"Ibaloy" is formed from the prefix i which denotes an ethnic group or people, and baloy, which translates as "house," and thus refers to "those who dwell in houses." In the Ibaloy language, i denotes origin or location, while baloy refers to a specific location within the area.
Thus, the word also refers to "people from Baloy." Ibaloi, Inibaloy, Inibaloi, and Nabaloi are variants. In Ilocano, "Ibaloy" also means "the language of outsiders"; thus, Inibaloy is the "language spoken by the Igorot" from the Ilocano perspective. However, the Ibaloy language incorporates aspects of Ilocano and Pangasinan.
The Ibaloy are an ethnic group indigenous to Baguio and the surrounding environs, which include the majority of Benguet, the Pangasinan mountains, La Union, and Nueva Vizcaya. The Ibaloy coexist with the Kankanaey and, to a lesser extent, the Kalanguya in this area. The Ibaloy live primarily in Baguio and the towns of Kabayan, Bokod, Sablan, Tublay, La Trinidad, Tuba, Itogon, and southern portions of Kapangan and Atok—all of which are located in Benguet Province's southeastern two-thirds. Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya, is primarily Ibaloy.
The Ibaloy people are strong, robust, and often fair-skinned. There is no evidence in the traditions or historical records that these people were descended from Limahong's invading armies, as some researchers hypothesize. The Ibaloy population was estimated to be 15,000 in 1908. They numbered 131,916 in 2000, including 95,968 in Benguet. Additionally, they constitute approximately 4% of the populations of Baguio (9,738) and Nueva Vizcaya (16,017), and 1% in Apayao (979).
History of the Ibaloy People
Ibaloy schoolgirls, Benguet (National Geographic, 1913, Mario Feir Filipiniana Library)
The Agno, Amburayan, Balili-Naguilian, and Galiano rivers determined early Ibaloy agricultural and habitation patterns. According to a 1582 Spanish expedition report, there were tilled plains and abundance of gold extracted in Benguet. The extraction of gold was a key motive for the early settlement of the Benguet highlands. The existence of jars, plates, beads, and brass gongs, which were exchanged for gold and other goods, demonstrates that the Ibaloy had contact with foreign traders prior to the arrival of the Spanish. Rice did not appear to be a main meal until relatively recently; a 1624 expedition reported eating yams, sweet potatoes, taro, maize, sugarcane juice, and sugarcane wine. No rice paddies were discovered during an 1829 expedition.
During the Spanish time, Benguet had approximately 110 villages and another 100 in the distant mountain areas. Spanish conquest began in 1618, when King Philip III dispatched a search party to the Philippines in search of Igorot gold in order to finance his participation in the Thirty Years' War. Captain Garcia de Aldana Cabrera with a troop of 1,700 reached the Boa mining town in what is now Mines View Park in Baguio between March and May 1620. Residents of Ibaloy had anticipated his arrival and wreaked havoc on their own town. Aldana excavated the Ibaloy's buried timber and constructed Fort Santisima Trinidad, a few dwellings, and a chapel. Fort Santiago was constructed in 1623 at the Santo Niño mines and Fort del Rosario in 1625 at the Antamok-Itogon mines, but both were quickly abandoned, as did the previous. In 1624, another military expedition led by Don Alonzo Martin Quirante reconstructed Fort Santiago and reached the site of the Fianza gold mines. Quirante returned to Manila with 5,600 kg of ore, which was later assayed in Mexico.
The Ibaloy's original approach to Spanish conquest attempts was to pretend to submit to Spanish rule and then wait for an advantageous time to strike. As a result, the Spaniards were able to enter the Cordillera interiors but were unable to settle.
In 1759, the Spaniards entirely destroyed Tonglo town, a prosperous gold trading center thought to have been located in Tuba near Baguio. The locals had driven away a friar who had burned icons of native deities. Military occupation resumed in earnest under Lieutenant Colonel Guillermo Galvey, who was appointed Commander General of the Land of the Igorots and Northern Regions of Pangasinan by the colonial government. In 1829, an expedition led by Galvey set fire to 180 of Trinidad Valley's 500 dwellings. By 1883, the neighborhood contained only 50 dwellings. Galvey's punitive raids on the Ibaloy resulted in their initial listing as Spanish subjects.
Benguet was established as a comandancia politico-militar, or military-political district, in 1854. Comandante Enrique Oraa compelled residents of the Acupan mines to relocate to Baguio in order to facilitate control of the Ibaloy. Potatoes were introduced to Trinidad Valley by Comandante Bias Banos in 1859, and within a few years, Benguet potatoes were being sold in Manila marketplaces. Comandante Manuel Scheidnagel proposed the following steps for the complete pacification of the Ibaloy of Benguet in the 1870s: towns should be established in areas with abundant natural resources to deter residents from abandoning the sites; people should be required to dress "modestly"; and the District of Benguet should be subject to the standard taxation system regardless of whether its residents were baptized. The people of Benguet had been pacified by this point: they had abandoned head-taking, tattooing, and armed opposition. In 1898, following their defeat in the Philippine Revolution, the Spaniards fled from the Cordilleras.
Ibaloy elder, 2015 (Wayne S. Grazio, flickr.com/fotograzio)
Baguio, initially inhabited by the Ibaloy, was to become the backdrop for the European concept of colonial "hill station" under the American rule. Its mild environment made it an ideal sanitarium and temporary refuge from the Philippine tropics' pressures. However, one of the Americans' long-term goals was to mine for gold and copper. The early prospectors in the Suyoc-Mancayan area and Baguio were discharged American troops from the Philippine-American War.
Benguet became the country's first civil government entity in 1900. Baguio was chosen as the capital. Despite early opposition from Filipinos and Americans, Baguio would serve as the official summer capital for more than a decade before World War I. During this time period, the US Supreme Court imposed a deadline on the Ibaloy people to register their lands. Unregistered lands have been designated as public lands. Those that complied grew wealthy, put their children to school, and rose to positions of leadership in their communities. The Cario, Carantes, Molintas, Pucay, Camdas, Piraso, Macay, Ismek (Smith), Suello, Dimas, and Tagde families were among the Ibaloy families that possessed rights to the Session Road area, Pakdal, Guisad, Lucban, Kennon Road area, Loakan, Irisan, Asin Road area, Bening, Aurora Hill, Pinsao, and (or Tagle). On the other hand, there were Ibaloy landowners who either refused to participate in unfamiliar bureaucratic processes or were unaware of the new procedure. They were displaced from their land by land speculators and lowland immigrants.
