MANGYAN

THE LIFE & CULTURE OF MANGYAN INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

PROJECT IN UCSP
MS. SHARRON ATILANO

FAITH ASHLEY JUMAO-AS

ABM-12 183 A
 MANGYAN
The Mangyan tribe has been included in the history of
Mindoro. Mangyan refers to the Philippine ethnic group
living in Mindoro Island but some can be found in the
island of Tablas and Sibuyan in the province of Romblon as
well as in Albay, Negros and Palawan. The word Mangyan
generally means man, woman or person without any reference
to any nationality. Social scientists have documented
Mangyan tribes into several major tribes. One of the ways
to categorize them is through their geographical location.
The Northern tribes include the Iraya, Alangan and
Tadyawan tribes while the Buhid, Bangon Batangon and
Hanunuo Mangyan comprise the tribes in the South. 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.

 ORIGIN
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).

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.

INDIGENOUS MANGYAN
RELIGION
The Mangyan have a complex spiritual belief system which
includes the following deities:

Mahal na Makaako – The Supreme Being who gave life to all

human beings merely by gazing at them.

Binayi – Owner of a garden where all spirits rest.

Binayo – Is a sacred female spirit, caretaker of the rice

spirits or the kalag paray. She is married to the spirit
Bulungabon. The kalag paray must be appeased, to ensure a
bountiful harvest. It is for this reason that specific
rituals are conducted in every phase of rice cultivation.
Some of these rituals include the panudlak, the rite of
the first planting; the rite of rice planting itself; and
the rites of harvesting which consist of the magbugkos or
binding rice stalks, and the pamag-uhan, which follows
the harvest.

Bulungabon – The spirit aided by 12 fierce dogs. Erring

souls are chased by these dogs and eventually drowned in
a cauldron of boiling water. He is Binayo’s husband.
 C U L T U R E S &
P R A C T I C E S
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 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.

Pakudos meanwhile is a Mangyan design that is characterized

by simple symmetrical organization with equal stress on
vertical and horizontal composition and an orderly use of
lines and spaces that are pleasing to the eyes.
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.

The Mangyan script. When the Spaniards arrived in the

Philippines, the more famous Filipino system of writing, the
Baybayin was discarded. However, in Mindoro, the Buhid and
Hanunoo Mangyans continued to practice their writing system.
The Mangyan script like the Baybayin is based on the
syllables of the Philippine phonetics. The National Museum
declared this surviving system as National Cultural Treasures
on December 9, 1997. The UNESCO on October 6, 1999,
meanwhile, inscribed the scripts in the “Memory of the World”
registry.