Guru/Guro

[TargetAlex]

The term Guru is an Indian name which directly translates to 'remover of darkness'. I see the Filipino arts use the term 'Guro', and I was wondering what the translation/history to this term was, and if there were any similarities to the Indian term.

Thanks in advance,

[Sastan]

Hinduism spread from India throughout much of Asia, especially Indonesia. There were Hindu kingdoms in the Philippines...which means Indian culture and language were absorbed there. A guru is generally considered to be a knowledgable person in it's Bengali translation (a language I speak), which is derived from Sanksrit...which is what would have been used during the Hindu period in the Philippines.

[TkdWarrior]

i hav some freind in indonesia n i hav found their culture is quite similar to our's(indian) the word Guru is literally translated as "teacher or knowledable person" tho "the remover of darkness" is like adding addjective to it... "Guru is removing the darkness of fear,insecurity,illeteration...etc etc"
n as sastan already said hinduism is spread in there...they follow some sort of shaivaism(worship lord shiv) but they hav three distict gods(shiv, brahma, vishnu) tho i forgot but they call them a bit differently...
-TkdWarrior-

[thekuntawman]

many years before the spanish came, many people in the central philippines celebrated the hindu religion. that is why the name is "bisaya", which is similar to one of the indian gods or religions.

[arnisandyz]

Originally posted by thekuntawman

[B]many years before the spanish came, many people in the central philippines celebrated the hindu religion/B]

So would you consider this Pre-Spanish, if it was many years before the Spanish came, how is it Central Philippines?

[arnisandyz]

No offense, I was just trying to show my point from another post. My use of "pre-spanish" means the same as your "many years before the spanish came". I made no mention that before or after was better than the other, just that it exists, just as you made no mention that hinduism is better or worse than christianity.

I also understand that you meant to say "what today is the Philippines", because back then, it wasn't called Philippines.

[Wingman]

Guro is a Tagalog word which means teacher. The Bisayan word for teacher is "magtutudlo". However the Spanish word "maestro" is more commonly used in everyday language.

[bart]

Guro is not only used in Tagalog. I've heard it used in many different dialects including bisaya. It's one of those borrowed words like maystro (maestro Sp.) or titser (teacher Eng.). The pure tagalog word is tagapagturo and I've also heard mangtuturo which is similar to the bisaya word you mentioned. I think that although it is not truly native to the Filipino dialects (if such a thing can be said about any word) it is very widely used among the different dialects.