The legal landownership system fundamentally altered Ibaloy political, economic, and cultural life. Agriculture that was self-sufficient was supplanted by land tenancy and the daily wage labor system. Vegetable cultivation by large and small peasants was displaced by a capital-intensive agricultural sector. And the barter system was phased out in favor of cash exchange. Village authority gave way to civic governance, while Christianity undermined the indigenous animistic faith.
45 square kilometers of land were purchased from Ibaloy families, but some of the transactions were questioned afterwards by the indigenous owners. Daniel Burnham, an architect and landscape designer, drew up the idea for a city with a population of 25,000. In 1906, public lands were auctioned to lure residents to Baguio. Wealthy families such as the Legardas, Palmas, Roceses, Ayalas, Elizaldes, Roxases, and Romulos purchased residential lots. Soon after, iconic structures and locations such as the Mansion House, Country Club, Teacher's Camp, and Pines Hotel were built. Governor-General Cameron Forbes allocated land to major government agencies in 1907 in order to advance Baguio's summer capital status. Religious denominations such as the Jesuits, Dominicans, CICM Belgian Fathers, Anglicans, Methodists, and Baptists began purchasing or receiving land from Ibaloy proprietors as well. Baguio was founded as a city in 1909 by the passage of Act No. 1963, which was drafted by Justice George Malcolm, for whom Malcolm Square is named.
It used to take two days to go from Manila to Baguio, first by sea and then by land. When the Kennon Road was built in 1905, travel time by land was shortened to 30 hours. 46 nations contributed to the construction of this road. Among them were Japanese and Chinese (mainly Cantonese) nationals who settled in Baguio and married Ibaloy women. The marriage of Josefa Cario and Ryukichi Hamada, the parents of novelist Sinai Hamada, is particularly noteworthy. Kennon Road was also critical in delivering heavy equipment and supplies to and from Manila, contributing to the early 1900s gold rush and the 1933–36 gold boom. Baguio Gold, Atok Big Wedge, Balatoc, Acupan, Antamok, and Itogon employed thousands.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Baguio experienced fast growth as it developed into a hub for educational, recreational, religious, military, administrative, and economic activity. Additionally, the potential of trade drew a large number of Batangueos to Baguio in the late 1920s, followed by East Indians in the 1930s. After World War II, Kapampangan merchants arrived, primarily involved in shoe retail and the sale of army surplus products. In the 1960s, Manila Chinese of Fookien ancestry began to immigrate to develop hardware stores, motels, and restaurants.
On 8 December 1941, the Japanese destroyed Camp John Hay as part of their plan to cover the flank of their main landing force in Lingayen Gulf. As was the case in the rest of the country, the American force in Baguio was caught off guard, and the resulting panic prompted them to burn their equipment and ammunition prematurely to avoid falling into the hands of the Japanese. On 28 December, Baguio was declared an open city. In October 1942, a joint Filipino-American guerilla assault to recapture the city failed due to a lack of popular support. By late 1944, Japan had already lost its wartime superiority, and General Tomoyuki Yamashita chose to conduct defensive operations in Northern Luzon's Central Cordillera. In Baguio, he established his headquarters. On 6 January 1945, the Americans began bombing Baguio. Following that, civilians were forced to perform domestic activities in the evenings and take shelter in the cathedral during the day. Thus, the church became a focal point for daily activity and commerce. On 15 March, Baguio was subjected to its most intense bombing. Only the cathedral and a few houses escaped the bombing, which claimed numerous human lives. The following month, General Yamashita and his staff departed Baguio for Cagayan Valley.
Baguio's postwar restoration also resulted in the city's consolidation as a university city. Baguio Colleges was created in 1946, followed by the Belgian Fathers' establishment of a collegiate department in 1952. In 1963, this became Saint Louis University. In 1961, the University of the Philippines opened a campus there as well.
Colored houses in La Trinidad, Benguet, 2017 (Krisha Hyacinth Aviola)
Baguio is the capital city of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), which was established by Executive Order No. 220 on 15 July 1987. Baguio was originally called Kafagway (grassy clearing), referring to the middle basin, which today includes Burnham Park and the Baguio City Hall. The Ibaloy phrase bag-yu (slimy water plant; Tag. lumot) was used to refer to the Guisad or Kisad Valley's watery environment. Numerous Ibaloy place names, such as chanum (water), kayang (high location), otek (little), chugum (windy), and abanao (wide), have been kept in Baguio streets .
Nowadays, ancient rites and beliefs coexist with contemporary Christian practices. For example, an Ibaloy wedding would take place in a Catholic church, but the wedding arrangements between the two families, including the wedding celebration, would still follow Ibaloy tradition. On the other hand, younger members of the generation who study and work in urban centers such as Baguio and Manila have developed an urban viewpoint, attire, and manners.
The Ibaloy’s Way of Life
Ibaloy farmer with kayabang, a native basket (Chit Balmaceda-Gutierrez)
The Ibaloy inhabit a mountainous and rocky environment that provides them with small flat floors ideal for agricultural operations. They do, however, have expertise in terracing mountain slopes and cultivating them with rice, their staple grain from which tapey, also known as tafey or tapuy (rice wine) is manufactured. Irrigation from mountaintops to lower levels is a feat of engineering, with water being transported kilometers distant via troughs and bamboo pipelines.
Sweet potato slices are dried and kept before being pulverized during times of need, such as drought or food scarcity. Rice harvesting occurs twice a year. Gabi and other tubers are grown as a source of additional food. Animal husbandry is practiced for food and religious purposes. For rituals, the indigenous black pig is preferred. Additionally, some gold panning occurs.
Strawberries at Baguio City Market, 2016 (Philippine Primer Magazine)
Ibaloy gardeners and horticulturists are diligent. They cultivate strawberries and a variety of vegetables, including cabbages, lettuce, turnips, cauliflower, beans, carrots, and broccoli, to supply Manila and other cities around the Philippines and Southeast Asia. When villages along the Hanselma Road began building commercial vegetable farms in the 1970s, it transferred the center of vegetable growing from La Trinidad to the Mountain Trail. After failing to compete with indigenous industry, a number of lowland Filipinos and foreign capitalists work as intermediaries, carrying crops to the plains or exporting them.
