Teduray literature includes myths, legends and animal stories. The myth of the creation centers on a female deity called Minaden who shaped the world and the first creatures in it. She fashioned humans from mud; after doing this, she placed the sun between the earth and the sky, which brought forth light.
The sky world was believed to be divided into eight layers; the topmost was occupied by Tulus or Meketefu, who was Minaden’s brother. The first two human beings created by Minaden began to grow, but after some time they did not beget any offspring. Meketefu came down from the sky world and saw that the male reproductive organ was as small as a tiny red pepper and that of the female was as big as a snail shell. Besides, their noses were created upside down; whenever it rained, their noses caught water and the two humans got sick.
Meketefu decided to create his own clay figures of man and woman. Using an old bolo, he struck the female figure, wounding her where the legs joined together. As he did so, the handle of the bolo flew off and struck the middle part of the male clay figure. He also turned their noses right side up, so they would not take in rainwater. Soon the two creatures were able to bring forth a child. But no food was available to nourish them and the child eventually died.
The father begged Meketefu to give them some soil. Much later, various types of vegetation sprouted from the plot of earth where the child was buried. One part of the plot gave forth plants and lime for chewing. The child’s umbilical cord came out as a rice stalk, the intestines were transformed into sweet potatoes, and the head became the tubers. The hand turned into bananas, the nails to nuts, the teeth to corn, the brains into lime, the bones into cassava and the ears into betel leaf. (Patanne 1977:256 and Wood 1957:15–16)
(Blogger’s note: This post is the fourth part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Monday, October 27, 2014
Monday, October 20, 2014
The Teduray and Their Beliefs
According to the Teduray, the world was created by the female deity Minaden, who had a brother named Tulus, also called Meketefu or Sualla. Tulus is the chief of all the good spirits who bestow gifts and favors upon human beings. He goes around with a retinue of messengers called telaki.
The universe according to the Teduray is the abode of the various types of etew or people. There are visible ones, or the ke-ilawan (human beings); and the invisible ones, or the meginalew (spirits). The latter may be seen, but only by those in this world possessing special powers or charisma. It is believed that the spirits live in tribes and perform tasks in the other world.
While good spirits abound in the world, there are also bad spirits who are called busaw. They live mostly in caves and feed on the remoger (soul) of any hapless human being who falls into their trap. At all times, the Teduray, young and old, are aware that the busaw must be avoided, and this can be successfully done if one possesses charms and amulets. With the good spirits, it is always necessary and beneficial to maintain lines of communication. But the ordinary human beings cannot do this, and so the Teduray must rely on the beliyan or religious leader.
The beliyan has the power to see and communicate with the spirits. If a person falls ill, and the spirits need to be supplicated, the beliyan conducts a spiritual tiyawan with them. Human illness, in so far as the Teduray is concerned, is the consequence of an altercation or a misunderstanding between people and unseen spirits. Formal negotiations are needed to restore the person’s health and harmonious relationship with the spirits. In effect, the beliyan, as a mediator between spirits and human beings, is a specially gifted and powerful kefeduwan.
In an account within the late 19th century by Sigayan (the first Christianized Teduray, christened Jose Tenorio) the beliyan was described as a person who could talk directly to Tulus and even share a meal with him. The beliyan would gather people in a tenines, a small house where the shaman stored the ritual rice, and tell them about his or her communication with Tulus. The beliyan would dance with a wooden kris in the right hand, small, jingling bells hanging from the wrist, and a decorated wooden shield held in the other hand. The shaman made the men and women dance, for that was the only way the people could worship Tulus. The beliyan also prepared the ritual offerings to Tulus and played the togo, a small drum, for the supreme being.
The ancient belief in Tulus and other cosmological beings has remained. And so has the belief in the efficacy of charms and omens. These are particularly relevant in hunting activities of the Teduray whose basic talisman is the ungit. This is fashioned from several kinds of mystically powerful leaves and grasses wrapped with cloth and bound with vine lashing. This is handed on from father to son, down the line. The kinds of plants that make up the charm are strictly kept between father and son, as revealing this to just anybody will cause the charm to lose its potency. The hunter carries the ungit on his body and rubs it all over his dog and horse. The ungit is believed efficacious not only in snaring or catching game, but also in attracting women sexually. If so used, however, it loses its power as a hunting charm.
