TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The provincial government decided to reset its bid to break the Guinness Book of World Record in the number of gongs played simultaneously during the celebration of the province’s founding anniversary next year.
Provincial Adinistrat5or Henry Gupaal said organizers of the “Awong chi Gangsa” had insufficient time to prepare for the staging of the event on February 13, 2018 that is why they decided to move the activity next year to allow a longer time to prepare for the supposed record breaking gathering.
The “Awong chi Gangsa” was supposed to be part of the lined up events for the celebration of the province’s 23rd founding anniversary and the 2nd Bodong Festival scheduled February 5-16, 2018.
“We need a good lead time to allow us to gather sufficient number of participants from the different parts of the municipality, natives of Kalinga who are living outside the province and even the students so that we will be able to double or triple our previous accomplishment in the simultaneous playing of gongs through the pattong,” Gupaal stressed.
He added that another factor that compelled the organizers to call off the event this year is the decision of the Department of Education to back out from the activity as they were not also prepared due to the limited time for their students to organize and prepare for their presentations.
Despite the resetting of the “Awong chi Gangsa” next year, the provincial administrator disclosed that residents and visitors alike will still be treated to a colorful cultural presentation on February 13 with the ‘ tupayya” or the courtship dance of the tribes from lower Kalinga with barangays from the province encouraged to send their contestants to the cultural dance contest.
During the initial staging of the “Awong chi Gangsa” several years ago, the province was able to convince over 1,000 people to simultaneously play the “pattong” through the sounding of the over 1,000 gongs were made available for the event.
Supposedly, some 2,000 gongs should have to be played simultaneously by the people who will be in their native attire to allow the province to break or even enter the Guinness Book of World Record for the most number of gongs played simultaneously.
Gupaal urged natives of Kalinga living outside the province and foreign and domestic tourists to visit the province during the scheduled celebration of its founding anniversary and the conduct of the Bodong festival so that they will be able to witness the rich culture and traditions of the people of Kalinga which was passed on to generations.
Last year, Kalinga decided to name its festival as the Bodong festival in recognition of the age-old practice of the tribes to enter into the so-called “bodong’ or peace pact to ensure the reign of law and order province-wide and to guarantee the immediate settlement of conflicts that will arise from individual or tribal conflicts.
Since 1966 or the effectivity of Republic Act (RA) 4695 or the Division Law that divided the whole Mountain Province into 4 independent provinces, Kalinga-Apayao was treated as a single province before the enactment of RA 7878 which divided Kalinga-Apayao into two independent provinces, Kalinga and Apayao that took effect on February 14, 1995. By HENT
