Lopez, Franchesca T.

, 3AR - 7
THE BAGOBOS
Brief Introduction and History
The Bagobos are of proto-Malaysian features. The Bagobos constitute one of
the largest groups among the indigenous peoples of southern Mindanao. They are
renowned for their metal-craft skills, weaponry, weaving abacca cloths of earth-toned
hues, and basket-making trimmed with beads, fibers, and horse hair.
Traditional Dwellings and
Community
Traditional Bagobo dwellings
were usually placed high above the
ground, mostly in a form of tree
houses. They used this type of house
for protection from enemies and wild
animals on the ground. There were
enough wood and trees there for
them to build houses. The materials
to build tree houses are wood,
bamboo, palm leaves, string, and trees. It was a single chamber windowless and dimly
lit interior. A platform like elevation was the only architectural feature.
Instead of compact and permanent villages, the Bagobos lived in farmhouses
set far apart from one another. Some upland Bagabo lived in small villages consisted
of only a few families living on a hill top. Their villages and have traditionally been
grouped into districts led by chiefs called datu.
Contemporary Bagobo Dwellings and Community
Today's Bagobo houses are built on the ground on piles instead of posts. The
interior is usually divided into three or more sections: a receiving area with one or two
wooden benches for visitors, a kitchen, and an elevated and walled-off area for
sleeping quarters. Today's dwellings are also provided with windows. The house of
the barangay captain is of the bungalow type. While the architectural types have given
way to modern ones, the materials used are those that are derived from traditional
sources. For roofing and walling, the old "buho," a specie of bamboo which are plaited
together for use as thatching material, is still very much evident. Buho is impervious
to rain as well as sun.
On the other hand, houses are still far apart from one another. The clustering
of two or more houses that are within calling distance of each other is of occasional
incidence. When a group of houses are built close together, this is usually because
the owners are close relatives. An obvious reason
for this dispersed pattern of residence is that each
house is usually constructed at a garden of about
1000 to 2000 square meters.
Places of Worship
In bagobo mythology, "buso" is the term they
use for gods. They pray to Buso; they erect to him
tiny houses for shrines, under forest trees, by the
wayside, at the river, near the dwelling-houses.
There are altars for the buso of the woods, ground,
for the buso of the rattan, for the buso of the nearer
side of the river, for the buso of the farther side of
the river. The shrines are like many of those put up
in honor of the friendly gods, and the form of the
devotions is outwardly much the same, but the
intention of the rites is altogether different. In the
first place, altars to Buso are never placed within the
home or within the ceremonial house, like altars to
friendly deities, but at strategic points that command the approaches to the house, or
else in the deep forest.
Formal worship of the gods is carried on at fixed altars or at temporary shrines
of recognized types. There is said to be "a Bagobo god who lives everywhere" and is
called Tambara. This is the name given to the bamboo prayer- stand found in many
Bagobo houses.
The mountainous region between the upper Pulangi and Davao rivers is the
homeland of the Upland Bagobo. Their supreme god and common ancestor Apo
Sandawa ruled as God. Mount Apo is the Bagobo ancestral domain and their sacred
place of worship.
References
• Gloria, H. (1987). The bagobos : Their ethnohistory and acculturation. Quezon
City, Philippines: New Day.
• Rex Book Store, & National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (Philippines).
(2000). The indigenous peoples of the philippines. Quezon City: Rex Book
Store.
• Raats, P. (1969). A structural study of bagobo myths and rites (San carlos
publications. series a: humanities, no. 8). Cebu City, Philippines: University of
San Carlos; distributors: the Cellar Book Shop, Detroit.