Dogs, spears, and nets are used to hunt deer. As they progress into the jungle, the hunters bang their bolo against the wooden sheaths. Hogs are enticed into trenches dug adjacent to camote farms. The axe, adze, bolo, hand spade, and little peeling knife are all made by blacksmiths. Only in Daklan town is pottery done, where little water jars are created. There is no indigenous tradition of textile weaving; it was introduced in 1906 through public schools. The Ibaloy have absorbed textile and weaving techniques from nearby Ilocano, Kankanaey, and Isinay weavers.
Cattle was a sign of prosperity and distinction among the Ibaloy during the period when Baguio and the surrounding territories were perfect for grazing. However, its prominence diminished rapidly following the expansion and urbanization of Baguio and the expropriation, sale, or donation of Ibaloy land.
Ibaloi Political and Sociological System
Ibaloy women (The Nabaloi Dialect by Otto Scheerer. Bureau of Public Printing, 1905)
Historically, the baknang (affluent class) has control over the abitug, also known as abiteg or ebiteg (the poor). Under the current election system, the government official is often from the baknang or, if from the abitug, is under the baknang's patronage.
Each village has its own tongtong (council), which is comprised of the baknang and the village's wise men, known as impanama or pangamaen. Council decisions are guided by custom law, which cannot be changed arbitrarily without the village people's collective permission. Thus, while the baknang have some influence over the impoverished, their authority is limited by the tongtong.
Customary law regulates marriage, divorce, property, inheritance, contracts, homicide, rape, assault, forcible entry, theft, witchcraft, slander, gambling, abortion, and suicide. A man may divorce his wife for reasons such as infidelity, irresponsibility or laziness, or belligerence. A woman may do the same thing, with the exception of infidelity. A person who cultivates land owns it; it is then inherited by his or her ancestors. Prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, witches were executed by strangulation with a rope. Slander was a capital offense punishable by whipping. The thief was required to repay three times the value of the stolen item or work for the owner at a wage equivalent to the punishment. For homicide, the death penalty was imposed. Rapists were compelled to host a caao (feast) for the victim; if both were single, they were compelled to marry. Cases of assault were resolved through a caao or, if the antagonists had marryable offspring, through a kaising or kaysing (betrothal ceremony).
Today, the Ibaloy respect the national government's authority as embodied in the governor, mayors, councilors, and other government officials in Benguet province.
Social Organization and Customs of the Ibaloy (Ibaloi) People
The Ibaloy traditionally have two social classes: the baknang and the abitug, although a middle class of traders and wage earners has recently arisen. The baknang possess two types of wealth: akon, which consists of family jewelry, and property, which consists of rice fields, cattle, carabaos, or mines. The peshit, a prestige feast provided by a baknang, serves as an economic leveler by allowing the impoverished to partake in the host's surplus wealth, particularly meat. It is, nevertheless, the baknang's foundation for power and influence in the village. The peshit may last as long as the host's surplus wealth does—which might be months.
The peshit also has religious importance, as it is considered to placate ancestral spirits and gods who bring illness or disaster when their basic needs, typically food and clothing, are not met by the living. When a poor family suffers from illness or misfortune, they hold a smaller-scale ritual feast called the bayjok, or "peshit of the poor."
Traditionally, kaising or contract marriages were arranged by parents, primarily to cement the friendship of the two fathers. A compromise may now be reached, with the man communicating his preference to his parents and delegating final arrangements to go-betweens. Each case includes the traditional bridewealth. Children born out of wedlock are eventually recognized because the father is coerced into marriage when he is identified. The child is given the name of a living grandparent or a two- or three-generation ancestor.
The ngilin (wedding ceremony) begins with the owik or ceremonial slaughter of a pig, which is accomplished by inserting a pointed stick into its side and into its heart without entering it. The manbonong or mambunung then prays over the animal (priest). There is singing, dancing, and tapey consumption. On the third day, the bride and groom visit a brook to wash their cheeks with water, praying to the madmad: "May I be like you, water, that does not break year after year, that does not die, but lives long." The bride holds a field basket and a shovel on her back to represent her role as a field worker, whilst the husband carries his bolo to represent his role as a builder.
The siling is the funeral ceremony for the dead, during which the corpse is propped up on the asal (death chair), drained of all fluids, and healed with smoke from a constantly burning fire. This wake continues as long as the family has cattle, rice, and tapey available to feed the mourners. The funeral procession is headed by the individual who is carrying the dried corpse on his shoulder, while the mourners walk after him, each pounding a pair of sticks. The corpse is placed in a coffin that is a foot shorter than its length, because it is folded at the knees in the fetus position.
Religious Beliefs and Practices
Ibaloy sacrificial meat (Bong Manayon)
Ibaloy cosmology is divided into three worlds: tabun, the skyworld inhabited by humans similar to those on earth; aduongan, the underworld inhabited by people with tails. Earthquakes occur when aduongan hogs brush against the pillars.
There are sixteen culture heroes who are now worshiped as gods, all of whom are invoked in the bindayan or bindiyan ceremony, and some of whom are invoked in healing rituals: Kabigat, the Supreme Deity, Lumawig, Wigan, Wigwigan, Amdagan, Balitok, Maodi, Moan, Bulian, Gatan, Montes, Daongan, Bangon, Bangan, Obag, and Obagobagan
The transition from headhunting customs to more peaceful ritual conduct parallels the transition to the relatively modern rice-terracing system. Similarly, the position of Kabigat, patron of warriors and headhunters, was diminished in importance in favor of Kabuniyan, also known as Kabunyan and Kavuniyan, the supreme power and moral authority who, according to mythology, put an end to headhunting. While Kabigat is related with the battle cycle, Kabuniyan is associated with flood, mountains, thunder and lightning, day and night, rice, gold, marriage, and death.
The kakaising, who live in the mountains, amdag, who live in the wind, ampasit, who live in the forests, timungaw, who live in the sea, and pasang, who live in the space between earth and heaven, are the evil spirits to whom prayers and sacrifices are presented. Badiwan and Singan, two celestial spirits, have children in the rice fields who deplete the fields' water supply and hence cause the owner's illness. On the other side, it is thought that when a child is born, a guardian spirit known as the kaajongan is also born in the sky and lives a parallel life to that of the child on earth.
