IBALOI: Life & Culture

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IBALOI:the friendly and hardworking people

Benguet Province, more particularly in
the municipalities of Kabayan, Bokod,
Sablan, Tublay, La Trinidad, Tuba,
Itogon, Southern Kapangan and Atok.

Mt. Pulag
A place where their spirits go
to and rejoin their ancestors

Baguio City
Most sought after mineral
resources and where an
e4xport processing zone and
tourist park also displaced
hundreds of Ibaloi families

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Ibaloi
“people from baloy”, a village in Itogon
near the Agno river between Dalupirip and
Ambuklao (Billist & Lambrecht, 1970)

Ibaloi language/ Inibaloy (Inibaloi)/ Nabaloi
dialect, “language of strangers” (Tavera, 1905)
belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian
languages family.
It has Pangasinan and Ilokano elements
(Scheerer, 1905)

The phonemes are similar to those found in other Philippine
languages with a few exceptions.
Many variants of the Ibaloi tongue have naturally
occurring /f/, /dʒ/ and /v/
e.g. sifa (interrogative who)
ibjag (to lose one's grip /to let go)
divit (a traditional wrap-around skirt)
/ʃ/ is also commonly heard in the La Trinidad valley and
nearby areas
e.g. shima (a particle usually equivalent to the prepositions
in, on, or to depending on the sentence construction)

Originated :
• Lingayen & Ilocos coast
- Followed the rivers
• Mythology
-couple in Mt. Pulag who
survived the great flood

• Hospitable
• Generous
• Honest
• Hardworking
• Sense of humor

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The Family and Kinship Group
Structured according to three general
divisions of their society (Pungayan, 1980)
rich (baknang)
Average
poor (abitug)

poor (abitug)
Nuclear family however grows into an extended
household (elementary/stem family) with the
addition of a widowed parent or a grand parent of
one of the spouses
Residence pattern is predominantly virilocal in that
the bride is required to live with her husband’s
people; but it can also be neolocal as newly weds are
permitted to live in a new house

rich (baknang)
Joint family composed of 4 or more families of
procreation with a common residence.
Each of the nuclear families lives in their separate
houses but all the activities of general nature such as
pounding rice, receiving visitors and the like are
confined in the biggest house, the smaller house
being used by the families for private purpose
(Pungayan, 1980)

Rich family is composed of from 15-18
individuals including the slaves and
servants who live in their master’s home.

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average
Rich-turned
Rich’s family branch
Poor-turned
Father, wife and
children, and family of
one of his married
children
Father, mother and
unmarried children plus
one widowed parent or
grandparent of the
husband
Nuclear family and the
addition of a parent of
either spouse

Lineage
Kinship is reckoned equally through the lives of both
parents.
It is bilateral and based on consanguinity and the Ibaloy
household is inextricably linked with relatives

Social Stratification
• Wealthy (baknang)
• Poor (abitug)
- Pastol
- Silbi
- Bagaen
Society of two classes:

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Wealthy
Exercise authority in almost all aspect of the
social, political and economic life
Host to cañao feast
Sit in the village council decide on important
matters affecting the village

Bagaen
Pastol (cowhand)
Silbi
(farmhand)
Non-Ibaloy slave
Take care domesticated
animals and assists in
the preparation of cañao
Help in tilling the
wealthy man’s land
- Fencing the fields
- Delivering of
message
- Doing other tasks as
required

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Childbirth
Give birth at home attended by hilot
(older sister or women neigbors)
The umbilical cord is cut with a sharp split bamboo
Infant bath in cold water and wrapped in the mother’s
clothes or blanket
The placenta is buried where the water flows from the
eaves
The child will grow fast and teething is early if the
placenta is not buried deep

Childhood
Freedom to socialize with other member of his age group
Infant carried along in a blanket (eban)
Left in the house under the care of older sibling
If the child can walk, he tags along with other, enjoy going to the
mountain, climbing tress and gathering wild fruits
child plays tops (bagwet)
Introduced various households and field tasks

