Tungkong Langit and Alunsina

Once upon a time when the earth was but a shapeless, formless void appeared the
god called Tungkung Langit (“ Pillar of Heaven”) and the virgin goddess of the
eastern skies, Alunsina (“ The Unmarried One”).
The old Visayan folklore states that Tungkung Langit fell in love with Alunsina. After
he had courted her for many years, they married and made their home in the highest
part of heaven. There the water was always warm and the breeze was forever cool,
not a bad weather was in sight, and the couple was happy. In this place in the
heavens, order and regularity began.

Tungkung Langit was a loving, hard-working god. He wanted to impose order over
the confused world. He decided to arrange the world so that the heavenly bodies
would move regularly. On the other hand, Alunsina was a lazy, jealous, selfish
goddess. She sat at the window of their home all day doing nothing but brush her
long beautiful hair. Sometimes she would leave her home, sit down by a pool near
the door, and comb her long, jet-black hair all day long. One day Tungkung Langit
told his wife that he would be away for some time. He said he must make time go on
smoothly and arrange everything in the world and did not return for a long time.
Alunsina thought he was off to see a lover, so she summoned the breeze to spy on
Tungkung Langit. Tungkung Langit caught the spying breeze and he became very
angry with Alunsina. After he returned home, he told her that it was ungodly of her
to be jealous since there were no other gods in the world except the two of them.
Alunsina resented this reproach, and they quarreled all day. In his anger, Tungkung
Langit drove his wife away. And with that, Alunsina suddenly disappeared, without
a word or a trace to where she went. A few days passed, Tungkung Langit felt very
lonely and longed for his wife. He realized that he should not have lost his temper.
But it was too late, Alunsina is gone. Their home which was once vibrant with
Alunsina’s sweet voice, his home became cold and desolate. In the morning when he
woke up, he would find himself alone. In the afternoon when he came home, he would
feel loneliness creeping deep within him.

For months Tungkung Langit lived in utter desolation. Try as he did he could not
find Alunsina. And so in his desperation, he decided to do something to forget his
sorrow and win back his wife’s favor. So he came down to earth and planted trees
and flowers that she may notice it, but she still didn’t come home. Then in
desperation, he took his wife’s jewels and scattered them in the sky. He hoped that
when Alunsina should see them she might be induced to return home.
Alunsina’s necklace became the stars, her comb the moon, and her crown the sun.
But in spite of all his efforts, Alunsina did not return home. Until now, as the story
goes, Tungkung Langit lives alone in his palace in the skies and sometimes, he would
cry out for Alunsina and his tears would fall down upon the earth as rain and his
loud voice, calling out for his wife, was believed to be the thunder during storms,
begging for her to come back to their heavenly palace once more.