Ritual feast readied for Cordillera OFW’s body from China

For the people of the Cordillera mountain ranges, death and burial requires cleansing rituals, not only to help the dear departed prepare for his new journey, but also for the loved ones left behind. Traditional blood-letting rituals are thus being prepared both for the remains of 33-year-old Benjamin Yango, an overseas Filipino worker who died in China over a month ago, but for his family and others who are involved in bringing his body home. Yango, a full-blooded Cordilleran, worked as an English teacher in Harbin city in northern China since 2007. According to an online petition quoted by various Baguio-based newspapers, Yango worked at the Longdi Primary School in A'cheng, Harbin. Local police found him dead in his apartment on May 21. Yango was a native of Bontoc in Mountain Province, while his wife Fely Tomino is a native of Kabayan in Benguet. They have two children. Last Tuesday night, Fely and other Pinoys had a traditional pinikpikan ritual (killing a chicken, which is then cooked as mixed meat-and-vegetable stew and eaten) in Beijing as thanksgiving for the repatriation, a safe journey back to Baguio, and the repose of Benjie's soul. The couple's Bontoc-Ibaloi clan plans to hold a four-day traditional funeral wake with rituals before Benjie is laid to rest. (See: After long delay, OFW makes final trip from Harbin to Baguio) Flora Belinan of the Cordillera chapter of Migrante, who also hails from Mountain Province, said that according to tribal tradition, cleansing rituals should be administered to Yango’s family and to everyone who escorted Yango’s body on the trip back home in Baguio. “The traditions in the Cordilleras dictate that a daw-es is needed to cleanse family and escorts of the deceased," Belinan explained. Daw-es is a ritual involving blood-letting, commonly in the form of butchering fowl, pigs and other livestock for food offering to the mountain god and ancestral spirits. She said daw-es is performed before the body is put inside the coffin, and a series of butchering will be done from the start of the wake up to the burial. Death rituals vary from province to province, but Belinan said butchering will commence regardless of tribal affiliation. “This is needed for the protection of the family as well as the peaceful journey of the departed," she said. A traditional playing of the gangsa (gongs) is expected to greet a departed Cordilleran’s body when it arrives, while a lawit (butchering of pigs with prayers of protection) will be performed at the burial. A cañao (traditional Igorot feast) will commence after the burial in the belief that it will prevent similar incidents from happening to any of the family members. All rituals involve the butchering of native chickens, black pigs and dogs which are offered to Kabunian (mountain god) and ancestral spirits. “This costs a lot of money," Belinan said. For wealthier tribe members, carabaos and horses are also butchered to ensure the departed person’s peaceful journey to the afterlife, depending on what mambunungs (local native priests) dictate. Yango’s body is expected to arrive in Baguio early Friday. His family had decided against doing an autopsy, because it would have further delayed the repatriation of Yango’s remains. Belinan said that Migrante-Cordillera is involved in looking for Yango’s records at the OWAA. So far, they are “finding it difficult" to trace his OWWA documents, but they are continuing their search. Migrante records show there are many OFWs in China from the Cordillera region who travel using only a tourist visa. “They process their working visa there, making it difficult to track them," Belinan added.—Maria Elena Gonzales/JMA/JV, GMANews.TV