Anitism

Anitism is the native religion of the lowland Philippines, best recorded among the Tagalogs of Luzon, where Spanish missionaries described their spirit worship, pag-aanito, from the 1570s. It rests on Austronesian beliefs, to which Hindu and Buddhist elements were added, probably indirectly, through contact with Srivijaya and Majapahit.

At its head stands Bathala, the creator, who was thought too distant to trouble with daily worship. People instead made offerings to the anito: lesser gods, spirits and the souls of ancestors, called kaluluwa. Feasts to the anito were led by priestesses, the katulunan, who might also stand in for an absent datu. Omen birds, the tigmamanukan, were watched before any journey.

After the Spanish conquest the images were destroyed and the missionaries pressed Christianity on the villages, but many of the rites survived inside Catholic practice.