【こぼれ話】フィリップ殿下を信仰、バヌアツの村　「魂は生き続ける」

【ヤオーナネンＡＦＰ＝時事】南太平洋の島国バヌアツに、英国のエリザベス女王の夫フィリップ殿下を信仰してきた村々がある。殿下の死去を受けて村長らは１２日、女王に対し、殿下の魂は生き続けるとの弔辞を送った。（写真はバヌアツ・ヤケル村で、エリザベス英女王の夫フィリップ殿下の写真を持つ村長）
　深い緑に覆われた火山島、タナ島のヤオーナネン村とヤケル村の住民は数十年前から、先週９９歳で死去したフィリップ殿下を崇拝してきた。
　フィリップ殿下信仰が始まったのは、女王夫妻が１９７４年にバヌアツを公式訪問した後の、７０年代後半とされる。
　この現象について調査した英関係者らは、白い肌の精霊の息子が帰還するという現地の古い伝説に根差していると結論付けている。
　ギリシャ生まれのフィリップ殿下が英仏米いずれの国の出身でもないことを知った人々は、ならばタナ島の出身であるはずだと考えた可能性があるという。島を離れ、世界で最も大きな力のある女性と結婚した殿下が、いつの日か帰還し豊漁をもたらすと信じていた。
　人類学者らはこの信仰について、村民が外界との精神的つながりを構築する一つのすべとみている。
　ヤケル村の信者らは、殿下亡き今、誰が新たな心のよりどころとなってくれるのかは、まだ分からないと話している。
　村外では、フィリップ殿下の長男チャールズ皇太子や、孫のウィリアム王子、ヘンリー王子が次の信仰対象になるだろうとの見方が強い一方で、ヤケル村の村長は何も決まっていないとしている。
　村長はＡＦＰに対し、「フィリップ殿下の魂は肉体を離れたが生き続ける──魂がどこに住まうのか、断定するのは時期尚早だ」と語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/04/13-14:39）

The chiefs of remote Pacific villages that worship Prince Philip offered a message of comfort to Queen Elizabeth II Monday, saying his soul would live on.
But the worshippers of Yakel village on the Vanuatu island of Tanna said they did not yet know who would become their new spiritual leader.
For decades, inhabitants of two villages in the hinterland of the lush volcanic island of Tanna in Vanuatu -- Yaohnanen and Yakel -- have venerated Philip, who died at Windsor Castle last week at the age of 99.
Yakel village chief Albi said it was unclear how Philip's death would impact the religious movement, as his spirit was believed to be adrift and seeking a new home.
While many outsiders assumed Philip's eldest son Charles or grandsons William and Harry would succeed him in the villagers' devotions, Albi said nothing was certain.
The spirit of Prince Philip has left his body, but it lives on -- it is too soon to say where it will reside, he told AFP.
Other elders argued that Charles' succession was guaranteed in 2018, when he was given the chiefly title Mal Menaringmanu during a visit to Port Vila.
Beneath a British flag flying at half-mast, the chiefs met Monday at Yaohnanen to thrash out the issues his death has raised.
The chiefs said they were sending a confidential message to the royal family following Philip's passing.
The leaders spoke in turn during painstaking discussions on the future direction of their customary belief system, with a resolution likely to be days away.
- Pale-skinned spirit -
The Prince Philip Movement is believed to have started in the late 1970s following a state visit by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1974 to Vanuatu, then known as the New Hebrides.
British officials investigating the phenomenon concluded it stemmed from an age-old legend of a returning son who had pale skin.
Upon learning that Greek-born Philip was not originally from Britain, France or the United States, they may have decided that he must, therefore, be from Tanna.
Worshippers believed he had set off from Tanna to marry the most powerful woman in the world and would one day return bringing bounty.
Anthropologists say the movement is a way for villagers on the island to find a spiritual connection to the outside world.
Despite his reputation for politically incorrect gaffes, Philip was reportedly respectful towards the islanders' beliefs.
British journalist Matthew Baylis lived among the Philip worshippers for a short time and in his 2013 book said that the prince sent signed photographs to Tanna after receiving gifts from the villagers.
In other villages on Tanna, locals are part of the so-called John Frum Movement, a similar cult which stems from the appearance of a pale-skinned stranger in the 1930s.
Adherents to the movement, which encourages the return to traditional customs of dancing and kava-drinking, believe that a hero, John Frum will one day return, bringing with him the riches seen in the hands of American GIs during World War II -- including radios and cars.