The kaleshing, also known as kedaring, kalashing, and kalaching (soul of a deceased person), reunites with its ancestors on neighboring Mount Pulag, where all spirits continue to dwell with family and other villages, wear the same clothes, and have the same good and bad habits. The family members who are still alive may change their names in order to avoid the deceased's soul visiting them. When souls want anything from a relative, they visit through dreams or mediums. When they reach old age, they cease to visit the living and transform into butterflies.
There are two types of manbonong or shamans: female manbonong who officiate at four distinct ritual rituals, namely peshit, chawak, bayjok, and kosdey, and male manbonong who officiate at all other rites. They are responsible for selecting and training their successors. Illness is caused by either malevolent spirits or ancestor spirits communicating their want for food and clothing. The manbonong conducts divination ceremonies to ascertain the type of ritual required to heal the ailment. The Ibaloy have forty distinct rituals, each one dealing with a particular aspect of health, war and peace, witchcraft, birth, death, and agriculture. Each ritual is typically accompanied by dances and songs. Thus, celebrations are also kinds of public religion.
Ibaloy Dwellings, House Construction and Community
Ibaloy ancestral house in Itogon, Benguet, 2015 (Albert Salvatierra)
Whereas houses used to be dispersed, with vast tracts of land and mountains separating them, settlements now consist of many houses that form real villages or towns, the members of which belong to the same lineage. However, more than any other Cordillera group, the Ibaloy still tend to build their houses far from one another in the middle of fields within the village area.
The traditional house of the elementary family, which is the social unit, consists of one room 6 x 8 meters, roofed and walled with thatch. It stands on inam-am or talekem (posts) 1.6 meters from the ground. The door is oriented toward the north or east. Mortises and grooves, instead of nails, are used to fasten the boards and timber together; rafters are tied to joists with rattan strips. Entrance to the house is by a ladder that is pulled up and inside at night. The wealthy keep a large cauldron underneath the house to be used in the grand feasts called the peshit or cañao.
In the middle of the room is a low dining table, the dulang. When not in use, this stands on one end, leaning against the wall so as to make room for sleeping. Deer or cowhide is used as a mat. Chairs are blocks of wood. Cooking vessels are hung from hooks or placed atop stones in the house. Also hanging from hooks are baskets of various shapes and sizes, in which different kinds of food to be cooked are stored. There is an earth-filled box used as the hearth. Above this is a bamboo rack or a garret where rice or root crops are dried and stored, or fruit is placed to hasten ripening.
The Ibaloy have been affected by modern ideas of house building more than any other Igorot group. Since the American colonial period, the thatch has been replaced: the floor and walls by pine board and the roof with galvanized iron. The family sleeps on native beds or on wooden floors.
Ibaloy Tattoo Traditions, Attire, Arts and Crafts
Ibaloy schoolgirls in traditional attire (National Geographic, 1913, Mario Feir Filipiniana Library)
In olden times, both men and women used bark cloth to cover their private parts and, until the Spanish colonial period, wore batek (tattoos). The ink used is made of pig’s bile and biyog (soot). The favorite design was the lizard figure, the Ibaloy symbol for the anito (ancestral spirit). Originally meant to identify one’s tribal origins, tattoos now have a purely ornamental purpose.
The weaving industry was introduced to the Ibaloy in the early American colonial period, specifically in 1906. Therefore, blankets that were found in old coffins were probably bought from the Kankanaey. Presently, the weavers of Baguio produce a great amount of textiles for tourists and have established a reputation for their preferred color combinations: red-black-and-white or red-black-and-yellow.
The older generation of men wears a kobal or kuval (loincloth or G-string) and the modern coat. Loincloths are traditionally dark blue for old men or the dead, white with narrow blue borders also for old men, and white with narrow yellow borders for young men. Red is also commonly used. The head cloth is now outmoded. The men wear their hair short and are clean-shaven, the beard pulled with bamboo tweezers.
Blankets are draped over the shoulders. The wealthy man’s blanket is white with dark blue designs, such as stylized figures of human beings, snakes, mortars, shields, diamond-shaped eyes, or other geometric shapes. No ornaments are worn except in very remote districts where the men wear leg bands called baney, made of fur from a dog’s tail.
The women wear brightly colored costumes consisting of the kambal (jacket), the eten or aten, also called dibit or divit, a wraparound skirt with broad horizontal bands of different colors, and a donas (belt). Color combinations are red and black, white and dark blue, or white and red. Checks and stripes may alternate on both the skirt and jacket. Usually attached to the neck and shoulders of the jacket is a checkered flap. The women have bangs and their hair hangs loosely down the back.
Brass necklace called balituk (Photo by Masato Yokohama, Maramba 1998)
The akon includes complex necklaces adorned with coins from the Spanish and early American periods, tabing (earrings), karing (bracelets), bideng or anas (beads), and shekang or chakang (mouthpiece), which is made either of gold or copper hammered into shape to fit the teeth. The ling-ling-o is a gold, silver, or copper ornament that is formed like an almost closed C and worn as a pendant on a necklace or an earring. An Ibaloy variant has been found which depicts a pair of human figures facing each other in a seated position, with their knees bent up and their hands on their knees.
Simpler necklaces are made from obukay and takdian seeds taken from a reed plant. A tree bark called kalet or defay is used as soap, and a kind of clay called degdeg or duvas is used as shampoo. Traditional weapons, harking back to a life of tribal wars and headhunting practices, are the kayang (spear), kalesay (shield), bekang and pana (bow and arrow), and pa-pa (war club). Existing Ibaloy shields bear a carved human figure in low relief. One unique carving on a shield has a three-dimensional head on the upper end.
Basket weaving is done by the men. The women’s favorite basket is the kayabang, (see logo of this article). Made of closely woven bamboo or rattan strips, it is conical. Its base consists of four sticks tied together with rattan. The epid or rope or finely woven band is inserted into holes near the opening so that it can be strapped against the forehead and the basket can be suspended at the back. The men’s bamboo or rattan basket is the pasiking, which is trapezoidal and has a lid. The finely woven strap is slung around the shoulders so that the basket is worn like a knapsack.
