In celebration of the Heritage Month of May, the author compiled this 40-part Albay Heritage Series which he uploaded daily on his Facebook page. With his kind permission, we are posting this series over the course of 5 months from now through October.

Part 1: Where the Region Got its Name

There is no place in the region called Bikol — no district, no town, no city, no barangay is named Bikol. The name came from a river. The Bikol River is the longest and the largest river in the region. Formed from the springs and streams of water from Albay in the south and Camarines Norte in the north, these meandering bodies of water meet in the lowlands of Camarines Sur. The Bikol River traverses the basin-like low areas and empties its water into the San Miguel Bay, in the area of Calabanga.

Some speculate that the bay was once called Kalakbangan (widest portion) before it was corrupted to Calabanga and later Christianized into San Miguel Bay. Many places in the Bikol Region lost their historical meanings as soon as they were Christianized. Worse, many places, rivers, and seas were named after politicians, many dead and forgotten.

Many agree that the name Bikol came from the meandering character of the river: Biko-biko and Ikol-ikol—and later combined into Bikol. There are those who claim that Bikol came from the name of a tree, which is already extinct. Now how would you prove or disprove that?

Part 2: How Our Ancestors Lived

There is very little written history about how our ancestors lived before the Spaniards came to our province. It is sad that history seem to have started only when the Spanish chroniclers started writing about Bikol and the Albayanos. Our ancestors did not write much and the few written works did not survive the times. Our stories were orally transmitted and were lost when the storyteller died. Evidence of how they lived are found only in buried artifacts of polished stones, of shell spoons, of burial jars, and sunken boats.

It is safe to assume that the ancient Albayanos lived like the rest of the tribes in our neighboring regions. Each tribe is usually separated by forests, mountains, rivers or seas from other tribes. Each tribe is ruled by a Datu. The free men were called Timawa and the slaves were Oripon. Many places were named after the Datu, thus in Daraga for example:  Kimantong was ruled by a famous (Mantong) man; Kiwalo was probably ruled by a datu with two fingers cut; Kilikaw had a datu who was bow legged; or Kidaku had a datu who was well endowed. (The place where my father was born should have been named Kitagas!)

In ancient times, road networks did not exist, and it was difficult to travel in rough terrain. The only animals that people rode were the carabaos. The horses and cows were brought by the Spaniards. People travelled more often by water. They rode bancas upstream (Pairaya or Miraya) or downstream (Pailawod or Lawod) to sell their products, and to interact with their neighboring tribes.

Thus, the more progressive tribes and people were those who lived near the riverbanks (Taga-ilog; Tagalog) and those who lived near the delta where the mouth of the river emptied its stream into the sea. Seafarers and sea merchants from other regions and countries come to these river mouths to barter. This was the reason why many great cities rose from the swampy areas on or near the delta.

Thus, people on the riverbanks and seashores who frequently interact with each other have much developed and sophisticated languages because these are developed by interaction enforced by the need to trade. Upland people who rarely travel develop their own languages by invention. This is the reason why in the Miraya (upland) area, the people of Polangui, Oas, Ligao…down to Daraga speak in dialects with a lot of variations. A very good example is the fact that the language used by Legazpi have more similarities with Naga (over a 100 kilometers away) and Sorsogon (60 kilometers away) than with Daraga (a mere 6kms away): A person who sat was “nagtukaw” in Legazpi and “nagsala” in Daraga; tomorrow is “sa aga” in Legazpi and “kidamlag” in Daraga; a house is “harong” in Legazpi and “balay” in Daraga, and so on.

Part 3: The Rituals of Ancient Bikolanos

We learned about the religion, beliefs, and superstitions of our ancestors thru the writings of the Spanish chroniclers and writers who came to region to colonize us and to impose their Catholic religion. Here are some of the most popular rituals performed by our ancestors:

“Atang” was the votive offering usually performed during harvest time aimed at thanking the good god Gugurang for blessing received and to pray for more sustained livelihood. During the Atang, the natives offer the best of their harvests such as rice, fruits and vegetables. Some also bring their catch of the day, which include cooked boar and deer meat, fish from the forest or birds trapped in the forest. The Atang was performed inside a structure called Gulanggulangan, inside of which was an altar called Salangat. On the altar were the carved wooden images of Anitos—who were believed to be the ancestors who remain on earth to take care of their descendants. A Balyana leads the ritual by chanting hymns called Soraki and leading the prayers to Gugurang and other deities.

After the Atang, a village feast would follow. The participants in the Atang would partake of all the offerings on the Salangat as they continue celebrating with street dances and singing. The celebration continued in the houses where food was offered on tables and benches on their yard for anyone—even strangers who visit the village and join in the merrymaking. These visitors were free to enter any yard and partake of the food being offered. In fact, it was the source of pride of any household whose yard had the most number of visitors. It meant that the food was good and that they were the most hospitable. 

When the Spanish colonizers came, they introduced the Catholic religion. One reason why it was easy for them to convert the Bikolanos is because the new religion was pretty much the same as the old one. Gugurang was replaced by the one God, personified by Jesus Christ. The ritual of Atang  became the Holy Mass performed inside a structure called an Iglesia; and instead of a Balyana, they had a priest who chanted hymns and recited prayers. The Salangat became the Altar, and the Lagdong was replaced by the images of saints. Instead of offering fruits and meat, they had the bread and wine signifying the body and blood of Jesus. The village fiesta was then celebrated in honor of a saint, the most popular of whom was San Isidro Labrador—the patron saint of laborers and farmers.