Marriage
Contract marriage
Rich families to preserve their wealth and
prestige
Patch up differences and misunderstanding
from boundary dispute
Matchmaker or go-between (mengalun)
- “undressing them or locking them both in a
room or in the granary”
Kalun (pamamanhikan)

wedding
Depend on the capacity of both parties to butcher
animal and prepare food to feed the guests
Groom’s
parents
Bride’s
parentspigs and other animals to
be butchered
Tafey, camote, and
gabi
Ceremony is held at the woman’s residence officiated by native
priest (mambunong)
Ngilin (restriction) – three days refrain sexual intercourse and
other activities
emes and uwang – the couple wet their forehead and knees in a
nearby river
live with the parent’s bride for few weeks and perform teteg

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Death and Burial
Woman
Men
Bring bundles of rice
and pound them
Cut bamboo poles for the death chair
(saral)
Gather tree bark to use for lashing or tying
the poles together
• The corpse is bathed, clothed and set up on the death chair
• Put in a crude coffin made of planks of wood
Women Men
Facing east (cooking
hearth)
Facing west (lowlands where
wealthy Ibaloy go to trade)

Death and Burial (cont.)
Shilus ni minatay or silis
“to equip the dead one with the necessry animals,
clothing, money and other accessories to begin life with
other spirits (kedaring) ”

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The Mummification
Process
Saltwater into the mouth of the deceased prevent decomposition of
the internal organs
Bathed in cold water and tied to the death chair, stays for some days
Skin is peeled, washed with cold water, covered with a blanket and
tied back to the death chair
Regularly applying the juice of pounded guava and patani leaves to
the drying corpse
Hastened by smoking

Houses and Household
Implements
Near their farms and fields
About five feet from the ground
Wooden floor and wall (baknang)
Bark bamboo floor and wall, roof cogon grass
(poor)
House yard fenced in to prevent marauding animals

Kitchen utensils
Cooper pot (kambang)
Frying pan (paljok)
Wooden food tray with two
compartments (shuyu)
Wooden dipper (sakdong)
Wooden spoon (akdo)

In the corner of the house are found a clothesline,
blankets, mats, pillows and sometimes wooden chest
(kahon)
Low dining table (dulang) set in the middle of the room
After, lean against the wall, and the center space is used
for sleeping

Weapons and
Implements
Spear (kayang)
Sheild (kalasan)
Bow and arrow (bekang &
pana)
War club (papa)

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Carrying Implements
Kayabang

Pounding Materials
Round mortal
(dohshong)
Pestles (al –o or bayu)

Musical Instruments
• Jew`s Harp (kodeng) –placed between the player`s open lips.
• Nose Flute (kulesheng)-a small bamboo tube with three holes.
• Kalsheng or kambitong – a lilting sound is produced when
the wires are strummed and a flat sound is produced when the
wires are plucked.
• Pakkung – made of slender bamboo about three fourths of a
yard long.
-produces a dull haunting sound when struck against
the palm of the hand.

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• Palkong- made of smoothened bamboo about a foot long and
cut in the middle with about half a foot left uncut to serve as
handle.
 Solibao and the kimbal
 Gangsa
 Kalsa and pinsak
 Palas or tiktik –two small steel bars

-To the Ibaloys, these instruments are considered sacred
and at no instance should they be played just by anybody
for no valid reason at all.
-These instruments are played only during feasts or
rituals.
-The sound of the drums and gongs is an indication of a
public announcement that a canao or a feast is going on.
-Tradition requires that the performer or host must
butcher atleast a small pig (butbutog)during the canao.

Clothes and Ornaments
 g-string or the kuval -For men
-a piece of cloth about two and a half to
thre meters long wrapped around the waist.
 Pangjet or binatjek -dark blue g-string used by old
men or the dead.
 Kulibao kuval -the white one and is the one most used
now.
-one with narrow borders for old men;or
-one with yellow borders for young men.

Blankets:
Kolebao dja oles –white blanket
Kulabaw or alashang –a blanket with dark
blue design and is usually for the wealthy
ones.
Other blankets are:
Pinagpagan and pindak shindi –
representative of men,snakes,shields,eyes and
other geometric figures.

 Women wear the blouse(kambal)and the tapis or wrap-
around skirt (aten or divet)
 Donas –the belt used to hold the tapis in place.
 The tapis is generally worn by women displaying its
broad horizontal bands of different colors: white and
dark blue or red while appear more or less broad
patches of white, checkered or cross-barred with bands
and stripes of various colors: red, dark-blue, and
yellow, etc.