Omens rule the life of hunters, for these presage misfortune. A hunter will not proceed on a hunt if any of these occurs: he hears a person sneeze as he is about to set out; he hears the call of a small house lizard; or he has a bad dream in which he gets wounded, falls or dies. He will also give up the hunt if he sees the animal he intends to catch while he is setting up the trap.
Rituals to establish good relations with the spirits accompany each significant stage of the Teduray agricultural cycle. Four times within the year, all the households belonging to an inged participate in a community ritual feast known as kanduli. Feasting on food, particularly glutinous rice and hard-boiled eggs, and making ritual offerings to the spirits are two characteristics of the celebration. The preparations for the feast are generally done in the major settlement within the inged, which is also the focal point of all activities. In the preparation of the food, a significant ritual act is already performed; the exchange of portions of the glutinous rice among all the families. When it is time to consume the ritual food, a family would then be actually partaking of some of the rice that has come from every other family in the whole neighborhood. The community’s bonding is strengthened through the food exchange. The significance is further underscored by the fact that, in the course of the cultivation cycle, each family in the neighborhood had contributed its labor to each field on which rice was grown. These communal meals thus give ritual expression to their interdependence. (Schlegel 1968: 64–65)
The four kanduli rituals of the agricultural cycle are: mara, or marking festival, which is held on the night of the last full moon before the marking of the swidden sites for the coming cycle; retus kama, or festival of the first corn harvest from a neighborhood swidden; retus farey, or festival of the first rice harvest, which is celebrated on the night following the first harvest from a swidden; and matun tuda, or harvest festival, which is held on the night of the first full moon when the rice harvest from all of the settlement’s swidden has been collected.
The inged families prepare small bamboo tubes filled with glutinous rice, which they will offer to the spirits at the ritual marking of the first swidden site. Men and women of the neighborhood congregate at a clearing and proceed in single line, as gongs are played to where the first swidden for the year will be marked for burning. Arriving at the site, they set up a small platform where they lay down the tubes of glutinous rice. Everyone listens attentively to the omen call of the temugen bird, which is believed to have the power to convey messages between human beings and the spirits. The first ritual marking is meant as a song of respect for the spirits of the forest, seeking permission to begin cutting down the trees.
The owner of the field interprets the omen call. There are bad signs and good signs, depending on the direction of the call. There are four good directions: selat (front), tereneken (45 degrees left), lekas takes (45 degrees right) and rotor (directly overhead). Any other direction is considered bad. The ritual laying of the food and the wait for the omen call is repeated around the four corners of the swidden until a good omen is heard.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the third part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
The universe according to the Teduray is the abode of the various types of etew or people. There are visible ones, or the ke-ilawan (human beings); and the invisible ones, or the meginalew (spirits). The latter may be seen, but only by those in this world possessing special powers or charisma. It is believed that the spirits live in tribes and perform tasks in the other world.
While good spirits abound in the world, there are also bad spirits who are called busaw. They live mostly in caves and feed on the remoger (soul) of any hapless human being who falls into their trap. At all times, the Teduray, young and old, are aware that the busaw must be avoided, and this can be successfully done if one possesses charms and amulets. With the good spirits, it is always necessary and beneficial to maintain lines of communication. But the ordinary human beings cannot do this, and so the Teduray must rely on the beliyan or religious leader.
The beliyan has the power to see and communicate with the spirits. If a person falls ill, and the spirits need to be supplicated, the beliyan conducts a spiritual tiyawan with them. Human illness, in so far as the Teduray is concerned, is the consequence of an altercation or a misunderstanding between people and unseen spirits. Formal negotiations are needed to restore the person’s health and harmonious relationship with the spirits. In effect, the beliyan, as a mediator between spirits and human beings, is a specially gifted and powerful kefeduwan.
In an account within the late 19th century by Sigayan (the first Christianized Teduray, christened Jose Tenorio) the beliyan was described as a person who could talk directly to Tulus and even share a meal with him. The beliyan would gather people in a tenines, a small house where the shaman stored the ritual rice, and tell them about his or her communication with Tulus. The beliyan would dance with a wooden kris in the right hand, small, jingling bells hanging from the wrist, and a decorated wooden shield held in the other hand. The shaman made the men and women dance, for that was the only way the people could worship Tulus. The beliyan also prepared the ritual offerings to Tulus and played the togo, a small drum, for the supreme being.