The celebration of the village fiesta—which started with the mass—would continue in the houses, where every household would offer food for invited guests, village visitors or even strangers who just happened to be passing by. In fact, an owner of a house with a banquet on his yard would feel aggrieved if an acquaintance would bypass him and partake of the feast of his neighbor. A house with a big banquet would even go to the extent of hiring barkers or young lads and girls who would stand on the roadside to entice visitors to partake of his food offerings.

These fiesta practices continued up to the early 1960s before modernity, the changing norms and the high cost of living encouraged the households to be more modest in their celebrations and discreet in choosing the visitors who could enter the house and partake of the food offerings. Later on, fiestas and banquets were only practiced in the provinces—especially in remote villages where people are slow to change and continue to cling to their old traditions. This is true with some tribes in remote places, such as the aboriginal natives called Agta in the islands of Batan and RapuRapu and in the hinterlands of Tiwi, Nabua, and Buhi. For some of these natives, the age-old tradition of atang and fiestas are still etched deeply in their collective memory.

“Halia” was a ritual done when the moon was full. The tribesmen went out of their houses, gathered in the streets and made all kinds of noise to drive away the serpent Bakunawa from swallowing the moon. The ritual was also intended to drive away evil spirits.

“Pag-agom” was the ritual of marriage where a suitor married the maiden he fell in love with.

Part 4: The Culture of Our Ancestors

Our ancestors wore sarong and saya and had ornaments like palidpalid (earings), kalumbigas (arm bands) and hagkus (belt). They had gold in their ornaments, such that when the Spaniards came, they thought the El Dorado (City of Gold) was in Bikol. This was the reason why Juan de Salcedo, on being informed in Manila about the gold that explorers saw in Gibalong in 1569, organized in 1571 an attack force of 120 men, travelled through Laguna, passing Majayjay, and raided the mining towns of Mambulao and Paracale in Camarines Norte. They continued looting other towns as they followed the Bikol river, reached Bato Lake, went up the banks of Quiba River and set up the very first Spanish garrison in Bikol called Santiago de Libong.

The Albayanos tilled the land, fish and hunted for food. The gulfs of Albay and Lagonoy were some of the richest fishing waters of the archipelago. In lakes Bato and Danaw were caught the smallest commercially available fish called tabios and sinarapan and on the eastern sea, they were able to interact with the biggest marine creatures, like the whale shark called butanding. They hunted the wild boars and deers of the forests and of the slopes of Masaraga, Mayon and Malinao mountains.

They have learned to strip abaka and wove clothes for their personal use. In 1656 a Franciscan friar named Pedro Aspallargas taught them the systematic ways of stripping the abaka that would later enable them to produce hemp in commercial quantities and usher in the prosperity of Albay in the mid 1800s.

The Albayanos believed in gods and deities. The good god was Gugurang and the bad god Aswang; Okot was the god of the forest, Magindang was the god of the seas, and Anitos, were kindred spirits who took care of their ancestors. They believed in supernatural beings like onglo, tawong lipod, ibingan, tambaloslos, etc. They had rituals like Atang, where votive offerings of their best produce were offered to Gugurang in gratitude for his blessings. They had Halea for driving away bad spirits, like Bakunawa which used to eat the moon. They held the ritual of Hidhid for taking back from Aswang the spirit and strength of the sick.

They had songs like kundiman (love song), kulintang (disenchantment), panayoknok (lullaby) and soraki (religious). They produced music with barimbaw (guitar), lutgot (violin), bungkaka and balalong. Their ancient literature included tigsik (praise), rawitdawit (poems), paukod (riddle), ariwaga (adages), and osipon (stories). The Albayanos were fun loving people and more carefree in their ways compared to the hardworking people of Northern Luzon.

The header image features an old Albay village superimposed over a section of the 1734 map created by the Jesuit cartographer Pedro Murillo Velarde.

About the author:

ABDON M. BALDE JR. is the Poet Laureate of Albay and presently the consultant for Cultural Affairs of Albay 2nd Congressional District under Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda. He served as Head of the Historical-Cultural Section of Albay and Komisyoner of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino.

He is active in leadership roles of writers organizations: Writers Union of the Philippines, Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society, Wika ng Kultura at Agham, Kabulig Bikol Writers Organization, and Albay Writers Group. He is a consultant of the National Bookstore.

He is a recipient of the 2012 Outstanding Albayano Artist Award for Literary Arts, the 2010 Ani ng Dangal Award, given the 2009 South East Asian Writers Award by the Royalty Thailand, the 2009 Bikol Regional Jesse Robredo Artist Award for Literary Arts and the Arejola Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in Literature.

He has written and published 26 books, four of which won the National Book Awards. He wrote the libretto for “Sayaw kan Tulong Bulod” for the Daragang Magayon Festival and the dramaturgy of “Daragang Magayon, An Istorya ni Mayon” staged in CCP February 2013. He won the 2012 NCCA Writers Prize for “Ibalong, Pagbuo ng Epikong Bikol,” the 2003 Palanca Memorial Award for Literature and, in the same year, the “Rokyaw Ibalong Most Outstanding Bikol Award for Literature.”

He was born and raised in Busac, Oas, Albay by farmer parents. He studied in St. Michael Academy of Oas. He graduated with a civil engineering degree in Legazpi College, now University of Santo Tomas, Legazpi. He had a 33-year career in construction projects engineering before shifting to literature. He lives in Tiwi, Albay, with his wife, a daughter, a son, two grandsons, and three dogs.