In 1988 and 1989, UP Visayas-based anthropologist Dr. Alicia Magos had a chance to explore the mountains of Central Panay for 10 days, with a group of NCIP Region 6 field personnel taking the eastern route to Central Panay with interior tapas copies as the target. Two years later, in 1991 and 1992, She organized her own group composed of UPV Iloilo research assistants, Anna Raizel Lemoso and Judith Pabito, along with a Hollywood nun youth, Ricardo Camarig, serving as the guide. In her journey to the heartland of Panay, various agencies facilitated funding support, recognizing that there is a dearth of information in this area of research. The purpose of that trip was to see more of the Panayanon and Hala Woodland barangays.
She as well verified the presence and distribution of epic chanting in these areas. It was during that trek that she was able to see an 84-year-old kept maiden as well as women chanters who were sisters or close relatives of a binukot. She also learned that the people inhabiting the interior mountains of the Pascapis and Kalinog-Iloilo are descendants of mountain people of interior Panay previously called by various names Montes by Eugenio, Mundos by Yaldama, and Sulod by Jucano. She theorized that their origin was once the coast before the colonizers came in but moved to the far mountains following the course of two major rivers halawud and panay rivers dr magos also explored central panay in the early 1990s to clarify and strongly establish the ip identity of panay bukidnon and thereby clarifying their ethnic name All mountain dwellers in Central Panay, covering the four provinces, are Panay Bukidnon.
The use of the names Halawudnon, Panayanon, Akyanon, and Iraynon are names referring to their source of sustenance, the Halawud and Panay River, respectively. Living in Minoro or groups of houses, these villagers must have come from the sea coast but moved to the interior and near water bodies, the rivers and creeks. A bukidnan house is usually a one-room affair that is elevated from the ground by bamboo poles and is made of bamboo and nipa or kugon.
A common fixture in their household is a duyan and a lusong where they pound the rice. Other tools and materials that you can find inside their houses are the following. Sanduko, a long black knife for cutting. Lusong and halo, a mortar and pestle for pounding rice.
Tagad, a bamboo or wood sharpened. at the end for digging holes. Dawin, a small woven basket tied to one's waist containing rice seeds. Tabungos is a big woven container made of bamboo strips for containing cabans of rice. And Iwa, a bolo.
It is from the Kalupaan. or land, the mountains, hills, and patches of land where they farm and get the Visayan varieties of rice such as Bisaya and Malido. While working on the farm, there were songs being sang to entertain themselves.
Their lives in the mountains focused around tilling the land in search the environment for their sustenance. Kainin farming is a common activity. They also make charcoal that they sell to the lowlands.
The Bukidnon spend hours of trekking through a rugged trail and rivers carrying their products to the nearby market by means of a short bamboo pole called Tuang Tuangan. This balances whatever it is that they are transporting in their bodies and makes the baggage bearable. They also plant coffee, abaca, gabi, palawan, and other fruits.
and other root crops. Root crops are staples during lean months when rice is not available. Weaving is a common activity for the Bukidnon because of the availability of bamboo and ratan. Products from these are used in their everyday chores and are sold to augment their needs.
It is in the Katalunan or forest where they trap wild animals using balatik, limbaong, and ligpit. They place traps for wild animals such as lagid, wild boars, and deers. A limbaong is a hole big enough to trap the animal with sharp pointed bamboo sticks or luba and covered on top with leaves.
Siod or baghot is a hanging rope serving as trap set on a branch of a sloping area. The tiglapak, a curved branch, tigpi, set under a tree and once the safety is released, the pig's legs is caught. The luba, also a trap, works when a wild boar jumps on it and if it is hit by a pointed stick.
the farmer or hunter traces the blood to locate it. It is in the katubigan or water bodies such as rivers, waters, springs and streams where they get food also by chopping fish and fresh water shrimps. Bukidnon children also make the waterfalls as their playing ground.
