TRAILS UP NORTH

Kabayan mummies
GLO A TUAZON

KABAYAN, Benguet -- Long ago and far away are tales of people without names. They died a long time ago and yet their bodies remain today. What makes them interesting is the fact that they were once alive and had names and families and laughed and loved and cried. Today they lie in old caverns under the embrace of the cold Kabayan skies.

We started out to Timbac, Kabayan one cold, foggy morning via Halsema Road, taking a sudden left turn along Atok to enter a tire path. The uproad trip from there would require a strong vehicle, and we got one at that, and luckily patient pilots who did not have the "road rage syndrome" to compliment the trip. It was a winding, lonely road. Not much people around as I saw only one child hopping down the roadside with a bunch of homemade plastic flowers and a coral of goats munching on healthy grass.

The mountainsides had an abundance of flora, assorted berries and flowers that liked the cold, clean weather up here. After about 45 minutes we came to a stop. On the side of the road there was a concrete stairway going down, complete with railings to stop a person's fall in case you have acrophobia or the fear of heights. We took the stairs all the way down that led us to these caves.

The first cave was no more that a natural fissure in the rock surface, the earth hollowed out under to accommodate half a dozen or more caskets. It was drizzling so we had to be careful not to bring in too much moisture. The mummies were in the caskets. They lay there, in fetal positions, the knees touching their chins as was customary then.

A closer look showed tattoos on most of them, running from the base of the middle finger to the arms to where the armpit ends. Some had marks up to the shoulders and also on the legs running down to the calves and stops before it reaches the foot. I wonder what stories they told, of their lives. Who they were and did they laugh or cried often? It haunted me the rest of the afternoon, the obsession to know more creeping up my spine knowing it won't keep me down for awhile.
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The next cave a little further down had mummies like the others at the previous chamber. The difference was here, the mummies were much more nicely preserved – the leather-like skin showing a much clearer picture of the tattoos. They called it the "laughing mummy." Its mouth was open, like a laugh. But I had this feeling it was more an expression of anguish.

Comparing the mummies, I noticed most of their hands were up to their throats, like they were craving for water due to too much thirst. I wonder if they were dehydrated purposely while still alive. I heard of a mummification process wherein they let the person drink salinated water, to extricate as much fluid from the body, something like a diuretic. And the process continues when the person dies, with herbs and years of smoking and drying.
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The coffins used as customary in most parts of Benguet were solid hardwood logs -- usually a log with a diameter big enough to accommodate a body when hollowed out. The log was stripped, split in half and the inside part carved out like a bowl. Sometimes depending on the status of the person, the coffin was intricately carved to show the heads of animals.

The use of nails or any metal was taboo, as it was believed the weight would burden the dead. So to close the coffin they made holes on either side and slid a wooden peg like a lock. Some coffins on both caves withstood the times, some were new, purposely made to give decent housing for the bones scattered about.

Of their lives we do not know. But five hundred to a thousand years ago they walked these lands and plowed the earth and made Kabayan what it is now. email: twilight_glo@yahoo.com