Philippine Indigenous Community
Module 5
Indigenous Filipino Spirituality
Name: Jane Rose A. Invento
Course: BS in Tourism Management 1
Prior knowledge (Guide Questions)
Watch the video “A Glimpse of Three Indigenous Cultures in the Philippines”
Write a list of at least 10 common religious rituals or practices that you know are practiced
by Filipinos.
1. Tabitabi po – this is to ask permission to the spirits and mythical creatures that you’re
passing by and so they can avoid you.
2. Respect for the spirits of the ocean, rivers, mountains, sky, and other places.
3. Celebration of the festival annually.
4. Using po and opo as an answer because it is a sign of respect for the elderly.
5. Pagmano is the action of placing the back of an elder’s hand on your forehead as a sign of
respect.
6. Agreement of parents both sides for their children to be married.
7. Matrimonial services – is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people
called spouses.
8. Funerary services – a ceremony connected with the final disposition if a corpse, such as
burial or cremation it comprises the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to
remember and respect the dead, from interment to various monuments, prayers, and
rituals undertaken in their honor.
9. Sukob – a traditional belief in wedding; a belief that its unlucky to be married if someone
in the family dies within that year.
10. Bayanihan – the act of the whole neighborhood getting together and helping to move the
house to the new location.
Instruction: Watch the movie “Mumbaki” on YouTube. After watching the film, identify
religious activities of Igorots and the importance or relevance of these activities or
rituals. Discuss the spirituality of Igorots.
Religious Rituals Among Igorots
1. The dawat di bagol was performed during the harvest season where the supreme gods
and deities were invoked to bestow authority on the mumbaki to preside over the
rituals.
2. These included the rice ceremonies performed throughout the cycle of the “tinawon,”
the traditional rice of the Ifugao. The rituals are done to honor the covenant the “I-
Pugaw” (people of the earth) and the givers of the tinawon, the “IKabunyan” (deities
of the Skyworld).
3. During the recent rice harvest in Bayninan, Simon Tuguinay, 66, a mumbaki, was
elevated to a mumbagol through a rarely performed ritual. In dawat di bagol, the
presence of three senior mumbaki from neighboring villages was needed to celebrate
the ritual, whose main role was to recite the elaborate and simultaneous prayerchants
and to transmit the sacred rituals involved in elevating a mumbaki to a higher level.
4. Along with newly harvested rice, native black pigs and chickens were offered to the
gods and rice deities. The reading of the bile and liver of the butchered pigs by the
mumbaki showed a good omen, allowing the community to proceed with the ritual.
5. The presence of ritual paraphernalia such as the “moma” (betel nut and leaves), the
“palipal” (bamboo clapper), the “pama-ahan” (wooden bowl), “tingab” (ritual box),
“bayah” (rice wine), and the “bulol” (rice god) completed the performance of this
daylong ritual under the “alang” (rice granary).
6. During the ritual, Tuguinay was flanked by two elders representing his lineage, and a
“binuhlan” (loincloth) was spread across his legs, where it was believed that the
“bagol” (gods) would pass on to his body and mind as a sign of bestowal.
7. Tuguinay was seated with his hands on his head, imitating a seated bulol (rice god),
while the other mumbaki, seated near the posts of the granary, were simultaneously
chanting the prayers.
8. Village women chanted the “hudhud” (epic chant) as part of the harvest ritual and the
other members of the community beat drums to help invoke the gods. The rhythmic
beating of the drums and the cacophony of voices were believed to call the supreme
deities and ancestral spirits to accept the offerings and bestow the blessings and
authority on Tuguinay.
9. The completion of the elevation ritual would allow Tuguinay to perform important
prestige rituals such as the “uya-uy” (marriage feast) and the “hagabi” (ritual
featuring a wooden bench and in rare cases, a bale or a traditional Ifugao house),
including healing rituals.
10. The number of mumbaki, who could perform sacred rituals, is dwindling in Ifugao.
The spirituality of Igorot. In general, Igorot's believe in spirits, including those of
their ancestors, and have elaborate rituals to reconcile them. There are no clans or
tribes and political organization is usually limited to the village level. Kinship was
tracked from both paternal and maternal sides, extending to third cousins.