The ancient belief in Tulus and other cosmological beings has remained. And so has the belief in the efficacy of charms and omens. These are particularly relevant in hunting activities of the Teduray whose basic talisman is the ungit. This is fashioned from several kinds of mystically powerful leaves and grasses wrapped with cloth and bound with vine lashing. This is handed on from father to son, down the line. The kinds of plants that make up the charm are strictly kept between father and son, as revealing this to just anybody will cause the charm to lose its potency. The hunter carries the ungit on his body and rubs it all over his dog and horse. The ungit is believed efficacious not only in snaring or catching game, but also in attracting women sexually. If so used, however, it loses its power as a hunting charm.
Omens rule the life of hunters, for these presage misfortune. A hunter will not proceed on a hunt if any of these occurs: he hears a person sneeze as he is about to set out; he hears the call of a small house lizard; or he has a bad dream in which he gets wounded, falls or dies. He will also give up the hunt if he sees the animal he intends to catch while he is setting up the trap.
Rituals to establish good relations with the spirits accompany each significant stage of the Teduray agricultural cycle. Four times within the year, all the households belonging to an inged participate in a community ritual feast known as kanduli. Feasting on food, particularly glutinous rice and hard-boiled eggs, and making ritual offerings to the spirits are two characteristics of the celebration. The preparations for the feast are generally done in the major settlement within the inged, which is also the focal point of all activities. In the preparation of the food, a significant ritual act is already performed; the exchange of portions of the glutinous rice among all the families. When it is time to consume the ritual food, a family would then be actually partaking of some of the rice that has come from every other family in the whole neighborhood. The community’s bonding is strengthened through the food exchange. The significance is further underscored by the fact that, in the course of the cultivation cycle, each family in the neighborhood had contributed its labor to each field on which rice was grown. These communal meals thus give ritual expression to their interdependence. (Schlegel 1968: 64–65)
The four kanduli rituals of the agricultural cycle are: mara, or marking festival, which is held on the night of the last full moon before the marking of the swidden sites for the coming cycle; retus kama, or festival of the first corn harvest from a neighborhood swidden; retus farey, or festival of the first rice harvest, which is celebrated on the night following the first harvest from a swidden; and matun tuda, or harvest festival, which is held on the night of the first full moon when the rice harvest from all of the settlement’s swidden has been collected.
The inged families prepare small bamboo tubes filled with glutinous rice, which they will offer to the spirits at the ritual marking of the first swidden site. Men and women of the neighborhood congregate at a clearing and proceed in single line, as gongs are played to where the first swidden for the year will be marked for burning. Arriving at the site, they set up a small platform where they lay down the tubes of glutinous rice. Everyone listens attentively to the omen call of the temugen bird, which is believed to have the power to convey messages between human beings and the spirits. The first ritual marking is meant as a song of respect for the spirits of the forest, seeking permission to begin cutting down the trees.
The owner of the field interprets the omen call. There are bad signs and good signs, depending on the direction of the call. There are four good directions: selat (front), tereneken (45 degrees left), lekas takes (45 degrees right) and rotor (directly overhead). Any other direction is considered bad. The ritual laying of the food and the wait for the omen call is repeated around the four corners of the swidden until a good omen is heard.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the third part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Monday, October 13, 2014
The Teduray and Their History
The history of the Teduray is shared by the Maguindanao, as they were once one and the same people. These two peoples believe that they were descended from two brothers—Mamalo and Tabunaway.
During the Islamization of Mindanao, Mamalo the elder refused to be converted, while younger brother Tabunaway embraced the Islamic faith. With this major turning point in their lives, the brothers made a pact: Mamalo would go to the mountains, Tabunaway would make his living near the lowlands and delta of the big river now known as the Rio Grande, and their peoples would trade.
The brothers thus went their separate ways, with their respective followers. This happened around the 13th century. From the elder brother came the Teduray and from the younger brother came the Maguindanao.
Historically, institutionalized trading pacts did exist between the Teduray headsmen and the Maguindanao datus of the coastal area and valley. During the pre-Spanish period, a system of trade between the Teduray and the Maguindanao flourished. The former traded tobacco, beeswax, rattan, gutta percha (sap from the tree that the Teduray called tefedus, used as ingredient for insulation), almaciga and crops. The Maguindanao traded clothing materials, iron tools, and salt. This trading relationship may have originated from the early ties of these two peoples based on the legend.
Based on later developments, it seems that the Tedurays’ trading arrangement with the Maguindanao had inhibited the development of manufacturing among the Teduray. Very much unlike the other peoples in Mindanao, the Tedurays have no weaving, pottery or metal works. These basic needs were secured through the trading system with the Maguindanao.