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Ornaments
 Shikang -gold-plated covers for teeth
 Batding –copper leglets for males
 Karing –copper bracelets
 Tabing –ear pendants for women
* Some women wear necklaces out of obukay and
takdian seeds taken from a plant similar to a reed(runo).
* The rich wear the obukay snd the takdian type of
necklace generally worn during occasions like canaos and
other grand community activities.
* Children wear necklaces made out of bangangaw.

Traditional Washing Materials
 Degdeg or duvas -women`s native shampoo
 Kalet or defay –for washing
Songs and Dances
 Tayaw –danced during the canao with a pair of
dancers.
 Manedjaw –male dancer
 Meneshung –femal e dancer
During the tayaw,rice wine or rice beer (Tafey) is offered
to the dancers and tp those playing the instruments.
 Datok –prayer in the form of a wish may be said
aloud to the dancers.

Variation of the tayaw:
 Binukawan –female dancers and male dancers meet at a
point and then turn to follow behind the male dancer.
 Kehdaring –part of ritual performed to honor a dead
ancestor.
 Bindiyan –Ibaloy victory war dance
-at present in Kabayan, perform this dance in
celebration and anticipation of a bountiful harvest.
 Badiw –a song where a performer may express his thoughts
and sentiments by chanting.
-expresses thanksgiving to the gods,to the ancestral
spirits(amed),to Kavunian.
 Kali –ritual performed in honor of the dead relative.

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Village Leadership
- proto-democratic
-leadership is vested on the backnang
-village chief is differentiated mainly by the "more
bones of animals in his feast, more clothes and
greater age"
-ibaloy chiefs maintain alliances with chiefs of
other villages

Tattoing –The color of the tattoo,usually,blue,is the
effect of the application of juice of a wild plant or a
hen`s excrement mixed with thick soot.The sharp
instrument used in tattooing is either the thorn of a
lemon or orange tree.
 Raincapes (Kalapjaw)
 Hat (Salakot)

Dispute settlement
-issues affecting the community is discussed
and settled in the village council
-gathering (tongtong) is restricted to the
wealthy members of the village
2 ways of settling dispute:
1. Kelat
2. Telpa

Custom laws
-are unwritten and based mainly on customs and
traditions
Ex: divorce is allowed on ground of adultery
on the part of the woman, bareness or
childlessness, and laziness of either the
husband or wife

-religion is of polytheism and animism
-do not worship any god in the form of
statues and carvings

Spirits and deity
2 kind of anitos are known for the ibaloys
- the nature spirits
- the ancestral spirits (ka-apuan)

Nature spirits:
1. Amdag –spirits that travel with the wind
2. Ampasit –spirits that dwell in caves
3. Tinmongao –spirits that lives in caves, stones,
and trees
4. Pinad-eng - spirits that live in the forest
5. Butat-tew- spirits that misguides people

Rites and rituals
- ritual necessitate the butchering of appropriate
sacrificial animals, drinking of tafey, and the
chanting of appropriate prayers by the
mambunong is never absent in the ceremonies.

Ibaloy rituals are classified into 3:
1. For the purpose of curing illness caused
by spirits:
A. Ampasit
B. Dosad
C. Sikop or sigop
D. Kolos
E. Sibisib

2. Ceremonies for specific events,
like:
A. Dasadas
B. Begnas
C. Amlog
D. Basal-lang
E. Sabosab

3. Ceremonies related to offering for
spirits and deities, like:
A. Podad
B. Tawal
C. Lawit
D. Tomo
E. Topya

WINTERTemplate• Ibaloys are famers
• Rice is the main crop of Kabayan

kintoman- the red variety
The Kintoman rice comes in different kinds
Balatin-naw, the shaya-ut and the putaw.
It is planted during tiya-kow
Two varieties of rice:

The variety of rice that the Ibaloy planted
during the next planting season is the talon- a
white lowland type of rice, is planted during
the rainy season (sibid-o).

• Sabdangan or bunubunan ni paguey this are the
prepared plowed and harrowed seedbeds.
• Bin-i the palay seeds.
• The dangdang or the leaning of the grass made by
women.