Pangunog is a method of catching indigenous little fishes in the river called unog by using a cloth tied on the neck. Some traditional techniques used for gathering food are the following Padugmon, where branches of trees are placed on one part of the river for water to flow and allow fishes and crustaceans to come in. Taon, a fish trap, or a woven bamboo trap, is set against the flow of the river current to allow fish to come. Binaugon, a fish trap with a bait, paon, inside it, is similar to a taon.
Patahan is a huge bamboo trap set on the intersection of the river wherein two sides of the flowing water goes to the trap. Diving down the deep part of the river armed with a baslai, pointed iwa or lance using a lente to protect the eyes and see clearly through the water the big fishes and freshwater shrimps. or padamag are catching fishes, crabs and crustaceans in the early evening by using a torch to attract these fishes and crustaceans.
Respect to the spirit beings inhabiting the forests, the rivers and the land prevails in the Bukidnon Syke. Despite having missionaries coming from the lowland and Western medicines reaching the Bukidnons, they are still strongly attached to the Babaylanes and the Maaram that offer cure and provides advice. After a day's work, Panay Bukidnon would listen to the elder members of the family who would sing Sugidanon.
These are epics that tells the exploits of the mythical characters of Humadapnon, Labawdungun, Malitungyawa, and others. Epics are sang or chanted long stories, handed down mostly by kept maidens or binukot. The epic chants give lessons. and shows the worldview and social structure of the Epic people, the ancestors of the Panay Bukidnon. It also serves as lullabies for children and as entertainment.
Its themes are mostly about romance and adventure. Hungaw, the traditional wedding, figures in the lives of the Bukidnon as it is. It is a time for feast and celebration.
People come to join the celebration and enjoy the repartee of the bride and groom's parents. Federico Caballero Tuuhan was awarded the Gamaba or the National Living Treasure by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in the year 2000 for epic literature. This is for his mastery of the ten epics or sugidanon.
Sugidanon comes from the term sugid, to tell or narrate. He comes from a family of at least five generations of epic chanters. His great-grandparents are mostly chanters or manog sugidanon, babaylan or shamans, and manog husay, arbiters.
This is from the lineage of Angoy Opin, to Anguran who is Lula Sosa. His siblings are also good epic chanters, Paino, Pulding, Amangbaoy or Mulok, Ulan, Rodolfo, and Tarsing, Abiaran. Good chanters come from the family with a Binukot lineage. Binukot is a maiden jealously hidden from the eyes of men and commands a high bride gift.
At the early age of four or five, or even before the girl is born, the child is already pledged for marriage to a young boy as agreed by the parents. This is sealed by a tuos, a precious material or gift to seal the agreement. In the course of Dr. Maga's research, she has collected a series of Sugidanon stories about the adventures of different characters that revolves around the land and sea.
A total of 10 epic stories of 13 volumes were gathered. These are Tikum Kadlong, where Paiburong goes to a hunting spree with his dog Tikum and cuts a magical bamboo. tree owned by Masangladon, a great witch and monster.
Ambu Rukai tells of a hermit woman or an ugly monster who owns a gold pubic hair and took to her care two beautiful young girls. is about a gold medallion that Sinagnayan offers for marriage to a lovely Binukot Matanayon who was already pledged in a child marriage to Labawdungon, hence conflict follows. Balanacon, on the other hand, tells about a warrior who grows to Halawud to pursue Matanayon but was interrupted by Sarandihon at the River Bangaan.
and ends with a fight where Balanacon was defeated. Kalampay is about a huge crab where Masangladon, a man from the underworld, falls in love with Matanayon and commands Kalampay to disguise as an island to deceive her. Pahagunong, a deity from the upper world, fells in love with the lovely Matanayon. Sinagnayan is about Matanayon, who is now wife of Labawdunggon, who longs for her sister Pinailig sa Pinggan, and persuades Labawdunggon to get her from Sinagnayan and make her his wife too.
