Deep in the highlands of Davao live the Bagobo. Their ancestors were among the first people to live in these islands. The Bagobo have many myths and legends that tell of their beginnings, and which they can recite from memory. Very often, these stories tell of the victories of their warrior heroes.
The Bagobo live far away from big towns or cities, just like many other Philippine tribes. In this way, they are able to keep their own way of believing. Today there are only a few hundred Bagobo living in Davao. But because they have kept together and away from the bigger towns, they still do many things much the same way as their ancestors did centuries ago.
The Bagobo have a great festival called Ginum, which means “a time for drinking.” The Ginum lasts for four days, but it is set at no definite time of the year. The Bagobo leader decides when the Ginum takes place. It must always be when the moon is at its brightest.
Many things happen at the Ginum. It is a time for storytelling. To remember the Bagobo warrior heroes, the Bagobo chant stories about them.
The great Bagobo warrior hero is Tuwaang, who spoke to the wind and rode on the wings of lightning. He could not be wrestled down or wounded. For many years he was the good and just leader of the Bagobo, teaching them great skills, such as the craft of smithery.
One day the wind told Tuwaang that a strange maiden had arrived in the home of Batooy, his best friend, many mountains away. The maiden refused to speak to anyone, but Batooy believed she would talk to Tuwaang.
On the wings of lightning, Tuwaang hurried to where the maiden was. But so exhausted was he by his journey that he fell asleep without seeing her. Suddenly someone tweaked his mustache. He sprang awake. Beside him was the loveliest maiden he had ever seen.
She was the visitor who would speak to no one but Tuwaang. She said she was the maiden of Buhong sky, forced to flee her home in the skyworld to escape the evil giant Pangumanon, who wanted to marry her. When she refused him, he burned down her home and village. When she escaped to other places in the skyworld, he followed her and burned down every home and village where she found shelter. There was nowhere in the skyworld where she could hide, so she decided to go to the earthworld.
Hardly had she finished her story when Pangumanon appeared. He was as ugly as she had described. His head towered to the clouds. In his rage, his whole body turned into flames. When he spoke, he roared, “Give me the maiden of Buhong sky or I will destroy you.”
Tuwaang rose to defend her. The giant slashed him with his sword. Tuwaang was not harmed. The giant slashed and slashed, but Tuwaang was unharmed. For hours they fought with their swords, but neither fell. For days they fought, and still neither lost. Their spears were broken, their daggers chipped and blunted, their swords snapped and their shields smashed into bits.
With their weapons gone, Tuwaang and the giant wrestled, but neither gave up. Desperately, the giant took his last weapon, a magic iron bar. He commanded the iron bar to squeeze Tuwaang tight in a band of fire. But hardly had the iron touched Tuwaang’s body when he tore it apart.
Tuwaang, too, had a secret weapon, a fine thread of gold.
Swiftly he spun the gold round and round the giant’s body. Then he called the wind to blow the gold into flames, which burned the giant into ashes.
The maiden of Buhong sky was free at last. Tuwaang carried her on his shoulders and together they rode the lightning to his home. But even there, among the people he loved, Tuwaang was not at peace. Invaders came again and again. Each time Tuwaang fought them away. Although he always won, one day he decided that he would have no more battles, no more wars.
He gathered all his people into a windboat called sinalimba, which glided swiftly into the clouds. Bearing the maiden of Buhong sky on his shoulders, Tuwaang followed his people into their new home called Katuusan, where there is no death.
Sometimes the great legend of Tuwaang and the stories of other Bagobo warriors are told by dancing. The Bagobo love to dance. They can dance like birds or snakes or squirrels scampering up a tree. They can even dance like the wind playing on the bamboo leaves. During Ginum the Bagobo girls dance first and for a long time. Then the men dance. When men and girls dance together, but never as couples, they imitate the many wonderful things they see in nature.
The Ginum is a time for Bagobo elders to speak of their bravery. As part of the ritual, young Bagobo braves cut two bamboo poles from the forest. They twine wild vines around the poles. Chanting and dancing, they bring the poles to where the Bagobo are gathered. Gongs beat as they set up the poles. Then, holding to the bamboos, the old warriors of the tribe recall their past adventures.
The Ginum is also a time for making offerings to the spirits. The Bagobo believe in many spirits, the greatest of them Pamulak Manobo. Pamulak Manobo gjves life, good harvests, rain and the wind. To him and other spirits the Bagobo offer food and drink, sometimes also brass bells, bracelets and fine herbs.
For many young men, the Ginum is a time for cleansing, a cleansing of the spirit. As soon as the sun rises, the priestess of the tribe leads the Bagobo to the river. There on the bank a little altar is set. She carries a branch of the palm that is just beginning to bud. The budding palm means innocence.
From rock to rock the priestess dances while the eldest of the tribe makes his prayer at the altar. The priestess joins him and five young men approach the altar. She dips the palm leaf into the river and holds it dripping over the heads of the young men, one by one. The crystal water flows from their heads to their backs. Nine times the priestess bathes the men as they face the altar. Then they turn to the east, where the sun is rising. Nine more times the priestess bathes them.
Five by five, the men of the tribe come to be cleansed. As the water flows on them, they dip their hands into the water and bring them up to wash their faces, their arms, their bodies.
At the end of the Ginum, far into the night, the elders speak of bravery. Young Bagobo, newly cleansed at the river, listen. From memory to memory, they begin to store a courage of their own.
MGA KAHULUGAN SA TAGALOG
gínum: ritwal na pagsasakripisyo at pag-inom ng alak sa seremonya
gínum: pagdiriwang na may pag-aalay ng mga hayop
