Mabuhay! Welcome to this photo-journal description of a traditional pre-colonial betrothal ceremony from the Philippines known as “Imbango”, celebrating the Ifugao tribal marriage of my son and daughter-in-law. It is written from an American mother’s perspective with respectful appreciation for these ancient indigenous customs which are still honored in modern times.
My intent is to share some of what we have been privileged to experience and learn about this living culture and tradition from Kara’s grandfather (the elder historian, author and Ifugao tribal leader Pedro D. Indunan), from Kara’s parents Mark and Jean, and from other Indunan family members. Gratitude also to Marlon Martin, the director of the beautifully curated Ifugao Heritage Center in Kiangan. This personal photo/video essay takes about 20 minutes to read, and while it is by no means comprehensive it will hopefully give readers a visual and historical context for this special ceremony. I will italicize information from Pedro’s published articles and any educational displays from the museum I’ve adapted for my copy below.
NOTE: I have chosen to include images and video that represent the authenticity of this tradition, including the ceremonial animal carcasses offered to the gods and later cooked for the Imbango guests and local villagers, so these may not be suitable for everyone. Several of the images included here in this essay were taken by Leia Getchell, Mariz Dyan Indunan and a few others in our huge new extended clan.
Ifugao refers to both the people and the province they occupy, a mountainous landlocked province characterized by rugged terrain, river valleys and thick forests. The term is derived from a primitive word meaning “Earthworld” (which in Ifugao mythology is the realm of the cosmos inhabited by humans and several groups of earth spirits, different than the Skyworld or Underworld beings).
Kiangan is acknowledged as the birthplace of the Ifugao tribe and their religion. Kiangan was first settled thousands of years ago with the first people hunting and planting taro, and later growing rice in terraced pond fields. It means “where you have to cross over” (the river or the underworld).
Kara’s mother Jean is Pedro’s daughter and was a nurse in Kiangan when she met Mark Getchell, a Peace Corps volunteer from Boston living in the village in the 1970s. They married and had 5 children whom they raised around the world while working with Peace Corps and International Organization of Migration the past four decades.
Their eldest daughter Maya and her husband Peter had celebrated the Ifugao betrothal ceremony of Imbango several years ago, and Kara and Jesse, who had met at the University of Massachusetts, wanted to honor the same tradition in the Philippines, inviting family and friends to join them for a traditional Imbango ritual at the Indunan family home.
It was a long journey for most of us to Asia but after meeting up in Manila on May 10, over twenty of us flew and drove in two vans for most of the day through the mountains north to Kiangan. We were greeted with incredible hospitality by Jean and her extended family, with homemade rice wine and enormous amounts of delicious local foods and beer for the next several days, while we learned about the history and customs of the ceremony we were participating in.
Over the next few days, Grandpa Pedro and Kara’s uncles and aunties told us about the Ifugao, a noble warrior people with a rich heritage. Little is written on the life of the Ifugaos prior to Spanish colonial contacts but stories of the old ways have been passed on through a very complex and highly-developed oral tradition. Ritual myths, epic chants, songs, legends and folktales have been handed down from generation to generation, some proclaimed by UNESCO as a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity”.
The Ifugao ethnic identity is largely based on the historical narrative that they were never conquered by the Spanish… many do not refer to themselves as Filipino (who were once indentured to King Philip), but proudly as Ifugao. Early Ifugao societies placed much value on the virtues of courage and valor. Defending kin and territory and undertaking retaliatory attacks against enemy villages was a collective occupation, with women warriors also participating.
The Ifugao as an indigenous people have successfully retained segments of their original culture because of their belligerence to colonial suppression and influence, as well as their settling in impenetrable regions where they could defend themselves and continue their active resistance against the foreigners. However, the conscious and unrelenting efforts of a century of evangelization and assimilation by both church and state has pushed the Ifugao to near total assimilation into the mainstream Filipino culture.
