Skip to main content

Philippine tribe clothes skeletons in ritual

Sunday, January 31, 2010
BULALACAO: The Mangyans in the central Philippine island of Mindoro have struggled to keep their tribal culture alive amidst massive modernisation.

With a growing number of Hanunuo Mangyans migrating to cities and adopting modern ways, ancient traditions are fast disappearing - like their ritual for the dead, called "kutkot."

"Kutkot" is a Filipino word for "scratch" or "unearth." The ritual entails digging up a loved one's remains and dressing it up like a human being, to bring him back to the land of the living.

It is an obligation that tribe members must perform, in keeping with a family's practice or following a dead relative's request.

A year after Hulyong Antonio was buried, six of his children and other relatives from the Hanunuo Mangyan tribe traveled to his grave and retrieved his coffin.

"This man told his children, 'Whatever happens to me, you have to do the kutkot ritual, in the same way that you did for your mother.' This is why the ritual was performed," said Baryos Gawid, Hulyong Antonio's nephew.

The remains were dried from soil and remaining flesh, then carefully assembled in chunks.

The ritual involves an elaborate process of wrapping the remains in a large loin cloth, draped in such a way that it resembles a half human form, called "sinakot."

Wrapping the carcass is a special skill that only a few Hanunuo Mangyans have mastered. The cloth must be tied taut with a string and bulked in certain areas to create a human shape, much like a mummy, in this case wrapped after the corpse is exhumed.

"To this day, we have not forgotten our culture. It has remained alive," said Bapa Amando, one of Hulyong Antonio's children.

Then the "sinakot" has steadied like a half mannequin, the relatives adorn the remains with their clothes and jewelry. Each son or daughter makes a contribution.

The Mangyans are known for their traditional hand woven fabrics, and beaded accessories.

"Kutkot" is rarely practiced among the 25,000 remaining Hanunuo Mangyans in Oriental Mindoro, falling victim to modern intrusions, much like their traditional clothes, instruments and social practices.

"The younger members of the tribe are not interested in performing this ancient ritual of ours. They don't know how to do it," Gawid said.

All wrapped up and ornamented, the remains are carried back to the village. Custom requires that the tribal members return home in reverse order of their positions travelling to the grave.

A year after his death, Hulyong Antonio was welcomed back in his village with the sound of gongs and a dance called "taruk," performed by his nephew.

"We will keep him in the house. And after a year or so, he will be transferred to a cave," said Igsay one of Hulyong Antonio's nephews.

The Mangyans believe that when the weight of the bones begins to feel light, it is time to move their loved ones' remains from the small hut where it will be temporarily housed.

The Mangyan tribe is one of around 100 indigenous people's groups in the Philippines. Several ethnic communities' ancestral lands are threatened by industrial developments such as mining, logging and commercial plantations.

A party advocating for ethnic groups' rights is running for a congressional seat in the May elections.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...

Suicide bombings kill 18 in Iraq

Thursday, August 13, 2009 MOSUL: At least 18 people, most of them members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect, were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday in a packed cafe in northern Iraq, a local government official said.At least 31 people were also wounded after the bombers detonated suicide belts packed with explosives in the cafe in Kalaa town, in the district of Sanjar, local district chief Dakheel Qassem Hasoon, told a foreign news agency."Two suicide bombers entered the Cafe Barbaroz at 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) and blew themselves up, killing 18 civilians and wounding 31. Most of the victims were Yazidis," Hasoon said.Kalaa, northwest of the insurgent stronghold of Mosul in northern Nineveh province is predominantly populated by the minority Yazidi religious sect, as well as Arabs and Kurds.The attack is the deadliest since Monday, when 51 people were killed across Iraq, including 28 members of the tiny Shabak sect cut down when two truck bombs det...

US drones to target Taliban in Afghan war

Friday, July 31, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US military plans to use more drone aircraft to target Taliban militants in Afghanistan while focusing less on hunting down Al-Qaeda figures, report said on Thursday.Although defeating the Al-Qaeda terror network remains an overriding goal for Washington, officials now believe the best way to pursue that objective is to ensure stability in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan instead of Al-Qaeda manhunts, the paper said, citing US government and Defense Department officials.It was more important to prevent a slide towards violence and anarchy that could be exploited by Al-Qaeda, which used Afghanistan to stage its attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the officials said."We might still be too focused on Bin Laden," an official said. "We should probably reassess our priorities."The shift in priorities for the drone fleet comes despite President Barack Obama's declaration that defeating and dismantling Al-Qaeda ...