Sagada ‘dap-ay’ turns viral as ‘begnas’ held

HAPPY WEEKEND

Gina P. Dizon

(First of two parts)

SAGADA, Mountain Province – The renovation of a dap-ay in this tourist town has generated much discussion by Sagada netizens on social media  

But before that. Host dap-ay Malingeb  had a new look as the annual Tangeb di Babayas (closing of wedding celebrations) or Begnas di Tangeb di Ogas  (closing of the rice harvest season) was held last July 22 by dumap-ay (members) of the 12 dap-ay of central Sagada.

A roofing made of insulated anahaw, two giant statues by the front side, painted walls and an extended mosaic-designed dance floor with eight mandalas that intrigued the Sagada public.

A different look from what it was before it got remodeled recently this second quarter of the year, the dap-ay was then made of GI roofing, unpainted cement walls and no giant statues at the front side.

The GI roofed dap-ay in the ‘90s replaced the older dap-ay made of ‘gu-un’ (cogon) roofing and wooden plank walling. The replacement was then a project of the then Office of National Cultural Communities (ONCC) before it was called National Commission of Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).

Sagada which must have been of cogonal terrain before the American Period. ‘Gu-un’(cogon) was the material used for construction of dwellings before as noted in old pictures.  ‘Gu-un’ must have been the material used in the making of dap-ay Malingeb the first dap-ay by Biag, the legendary founder of Sagada. It may also have been other indigenous material then at that time.

The first dap-ay must have been a much smaller hut than its size now but as years went by, the size increased, said Irenius Tauli, elder of dap-ay Malingeb, in an interview.

Folktales have it that Biag came from Bika, from the hinterlands of eastern Abra then went to the Ilocos to avoid invasion of headhunters. Not wanting to be Christianized, Biag found his way to Sagada and established the first dap-ay in Malingeb followed by dap-ay Bilig and Pikong in Demang built by his two children Bandowa and Konyap and eight others in the old settlements of Dagdag and Demang and eventually one in barangay Patay. 

Stories say other dap-ay were built by others as Biag found three men- Ganga, Peng-as and Puse-  when he first came to Sagada before the Spanish period said elders Jaime Timpac , Jesse Pelayo from dap-ay Maballay  and Joseph Guitilen Capuyan from dap-ay Lukong of Demang.  

The climate then was cold and so was built a low-lying hut for sleeping quarters called ‘abong’ built near the ‘amlangan’ section where the stone-seats and  ‘padao’ (totem poles) were firmly planted.

The ‘padao’ signified that heads of invading buso (headhunters) from other places were cut off by ‘dumap-ay’ warriors and these hung on the poles to signify victory.

The sleeping quarters called ‘abong ‘and the ‘amlangan’ compose the dap-ay. Men would come together from time to time to commune and talk about important ili concerns while warming themselves around a bonfire.

The dap-ay embeds the cultural fabric of economic, social, political and educational activities done in the immediate ili (community). For one, the begnas, an agricultural feast is decided when it shall happen among other activities.

The young boys learned values of respect to elders, honesty, industry, and ‘inayan’ or ‘lawa’ are inculcated to them while they do chores such as gathering firewood to keep the fire burning at night or massage the feet of older men using sticks in a foot massage called ‘kolkolis’.     

‘Inayan’ is the indigenous interpretation of the universal saying/teaching of Jesus Christ to “do unto others what you like others do unto you”. It is ‘inayan’ to do harm to another lest harm shall befall any member of one’s family when harm is done to another. 

Sukyab

From time to time the weathered roofing of the dap-ay got replaced with fresh ‘gu-un’ done in a practice called ‘sukyab’ or ‘sekyab’ to prevent rain from seeping inside the sleeping quarters. 

The is now done anymore as the dap-ay roofing was changed to GI sheets by ONCC in the ‘90s.

Elders Guitilen Capuyan of dap-ay Lukong of Demang, Jesse Pelayo and Jaime Timpac of dap-ay Maballay of Dagdag said many of the dap-ay of central Sagada then had been burned by matchstick- playing children before these were changed to GI sheets and wooden walls to concrete.

              Other dap-ay in other parts of Sagada had also been changed to GI sheet roofing and cemented walls.