Spanish influence in the area occupied by the Teduray came rather late. It was only sometime in the 19th century, towards the end of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines, that the central government in Manila and the Roman Catholic church were able to establish a stronghold in Cotabato, when a Jesuit school and mission were built near Awang close to the mountain region. The Spaniards were able to convert a number of Tedurays to Catholicism.
The outbreak of war between the American occupation forces and the Muslim people of Mindanao in the early part of the 1900’s signaled the beginning of another phase of colonization. The Americans, through the efforts of a Philippine constabulary officer named Irving Edwards who had married a Teduray, built a school in Awang in 1916 and an agricultural school in Upi in 1919. The building of roads which ran into Teduray territory opened up the region to numerous lowland Christian settlers, mostly Ilocano and Visayan. Upi Valley became the site of many homesteads—a program the Americans introduced perhaps to “tame” Mindanao.
In time, many Tedurays were persuaded to give up their traditional slash and burn methods of cultivation and shifted to farming with plow and carabao. This was the beginning of the dichotomy in Teduray culture; many Teduray refused to be acculturated and retreated deeper into their ancestral mountain habitat, while others resettled in the Upi Valley and became peasants. Many of the resettled and modernized Teduray had been converted to Christianity as a result of years of evangelization work by American missionaries, Filipino clergy from Luzon, or profoundly westernized Tedurays (Schlegel 1970:9).
During the centuries of fighting between the Spaniards and the Moro people, some of the latter fled to the neighboring heights and joined the Tedurays there. The Spaniards and later the Americans sought to contain the Moro influence by making the Teduray Christian and sedentary through missions and schools and protected them with soldiery. They also established plantations along the coasts and used Teduray labor on them. Since 1900, Christian Filipinos, land speculators and logging interests have entered the Teduray uplands along with Chinese storekeepers in the valley.
Today the Teduray share a common fate with many ethnic peoples in Mindanao. The rapid change in their social and physical environment, brought about by the onslaught of different cultures, has changed their way of life. Tedurays who have settled in the valleys and maintained intense contact with both Christian and Muslim lowlanders have been assimilated. Their adoption of sedentary agriculture has necessarily drawn them deeper into the market and cash economy typical of the rural economy of the entire country.
Teduray peasants are rural, yet live in relation to market systems. (Krober 1948:284) Although they still have some loyalty to their distinctive ethnic identity, they have become constituent elements of some larger political integration. They usually must speak some language other than their own to get along in the larger social whole, of which their society is merely a part. Many of them have had formal education, and a number of them have settled in the cities and nearby provinces to seek greener pastures. Little by little, they are aspiring for leading roles in local governance, although they still constitute the constituency of those Maguindanao who have, through the years, made their presence felt in local politics.
A glaring contrast to the acculturated Teduray are those who refused to embrace these changes and were forced to go deeper in the mountains due to the onslaught of logging and other economic interests. These Teduray continue to practice and preserve the beliefs and culture that define their community.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the second part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
During the Islamization of Mindanao, Mamalo the elder refused to be converted, while younger brother Tabunaway embraced the Islamic faith. With this major turning point in their lives, the brothers made a pact: Mamalo would go to the mountains, Tabunaway would make his living near the lowlands and delta of the big river now known as the Rio Grande, and their peoples would trade.
The brothers thus went their separate ways, with their respective followers. This happened around the 13th century. From the elder brother came the Teduray and from the younger brother came the Maguindanao.
Historically, institutionalized trading pacts did exist between the Teduray headsmen and the Maguindanao datus of the coastal area and valley. During the pre-Spanish period, a system of trade between the Teduray and the Maguindanao flourished. The former traded tobacco, beeswax, rattan, gutta percha (sap from the tree that the Teduray called tefedus, used as ingredient for insulation), almaciga and crops. The Maguindanao traded clothing materials, iron tools, and salt. This trading relationship may have originated from the early ties of these two peoples based on the legend.
Based on later developments, it seems that the Tedurays’ trading arrangement with the Maguindanao had inhibited the development of manufacturing among the Teduray. Very much unlike the other peoples in Mindanao, the Tedurays have no weaving, pottery or metal works. These basic needs were secured through the trading system with the Maguindanao.