The shage consists of two finely woven bamboo or rattan covers meeting at the center so that the result is a square basket. There is a pouch consisting of three sections that are joined by a sling. It is made of split bamboo strips woven in a herringbone design, but the cover is rimmed with woven rattan. The sling is made of braided fibrous material. The Ibaloy also weave the rice winnower and the dagba, a deep basket for keeping pounded rice.
Ibaloy wood carving is utilitarian, hence plain and simple. The palting is a wooden pouch with an elliptical base and smoothly curving sides. It is slung over the shoulder with a braided fibrous material. The top of the cover is curved downward so that it fits snugly under the armpit. The plainness of the pouch is broken by a simple border design carved on the rim of the cover.
Some houses bear ornamental friezes of stylized human and animal skulls, such as those of a pig, carabao, cow, and deer. These are meant to signify family status, a warrior’s prowess, or sacrifices made by the house owner.
Ibaloy underworld man shooting an arrow into the skyworld, but hitting the sun instead (Illustration by Luis Chua)
Ibaloy literature has an abundance of prose narratives: cosmogonical myths, origin myths, trickster tales, fables, and tales reflecting their beliefs and customs. Origin myths include those about the origin of Ibaloy culture, ceremonies, and animals.
An Ibaloy genesis tale tells of the enmity between the people of the skyworld and those of the underworld when the earth did not yet exist. One day, a man of the underworld shot an arrow into the skyworld and hit the sun instead. (Another version explains that the arrow was shot by a hunter of the underworld who had meant to hit a bird in the sky.) So the sun created the earth to stand between the two warring worlds. The people of both worlds would come to earth to hunt. But one day, they fought a raging battle over a deer and left for dead a man from the skyworld and a woman from the underworld. The two tended each other, recovered, stayed on earth, married, and had many children. So began the first people on earth.
Part of the Ibaloy’s rice-planting ceremony is the ritual recounting an origin myth about how Kabuniyan of the skyworld obtained rice from Maseken of the underworld. Kabuniyan threw a spear at a deer that jumped into black waters, but he hit the roof of Maseken’s house instead. When he pulled up the spear, there was a stalk of rice attached to it. A low voice from the house under the water accused him of having stolen Maseken’s palay. After hearing Kabuniyan’s explanation for the transgression, Maseken instructed him to plant the palay in the field and to invoke his name every harvest time.
Two large snakes devouring people (Illustration by Luis Chua)
The bindiyan ceremony, according to another origin myth, began with the people of Buguias, who responded to the call for help made by the people of Kabal because of two large snakes that were devouring the people. Before setting out, the people of Buguias first asked the manbonong to perform the sagawsaw, a ceremony that takes away the soul of the enemy to make it sleep soundly. The warriors of Buguias killed the snakes and cut off the snakes’ heads. On their way back to Buguias, the victorious warriors stopped several times to dance around the snakes’ heads. This was the first bindiyan, which Buguias has celebrated since then.
The peshit first began when, according to myth, Kabuniyan commanded three brothers to hold one because they had grown rich. The belief that the rich will obtain more riches after a peshit is illustrated in a folktale that ends with the moral: “The more he gave away, the more he had.”
Fables like one about the dog that ate the cat’s food also reveal Ibaloy cultural practices. The cat warned the dog not to be too greedy or else it would end up as the ritual food for the death ceremony of their master, who was sick and dying. After a week, the cat’s word was proven true, and the dog, which had not heeded the cat and had become fat, was killed for the death ceremony.
One tale demonstrates the necessity of mutual dependence between the rich and poor classes in a village. One day the rich and the poor of a village quarreled, and they decided to live separately. The poor people were malnourished because they had no meat, which they could get only when the rich had their peshit. The rich lost their property because they had no one to help them. When they celebrated the peshit, they could not do anything properly because they did not have the necessary equipment, such as the firewood or the rattan strips with which to tie the ritual animals. So in order to survive, the rich and the poor reunited.
Music and Ritual Dances
Musicians from Baguio (A Pronouncing Gazetteer and Geographical Dictionary of the Philippine Islands, American Historical Collection, 1902)
Musical instruments are played for either of two purposes: religious occasions or entertainment. Considered sacred and not to be played for fun are those that are used for the ritual feasts and played only by older men: drums, gongs, and iron bars. The drum is a round piece of wood, made of either a hollow or hollowed-out tree and a piece of deerskin stretched across it. There are two kinds of drums, both conical shaped: the solibaw, which has a higher note and is played with both hands, and the kimbal, which is played with one hand. The two kinds of gangsa (flat bronze gongs) are the kalsa, which has a high clear sound, and the pinsak, which has a lower, coarser sound. These are hit with the pitog (wooden stick). The palas, also kolas or tiktik, are a pair of iron bars that are struck together. The pakkong or pekkung, played by women to ward off evil as they walk to and from camote fields, is a bamboo percussion instrument held in one hand and struck against the other palm. Traditionally, the pakkong was played while walking on trails going to and from the fields to keep away the ampasit.
The other instruments are used for entertainment. The palkong is a bamboo stick tapped on any surface. The ko-ding or ka-ding (mouth harp) is a small, thin piece of copper or brass, placed between the lips or teeth; it has a tongue that is made to vibrate in the mouth cavity. The kuleseng is a nose flute. Two instruments noted in 1920 but no longer seen are the kambitong, also known as kalchang or kambatong, a native guitar made of split coconut shell with a bamboo joint as resonator, its cord a strand of horse’s tail stretched tautly over it; and the tuladi (nose flute) made of bamboo joint.
The two most important musical forms are the ba-diw or badio, which is vocal music rendered in leader-chorus style, with the rhythmic beat of the gangsa and solibaw. The pinsak is played in contrapuntal rhythm to the solibaw beat, while the kalsa provides improvised rhythm. In a peshit, the instruments are played in a certain sequential order. The kimbal begins with a regular rhythm and is followed by the solibaw, which begins with the same initial beat then gradually adds rhythmic variations. The third sound comes from the pinsak, which is played with an alternation of ringing and dampened sounds. The fourth sound is the kalsa, which provides what comes closest to a melody because the player is free to improvise as creatively as he pleases. Hence, while the solibaw provides the fixed beat, it is the kalsa that is played in varying positions, rhythms, volumes, and with different parts of the body, such as the elbow or the wrist, or with a stick. The palas provides the fifth and last sound, which is a series of quick, light beats. It is matched by the quick, mincing steps of the dancers.