According to Pedro, the primitive marriage practices of the Ifugao tribe have long undergone variations and innovations in changing times according to needs, influences, and modernisms, and the young generations are fast abandoning the rooted customs of the ancestral lineage of forebears. So it is wonderful that the Indunan family still honors the traditional ways, especially with the “Imbango” marriage ceremony.
The Imbango ceremony is a unique and significant celebration that unites the couple as one with both their respective families, not just blessing the tie that binds them as man and wife in ordinary marriage. Two separate families become one, with their married children.
There are different customs based on which social class an Ifugao family belongs to. The Indunan family are of the Kadangyan class, which means nobility. In reality this may not mean great wealth but merely those who have “a little more than enough to live on”. As Kadangyan, there are increased responsibilities in terms of offerings, and there are also defined adornments and ceremonial costumes which signify their status. The gold “balituk” necklace is worn by both bride and groom (close-up photos towards the end of this essay).
In the Ifugao tradition, the Imbango has always involved significant involvement and expense from both families: The party of the bride provided the food prep with cooperation and assistance of co-villagers, relatives and friends, particularly in rice wine provisions, labor during the affair and other needs. The groom and his family traditionally provided dried meat from wild animals like pig or carabao (wild buffalo) for the consumption and distribution to family, friends and ritual participants.
This offering from the groom and party was part of a procession through the village to the bride’s house, symbolizing how the groom would now provide for her. The meat was accompanied by other carried foods which were placed inside an ancient backpack called a “bango” and since then the ceremony has been known as “imbango” implying the offerings brought to the house of the bride, parents and close kindred, where they were then blessed by “mumbaki”, whose roles are similar to those of priests and other men of cloth.
During modern-day Ifugao rituals, domestic native-raised pigs are offered instead of dried meat. On the Indunan property, preparations for Jesse and Kara’s Imbango ceremony are underway for this tradition…
Live pigs are sacrificed as an offering to gods, ancestor souls, and other spirit beings who could grant divine favors when asked of them in prayers. Three pigs have become the general requirement for most families, but for those in the Kadangyan class, there is a difference in both the sizes and number of pigs. The standard pigs are to be “big, bigger, and biggest”, and if possible, the biggest of mother pigs, expected still to deliver piglets (for symbolism of fertility).
Out of the Imbango of three pigs, one is offered to a pantheon of gods to feast upon, the second pig to ancestral souls of the bride’s and groom’s parties, and a third as “paybacks to culture heroes”. All pigs are sacrificed to grant whatever divine favors they could offer to bride and groom so that they attain the Ifugao ideal of the ”good life”. Lately, a fourth pig of any size has been required of brides to provide for breakfast for the guests of the Imbango. And some families (including Kara’s) follow their ancestral traditions of adding a carabou to the three or four pigs. It is believed that the greater the offerings, the greater the blessings for bride and groom…
GROUP SIGHTSEEING BREAK!
The day before the Imbango procession (while the preparations were taking place by dedicated family and villagers)… the awestruck guests traveled through the beautiful Ifugao mountains to see the renowned Batad Rice Terraces in Banaue, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Renowned the world over as an architectural wonder, Ifugao’s terraced landscape has come to symbolize these indigenous peoples’ struggle for cultural deliverance against the unremitting influence of external influence.
The rice terraces themselves epitomize the harmonious blending of man’s ancient farming practices and the environment, making it an icon for environmental conservation movements.
Rice was vital to the Ifugao survival in these mountains, and the hierarchical system of field ownership also helped organize their society so they were effective at preserving their tradition and resisting the colonization of Spanish who ruled the rest of the Philippines for almost 350 years. More info about the Save the Ifugao Rice Terraces Movement here: www.SITMo.org
Posing in front of the rice terraces are some of the friends and family who had come from all over the globe to share in the adventure and celebration …
BACK TO THE INDUNAN COMPOUND…!
When we returned that afternoon, a huge tent had been erected for the celebration, and the endless Karaoke had begun…
After we had all been outfitted with the traditional Ifugao hand-woven costumes for the next day’s procession, we learned the Imbango dance…
Meanwhile, the “mumbaki” priest and other local elders had gathered in an adjacent room to begin the performance of marriage rites and many hours of chanting, including the names of both Jesse’s and Kara’s deceased grandparents and ancestors at least four generations back for their blessings. As Pedro writes, “These ancestral spirits are invoked in prayers informing them of the affairs of their descendants and requesting participation in spirit together with the ancestral souls of the other family in marriage”.