Spanish influence in the area occupied by the Teduray came rather late. It was only sometime in the 19th century, towards the end of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines, that the central government in Manila and the Roman Catholic church were able to establish a stronghold in Cotabato, when a Jesuit school and mission were built near Awang close to the mountain region. The Spaniards were able to convert a number of Tedurays to Catholicism.
The outbreak of war between the American occupation forces and the Muslim people of Mindanao in the early part of the 1900’s signaled the beginning of another phase of colonization. The Americans, through the efforts of a Philippine constabulary officer named Irving Edwards who had married a Teduray, built a school in Awang in 1916 and an agricultural school in Upi in 1919. The building of roads which ran into Teduray territory opened up the region to numerous lowland Christian settlers, mostly Ilocano and Visayan. Upi Valley became the site of many homesteads—a program the Americans introduced perhaps to “tame” Mindanao.
In time, many Tedurays were persuaded to give up their traditional slash and burn methods of cultivation and shifted to farming with plow and carabao. This was the beginning of the dichotomy in Teduray culture; many Teduray refused to be acculturated and retreated deeper into their ancestral mountain habitat, while others resettled in the Upi Valley and became peasants. Many of the resettled and modernized Teduray had been converted to Christianity as a result of years of evangelization work by American missionaries, Filipino clergy from Luzon, or profoundly westernized Tedurays (Schlegel 1970:9).
During the centuries of fighting between the Spaniards and the Moro people, some of the latter fled to the neighboring heights and joined the Tedurays there. The Spaniards and later the Americans sought to contain the Moro influence by making the Teduray Christian and sedentary through missions and schools and protected them with soldiery. They also established plantations along the coasts and used Teduray labor on them. Since 1900, Christian Filipinos, land speculators and logging interests have entered the Teduray uplands along with Chinese storekeepers in the valley.
Today the Teduray share a common fate with many ethnic peoples in Mindanao. The rapid change in their social and physical environment, brought about by the onslaught of different cultures, has changed their way of life. Tedurays who have settled in the valleys and maintained intense contact with both Christian and Muslim lowlanders have been assimilated. Their adoption of sedentary agriculture has necessarily drawn them deeper into the market and cash economy typical of the rural economy of the entire country.
Teduray peasants are rural, yet live in relation to market systems. (Krober 1948:284) Although they still have some loyalty to their distinctive ethnic identity, they have become constituent elements of some larger political integration. They usually must speak some language other than their own to get along in the larger social whole, of which their society is merely a part. Many of them have had formal education, and a number of them have settled in the cities and nearby provinces to seek greener pastures. Little by little, they are aspiring for leading roles in local governance, although they still constitute the constituency of those Maguindanao who have, through the years, made their presence felt in local politics.
A glaring contrast to the acculturated Teduray are those who refused to embrace these changes and were forced to go deeper in the mountains due to the onslaught of logging and other economic interests. These Teduray continue to practice and preserve the beliefs and culture that define their community.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the second part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Friday, October 10, 2014
October Updates
I am momentarily suspending my Photo Friday project. My hands are and will be full with some other tasks. I can’t find time to go out to take pictures, digitally crop or enhance them, and write about them. I’m not sure when I will resume the mini project. In January next year maybe.
As to my Monday posts, starting the first week of October 2014, I’m using again excerpts from Defending the Land, a book about the tribes in Mindanao that are working on their ancestral domain claims. This time, I’m using the section on the Teduray people. Most of the Teduray live in Maguindanao Province, but some of them are in the Municipality of Lebak, Sultan Kudarat Province, at the periphery of Kulaman Plateau.
The series is running for nine Mondays. After that, I might use the section of the book about the Maguindanao, for I found out that the specific Maguindano clan that is staking their ancestral domain claim is in the Minicipality of Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat Province, also on the periphery of the Kulaman Plateau.
So in the coming weeks, I can assure you only of one post per week. But I’ll post additional write-ups in case I find some topics that do not take much time and energy to write.
As to my Monday posts, starting the first week of October 2014, I’m using again excerpts from Defending the Land, a book about the tribes in Mindanao that are working on their ancestral domain claims. This time, I’m using the section on the Teduray people. Most of the Teduray live in Maguindanao Province, but some of them are in the Municipality of Lebak, Sultan Kudarat Province, at the periphery of Kulaman Plateau.
The series is running for nine Mondays. After that, I might use the section of the book about the Maguindanao, for I found out that the specific Maguindano clan that is staking their ancestral domain claim is in the Minicipality of Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat Province, also on the periphery of the Kulaman Plateau.