Different songs are sung during the various ceremonial feasts. The ba-diw comes in different forms: as advice extemporaneously chanted to a couple being wed, as an inebriated old man’s account of his adventures and experiences, or as a debate between two old men. The ba-diw’s refrain is chanted by the women. The do-jeng is a recounting of the virtues or good deeds of a deceased person as the mourners sit around the funeral chair during the kafi, a ritual honoring the deceased. Non-indigenous songs or songs with foreign influences are called kansion.
The angba is sung by participants of the bindiyan ceremony: the manbonong, four olol or urol (traditional leaders of the bidiyan), and a few invited neighbors. The 16 culture heroes or deities are invoked, beginning with the war god Maodi:
Sipay anangipangdu?
Si Maodi a maksil,
Ya mayingit toy busol,
Mayingit toy kadaloy,
Mahantoy maata i busol,
Mahantoy dadalaan.
Sipay anmangikadua?
(Who was it who did this first?
Maodi, a head taker,
Who fought with the invader,
Fought with the enemy,
Ate uncooked the invader’s [flesh],
Ate it bloody.
Who was it who did this next?)
This stanza is repeated 15 times, each time substituting the name of the other gods. The original angba has 27 stanzas, but since 1935, only the first is sung. Meanwhile, Ibaloy hunting songs are sung during hunting trips. The following is an example (Eugenio 1982):
Sedag, sedag ken bulan
Pan-akchan kod kaptangan
Bolo, boloy pachenan;
Bato, batoy katinan.
Bangon, bangon ka, Ina,
Ka panduto ni aba
Sikdofën kod kaptangan,
Isirak ni ku-bilan.
(Shine, shine mister moon
[To light] my way to the lowlands.
Bamboo, bamboo is what I hold;
Stone, stone is where I step.
Wake, wake my mother;
You go cook my gabi
For lunch in the lowlands,
I will eat it with deer meat.)
Ritual dances and songs at the peshit and other public gatherings mime social relationships and at the same time assume the presence and participation of the anito. The tayaw is a type of dance in which one man, with a blanket slung on each of his shoulders, and one woman wrapped with a blanket, dance inside a circle. They are prominent members of the community, having sponsored at least one peshit before. The man begins the dance by stretching his arms sideways, and in a standing position, flexes his arms and knees according to the beat of the kalsa. He suddenly charges forward, arms stretched to the back, body bent forward. He suddenly stops and resumes his first position. These two movements are repeated. In the meantime the woman’s arms are stretched sideways, which she flexes up and down while making mincing steps in a standing position. She moves away from the spot only when the man moves as if to pursue her. The pair passes on the dancing to others by transferring their blankets to the kalsa player, who then passes on the blankets to the next pair of dancers. The dancers are believed to represent the ancestral spirits who participate in the peshit.
Ibaloy performing the tayaw (Carl Taawan)
Some rituals reveal residual characteristics of ngayew or head taking. One of the most interesting dances of the Ibaloy is the bendiyan, which is a simulated head-taking raid. Once a victory dance after a successful head-taking expedition, it is now a festival dance for good fortune or good harvest, or to cure the illness of a warrior’s descendant. The centerpiece of the dance is a symbolic head carved out of a fern tree. The ritual begins at nightfall when the manbonong leads four olol and other men to a secluded place. They bring with them their ritual paraphernalia such as spears, shields, hatchets, heirloom beads, and the animal for the ritual offering. The manbonong leads an opening prayer, and then the headman recites the da-tok (the call of the blessings). The owag (war cry) is shouted twice to begin the war dance, which centers around a fern tree. The men simulate the actions of battle, with the fern tree as the enemy. After they have “killed the enemy” with their spears, they then carve its trunk into the image of a human head and march home with it, singing the angba. They are met by the village people, and more owag are shouted. The people then dance the sedsed all day around the “head,” which has been placed in a basket and suspended from a headpost.
The sedsed consists of seven dance positions, each begun by a war cry shouted by the bagnos (leaders). At the cry of “Dimbaban!” (Deploy and observe!), the dancers spread their arms with palms downward, simulating the tigwi bird when it swoops down on its prey. The second movement has the people making four circles inside one another. The music players are the hub, the girls make up the first inner circle, the boys the second, the women the third, and the men the outermost one. At the cry of “Jinungjungan!” (Watch over!), the dancers extend their arms forward, palms downward, facing the inner circle. Hence, each circle “protects” the inner one, while the musical instruments, which symbolize Ibaloy culture, remain at the center. At the cry of “Kinetangan!” (Palms on waist!), the dancers do as directed to signify satisfaction. At the cry of “Salawasaw!” (an archaic word), they raise their arms in victory. At the cry of “Kine-kian!” (a taunt or challenge), they stretch their left arm forward with the thumb up, while the right arm is half-folded. At the cry of “Pina-josan!” (Fix with the hands!), they fold their arms in front with the palms upward. At the cry of “Inabaya!” (an archaic word), the dancers relax with their hands on their waists, palms outward. All these movements can be repeated in nonsequential fashion. The dancing stops when the manbonong says so, and the people shout the final owag.
Panagbenga 2013 float parade (Ash Velasco)
During the American colonial period and thereafter, Western forms of music, including country music, dominated the radio waves contributing to the spread of popular music that may have inspired Ibaloy pop songs.
Ibaloy Culture featured in Media Arts
Popular Ibaloy music began in 1973 when Rod Danggol recorded “Nonta Cauutek Ta” (When We Were Young) to the tune of Hank Thompson’s “Blackboard of My Heart.” Danggol, Morr Tadeo, Conrado Dalis, Cole Mendoza, and Genar Pacheco were the pioneers of commercial Ibaloy songs. Danggol organized the Harmonizers, a five-member band which included three blind musicians, in Baguio. Makati-based recording company Carver Studios produced the group’s first single, with an initial press of 1,000 45-rpm records. These were sold to Baguio restaurants with jukeboxes, particularly the eateries that surrounded the vegetable, also known as Hangar market. Other copies were sold in record stores like the Alpha and Tucucan on Lakandula Street, the part of Baguio where the Igorot usually congregate. By 1976, Danggol had already five singles.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, when Ilocano songs were popular in Baguio, Euphronio “Morr Tadeo” Pungayan recorded “Nanlapoak de Kalahan” (I Came from Kalahan) in the Kalanguya language, and an adaptation, “Enah-khas Malay Saya” (A Tear Fell). Pungayan recorded five songs on 45s marked Highland Records, with the help of Manila musicians and sound engineers. Pungayan produced eight records from 1974 to 1976, with songs in English, Ibaloy, Kalanguya, Ifugao, Kankanaey, Ilocano, and Japanese. Local singers like Pungayan were invited to sing live in Baguio City RPN-DZBS program “Midday Jamboree.”