For quite some time, the practice to ‘mensukyab’ stopped since GI sheets replaced roofing of the 12 dap-ays of central Sagada.   The dap-ay of the old settlement of Fidelisan of northern Sagada had also been changed to GI sheet roofing. 

 ‘Gu-un’ is hard to find nowadays as cows graze the mountains and these are burned during forest fires, elder Archie Sumedca of dap-ay Matuba of Dagdag said.

Forester Christopher Bosaing of the Community Environment Natural Resources Office (CENRO) said cogon do not grow long due to burning of mountains.  

Malingeb folks changed the GI roofing to anahaw sourced from Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte and Quezon province.

Anahaw is more durable with a 20-year life span as compared to a 5-year durability of ‘gu-un’ before it is changed again, said Aldwin Ayban a dumap-ay of Malingeb and who supervised the replacement to anahaw roofing.

And to prevent the anahaw from fire, the material was covered with insulated net, Ayban added.

The changing of the roof to anahaw created a controversy on social media  among Sagada netizens with others questioning what ‘heritage’ means while others asked why ‘gu-un’ was not used.

Anahaw is ‘ananga’ in Sagada dialect, that material which people then used to cover their heads and back from the rain, Tauli added.  

Heritage

With national laws and local ordinances on heritage, netizens asked what ‘old’ is and what has to be preserved.

The controversy on the changed “traditional material” of the dap-ay roof came in time with the recent passing of the heritage ordinance on man-made structures by the Sangguniang Bayan of Sagada as approved by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan and transmitted to the SB on June 25 this year.

The SB defined ‘heritage’ as “traditions, achievements, beliefs, culture that are part of the history of a group, community or nation” and man-made structures to strictly refer “to any building or edifice either made of stone, wood, grass or materials or any combination intended either as family or public shelter, community congregation, and or gathering coupled with the noble intentions of its use and purpose.”

As broad as it is defined, heritage includes culture of a people distinguished from the tangible physical structure which is the material form.

Purist- critic netizens from Sagada said the cogon or gu-un roofing of the dap-ay has to be preserved. They said there should be no changes in the roofing, walling, and everything of it. For that structure shall tell what heritage of what it was before. For indeed, what is a story to tell if there is no historical structure to see.

Former Sagada vice mayor Richard Yodong suggested that one structure be restored to have the look of the old ‘gu-un’ roofed dap-ay to refer to what materially was the historical structure before the dap-ays were replaced with GI sheet roofing and anahaw.
              Yodong said it was the responsibility of the dumap-ay to look after the upkeep of their respective dap-ay.

Among the 12 dap-ays of central Sagada, some are dilapidated while others are maintained. Some are visited most of the time while others obviously are abandoned by the look of the dilapidated abong.

Meanwhile, the dap-ay has to be moved away from a curve at the roadside as the location is dangerous, said elder Guitilen of dap-ay Lukong of Demang.    

The Heritage Act of 2009 or RA 10066 differentiated tangible from intangible culture.
Said Act referred to “tangible cultural property” as cultural property with historical, archival, anthropological, archaeological, artistic and architectural value, and with exceptional or traditional production, whether of Philippine origin or not, including antiques and natural history specimens with significant value.

Tangible cultural property includes ‘built heritage” to refer to "architectural and engineering structures such as, but not limited to, bridges, government buildings, houses of ancestry, traditional dwellings, quarters, train stations, lighthouses, small ports, educational, technological and industrial complexes, and their settings, and landscapes with notable historical and cultural significance."

Netizens from Sagada and other members in three Facebook group accounts- Save Sagada, Sagada Dap-ayan and Sagada Reports discussed the use of anahaw and use of cogon as roofing.

Here, the intangible cannot be separate from what is tangible considering the nature of what is being questioned- that of the dap-ay or abong which houses the sleeping quarters and educational space for young boys which as obviously seen is integral in the overall meaning of dap-ay.

The change from ‘gu-un’ to anahaw has raised spirited questions on what is heritage.

Restoration being a vital part of ‘conservation” refers to “all the processes and measures of maintaining the cultural significance of a cultural property including, but not limited to, preservation, restoration, reconstruction, protection, adaptation or any combination thereof by the Heritage Act of 2009.”

If there were GI sheets in the olden times, such may have been used as roofing of the dap-ay, elder Bisogong  Badongen of dapay Maballay said.