Three Philippine traditional verbal practices that explore lives of people, noteworthy and ordinary, have become instruments to understand Ilocanos [1]–their unique culture and history. According to Lars Raymund C. Ubaldo, author of Dung-aw, Pasyon at Panagbiag: Tatlong Hibla ng Pakasaritaan Ti Biag sa Kasaysayang Pangkalinangang Ilokano (Death Dirge, “Pasion,” and Metrical Romance: The Iloko Way of Constructing Personal Histories) (2003), dung-aw, pasyon and panagbiag differ in form, purpose and content. However, they constitute an important part of the traditions of the Ilocanos and show aspects of their history and some of their values. These works comprise what the author refers to as pakasaritaan ti biag or the Ilocanos’ narration of life histories.
Dung-aw
Recited during wakes, the dung-aw is a commemoration of life; it gives praise to the deceased person’s accomplishments when he was alive. The contents of the dung-aw reflect the Ilocanos’ understanding of life and death. The dung-aw is usually in the form of a dialogue, though sometimes it is put in written form (such as a religious dung-aw). Dung-aw is customarily delivered by a practitioner called the mandungaw, by a plañideras de oficio who is also hired to grieve for the dead, and by a baglan or a “woman religious leader” who has been a native healer since prehispanic times. At present, however, anyone can give the dung-aw for the dead, especially those who have stories to share about the life of the departed.
Pasyon
The Pasyon is a religious practice Ilocanos perform during the Catholic Church’s observance of the Lenten Season. It talks about the life of Jesus Christ; his birth, death, and resurrection, and how his sufferings have saved the world from its sins. In the Spanish period, missionaries and natives would read, sing the pasyon or deliver it as a sermon.
Panagbiag
The life of a member of royalty, the holy, or the heroic is the focus of the panagbiag. Its theme revolves around the individual’s journey through life—the struggles fought, the failures and the glories. Panagbiag is composed and then performed. Missionaries and native intellectuals, who continued the tradition of the so called “ladinos” who could read and write both in Spanish and in the vernacular, composed the panagbiag which could be performed at any time and place. However, citations of performances of the panagbiag on certain occasions such as when farmers sing in the field and when beggars plead for food in towns during fiestas have been mentioned in early studies.
Ubaldo compares these three verbal practices to the panagabel, the traditional weaving of the Ilocanos, since the dung-aw, the pasyon, and the panagbiag are interrelated in constructing life histories despite differences in form and purpose. These three verbal practices can be woven together to form the pakasaritaan ti biag similar to the way individual threads are woven to form a towel or a blanket. The pasyon was introduced during the Spanish period when belief in Jesus Christ replaced the pagan beliefs of indigenous Filipinos. However, dung-aw and panagbiag, being indigenous practices of the Ilocanos, survived the intervention of the colonizers. The concepts of dung-aw and panagbiag fused with the concepts of pasyon. The retelling of the life of Christ followed the themes of a panagbiag: Christ’s sufferings, his sacrifice on the cross, and resurrection. During his death on the cross, Mary, the mother, was shown expressing her sorrow through a dung-aw which is a scene also found in traditional wakes and funerals in the Philippines.
Ilocano culture also has interacted with other native regional cultures. For instance, the Ilocano pasyon entitled Biag da Apotayo Jesus, Maria quen Jose is known to be derived from the Tagalog Pasyong Mahal. The Historia a Pacasaritaan ti Panagbiag ni Bernardo Carpio, a panagbiag about Bernardo Carpio is an Ilocano translation of the original narrative written in Tagalog.
Ubaldo has made clear that the dung-aw, the pasyon, and the panagbiag are different narrative forms and have their specific purposes. However, they are linked in their ability to construct life histories and therefore have an important role in sustaining the tradition of the pakasaritaan ti biag of the Ilocano culture.
By MMRParreño
Lars Raymund C. Ubaldo is an Assistant Professor at St. Scholastica’s College-Manila. He holds a Master of Arts degree in History from the University of the Philippines-Diliman and is currently a PhD History candidate in the same university. His research interests include historiography, cultural history, history of religion, and ethnohistory.
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1] The Ilocanos comprise the “third largest cultural-linguistic group in the Philippines. When discovered by the Spanish in the 16th century, they occupied the narrow coastal plain of northwestern Luzon, known as the Ilocos region.” (Encyclopedia Britannica Online. August 2007. < http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9042153/Ilocano>)