Singer Raul Beray was popular in the area in the 1980s. He has nine albums to his name. Rio Cariño and Jun Garcia during this time were the leading producers of albums that included their own songs. They also do music video production and are currently reviving previously enjoyed songs by transforming them to videoke format. The most popular songs in Ibaloy are patterned after Western country music.
Female musicians include Josefa Botangen Ognayon, who rendered an all-Ibaloy album, Baley Shima Shontog (Home on the Mountain), and Abelyn Luboa, who sang duets with composer Roy Basatan. Popular Kankanaey singers who have sung a few songs in Ibaloy are Lourdes Gomeyac, Amy Guesdan, and Annie Galliega.
Before television came to the Baguio-Benguet area, radio was the dominant mass medium in the region. The Mountain Province Broadcasting Corporation (MPBC), established by the Missionaries of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM) in 1966, began the radio industry in the region through its AM station DZWT and its FM station DZWR (Catholic Media Network 2011). DZWT initially broadcasted mostly music and news in English. In the 1970s, entertainment programs such as verse-and-music shows and public service announcements were included in its programming schedule. To broaden its mass appeal, the station produced drama programs and utilized Ilocano. It was during this time when music by Rod Danggol and Morr Tadeo was heard on air. Their songs were inserted in a morning program that was dominated by songs in Ilocano. For a long time, DZWT promoted Ilocano, Kankanaey, and Ibaloy pop songs by providing them airtime.
In May 1995, the CICM turned over the operation of the stations to the Vicariate of Baguio-Benguet. It was also in 1995 when DZWR adopted the folk, rock, and country music format. DZWR “went country” when Lourdes Gomeyac, already a popular singer and recording artist, joined the station as disc jockey. Other radio stations in Baguio also now play some country music.
The Bombo Radyo DZWX (1035 AM) program Balik Harana Live sa Bombo Radyo airs local and amateur singers who sing live songs in Philippine languages. Ibaloy and Kankanaey songs are sung in this Sunday evening program. The career of Agi, a band composed mostly of Ibaloy from Kabayan, Benguet, began when it won second place in a singing contest sponsored by K-Lite Radio (96.7 FM), a youth-oriented top hits music station. The band became popular with the song “Malasmas” and went on to release the music video album, Liali. It performs regularly in Baguio bars.
In the 1970s, RPN-DZBS (1368 AM) on Session Road played a key role in promoting the records of Rod Danggol, Morr Tadeo, and their contemporaries. In the 1990s, disc jockey Lakay Tinong Lardizabal played local songs in the station. Ibaloy and other pop songs in the Cordillera languages are on the Internet. The local music industry produces popular videoke formats of songs in the Cordillera, including Ibaloy.
Mainstream film Sabel, 1994, starring Judy Ann Santos and Sunshine Dizon, depicts the resistance of an Ibaloy village against a mining corporation. Although Ibaloy culture is presented, the film’s representation of the Ibaloy as passive individuals has been criticized (Tindaan 2010, 88-89).
Other films, while not about the Ibaloy, have represented the Ibaloy homeland Baguio in a particularly romanticized manner. Mike de Leon’s Kung Mangarap Ka’t Magising (If You Dream and Awaken), 1977, begins a list of films that designate Baguio as the idyllic setting for the ideal romance. For its protagonists, Baguio is a refuge from the Manila heat, both physical and emotional. Ana (Hilda Koronel) is an unhappily married young mother who falls in love with college student Joey (Christopher de Leon), grieving over his girlfriend’s death. Both hope to find life’s meaning and contentment in the clean and cool air of Baguio, reminiscent of the hill station’s function at the turn of the 20th century. Together they head deeper into the Mountain Province and find inner peace in the Sagada Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, but eventually go their separate ways. Baguio has a similar function as setting in the films Friends in Love, 1983; Sa Hirap at Ginhawa (In Hard and Easy Times), 1984; Labs Kita, Okey Ka Lang? (I Love You, Are You Okay?), 1998; Laro sa Baga (Playing in Embers), 2000; Ngayong Nandito Ka (Now You’re Here), 2003; and Don’t Give Up on Us, 2006.
Baguio was never short on movie houses. The outdoor Garden Theatre existed between 1907 to 1909. Three movie houses were built in the 1920s and 1930s: Alhamar-Chainus, Baguio Theatre, and Pines Theatre. Although all three remained in operation during the World War II, these were either damaged or destroyed by the American bombing in 1945. Postwar’s “Big 4” movie houses were Session Theatre along Session Road, Plaza Theatre at the foot of Session Road, Aurora Theater along Mabini Street, and the newly restored Pines Theatre, also at the foot of Session Road. A number of other movie houses were built in the succeeding decades.
Hollywood movies, particularly westerns, were popular among the local population, who emulated the cowboy characters. This eventually led to the emergence of the kinnoboyan, or the state of being a Benguet cowboy, among the Baguio Igorot, who came to own horses handed down to them by Americans in exchange for services. They also began to patronize local versions of western films, produce local renditions of popular country songs, substitute tapey and gin for the cowboy drink, and set up “standing rooms” or bars outside the city center as local cowboy saloons. Baguio City’s long cinema history has made it the center of the film industry in Northern Luzon. Films produced in Baguio are featured in the annual Cinema Rehiyon of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).
___________________________________________
SOURCES AND REFERENCES
Afable, Patricia O., ed. 2004. Japanese Pioneers in the Northern Philippine Highlands. Baguio City: Filipino-Japanese Foundation of Northern Luzon Inc.
———. 2011. “Notes on Ibaloy Cultural History: A Photographic Essay.” In Ibaloy: Dictionary, Phonology, Grammar, Morphophonemics, Notes on Ibaloy Cultural History, Chimcas Ameda et al., 89-937. Baguio City: Diteng Inc. and Cordillera Studies Center University of the Philippines Baguio.