Materials used in harvesting rice were the shaho,
pangawan.
Pestle is used in pounding the rice
Baguwan or tal-tagan the mortar were the rice is
pounded

WINTERTemplateCommon activity of the Ibaloys is working in the uma or
kaingin.
In this uma the people are planting root crops, corn,
cowpeas, and bananas.
Root crops are planted to augment the rice produce.
Kuwen thinly sliced and sun dried camote which is pounded
into flour and cooked or steamed like cake.
Swidden Farming

Mining
Ibaloy in the gold-rich areas of Benguet are
engaged in small scale mining.
Their are two early methods in extracting gold
which is the local mining or labon and placer
mining.

Tools in separating gold from the ore and
it is usually the work of women.
Gai-dan or a large flat stone and alidan
or small flat stone.
Sabak or a wooden gold separator and
dayasan or a water placed in a trough.

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The religious functionaries
Mambunong
He presides in all the feast required the recitation
Anyone can become a mambunong as long as he/she
knows how to recite or do the precedures sufficiently to
approach the deities and spirits for them to grant his
intercessions.

• performs rituals reserved for special occasions.
• performs familiar ritual.
• Mansip-ok are the ones who determines the
cause of illness using a pendulum like instrument
that he hold close to his forehead mentioning the
probable causes of illness. The mankutom are the
ones who interprets
two classifications

pigs, cows, carabao, goats, and chickens.
Molmol or big enough to be offered to Kavuniyan or to the spirit of
dead ancestors.
Pigs or kushol and cows or baha are raised for cañao purposes, and
rarely are the pigs sold. The direm or kaltok or the black, spotted pigs
please the spirits or anitos. Chicken or manok of the native variety are
also raised in backyards. Kagahan is were the chickens lay their eggs
and left to hatch. Chickens and roosters are sometimes sacrificed in
some rituals. Babies are given chickens as gift or awil by visiting
friends and relatives. Ducks or pato and goats or kal-sheng are raised
on a limited scale. Cattle ranch is another industry among the higher
income or wealthy Ibaloys. Estancia are the private-fenced ranch.
Those with several cows or baha employ a cowboy or pastol to take
care of the herd.
Livestock Raising

Mungenop or hunting was one of the chief means of
livelihood among the early Ibaloy settlers in Imbose.
They hunted wild deer or olsa, wild pigs or alimanok
and big lizard or tilay found between big rocks.
Hunting
Tools in hunting were the spear or kayang, bow and
arrow or pana for hunting. They also had trained
hunting dogs and Ibaloys dug holes. Katif a bent
bamboo or runu or stick to trapped birds.

Fishing Methods that the Ibaloys in catching fish
were the bana-at and the akdeb to catch small fish.
Most common kind of fish caught is the bonog and a
small fish or jojo.
Fishing

The ibaloys are perhaps the most acculturated and modernized
among the ethnolinguistic groups in Northern Luzon, due to early
subjugating.
Caused by their long exposure to alien cultures and their
proximity to Baguio city.
As early 1700’s, social structure and political life of the
traditionally classes and proto-democratic ibaloy society.
Cattle industry resulted to the creation of a wealthy and powerful
baknang class who assumed leadership in the political and
economic aspects of the community.
Moreover, a new concept of land ownership evolved with the
cattle industry, called estancia or cattle ranch.

the cattle ranch were abolished or stopped.
introduced the western land tenure system
abolishment of the customary system of the possession
of the rights to the use of land that is based mainly on
the principle of prior rights (primi occupantis).
Americans arrived

• collapse of baknang role in political, social and
economic system.
• Free education were availed by the bagaen and silbi
for them to move upward in the society.
The educated people became effective agents for the
introduction of government policies and programs that
dislocated the traditional roles of the baknang,
mambunong and the elders.
Schools and local government

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They also rejected their tradition in favor of the western culture.
The peshit were diminished and education became the new
source of power and wealth.
The local became all-pervasive catalyst of change as it became
the center of political activity tasked to enforce policies and
disposition of taxes, the enforcement of law (dinteg) and the
dissemination of these policies which were comprehensible only to
educated few.

Ibaloys became more exposed in the outside world, the
borrowed and adopted some of the western practices
which led to blending of cultures.
Youth playing traditional and western music and dances
during marriage ceremonies, a family going to mass but
offering prayers and sacrifices their dead seeking for
guidance and protection, and the language of the ibaloys
were fused with the western languages.

IBALOI: Life & Culture

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IBALOI: Life & Culture