“MAHALTA: The significance of the Mangyan, Halcon an Tamaraw preservation efforts in keeping the Mindoro heritage”
This article features about the Preservation of Mangyan, Halcon, Tamaraw, “MAHALTA” for short. The following subjects that are mentioned are most probably one of the pride of the Mindoro.
MANGYANS
Mangyan is the generic name for the eight indigenous groups found on the island of Mindoro, southwest of the island of Luzon, the Philippines, each with its own tribal name, language, and customs. The total population maybe around 280,000, but official statistics are difficult to determine under the conditions of remote areas, reclusive tribal groups and some having little if any outside world contact. The ethnic groups of the island, from north to south, are Iraya, Alangan, Tadyawan, Tawbuid (called Batangan by lowlanders on the west of the island), Buhid, and Hanunoo. An additional group on the south coast is labeled Ratagnon. They appear to intermarry with lowlanders. The group is known on the east of Mindoro as Bangon may be a subgroup of Tawbuid, as they speak the ‘western’ dialect of that language. They also have a kind of poetry which is called the Ambahan.
Origins
The Mangyans were once the only inhabitants of Mindoro. Being coastal dwellers at first, they have moved inland and into the mountains to avoid the influx and influence of foreign settlers such as the Tagalogs, the Spanish and their conquests and religious conversion, and raids by the Moro (they raided Spanish settlements for religious purposes, and to satisfy the demand for slave labor). Today, the Mangyans live secludedly in remote parts of Mindoro but eventually come down to the lowlands in order to make usual trades. Their sustenance is farming for their own crops, fruits, and hunting. A certain group of Mangyans living in Southern Mindoro calls themselves Hanunuo Mangyans, meaning “true”, “pure” or “genuine”, a term that they use to stress the fact that they are strict in the sense of ancestral preservation of tradition and practices. Before the Spaniards arrived in Mindoro, the people traded with the Chinese extensively, with thousands of supporting archaeological shreds of evidence found in Puerto Galera and in written Chinese references. A division was created among the people of Mindoro when the Spaniards came. There were the Iraya Mangyans, who isolated themselves from the culture of the Spaniards, and the lowland Christians who submitted themselves to a new belief system. These two groups only interacted for economic matters through trading forest goods from the Mangyan and consumer goods for the lowlanders. Despite being grouped as one tribe, Mangyans differ in many ways. In comparison to the technological advance between the two geographical divisions, the Southern tribes are more advanced as seen in their use of weaving, pottery, and system of writing. The Northern tribes, on the other hand, are simpler in their way of living. Their language, as in the rest of the Philippines, came from the Austronesian language family. However, even if they are defined as one ethnic group, the tribes used different languages. On average, they only share 40% of their vocabulary. The tribes have also varied physical and ethnogenetic appearances: Iraya has Veddoid features; Tadyawan is mainly Mongoloid, and the Hanunuo looks like a Proto-Malayan. Another difference between tribes is the date of their arrival in the Philippines. A theory suggests that the Southern tribes were already present by 900 AD while the Northern tribes are believed to have arrived hundreds of years ahead of their Southern peers. The Spanish authorities had documented their existence since their arrival in the 16th century. However, historians suggest that the Mangyans may have been the first Filipinos to trade with the Chinese. Examples of this relationship are seen in the burial caves, as porcelains and other potteries abound. However, not much ethnographic research has been made except for the tribal and linguistic differences that may lead to the indication that the tribes can be treated separately.
Culture and Practices
Mangyans lived in peaceful societies as compared to the head-hunting tribes of North Luzon and the brave defiant warrior tribes of the South. Social scientists theorized that some societies become peaceful because their system of norms and values reward peaceful behavior but disapprove of aggressive and impulsive behaviors. Peaceful societies are characterized by the egalitarian social organization without status competition between men and without the asymmetric relationship between men and women. Another theory posited that populations adapt, therefore, offering a more logical explanation of why Mangyans preferred to retreat in the hinterlands. They accept peaceful submissiveness when they encounter lowland settlers, missionaries, traders and government officials.
Mangyan is mainly subsistence agriculturalists, planting a variety of sweet potato, upland (dry cultivation) rice, and taro. They also trap small animals and wild pigs. Many who live in close contact with lowland Filipinos sell cash crops such as bananas and ginger.
Their languages are mutually unintelligible, though they share some vocabulary and use Hanunó’o script to write: Tawbuid and Buhid are closely related, and are unusual among Philippine languages in having an /f/ phoneme; Tawbuid is divided into eastern and western dialects; Western Tawbuid may be the only Philippine language to have no glottal phonemes, having neither /h/ or /ʔ/.
Their traditional religious world view is primarily animistic; around 10% have embraced Christianity, both Roman Catholicism and Evangelical Protestantism (The New Testaments have been published in six of the Mangyan languages).
