Balyana

The Balyanas served as the priestesses of the ancient Bikol. Women have the capacity to connect to the Gugurangs or Bathala, through their rituals where they sing and enter into a trance to journey into the diferrent dimension so they can see what the gods want to show. They are powerful in the society, that when the Spanish conquistadores came they labeled the Balyanas as ghouls or aswangs.


I dedicate this illustration to my nanay Jo Bisuña, a modern balyana.