BONTOC, Mountain Province – Several indigenous peoples in the province performed their respective rituals to pray to Kabunian and the Almighty Creator to spare Mountain Province from the dreaded Corona Virus Disease (COVID) 2019 and sustain status of the province as COVID-free.
Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative (IPMR) and Board member Thomas Tawagen, Sr. said different indigenous peoples in the province have almost the same rituals to drive away evil spirits and not infect the indigenous peoples with the deadly virus so that the province will protected by Kabunian and remain COVID free.
The indigenous peoples from the Mountain Province include the Kankanaey from western Mountain Province composed of the towns of Bauko, Tadian, Sabangan, Sagada and Besao; the Bontok from the capital town of Bontoc and Sadanga and the Balangao from the towns of Barlig, Natonin and Paracelis.
Tawagen disclosed the rituals involve the butchering of pigs which are then offered by the ritualists to Kabunian or the Almighty Creator for the province to spared from the COVID outbreak in the country and for it to be free from the highly contagious virus.
He claimed that each of the indigenous peoples performed their rituals with the hope that there will be no confirmed COVID cases in the province even beyond the lifting of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine.
The indigenous version of lockdown is known as ‘ sedey,’ ‘ngilin,’ ‘ubaya,’ or tengao’ in western Mountain Province and ‘tungro’ in eastern Mountain Province.
After the performance of the rituals, people in the villages will no longer be required to go out of their houses until a given period of time which is aligned with the ongoing implementation of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine.
Board member Tawagen expressed his gratitude to the indigenous peoples who performed their own rituals and for their compliance to the traditionally-imposed lockdown as the contribution of the indigenous peoples to the efforts of the government to implement precautionary measures that will prevent the spread of COVID in the province that could have a heavy impact on the economic activities and livelihood of the people.
According to him, the indigenous version of a lockdown in different communities province-wide is a time-honored and age-old proven tradition of compelling the people not to go out of their houses for a certain period of time to allow the evil spirits causing misfortunes to the people to leave and for the peoples to be spared from any illnesses brought by such evil spirits.
The traditional rituals had been passed down generations by the ancestors of the indigenous peoples practiced over the several generations, thus, the present generation is mandated to pass on the same to the future generations for them to preserve and protect a very helpful and relevant practice.
By Hent