So in the coming weeks, I can assure you only of one post per week. But I’ll post additional write-ups in case I find some topics that do not take much time and energy to write.
Monday, October 6, 2014
The Teduray and Their Ancestral Domain
The Teduray are traditionally hill people of southwestern Mindanao. They originally lived in the upper portion of a river that drained into Cotabato.
Malay in physical features, with a dialect structurally related to those of the Malayo-Polynesian family (Schlegel 1970:5), the Tedurays call themselves etew teduray or Teduray people. But they also classify themselves according to their geographical location. The etew rotor are mountain people and the etew dogot, coastal people. The etew tran dwell along the embankment of Tran River and etew Ufi are those who live within and near the town center.
Historically, the traditional territory of the Teduray and Lambangian communities encompasses the area from Tuduk Tawan-tawan (now PC Hills [sic] in Cotabato City) down to the Slongon plain (Esteros–Tamontaka) to the Awang-Drikan mountain ranges in Datu Odin Sinsuat municipality; Dohon in Talayan; Firis in Maganoy, portions of Kawran in Ampatuan; and the entirety of Upi (north and south)—all in Maguindanao province. In addition, the Tedurays claim as their ancestral home Buayan in Esperanza and Binusugan in Lebak, both in the province of Sultan Kudarat.
This claim is based on the covenant made by Mamalo and Tabunaway, believed to have been done after the coming of Shariph Mohamad Kabunsuan in the twelfth century. The covenant was sacred and binding, and was thus strictly followed by the descendants of Mamalo, who remained as indigenous people or Lumads, and those of Tabunaway, who embraced Islam.
The Mamalo Descendants Organization filed their petition for the recognition of their ancestral domain for an approximate area of 57,850 hectares on February 15, 1996. Twenty-five community organizations of the Teduray and Lambangian groupings in the municipalities of North and South Upi in Maguindanao filed the claim, constituting only about ten percent (10%) of their traditional territory.
The Tedurays and Lambangians who constitute the leadership of the Mamalo Descendants Organization assert that they and their ancestors have lived in North and South Upi, Maguindanao since anyone of them can remember. The territory included natural and traditionally recognized boundaries, starting with Sitios Lantang and Keguko of Barangay Meteber in the south to Tuka Rubong of Barangay Resa in the west; from Tuka Rubong to Barangay Lagitan in the north, to Sitio Kenekar in the east; and finally back to Barangay Meteber in the south.
The ancestral domain is still rich in natural resources such as forests and minerals. But continued exploitation by big landlords and business concessions granted permits for mining operations may eradicate all these in time. For generations, the national government has exacted revenues from this extractive practice. Yet these profits were never translated into programs for consistent and efficient delivery of basic services to the Tedurays and Lambangian people.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the first part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Malay in physical features, with a dialect structurally related to those of the Malayo-Polynesian family (Schlegel 1970:5), the Tedurays call themselves etew teduray or Teduray people. But they also classify themselves according to their geographical location. The etew rotor are mountain people and the etew dogot, coastal people. The etew tran dwell along the embankment of Tran River and etew Ufi are those who live within and near the town center.
Historically, the traditional territory of the Teduray and Lambangian communities encompasses the area from Tuduk Tawan-tawan (now PC Hills [sic] in Cotabato City) down to the Slongon plain (Esteros–Tamontaka) to the Awang-Drikan mountain ranges in Datu Odin Sinsuat municipality; Dohon in Talayan; Firis in Maganoy, portions of Kawran in Ampatuan; and the entirety of Upi (north and south)—all in Maguindanao province. In addition, the Tedurays claim as their ancestral home Buayan in Esperanza and Binusugan in Lebak, both in the province of Sultan Kudarat.
This claim is based on the covenant made by Mamalo and Tabunaway, believed to have been done after the coming of Shariph Mohamad Kabunsuan in the twelfth century. The covenant was sacred and binding, and was thus strictly followed by the descendants of Mamalo, who remained as indigenous people or Lumads, and those of Tabunaway, who embraced Islam.
The Mamalo Descendants Organization filed their petition for the recognition of their ancestral domain for an approximate area of 57,850 hectares on February 15, 1996. Twenty-five community organizations of the Teduray and Lambangian groupings in the municipalities of North and South Upi in Maguindanao filed the claim, constituting only about ten percent (10%) of their traditional territory.
