Bridging the gap
The farming rituals of the Bukidnons
The Bukidnons, a group pf people inhabiting the mountainous section of central Panay, consider farming as their primary source of food. However, with their kaingin agriculture, their one-year harvest is not enough to meet their food requirements. Thus, they see to it that everything needed to assure them of a plentiful harvest in their kaingin is done. They believe in the important role of the spirit-beings in supplying them with food and would do everything to appease and win their favors.
The Bukidnons categorize spirit-beings into two: spirits of the dead, which includes ancestral spirit-beings, and the environmental spirit-beings or the pali or kalo. Both categories of spirit-beings affect the people's success and failure in life and, therefore are given much attention and care.
In the Bukidnons' performance of magical rituals to invoke the help of the spirit-beings, there is the need of the baylan or the busali-an. The baylan or babaylan is already commonly known to the Bisayans. The busali-an, on the other hand, is considered to be superior to the baylan because he possesses superhuman qualities. The most revered of all the busali-an is Berdin, believed to have existed at one point in time during the Spanish period. His name is called upon by the baylan in numerous Bukidnon rituals. He is known to be just and fair, and therefore loved and respected by all. According to the testimonies of the Bukidnons themselves, Berdin owned a sirangan (source of power) that enabled him to see and hear everything that happens or is being said even from a far distance. He, too, had the power to travel from mountain to mountain visiting relatives and friends in an unbelievably short span of time.
Environmental spirit-beings abound in the Bukidnons' mountain abode. These spirit beings are subdivided into the good and the bad ones. In the performance of the magical rituals both are called and offered food; the good ones are thanked for the good harvest they gave, and the mahikawon or the bad ones are appeased to win their favors so that they would not cause failures and misfortunes. These spirit-beings inhabit places not often visited, like the forest where big vines and trees grow, brooks and creeks flow, or caves can be found. These mentioned places are visited by the people with much precaution least they bump into the spirit beings. Having physical encounter is interpreted as intrusion to their private abode.
The Bukidnons are traditionally shifting cultivators. Before, they often changed their kaingin sites but, due to government regulations and the constriction of available cultivable lands, this is no longer true today.
In choosing the land to be his kaingin, a Bukidnon farmer looks at the physical condition of the area. After a choice is made, the farmer goes to the site and asks the environmental spirit-beings' permission to work on the land supposedly owned by the latter. The farmer then goes home and waits for the spirit's answer to be manifested in his dreams or in his physical condition. If, within the week, the farmer feels weak and lazy or if his dreams are comparably more bad than good, then it is understood that the spirits are against his plan. If the farmer continues with his plan, despite the bad signs, he will provoke the spirits to be angry and something bad may possibly happen to him or members of his family. If the spirits approved right away the farmer's plan to work on the land of his choice, the latter proceeds to the next farming phase that of cutting the trees. If the spirits have not responded favorably, the farmer has two choices left; to leave the land or to perform the magical ritual of salisi.
Salisi is performed to sway the spirit-beings and to permit the farmer to cultivate the land of his choice. The ritual is performed by a baylan and, in his absence, by a siruhano. It is only performed in the kaingin the farmer has chosen to farm and a week after he began experiencing his dreams. The ritual involves the slaughter of a pig if the land is thick with trees and ranged chicken if it is not so thick. The cooking is done without salt and the offered food is then laid by the baylan or siruhano on a specific area in the kaingin. After the performance of the salisi, the farmer waits for the dreams to come. If bad dreams outweigh the good ones, the farmer is now definitely obliged to leave the land but if his dreams are good he is now permitted by the spirit-beings to work the land.
(To be continued)