The Importance of Rice Wine to the Igorot Family

Making rice wine is one of the important chores that an Igorot must learn in the olden days.  Not so much now because there are already too much wine in the stores that could be bought for consumption.  The rice wine is one of the necessities that an Igorot family must have in the house.  This is part of their tradition.  As a custom, the rice wine is used when old men and women pray to the spirits.  It is very important then to have rice wine always ready.  The belief that the spirits around have something to do with circumstances happening in the community is part of the Igorot life and those who are rooted to the beliefs and practices never forget to talk to their dead when someone gets sick or something wrong is happening.  This is where the rice wine comes in handy.

I often thought that the rice wine that my parents dutifully made when I was a young girl was only for drinking but I soon realized that it is more than just that.



Being an educated woman didn't change my beliefs as an Igorot.  There are some practices that I cannot forgo because I believe that they are very useful in my daily life as well as they seem to protect  me from the evil things around.  I am a Roman catholic but that doesn't mean that I have forgotten my own pagan beliefs.

I grew up watching my elders pray to the spirits we call "Anito" and to our dead ancestors and relatives.  Perhaps it would sound weird and to some funny and primitive but I have strong faith in the power of what people believe.  My father always prayed for us using a glass of rice wine or any wine available when we got sick.  And it really worked.

These plus many more practices, beliefs, traditions, customs have become a part of my life that even when I moved to the city and finished my college education, I still made them very important part of my daily existence.

The Igorot Headhunters: Are they really headhunters?

Igorots are known as the head hunters of the Philippines.  They have been mistakenly recognized also as the people who have tails.  By that, people perhaps mean the G_strings that the Igorot men had worn many years ago.

Today, in this modern world, you seldom see any man wearing the G-string except for especial occasions when it is a must use costume..  The G-strings are now considered a thing in the past to the new generation who have never worn the G-string. 

In the olden days, there were parts of the cordillera region where even other Igorots feared and considered places to avoid because of the tribal wars and the belief that some residents kidnap people who are strangers in their place.  We call them "BUSO" which means headhunters who prey on the residents of other places.  There were cases when people just disappeared without a trace and that was what we always feared when we were kids. 

In the 60s up to early 70s, we weren't allowed to travel to distant places except with the company of elders or other people.  There was always the fear of someone waylaying travelers on the way.  It was not advisable for a lone woman to travel.

If you want to read more about headhunting, here’s a link:

The Headhunters of the Cordilleras

Memories of Old TImes in my Home Town

The chaotic world of the computer age made me thought a lot about the old folks in my hometown whom I had learned all the lessons of simple living. It would have been a lot worth living life if time hasn’t changed this fast and the world is still so peaceful and calm.

Looking back, I could still picture my grandparents and all the other old men and women sitting in a place they called “palasa”, which came from the English word “plaza”. This is a meeting place for the old folks if they wanted to have bonding or they wanted to talk about an important matter. They were simple folks who talked about things that were very important to the town.

If there were problems, they were easily solved by the old men without the help of the community officials. They were the voice of the people and what they said was considered law. The traditional life in my hometown was very simple.  The old men could decide matters and people listened to them.  The words of the old men were considered law in the olden times.  They were referred to as the "wise men" in my hometown.

It is sad to think that almost all the old men I adored have gone and what hurts me more is that I haven't even talked to them about the real stories of long time ago.  They are gone and what stories they might have stored in their minds to hand down to the new generation is also gone.

I was greatly saddened during my last visit in my hometown because I missed the “palasa “where I often saw the old men having a meeting. Today, what stood in place was a Barangay Building where the office of the Barangay Captain and other officials is located. Barangay is a village headed by a Barangay Captain.  The word barangay came from the word "Balangay", the boat used by the Malays when they came to the Philippines..

How I wish it was the same old community where I used to live, with all the “binangi”- the traditional home and the “palasa”. But then, time is ever changing and things also change in this world and the traditional things and culture are being modernized too. It is sad but people aren’t preserving the traditional ways and things and time will come when nothing will be left of the culture of the Igorots, save for the memories of old times.