The mumbaki laid down banana leaves to receive the butchered pigs after they are killed in this ritual sacrifice to a pantheon of gods, spirits and ancestors. Prayers were also said for the two families, and for the the animals that were being sacrificed on the occasion of the union of these families. Next, the pig’s bile sacs must be examined for good omen…each pig’s liver is examined and if not suitable, another pig would have to be sacrificed for the ceremony to be continued.
The ensuing events of the evening were a bit overwhelming for some of the newly arrived Americans: between the cacophony of priests chanting, the powerful beating of dissonant brass gongs, the loud squeals and death cries of pigs “to awaken the gods”, the roaring blow-torches singeing the hair off the carcasses, and the constant background Karaoke, it was a lot to absorb even without jet lag and rice wine/beer/gin. Many guests needed to get some sleep before the early morning procession and festivities, and eventually even the bride- and groom-to-be also went up the road to their accommodations, well past midnight.
But the nuptial couple was awakened an hour or so later, summoned by the mumbaki who had been chanting and praying all evening… since all three pigs had been sacrificed and passed inspection, instead of waiting until the morning procession, they were about to perform the final ritual in the middle of the night. This was the most important part of the ceremony, and it was essential that the bride and groom were present.
A pair of fouls (a rooster and broiler hen) is then required for the final blessing rites and offering to gods and ancestor spirits. In the photo below, the shaman is holding a chicken and chanting a long succession of prayers for the couple’s divine blessings and favors in the success of marriage. The omen here again consists of reading the bile of the chicken’s liver, which determines the fate and happiness of the couple’s future. If the bile is not good, the ceremony can be called off (but they will first try again on another chicken).
The chicken has been sacrificed and the feathers have been torched off. The high priest splits open the bird to reveal the bile…
Below is the wooden shield that is traditionally made for the doorway of the married couple. It represents two machetes and a spear, blessed with blood from the sacrificed offering, and is decorated with rice stalks and gong sticks. Pedro said that it is believed this would protect the house so evil would “pass over”, just as in the biblical tradition.
The video below gives a good sense of the atmosphere as morning approaches. The high priest is chanting and stamping (a traditional part of the epic songs “to wake you up”) while the local men butcher the meat for the next day’s festivities.
With only a few hours sleep for some of us, it was soon time to gather at Uncle Albert’s house for the morning procession to the bride’s family house. The women are dressed in the traditional Ifugao red and black handwoven skirts worn by ceremonial participants, with the pompoms proudly displayed in the back.
The groom is awake and ready for his transformation into an Ifugao warrior husband! Jesse is carefully dressed by the local men, ornamented first with the heirloom gold balituk necklace with glass beads, handed down for generations of men for their Imbango ceremony.
The modern day Imbango procession through the village, bearing food and other offerings to the bride’s family home, still symbolizes how the groom and his clan will now be providing for her.
Jesse’s father Mitch is carrying a payalon log, a piece of sturdy oak wood symbolically split into four equal parts and tied securely with strong rattan twine to keep the four parts from disarray, signifying the union of two families as one in the marriage of their children. The rattan tie represents the love that ties the familes and children in marriage.
The processional offering of food is known as “Hingngot” (from the primitive Ifugao word meaning “what is wrapped”). A handwoven bamboo or rattan “Hukup” food basket is carried by a maiden of the groom’s party, in this case his sister Leah. The basket is filled with sticky glutinous rice (considered “food for the gods”) symbolizing the couple’s and families’ commitment to “stick together” in good times and bad, in peace or feuds.
There are coins buried in the rice, a symbol of prosperity for the marrying couple, and the tradition is to share the rice with the villagers en route. According to Grandpa Pedro, the essence of the practice is that, should the marrying couple be rich enough, “bubbles” of their riches would be shared with those less fortunate, representative of giving to charity.
