The Healing Rituals of Mandaya

I.

INTRODUCTION

When a person gets sick, a healing ritual is performed on him or her invoking the help of the
spirits to relieve the symptoms of illness.

II.

SYNTHESIS

The Mandaya are an ancient people living in the hinterlands of the southeastern Cordilleras of the
island of Mindanao. They still retain a great deal of prehispanic religiosity expressed in ritual. There are
thirteen existing rituals of different hierarchies of importance available to Mandaya. The highest could
last for three years and involves the sacrifices of innumerable pigs. The second lasts about a year and the
rites are held only at sundown. The Balilig ranks third. The three rituals are distinguished from the
others in that baylan officiate in the ceremonies, chanting the texts and dancing to the beat of the drum
which is used only for these three rituals. Pigs are the only animals proper to be sacrificed in these
rituals in fulfillment of vows.
When a Mandaya gets sick, a baylan, or medium, usually a woman, determines the nature of the
illness in a preliminary rite. She ties two pieces of string on the handles of a betel nut container or a
sacred stone said to contain some spirits and prays for the right ritual.
If in her prayers she asks the spirits if the Balilig is the cure and the stone moves, then the cure
for the illness is the Balilig, otherwise the chant is repeated, mentioning all the different kinds of rituals
until the right response is evoked.
The Balilig ritual sequences are elaborate. At sunrise, on the day of the Balilig, an outdoor altar is
constructed, the size of which depends on the pig to be sacrificed. The wood is selected for the whiteness
and fineness of its texture. The posts are of round timber; the flooring and beams are of flat boards.
The altar is oriented towards east and west. The sacrificial pig is laid on it, legs securely tied with
the head towards the rising sun. To the west of the altar some carved wooden human figures are erected
four or five feet tall, the one bigger than the rest represents the guardian spirit of the baylan. In front of
the carved wooden figures is a bamboo section the upper part of which is split and woven into a
receptacle. In this are placed offerings of tuba, areca nut, flowers and chewing condiments.
Still west of the altar is a mat spread on the ground for the officiating baylan to dance on. About
the mat will the other baylans will wait for their turn to officiate and west of the mat will be the drummer.
On the eve of the balilig ritual, the drummer plays on his drum two kinds of beats to call on the
guardian spirit of the baylan and his twin-brother. As the drum throbs, the baylan, holding a vessel with a
burning piece of sweet-smelling wood recites an invocation opening the rites of the balilig.

When the wood is burned out, the sequence of the symbolic offering follows. The family of the
sick person lays down on the mat offerings likes a piece of abaca cloth, silver breast plate, woven beads
and the like. The principal medium and the other baylans chant the offertory prayers in unison urging the
busaw or spirit to accept the symbolic gifts and to cure the sick person.
Dressed in ceremonial skirt and wearing the ceremonial veil, the chief medium raises her arms
toward the rising sun in preparatory to dance. The drummer beats a rhythm and the principal baylan
chants and swirls in a dance. The chants continues with different variations on the theme until the chief
medium feels herself gradually falling into a trance. In the process, she is seized by fits of trembling and
her body bends to seemingly impossible contortions. From time to time she points to the pig on the altar
or run towards it beating it frenziedly with her fists as if to indicate the eagerness of the spirits to partake
of the pigs bloody flesh. Then she falls trembling into the mat.
The drumming stops. Now the chief baylan sits up, still trembling in a semi-trance and chants the
tawag, gradually going into a deeper trance. In this state, her guardian spirit begins to speak through her.
The officiating baylan then describes the symptoms of the illness and the guardian spirit teaches her the
cure. The sequence continues until the spirit finally expresses his desire to go. The officiating baylan rest
after her spirit has departed and gives way for the next baylan to go through the same sequence of the
ritual.
The officiating baylan now takes a bowl full of unhusked rice and broadcast it over the pig. Next
she pours some oil made from the juice of the herb, melisa, squeezed in water, over the sacrificial animal.
The rest she throws upward as an offering to the sun.
Then someone stabs the pig, taking care that it does not die immediately for this is bad omen.
Upon realizing that the pig has been stabbed, the still trembling baylans can no longer resist the urge to
run towards the altar. They tear at the pig, sucking its blood and eating its raw flesh acts which asked
about later on they disclaim knowledge of.
The last of the balilig sequences follows the sacrifice. The officiator takes her dagger and cuts a
branch from the areca nut that hangs over the altar. She dips the branch in the pigs blood and goes inside
the house where the sick person lies. With the blood of the pig at the tip of the branch, she anoints the
stick by tracing a cross upon his forehead. In the same way, she traces lines from the center of the palms
of the hand and down to the tips of all the fingers of the sick.
While the officiating baylan is in the house with the sick, the menfolk untie what is left of the
sacrificial pig and prepares a feast for all those present and everyone partakes of the meal. The ritual feast
ends the celebration of the balilig.
To a Mandaya, religion is a relationship and offerings such as the balilig, and also renewals of his
friendship with the spirits or busaw so that he may lengthen his stay here in the middle world.

III.

REFLECTION / REACTION

At present, modern medicine already has definitive cures to all common illnesses. What causes a
person to be ill can now be explained scientifically, and thus, can be given an appropriate medication.
But it cannot be denied that there are still illnesses that are incurable. Also, new illnesses or diseases or a
stronger strain of an illness are appearing in our modern times which were non-existent in the past.
So much studies in medicine have been done, and more are still on-going, or yet to be discovered
to find cures for our sicknesses. And the discovery of the DNA holds a promising future in our war
against illnesses and diseases.
Though much has progressed in the field of medicine, we should be reserved and tactful in
accepting any treatment on our behalf. For medicines, if not administered properly can do more harm than
good. In addition, especially those ailments that are considered risky, we should seek medical opinions
from different doctors to properly understand and evaluate our ailment so that we can choose the best
possible treatment.
To cure an illness in the past, like the Mandayan, spirits were being summoned and invoked of
their help. Many specific rituals were being made and performed to appease them so that they may rid a
person of his or her sickness. This type of healing is not only common in our country in the past, but also
to other races in other countries. Even today, one can still find people practicing such rituals to heal the
sick.
There are no scientific proofs and documentations that such rituals can cure a sick person, but one
cannot truly say that such ritual healing is not an effective treatment of sickness. For there have been
documentations of persons being healed or having felt better after a ritual was performed on them. The
reason maybe because of the placebo effect, or that, because of the natural healing of the body in time, or
better and surprising, the rituals invoking the help of the spirits truly healed them.
Modern medicine has now recognized and accepted the limited efficacy of the ways and
treatment of the past as what we call now as alternative medicine. But it does not advise or recommend
alternative medicine solely as a method of treatment but rather, it be administered together or in
combination with modern medicine.
So, in relation, if one is to seek medical treatment from our common albularyo, one should be
reserved, tactful and cautious. He or she should be prudent in his/her judgment and be more afraid if the
albularyo summons and invoke the spirit to cure ones illness. For maybe in the end of the treatment,
instead of curing him/her, he/she will be gone with the spirit, and be available anytime the albularyo
summons him/her to help in curing the sickness of some other innocent (and or ignorant) guy (or victim).