely, go there, sit down, shut up, and wait. And, he appears to have been well rewarded for, unless he is not only a complete but most adept liar, he got an extremely good look at one of the elusive creatures. He tells us that he was wild-pig hunting in an area of forest surrounded by rivers named Pulu-Rimau, in October, 1923, and, having failed to come up with the sounder (herd) decided to do this quiet sitting, and so went into hiding. For an hour or so nothing happened and then something in a tree caught his attention. He says:


"Then I happened by chance to look round to the left and spotted a slight movement in a small tree that stood alone. By now it was time for me to be going home, for it was not advisable to journey through such country after sundown. But all the same I was tempted out of curiosity to go and see what had caused the movement I had noticed. What sort of animal could be in that tree? My first quick look revealed nothing. But after walking round the tree again, I discovered a dark and hairy creature on a branch, the front of its body pressed tightly against the tree. It looked as if it were trying to make itself inconspicuous and felt that it was about to be discovered.

It must be a sedapa. Hunters will understand the excitement that possessed me. At first I merely watched and examined the beast which still clung motionless to the tree. While I kept my gun ready to fire, I tried to attract the sedapa's attention, by calling to it, but it would not budge. What was I to do? I could not get help to capture the beast. And as time was running short I was obliged to tackle it myself. I tried kicking the trunk of the tree, without the least result. I laid my gun on the ground and tried to get nearer the animal. I had hardly climbed 3 or 4 feet into the tree when the body above me began to move. The creature lifted itself a little from the branch and leant over the side so that I could then see its hair, its forehead and a pair of eyes which stared at me. Its movements had at first been slow and cautious, but as soon as the sedapa saw me the whole situation changed. It became nervous and trembled all over its body. In order to see it better I slid down on to the ground again.

The sedapa was also hairy on the front of its body; the colour there was a little lighter than on the back. The very dark hair on its head fell to just below the shoulder-blades or even almost to the waist. It was fairly thick and very shaggy. [Some of the Pygmy peoples in Indonesia have short curled hair like the African Pygmies and others have longer bushier hair, including "Afros"-DD] The lower part of its face seemed to end in more of a point than a man's; this brown face was almost hairless, whilst its forehead seemed to be high rather than low. Its eyebrows were the same colour as its hair and were very bushy. The eyes were frankly moving; they were of the darkest colour, very lively, and like human eyes. The nose was broad with fairly large nostrils, but in no way clumsy; it reminded me a little of a Kaffir's. Its lips were quite ordinary, but the width of its mouth was strikingly wide when open. Its canines showed clearly from time to time as its mouth twitched nervously. They seemed fairly large to me, at all events they were more developed than a man's. The incisors were regular. The colour of the teeth was yellowish white. Its chin was somewhat receding. For a moment, during a quick movement, I was able to see its right ear which was exactly like a little human ear. Its hands were slightly hairy on the back. Had it been standing, its arms would have reached to a little above its knees; they were therefore long, but its legs seemed to me rather short. I did not see its feet, but I did see some toes which were shaped in a very normal manner. This specimen was of the female sex and about 5 feet high. [The arms on the figurine are proportionately long and the legs proportionately short: this is recorded in normal Pygmy populations. Pygmies can also show abundant but short body hair-DD]

There was nothing repulsive or ugly about its face, nor was it at all ape-like, although the quick nervous movements of its eyes and mouth were very like those of a monkey in distress. I began to walk in a calm and friendly way to the sedapa, as if I were soothing a frightened dog or horse; but it did not make much difference. When I raised my gun to the little female I heard a plaintive "hu-hu," which was at once answered by similar echoes in the forest nearby.

I laid down my gun and climbed into the tree again. I had almost reached the foot of the bough when the sedapa ran very fast out along the branch, which bent heavily, hung on to the end and then dropped a good 10 feet to the ground. I slid hastily back to the ground, but before I could reach my gun again, the beast was almost 30 yards away. It went on running and gave a sort of whistle. Many people may think me childish if I say that when I saw its flying hair in the sights I did not pull the trigger. I suddenly felt that I was going to commit murder. I lifted my gun to my shoulder again, but once more my courage failed me. As far as I could see, its feet were broad and short, but that the sedapa runs with its heels foremost is quite untrue. "


This has always seemed to me to be a most straightforward report so it is interesting to note the reception it received when poor Mr. Van Heerwarden finally told of it. Even the equable Heuvelmans cannot restrain himself from quoting certain of these expressions by people who were neither there nor, in some cases had then ever been anywhere near Sumatra, and most notably those of the same Dr. K. W. Dammerman of Buitenzorg. This is so delightful that I herewith re-reproduce it for your edification and guidance as a glorious example of the sort of rubbish spouted by experts and for which you have to be constantly on the lookout. This savant, after saying that no white man except Mr. Van Heerwarden had ever so much as said that he had seen a Sedapa[Heuvelmans adds that this statement is untrue-DD], goes on to say: "But this writer is almost too exact in his description of the animal, so it does not seem impossible that the incident was either based on his imagination [i.e. that he was a liar—ITS], or, that he has written it strongly impressed by the stories about the Orang Pendek. But, even while admitting the general truth of the story [i.e. not daring to say that he was a liar—ITS], would it not be more likely that the animal in question was an Orang utan?" No it would not. I am wondering if Dr. Dammerman knew any zoology; I can hardly credit it.