The Hingngot procession would traditionally be stopped along the wayside as villagers attempt to grab large handfuls (or in the case of some more ambitious neighbors, platefuls!) of the steaming hot rice and coins. The basket must reach the bride’s home with only a little rice left as a sign of proof of having shared rice and money with the community.
In this video below, you can see the Hingngot action :)
A Kadangyan Imbango procession includes a live fourth pig, which is picked up en route and carried squealing in the procession to be shared with the community for breakfast…
Many people from Kiangan helped make this a special celebration of their tradition. Out back, the men are tending the fires, butchering and cooking the meat…
Despite the emphasis on animal meat for ceremonies, rice is the true essence of Ifugao life and a vitally important part of all the rituals…
One of the first rituals is the pounding of the stalks, first by the groom and his father and male friends to symbolize providing for the bride and family.
Then the women (attempt to) thrash and winnow the rice from the crushed stalks. As this video below shows, practice makes perfect.
Once separated, the rice is pounded again, now in a stone mortar. Here are the bride and groom working alongside each other to demonstrate their willingness to work together in marriage…
Kara’s parents Mark and Jean have performed many of the more advanced Ifugao marriage rituals (and as you can see in this video below, are awesome at the synchronized rice pounding!)
The Imbango tradition not only weds the couple with their families, it unites (and re-unites) families and friends newly gathered into this Ifugao clan…
The little ones also learn the rituals early…
The true heartbeat of the traditional Ifugao dance is the five differently toned brass gongs…
The video below shows some of the women performing the ancient Ifugao dance to this beautifully haunting rhythm…(several of us just learned it but Kara and her family are naturals…you will see their graceful cousin Mariz Indunan who has been dancing it in Kiangan her whole life). The Ifugao were feared headhunter warriors, and some of the symbolism in the dance reflects that history…
Here are the men — brothers, fathers, uncles, friends — about to begin their Imbango dance…like the traditional loincloths, a new experience for many of these brave guys!
The bride and groom’s traditional first dance…
Amongst the primitive artifacts honored at the Ifugao Museum was this century old photo of the same indigenous tribal dance we participated in, which has been taught for countless generations…
There are many other minor rituals throughout the day that also represent the commitment of support, including one in which all four parents exchange small cash bills (twenty- peso notes) to signify that we have the means and willingness to support the bridal couple and family in times of need. Jesse and Kara signed the four bills for each of the parents to keep as a memento of our declared intent.
And finally, Jesse and Kara sharing their marriage vows…
The village came to celebrate, and the line for the delicious feast was long.
Close-up photo of the traditional heirloom gold balituk necklace Kara wore for the Imbango, handed down for generations, with stories as colorful as the beads…
Just like the ancient ones in the Ifugao Heritage Center museum in Kiangan…
Salamat! Thank you for reading this mother’s perspective…this was a project I felt compelled to create to honor our new family and the current and ancestral Ifugao clan we have been so privileged to marry into… ~ Mama D
In closing, I want to share my new daughter Kara’s own words, which she wrote after arriving back home in LA… she says it best:
“There are so many layers that define a family. For me, I thought growing up abroad, living in different countries and traveling was one of those layers but if you look closely I realize what has been the core all along, something my family returns to again and again: Kiangan, Ifugao. A small village that goes beyond a physical place. A village we visited as children. A village filled with our ancestors, our memories and our culture…
How special, how unique and how heart-warming to share this piece of home with family and friends, some who traveled across the globe to witness our Imbango. The Ifugao honor past ancestors and spirits. To truly experience an Ifugao ceremony you need to be there on the land. There are no words or photos that can capture the emotions felt on this day like the vibrations of the gongs, the sounds of sacrifice and the high priests chanting in harmony. In Ifugao we are husband and wife.” ~May 12, 2018.
THIS PHOTO ESSAY IS DEDICATED TO GRANDPA PEDRO D. INDUNAN with gratitude for all his teachings and advocacy of Ifugao tradition. Salamat po, Lolo!