Ameda, Chimcas, Gonzalo A. Tigo, Vicente B. Mesa, Lee Ballard, Patricia O. Afable. 2011. Ibaloy: Dictionary, Phonology, Grammar, Morphophonemics, Notes on Ibaloy Cultural History. Baguio City: Diteng Inc. and Cordillera Studies Center University of the Philippines Baguio.
Anton, Sofia Olga. 2010. A Handy Handbook to the Ibaloi Language. Baguio City: TEBTEBBA, EED-TFIP, Sofia Olga Anton.
Brett, June. 1987. “Survey of Cordillera Indigenous Political Institutions.” Working Paper 5. Baguio City: Cordillera Studies Center, University of the Philippines College Baguio.
———. 1990. “Baguio: A Multi-ethnic City and the Development of the Ibaloy as an Ethnic Minority,” CSC Working Paper 15. Baguio City: Cordillera Studies Center, University of the Philippines Baguio.
Canilao, Michael Armand P. 2011. Of Gold, Spanish Conquistadors, and Ibaloi Generational Memory. Baguio City: Cordillera Studies Center, University of the Philippines Baguio.
Casal, Gabriel, Regalado Trota Jose Jr., Eric S. Casiño, George R. Ellis, and Wilhelm G. Solheim II. 1981. The People and Art of the Philippines. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History.
Catholic Media Network. 2011. “Executive Summary of the Historical Account of the Mountain Province Broadcasting Corporation.” The Catholic Media Network. Accessed 24 August. http://www.catholicmedianetwork.org/radio/BAGUIOMVH.htm.
Cruz, Pamela Marie M. 2011. “Ang Karanaan ng Nakaraan sa Gunitang Viswal: Pagsusuri sa mga Pelikulang Romantiko sa Baguio.” Plaridel 8 (2).
De Guia, Stella Maria. 2011. “The Baguio Art Scene.” Baguio Midland Courier, 3 April.
De Leon, Mike, director. 1977. Kung Mangarap Ka’t Magising. LVN Pictures. DVD, 108 mins.
De los Reyes, Angelo J., and Aloma de los Reyes, eds. 1978. Ethnographies of Major Tribes: Igorot. Baguio City: Cordillera School Group.
De Raedt, Jules. 1964. “Religious Representations in Northern Luzon.” St. Louis Quarterly 4.
Eugenio, Damiana L., ed. 1982. Philippine Folktales. Quezon City: The University of the Philippines Folklorists Inc.
Fong, Jimmy Balud. 2011. “Appropriation, Identity and Modernity in Ibaloy Pop Songs.” PhD dissertation, University of the Philippines – College of Arts and Letters.
Fry, Howard. 2006. A History of the Mountain Province, rev. ed. Quezon City: New Day Publishers.
Hamada, Sinai. 1975. Collected Short Stories. Baguio City: Baguio Printing and Publishing Co., Inc.
Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino. 2013. Mga Kaalamang-Bayan ng Cordillera. Manila: Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino.
Locsin, Ma. Rina A. 2013. “A Brief History of the Baguio Sine.” Plaridel 10 (1).
Maceda, Jose. 1988. “Musikang Pangritwal ng mga Ibaloy.” Mga Paminsanang Sulatin sa Pananaliksik sa Musika. Quezon City: University of the Philippines.
Maramba, Roberto. 1998. Form and Splendor: Personal Adornment of Northern Luzon Ethnic Groups, Philippines. Makati City: The Bookmark, Inc.
Minoritized and Dehumanized: Reports and Reflections on the Condition of Tribal and Moro people in the Philippines. 1983. International Study Program on Minorities in the Philippines, April 21-30. Manila: CCA-URM and NCCP-PACT.
Moss, Claude Russel. 1920. “Nabaloi Law and Ritual.” University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 15 (3). Berkeley: University of California.
———. 1924. “Nabaloi Tales.” University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 17 (5): 227-353. Berkeley: University of California.
Peralta, Jesus T. 1988. “Briefs of the Major Ethnic Categories.” Workshop Paper on Philippine Ethno-Linguistic Groups. International Festival and Conference on Indigenous and Traditional Cultures, Manila, 22-27 November.
A Pronouncing Gazetteer and Geographical Dictionary of the Philippine Islands, United States. 1902. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.
PSA Knowledge Management and Communications Division. 2002. “Philippines in Figures: Benguet, Baguio City, Nueva Vizcaya, Apayao.” Philippine Statistics Authority. http://census.gov.ph/content/.
Pungayan, Eufronio L. 1980. “The Bendian Tradition of the Ibaloi Igorot.” Journal of Northern Luzon 11 (1-2): 151-64.
Reed, Robert R. 1999. City of Pines: The Origins of Baguio as a Colonial Hill Station and Regional Capital, 2nd ed. California: Regents of the University of California.
Regional Map of the Philippines - I. 1988. Manila: Edmundo R. Abigan Jr.
Scheerer, Otto. 1905.The Nabaloi Dialect. Manila: Bureau of Public Printing.
Scott, William Henry. 1969.On the Cordillera. Manila: MCS Enterprises Inc.
———. 1974.Cordillera Chronology. Baguio City: Baguio Printing and Publishing Co., Inc.
———. 1975.History on the Cordillera.Collected Writings on Mountain Province History. Baguio City: Baguio Printing and Publishing Co., Inc.
Tindaan, Ruth M. 2010. “Imaging the Igorot in Vernacular Films Produced in the Cordillera.”The Cordillera Review 2 (2): 81-118
![The Ibaloy (Ibaloi) People of the Philippines: History, Culture, Customs and Tradition [Philippine Indigenous People | Ethnic Group]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjckqyyZa7acTvSKcCJuZZmcarUS_ZNd1k9l9df-3Lq1uDfVNB8nuibjs5ERvhTd9eJGJ3P7EIGctC9_caaxC9X8y6cPUqTjWOZ7hHaz2gbrPuxvqjgwrfCeqAPL4JrlK02BxGZtJ8cEwpKGFlYTuqU8Aemhqw86ME6PM_sok1Kz30l0qqbDw/s860/Island%20Escape.png "Ibaloi")
I don't think, the Bediyan Dance started in Buguias. The Berndiyan Dance started at Embosi, Gusaran, Kabayan Benguet.
ReplyDelete