Humadapnon in his story of four volumes talks about Humadapnon I, which is about the Tarangban, Humadapnun 2, which is Pagbalukat Kabiday, Humadapnun 3, Hungaw, and Humadapnun 4, the Ginlawan. This is by far the longest of the epics with three-month storytelling. They tell of Humadapnun's pursuit for Mali, their wedding, and misunderstandings. Alayaw is about a sweet-scented flower. The beautiful Malitong Yawa was pursued by the handsome Humadapnon using a garland of sweet scented flowers called alayaw.
Nagbuhis, a ceremonial ritual where a young, now an old woman gets sick and performs a ceremony of power transfer to her daughter, Mali. All conflicts in the epic are settled with Laonsina as arbiter or Manughusay. When Federico Caballero became a Gamaba awardee, a balay turunan was built in Garangan and later in Agalaga to propagate the culture.
Every Saturday, children would go to school and learn about epic chanting, weaving, and playing of musical instruments, as well as binanog dancing. The school for living and the school for art is a great place to be. Living traditions are informal schools with living elders serving as masters, teaching the children the skills during weekends.
There were eight more SLTs built in Kalinong Iloilo and Tapas Capis. Sugidanon, or epic chanting, gives lessons and entertainment and inspires children to learn the skills of elders and their ancestors. Binanog dance, an eagle hawk dance, mentioned in the Sugidanon still survives today.
To remind the younger generation of their Binukot ancestors who are good dancers. Women who dance binanog wear saipudong, headdress, bininkit, necklace, and awalkos, belts which are all made of ancient coins. Panobok is a special needlework, a traditionally designed form of embroidery, most of which are inspired by plants and animals in the environment and by the epic characters, and are being embroidered in the clothes of Bukidnons that are used during special occasions.
This also has sudlikama designs inspired by the skin of the python snake and matang punay that is patterned after the eyes of the punay bird. An epic character in the Alayaw. A child with interest in any of the traditional musical instruments are taught or are encouraged to learn the following. Gong, Litgit, Tikumbo, Suganggang, Subing, Bidja or Kujapi.
Kujapi is a stringed instrument likened to a guitar. Aside from epic chanting, there are other oral literatures that are sang by the Bukidnons. These are Ulauhay, Ambahan, Talda, and Dilot.
Ulauhay are long stories but shorter than the epics and told in a chanting style. Ambahan, on the other hand, are chanted lines sang by the elders when they gather. It expresses a longing or parting. Dilot is a chanted repartee with a general theme centered on love between a couple, a young man and a woman, or a parent and child, while Talda, which is also a chanted repartee, is used to outwit or indirectly insult in a subtle manner the other person. Since we first started working on the epics of the night, the Sugidanon, and now we want to show to this present generation that these epics are their very own, to value and to cherish.
Dr. Magas has facilitated the digitalizing of the epics from the sensitive tape recording to DVDs with the assistance of the UP Diliman College of Music. They were transcribed and encoded with the help of our researchers. The archived documents of the 10 epics with 13 volumes at the Center for West Design Studies were secured and later on translated to Kinaray-A, Filipino and English. Eventually, it will be in e-book copies and hard copies which shall all be published by the UP Press. There are many more that needs to be done, and Dr. Magos invites scholars and cultural workers to continue research on the epics and the Bukidnon culture.
The works of Dr. Magos and Nong Pedring has gone far. Because of the dedication that they gave to resurrect a dying culture in the heartland of Panay, we are now recipients of a rich cultural heritage. The place of the Panay Bukidnon and their recognition as an indigenous group has been secured.
It is a legacy that Dr. Alicia Magos and Gamaba Awardee Federico Caballero have bestowed upon us, the Panayanons. 26 years have lapsed since I started exploring Central Panay for the presence of the epics. I started translating the epics 23 years ago and now we have published epic one which is about to come out.
I wish to thank the University of the Philippines for making possible the publication of the epics as well as its popularization. I am a woman of the land Parang dun ka daton, parang kuton, nit masimburot, paydangot, masipot, paydunikok, maharorot, sipunay, matabog, simanayot.