The Tedurays and Lambangians who constitute the leadership of the Mamalo Descendants Organization assert that they and their ancestors have lived in North and South Upi, Maguindanao since anyone of them can remember. The territory included natural and traditionally recognized boundaries, starting with Sitios Lantang and Keguko of Barangay Meteber in the south to Tuka Rubong of Barangay Resa in the west; from Tuka Rubong to Barangay Lagitan in the north, to Sitio Kenekar in the east; and finally back to Barangay Meteber in the south.
The ancestral domain is still rich in natural resources such as forests and minerals. But continued exploitation by big landlords and business concessions granted permits for mining operations may eradicate all these in time. For generations, the national government has exacted revenues from this extractive practice. Yet these profits were never translated into programs for consistent and efficient delivery of basic services to the Tedurays and Lambangian people.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the first part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Friday, October 3, 2014
Where the Sky Is Seldom Blue
Wherever you are in Kulaman Plateau, you will never lack for scenic views to take photos of. The only thing that can be frustrating is that you rarely get bright sunlight, causing your photos to look dull and gloomy. Or at least for amateur photographers like me. Perhaps if you’re skilled enough and you have state-of-the-art equipment, your photos will come out the way you want them to be regardless of the weather.
Most of the time, the weather in the plateau is cloudy. Expect rain to fall at least four or five times a week. In many parts of the plateau, especially the most elevated ones, wind doesn’t seem to stop blowing. A jacket is an essential part of one’s wardrobe here. I actually wear one every day and for most of the day, though most of the other locals only wear theirs when it’s raining or particularly windy. For the wash to be completely dry, usually you have to hang it on a clothesline for at least two days.
I’m posting today two photos that I think would have been more stunning had there been bright sunlight when I took them. I took one in a fallow rice field recently and the other on the way to Ilyan Hill about a year and a half ago. I didn’t fully realize the effect of a clear blue sky to a photo until I took a shot of our marang tree in the yard one sunny day. One fruit was something like Siamese twins; the stems and the globed fruits were joined as though they were sharing a heart or a brain. That was what I wanted to capture. But what fascinated me more was the sky in the background. It was so blue that it intensified the colors of the other objects in the photo. I had a photo of the same tree days before, and it was taken in an almost similar angle, so I looked for it and compared it to the newer photo. I combined the photos and posted the output here, in addition to the two photos mentioned previously, so that you can see the difference for yourself.
I guess you can never have everything, or you should grab every chance that you can have everything. From now on, whenever I see the sky blue and clear, I’ll drop everything, get my camera, and shoot the scenic views around me. I hope to give you much more beautiful photos in future posts.
Most of the time, the weather in the plateau is cloudy. Expect rain to fall at least four or five times a week. In many parts of the plateau, especially the most elevated ones, wind doesn’t seem to stop blowing. A jacket is an essential part of one’s wardrobe here. I actually wear one every day and for most of the day, though most of the other locals only wear theirs when it’s raining or particularly windy. For the wash to be completely dry, usually you have to hang it on a clothesline for at least two days.
I’m posting today two photos that I think would have been more stunning had there been bright sunlight when I took them. I took one in a fallow rice field recently and the other on the way to Ilyan Hill about a year and a half ago. I didn’t fully realize the effect of a clear blue sky to a photo until I took a shot of our marang tree in the yard one sunny day. One fruit was something like Siamese twins; the stems and the globed fruits were joined as though they were sharing a heart or a brain. That was what I wanted to capture. But what fascinated me more was the sky in the background. It was so blue that it intensified the colors of the other objects in the photo. I had a photo of the same tree days before, and it was taken in an almost similar angle, so I looked for it and compared it to the newer photo. I combined the photos and posted the output here, in addition to the two photos mentioned previously, so that you can see the difference for yourself.
I guess you can never have everything, or you should grab every chance that you can have everything. From now on, whenever I see the sky blue and clear, I’ll drop everything, get my camera, and shoot the scenic views around me. I hope to give you much more beautiful photos in future posts.
A bird perches on a makeshift stand, where a person stays to guard the rice field against sparrows. The rice field is normally surrounded by a string. When sparrows come near to feed on the grains, the guard pulls the string, causing the crude streamers attached to it to shake and scare the birds away.
My brother (in blue pants) and his classmate when the three of us trekked up Ilyan Hill, more than a year ago
The marang tree in our yard. Notice the difference a bright sunlight makes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)