Two Pygmy (Negrito) Women From the Philippines, about a Century Apart. (Woman Anthropologist to scale)

Now for the other side of the coin, there is the earlier report by Oostingh, which Sanderson mentions directly before Van Heerwarden's account:


In 1917, according to Westenek, a Mr. Oostingh, while in the Boekits and near the same mountain where Dr. Jacobson had been when the hunters said they saw a Sedapa, became "bushed." He wandered around in circles for several hours, as one invariably does if one gets lost in high forest. Suddenly, as his account goes, he came upon what he thought was a local man sitting on a log with his back toward him. Overjoyed to see any human being, as one also invariably is when so exhausted, he went forward but then got a profound shock. I let him tell about it in his own words, as taken from Westenek's account in De Tropische Natuur, and translated by Richard Garnett. This reads:


"I saw that he had short hair, cut short, I thought; and I suddenly realised that his neck was oddly leathery and extremely filthy. "That chap's got a very dirty and wrinkled neck!" I said to myself.

His body was as large as a medium-sized native's and he had thick square shoulders, not sloping at all. The colour was not brown, but looked like black earth, a sort of dusty black, more grey than black.

He clearly noticed my presence. He did not so much as turn his head, but stood up on his feet; he seemed to be quite as tall as I (about 5 feet 9 inches).

Then I saw that it was not a man, and I started back, for I was not armed. The creature calmly took several paces, without the least haste, and then, with his ludicrously long arm, grasped a sapling, which threatened to break under its weight, and quietly sprang into a tree, swinging in great leaps alternately to right and to left.

My chief impression was and still is: "What an enormously large beast!" It was not an orang-utan; I had seen one of these large apes a short time before at Artis [the Amsterdam Zoo].

It was more like a monstrously large siamang, but a siamang has long hair, and there was no doubt that it had short hair. I did not see its face, for, indeed, it never once looked at me."


Here again, the most obvious suggestion is, just as Mr. Oostingh himself says, that the creature was an enormous Siamang, perhaps a lone old one somewhat short on hair.
That it was more likely an ape than a Hominid is also perhaps further impressed upon us by the remark that it had "ludicrously long arm[s]." I do not know what to make of this report but I certainly wish that the creature had left some footprints. [Sanderson quote ends]


The part about the creature being short on hair is easily enough dealt with: several older male apes develop some degree of hair loss and this creature was going bald, as some individual chimpanzees are prone to doing. However the creature scarcely belongs with the other Orang Pendek reports because it is NOT SMALL. It is the size of a regular human being. I did a pasteup of a clip art Siamang illustration to point up the difference-the size is MUCH larger than any siamang should be expected to be. An Orang Pendek report would ordinarily be expected to be about the same size as an ordinary siamang. So on Sumatra it seems we have reports of both giants and dwarfs among both siamangs and orangutans, and human Pygmys as well.
[Ordinary-sized siamang compared to Oostingh's sighting]
Best Wishes, Dale D.

Oriental Dragon Boats

[Dragon Boat Racing By Yolks on Deviant Art]

After producing a blog on the Viking Dragon longboats, it only seemed reasonable that should also do a posting for the also well-known Dragon boats of the Orient. These practically also include the similar Naga boats of South Asia and Indonesia. In many parts of the Orient, Dragon-boat races are the high point of annual celebrations. There are also Naga (Snakeship) races in South India.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_boat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Boat_Festival
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_boat_race

A plan for making a Dragon boat model for a small boat of ten paddlers or so. This drawing is better for showing the figurehead end of the assembly. Traditionally such craft are steered by an oar in the back end. The drum is shown most prominently here.


Dragon boats are usually canoes that are paddled and not rowed, with the major distinction being that paddlers face front and can see where they are going while oarsmen face to the stern of their ships. Dragon boats are typically from 50 to 100 feet long and can be as much as six feet wide, and they typically have about twenty paddlers per boat in a boat race. Modern competetive Dragon rboat races can have 40 to 50 paddlers. They can also have the same sort of high figureheads but these can be removed, but more usually the dragon figurehead is held low and pointed straight ahead. This is perhaps more natural because the Water-dragons themselves must travel at speed with the head and neck down and pointed straight ahead. Dragon boats also usually have a drum with a drummer strategically placed to provide motivation and rhythm.



The traditional Dragon-Figurehead on a Dragon boat would be about the same size as the dragon's head on a Viking longship, about two to three feet, but most competetive racing boats any more have much reduced heads, at a minimum size to streamline the craft. the forward portion holding the figurehead could easily be 6 to 12 feet traditionally, so the absolute size of the figurehead is close to the absolute size of the Viking longboat figurehead, but only just the last end part of it. A Longneck with a head and forepart of the neck (foreward of the heavier base) could be in the range of fifty feet long and six feet wide, and so the idea seems to have been that the size of the canoe was indeed traditionally meant to indicate the approximate dimension of the Dragon itself (A statement to this effect is made in Burma at least.)

One feature of the figureheads for both the Dragon boat and Naga boat figureheads is that often there is an indication of foreflippers (or wings) at the base of the neck in the representation.


[Dragon Boat Racing, photo from Wikipedia]



Child riding a Naga as a boat from Indonesia, traditional artwork on sale over the internet, and a Naga Boat (comparable to a Chinese Dragon boat) below it.



















These Nagaboats also tend to have the figurehead about the same dimensions as a Viking Longboat but with the neck lying down
As mentioned, this is likely the Longneck's ordinary position when swimming and especially when swimming at speed. So that part makes sense. Also from compiling statistics about the necks of Longnecks and figuring out how they must work, there are basically three sections to a Longneck's neck: the front part is thinnest and most flexible, the rear part is thickest and least flexible and used to back up the forepart of the neck when swimming, in reaction to the water pressure; while the middle part is intermediate between the front and the back. The Dragon boats and Naga boats do not only show the three sections properly in right relationships to one another, they very frequently scale out at the right absolute size to match the reports. Once again, this does not necessarily extend to modern competetive racing boats, where the Dragon head may be reduced to the minimum possible size.