TRAILS UP NORTH

Glo Abaeo Tuazon
Hidden crypts of Kapangan

KAPANGAN, Benguet -- Traveling to Kapangan, Benguet from Baguio has always been a breeze to me, it being one and a half hour drive only. I do not have to mind the rocky roads anymore knowing my purpose was way more interesting than the bumps I get from traveling there.

Besides the roads are now being developed all the way from the entrance of Kapangan to Kibungan. That would make travel a lot easier and enjoyable in a few years or so...I hope. Because aside from these caves that I have seen, there are so much more beautiful reasons in Kapangan to come back to -- beautiful and unexplored places to set foot on and admire.

Kapangan is dotted with caves. Natural caves, shallow manmade caves, burial caves, and bat caves. So rich in history is Kapangan that some of its caves were even used by cavalry soldiers during the Second World War as hiding places.

Take the case of the twin caves of Bolinsak located at Bolalakaw. Inside the caverns of these caves were niches that became the meeting place of Majors Bado Dangwa and Dennis Molintas who led the infantry that defeated the Japanese Imperial Army, and which in turn led to the opening of the north for the allied forces to reclaim the region. But these caves are the easier to have access to today, located just below the road in Taba-ao.

The other caves that I call crypts are much more difficult to reach. Crypts because they are used for burial purposes. It is well known, especially in Kabayan, Benguet that the tribes here, more of the Ibalois mummify their dead and set them in holes along the mountains for eternity. But it was indeed a surprise to me when I was led to a cave containing mummies in Kapangan, bringing me to a conclusion that maybe the whole of Benguet indeed practice mummification long ago.

So we went all the way to this mountain joining Kapangan and Kibungan and ended up in Tawang. After something like half a day of continous hiking and seven mountains behind, a few small rivers and open fields, not to mention the eager hosts of leeches jumping us along the way, getting into even the tightest bound pant linings and socks.

The fatigue and trauma (remember the leeches?) was rewarded with this almost impossible feat of rock climbing we have to do with bare hand and no climbing gears to scale the sheer rock face just to see a couple of mummies resting there. There were two caverns, shallow ones.

The bigger one contained the mummies and a few bones and skulls. The mummies, sad to say were supposed to be magnificent but had decomposed to some extent during the time they were taken out of their niche by robbers.

They were however returned when according to stories two of the robbers fell ill and died, so the third one had to do the embarrassing and dirty work of returning them. The hike back to civilization was a blur, rain-mud-and-blood splattered (again from the leeches) we arrived back in Central Kapangan an hour close to midnight.

Then there is this place they call Dumanay Cave in Pungayan. I thought It would be easier this time than Tawang, and it is, just an eeny bit. Just about a few big mountains and orchards and rice fields along the way. But I was glad there were no leeches this time, at least I thought there wasn't any.

Passing by an almost hidden house in the forest we stopped to ask permission from the occupants. Mr. Sweeney they call him, a descendant of the "Soldier of Fortune" who lost his way and found this place. This is an interesting tale. Mr. Russel Dugen, a foreigner from a faraway land who was shipwrecked somewhere in La Union in the olden days.

With nowhere to go, he hiked, sustaining himself with whatever food he could get from the forest until he came to Kapangan through Bagulin. He befriended some ladies and later on married one of them, and the family multiplied to become the clans of kapangan. His bones are packed in a heavy, solid pine coffin, carved and designed like a water buffalo (carabao). With his coffin are some other smaller ones and more than a hundred skulls and skeletal remains, signs that this cave became a community burial site.

Another interesting site is found in Barangay Central, Kapangan. We hiked about an hour to this river they call Kilong on a warm, sunshiny day. No leeches here so it was a really pleasant walk. Tugging along our camera gears we had to scratch our way up to this sandy facade of a mountain.

I could still make out the outlines of coffins that used to line the upper edge of the crumbling mountain. Today, only a few remains of the many. Erosion during typhoons had washed most of the hanging coffins they say, the others disappeared into the river by one circumstance that the locals would not want to be told to the public.

And then lately, in the uplands of Sagubo was found another crypt. Puga Cave they call it, hidden behind and underneath a boulder and overlooking other mountains bounding Benguet and the Ilocos Province. The two hour walk to this place is a relaxing breath of fresh air, beautiful panoramas and fields of wild flowers. I couldn't help but stop now and then to take in the view before we arrived to a show of snow white bones piled neatly under the rocks. About 60 or more and a couple of wooden coffins too.

What is interesting is the fact that as we go around, we come to find more of these. Fascination and respect for the culture and traditions of the old, remembering how the locals go thru the difficult but endearing practices of giving their loved ones the burial they deserve. -- email: twilight_glo@yahoo.com