Descriptions
Tagakaolo
| Practice or ritual | Purpose | Material/s | Description of practice or ritual | Additional information | Informant/s | Address |
| Indicate the name of the practice or ritual in the local language. Describe succinctly the practice or ritual. Include etymology of the term, if known | Indicate purpose of the practice or ritual, eg, to know the cause of the ailment, for treatment, to ward off evil spirit, or other. | Indicate the materials used. | Describe the practice or ritual. To be complemented by photo and/or video documentation, after obtaining consent from the healer and patient. | Indicate any additional information. | Indicate First, Middle,Family names of the informant | Indicate full address: province, municipality, barangay, sitio/purok/street |
| The ritual "Panawag-tawag, tawag=Manobo, tubad: pagsasalita, pakikipag-usap, pangintuu | For special gathering and other important occasions. | Materials used are live chicken (or anything domesticated animal for offering), knife, tobacco, kalisaw (bunga). | The healer called "manubagtubag" performs panawagtawag invoking Tyumanem's blessings through his anito or diwata. The detailed description of the ritual was not allowed to be disclosed. | Tyumanem is God in Tagakaolo. | Clarita Inantay-a traditional general practitioner in Tagakaolo and at the same time she is also a Mananamok (Tagakaulo)-traditional birth attendant or midwife. | Davao del Sur, Malita, Barangay Pinalpalan, Sitio Lunao |
Talaingod Manobo
| Practice or ritual | Purpose | Material/s | Description of practice or ritual | Additional information | Informant/s | Address |
| Panubad-tubad is the general Manobo term for a ritual or prayer. Two panubad-tubad were witnessed by the researchers during the fieldwork in Nalubas for two different purposes and with two different sets of actions. | Panubad-tubad for newcomers to the village | Objects needed were a live chicken, a knife, and a saucer. | A panubad-tubad must be performed over non-community members upon their arrival in the village. In this occasion, a panubad-tubad was done by Datu Bunlay over the researchers and some visiting teachers. The panubad-tubad took place in Datu Bunlay’s house, which also serves as a hospital, convalescence area and ritual space of the village. The objects needed were a live chicken, a knife, and a saucer. Datu Bunlay says a prayer in Manobo while holding the chicken. Every now and then Datu Bunlay swings the chicken towards the direction of the guests (the researchers and the teachers). At the end of the prayer he takes the knife and motions to cut the chicken’s throat with it. However, before the knife touches the chicken’s throat, Bunlay subtly flips the knife around so that its blunted edge is what actually comes in contact with the chicken’s throat. After a few “tries”, Bunlay turns the chicken and the knife over to two other Manobo lads, and it is they who finally cut the chicken’s throat and catch the blood in a saucer. Baylan, or Manobo religious practitioners, are not allowed to do the killing of sacrificial animals during rituals, hence the affectation of cutting the chicken’s throat by Bunlay and the actual killing of the chicken being done by someone else. | This short panubad-tubad was over in half an hour. | Datu Bunlay | Davao del Norte, Talaingod, Palma Gil, Sitio Nalubas |
| Panubad-tubad for the opening of the new school building | The same objects were prepared except live pig was also offered. | A longer and more sophisticated panubad-tubad was performed at the opening of a newly-built school building in the village of Nalubas on 13 May 2013. The school building’s porch served as a stage where the village’s prominent men were seated: Datu Bunlay, Datu Ansag, Buburi, and MB, a datu from a neighboring village. Datu Bunlay, with a small white chicken in his hands, gets up and faces the rising sun [The stage faces east, as does the school building entrance, thus Bunlay’s back is to the building itself as he faces the sun and the people gathered in front of the stage]. He intones a prayer in Manobo; at this point photos are not allowed. Bunlay is followed by Ansag, who receives the chicken from Bunlay and also prays in Manobo facing east [at this point, photos are allowed]. As Ansag prays, he holds the chicken with both his hands and swings the chicken in specific directions. Ansag first swings the chicken towards the east and invokes all good things to “rise”, then he swings the chicken to the west and prays for all bad things to “sink”. MB follows Ansag and also intones a prayer in Manobo, however, he only holds on to the chicken and does not swing it. All in all their prayers are for the well-being of the teachers and students who will be occupying the school building, that they remain healthy and free from illness. The chicken does not get sacrificed for this panubad-tubad. The next stage of the panubad-tubad entails the sacrifice of a pig, a large sow, which had been trussed up with a pole between its legs by the men of the village. The killing was less ceremonial than the earlier prayers, with one of the village men stabbing the pig in the throat to create a wound large enough to let blood flow through. The pig’s blood is caught in a basin in a process called gilangen. Buburi, an epic chanter and a prominent village member, then took the lead in opening the pig’s carcass, removing the entrails and stuffing the cavity with banana leaves. Later, the pig was butchered completely and shared equally among the households of the village. The blood of the sacrificed pig is believed to have healing properties, particularly if it is dabbed on to one’s body. As the pig’s blood was gushing out from the wound, one of the men of the village took a short piece of bamboo with its end sawn off and caught some of the blood in its hollow. This bamboo was then passed around among the villagers who dipped their fingers in the blood then dabbed the blood onto their foreheads and throats, or any other part of their body that needed healing or was in pain. Mothers dabbed blood on their children’s faces and neighbors helped each other out. The blood need not come from the bamboo container, but could also come from the basin itself, and even the bolo knife used to stab the pig. The people then started to walk back home while others stayed behind to await their share of the pork. |
Datu Ansag Mansimoy-at | Davao del Norte, Talaingod, Palma Gil, Sitio Nalubas | ||
| Ginatong-gatong healing ritual | This is the most important ritual related to healing among the talaingod manobos. The most significant act during this ritual is the touching of the door-frame of the ginatong-gatong by the afflicted, in their view, in order to 'place a mark, like signing with a thumbmark', in the words of one member. | The ginatong-gatong 'round-house | The ginatong-gatong 'round-house (an important structure in the Pantaron Manobo prayer complex characteristically constructed in stategic mountain ridges) has an inotaw (otaw is metathesis for tawo, 'human') human figure on top of its roof. This round-house has a ritual function related to health-concerns: a person with severe affliction, if practicable, is brought to this outer-rim part of the village, accompanied by the baylan-priest. The priest does a panubadtubad prayer and the afflicted person is made to touch the round-house, 'to place a mark'. In ordinary occasions, a sick person, when family fails, is just brought to the baylan's house in the village which also functions as panubaran, like the house of the present baylan, Datu Bunlay. | Datu Bunlay | Davao del Norte, Talaingod, Palma Gil, Sitio Nalubas |