Artifacts
The indigenous Mangyans offer a myriad of culturally rich artifacts that give insight into their culture and trade. The people living in Southern Mindoro during the pre-Hispanic era are exceptional in their weaving, pottery, and system of writing. Their clothing differs between genders. The male generally wears loincloths as covering for the lower body whereas the female would wear a skirt and a shirt for the top. The terms and materials would differ from tribe to tribe, but the exceptional designs would come from the Hanunó’os. Their textiles are dyed in indigo blue and have an embroidery design called pakudos at the back and can also be found on their woven bags. Their system of writing, called Surat Mangyan, is a pre-Hispanic syllabic system and is believed to be of Indic origin. It is still practiced today and is still being taught in different Mangyan schools of Oriental Mindoro. The Hanunó’os also practice their own traditional poetry called the Ambahan, a rhythmic poetic expression with a meter of seven syllables presented through recitation and chanting or inscribed on bamboo.
HALCON
Mt Halcon rises to 2,580 m, and is the third highest mountain in the Philippines. With its associated peaks, it includes the northernmost portion of the mountainous spine of the island of Mindoro. The Mt Halcon IBA extends for almost 60 km along the border between Mindoro Occidental and Mindoro Oriental. The western slopes of the mountains have a seasonal climate with wet and dry seasons, whereas the eastern slopes have an evenly distributed rainfall, leading to a large diversity of natural vegetation types. In the east, the lower slopes support dipterocarp forests, with lower montane forest between about 1,000 and 1,700 m, in places with large areas of bamboo thicket and landslides with herbaceous cover. Mossy forest is found from c.1,700 to 2,200 m, and alpine shrubs and heath above this around the peaks of the mountains. On the western slopes are “parang” vegetation with patches of dipterocarp forest and stands of Mindoro pine. In places the forest is naturally stunted (only c.10–12 m tall) with a highly uneven canopy and many needle-leaved trees, for example around Ilong Ridge. However, very large areas have been cleared and in 1991 kaingin (shifting cultivation) was found to be penetrating far up the most accessible valleys. In the area on Mt Ilong visited in that year, the lower edge of forest was at around 750 m. It descended somewhat lower on ridges and valley sides to the north and south, but was broken-canopied there. Between 750 and 850 m, logging by pit-saw was intensive and the forest very open, with trees up to 20 m tall and a dense scrub layer. Only above 850 m did natural primary forest of the lowland/lower montane transition type exist, extending up to 1,000 m with a canopy around 15 m tall. These mountains are a tribal territory of both the Iraya Mangyan and Alangan tribes, who have ancestral land claims on the area. Mt Halcon and its secondary peak and slopes are the watersheds of important riverine systems on the island, vital for agricultural productivity in the lowlands of northern Mindoro.
TAMARAW
The island of Mindoro in the Philippine Archipelago is considered as a biodiversity “hotspot” and important center for endemism. It is importantly home to the tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis), a dwarf buffalo solely endemic to the island and the only wild cattle species living in the Archipelago.
Originally widespread across the island, the tamaraw has suffered from heavy hunting and continuous habitat destruction during the last century. It has gradually been confined within the mountainous interior of the island. The species is now listed as Critically Endangered on theIUCN Red List of threatened species.
As of today, three subpopulations of tamaraw are known to survive on Mindoro; Mt. Calavite Wildlife Sanctuary subpopulation in the north, Aruyan-Malati Tamaraw Reservation and Mts. Iglit-Baco National Park located in the center of the island. Nevertheless and despites conservation efforts and its protected status, the best chance for tamaraw survival seems to be more and more limited to the so called “core zone of the monitoring”, which concentrate most of the conservation efforts. This area covers less than 16 000 hectares at the south-west edge of Mts Iglit-Baco National Park. Situation elsewhere is unclear or critical.
Mindoro is also the Ancestral land of the Indigenous People (IPs) called Mangyan and original inhabitants of the island. They have been progressively pushed toward the mountainous interior due to lowlander settlers coming from other provinces. Somehow, they have followed the same entrenchment pattern than the tamaraw. Some Mangyan communities are already well connected with lowlander Mindorenos while other tribes remain very elusive maintaining traditional lifestyle, their subsistence being based on natural resources and slash and burn agriculture.
Mangyan tribes are preserving their cultural identity thanks to the progressive “Philippines Indigenous People Right Act” (IPRA, 1997). Nevertheless, their knowledge, customs and vision are not well understood, thus preventing a peaceful, consistent integration toward long term land management. They are highly dependent upon the preservation of natural resources of the Inner Mindoro Mountains for their subsistence. Moreover, most of their territories stretch on the natural range of the tamaraw. They are therefore the main stakeholders connected to the species conservation and environmental issues on Mindoro. The boundaries and recognition of their Ancestral Domain is on process.
Truly, the heritage of Mindoro creates the possible things for the conservation and preservation.